The Greatest Generation - Boilerplate Borg (VOY S3E26)
Episode Date: May 23, 2022When Voyager arrives in Borg space, the crew finds the collective getting roughed up by an even more dangerous enemy. But Janeway’s plan to make a deal with the devil gets her more than she bargaine...d for in pushback from Chakotay. Does the Doc have limited drawer space? Can Kes still freshen people up? Is Species 55378008 even worse than Species 8472? It’s the episode with a momentous Maron! Support 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!
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.
Hey friends of Disodo.
Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor
actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry.
If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join
us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life.
Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production
Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,
they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't
even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take.
Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal
discussions about how best to stand with the unions
and we are continuing those conversations
in a dynamic situation.
We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines
are in these digital spaces,
and we would never intentionally cross one.
With the information we have,
we feel like we can do more good talking about and supporting
the strike and continuing our show as planned.
We'll keep you informed about what all this means for greatest trek specifically.
Today we're making a contribution to the Entertainment Community Fund.
This fund exists to help all the people whose livelihoods have been put on hold because
the AMPTP refuses to negotiate
in good faith with the unions. It provides financial support for writers, actors, and all the
thousands of laborers who make the shows that we talk about here and without whom we wouldn't
have Star Trek to cast pot about. Those folks are all out of work because billionaires,
company shareholders, and the executives of these companies don't want to compromise on the length of their yachts.
We hope you'll join us in supporting entertainment workers
in a challenging time,
especially after they've already endured
several years of challenges brought on by the pandemic
and season two of Star Trek Picard.
We've set up a page where you can also contribute.
It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com.
That's friendsofdecotoForLabor.com. That's FriendsOfDecotoForLabor.com. Link in the
episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the U.S. is for the captain captain Bringing weather the U.S. is for the
Do it captain the captain
Welcome to the greatest generation
It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast
I'm Ben Harris
I'm Adam Pranica
Hey Adam
What's up Ben?
Big news
Big big news
Okay, I mean breaking news in the Marin. We don't often do it like that. Well figured
this is the time this for some reason is the episode of Chosen. Wow. Alright. What's it gonna be? You know
this news already. The friends of the pseudo don't and I wanted to reveal it here and now I'm going to be a father
God
Oh
Are you kidding me?
You're having a kid
They're gonna allow that
They're gonna allow that! Who signed off on this?
Ripley going about as crazy as Darwin does when uh...
What a flip out.
Uh yeah, we're expecting a little baby in uh... in August.
Wow Ben, I've said very little to you about this up until now. And so for the first
time, let me say congratulations. Oh, thanks, bud. To you both. Yeah. We're very, very happy about it.
It was not a surprise. We meant to do it. Yeah. So how, I mean, how did that work?
I mean, how did that work?
Whew, hey, I'm gonna... Maybe you could just...
Let's do that offline, okay?
I'll tell you.
Send me an email with instructions.
I'm gonna tell you about how it goes down.
It's, you're gonna love this, man.
I mean, it sounds kind of scary.
I mean, I think it's scary.
Yeah.
Oh, it's cool.
We've seen a bunch of sauna grams now, So I keep showing these to like my older relatives
and they're like, you can see the baby's face. Like I made the joke to my wife. It's like every three
weeks we go in and have a Zoom call with the baby. Wow. Yeah. Because that's the frequency of
the sonogram. You get in the free hour version of that. Yeah, like, it's a real trip and we don't know gender yet,
but everybody has assumed a particular gender
and it's starting to like use pronouns about the baby around us
and we're like, what are you doing?
Wow.
We don't know, you don't know.
You know less than we do.
I've seen the nesture making and it's just gray onesies and gray drapes and gray
paint. Blanned gray baby toys for bland gray babies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a trip where,
you know, there's going to be whole new segments on this show about the horrible bits I inflict on this child
over the course of its life.
Finally, some new content for the show.
Did you do it for the content, Ben?
Yeah, this is kind of the ultimate premise walk, in a way.
I mean, that makes the baby a business expense.
Yeah, I gotta get in touch with our bookkeeper and tell him to get ready to start writing
some shit off, man.
Wow.
Wow, man.
I am so happy for you guys.
And I know I've been doing a lot of joking about this circumstance so far, but I am so
sure that you and your wife are going to be the best parents.
That is a very lucky kid. Oh, thanks, man. And I'm excited to see what happens to your
life as a result of this. Yeah, it's been like the knowing that it is unimaginable on the
other side of August, thing has been really tripping me out lately.
And I think I'm a little bit paralyzed.
Like a lot of people,
I know that have gone through this,
like spent the pregnancy period,
like reading up and like preparing and like getting stuff.
And like we have like,
we have just like, I don't know, I think my wife read
like half of one book and I got a book recommendation, but I haven't actually gone and gotten them.
Well, I feel like a lot of advice that I would have for you, Ben, and I do have a lot,
would come from my experience having a puppy. So I think maybe like the first piece of advice I'd give you,
you know, after getting as much sleep as you can right now
while you can.
Right.
Yeah.
I just get a bunch of tarps.
Get a bunch of tarps and lay them down.
Yeah.
And any broken pussy can be repaired by a combination
of surgery and medication.
Just take that baby into the vet.
That's a reference to my puppy's broken dog pussy.
I'm not a reference to your wife, I guess.
Jesus.
Yeah, well, I was talking about the baby.
I mean, that's...
Wow.
I mean, I don't think we've had a Marin as significant as the one we've just had on the show today, Ben.
It can't be topped.
Yeah, and few episodes of Voyager more significant than the one we came to talk about today.
Should we get into it?
Yeah, let's do it, Ben.
It's a Star Trek Voyager season three episode 26.
Scorpion.
Breaver Course.
Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo toots, I'm not turning around.
BAR!
We open with one of the briefest cold opens in Star Trek history.
I think we get like 22 seconds of cold open before we're in the theme.
It's just two Borgs cubes
Getting shut the fuck down
We've never seen two cubes at the same time, right? Oh
I feel like this is significant for that reason also like it's always ever one
Yeah, but it's so freaking big. Yeah, I feel like two makes them look little
It's true. Yeah, you got to go to the wide-angle big. Yeah. I feel like two makes them look little.
It's true.
Yeah, you gotta go to the wide angle lens.
Yeah, yeah.
They just blow up and then we're in the theme.
When we come back, we're deep in the past
with the unmistakable voice of Jonathan Ristavis.
Okay, cut, so.
My wife and I were at Disneyland, not that long ago,
and we rode the Indiana Jones ride.
Oh, fun.
And when you're in line for that,
there's a video package that plays with JRD
as a part of it, you know, playing as character,
Salah.
Oh, man.
And it's on a loop.
It's like 20 seconds.
It's like a safety video, basically.
Right.
But he is such a delight as Salah.
Yeah. So entertaining and charismatic.
That you can be in this line watching this video 27 times in a row and it doesn't get old. He's
great. And I was delighted to see him in this episode. You're not preoccupied with it being a
little bit weird that a English actor is not this role. Not at all.
You could try to extinguish my joy here, Ben.
Yeah.
But I like his work.
We just watched, um, last crusade the other night over here.
Oh, yeah.
We had some friends over.
We watched last crusade with their teenage son.
He was delighted by it.
What an interesting choice of Indiana Jones movies.
Like to virtually pull one off the shelf and play it.
I'm not sure that would be my or anyone's first choice.
I think they were working their way through and it came up.
And I was like, come over here.
We got a nice TV watching on our screen.
Yeah.
And so we had like a dinner in a movie.
Yeah.
It was fun.
Indiana Jones always has a death more gruesome
than you would expect from a...
It's the over-growing movie, right?
Yeah, yeah.
That's the promise of an Indiana Jones film.
He is not playing Salle in this scene.
He's playing Leonardo Da Vinci.
Yeah.
He is building a mechanical arm to jack himself off. Ha ha ha!
Maraville also.
I thought the same thing, Ben.
I don't know how you can make and film this robotic arm doing what it's doing.
And not recognize that he's created mankind's first hand job device.
Every blacksmith who has ever swung your ammo will think before this creation.
Yeah, the clockwork jerk off robot.
And Janeway looks at this thing with a straight face.
Oh, it was gorgeousness and gaujacity made flesh.
Yeah, she's helping him repair it.
Get your hands away from that. You don't know where that's been, Janeway.
Unfortunately, it's broken almost immediately. And this is deeply disappointing, Tilly and
an Ardro de Vichy. He's pretty much inconsolable, so she just leaves and turns off the holiday
program. Wait until you see what the other armist program to do, Janeway. It's just reaching her.
So she's kind of applying for an apprenticeship here.
She'd like to help him on his design of a flying machine based not off a bat but off a
hawk. Jane was like, do you have anything designed
without repetitive motion?
Because she gestures broadly toward his weird flying machines.
And all of them are like, you know, pumping and gyroscoping
and like flapping and whatnot.
It's a bunch of flying machines
that all have a Sibian at the core of their design.
Yeah, a LVV not interested in those designs at all.
A Huck does not make this gesture.
You shall not have a workbench in my shop.
Yeah, and that's the thrust of the whole thing, right?
Like, Janeway wants a space to do creative work
in her life, and I think this is an interesting
character development for her.
A very different energy from the Bronte novel
that she's hung out in previous iterations
of her holodeck me time.
It seems like a bodice won't be ripped
if not for a robotic arm doing it, you know?
It's subtle.
Very different kind of bodice ripper
is what this program suggests.
Might have to get some old liberator insurance
to keep the robots away from your bodices.
They eat them for fuel. Right. I don't even know why the scientists make them. I would like to be inspired by watching
you create jack-off machines for your entire career. She gets called away to engineering where
Chico De and BLT have some bad news for her.
They shot a long-range probe out a long time ago,
just to kind of get a sense of the space ahead of them.
And they get to watch like the last few moments
of the dash cam video from this probe
as it pulls up on a cube, gets hauled inside,
and gets looked at by a board drone.
And we are in a McLaughlin group before you know it.
If you want.
I love the sequence of this video.
This is really well done.
The cut to the interior, the cut to a drone working on it.
This is such a densely paced episode.
So much shit happens in this episode.
This McLaughlin group is where they talk about, like, listen,
we knew this was coming. We knew that Borg space was in between where we came into the Delta Quadrant and home. The only way
home is through this, there's no going around it. But it's a big area of space, thousands of star
systems. Chico Te is ready for this presentation because he brings a graphic to illustrate his point.
He's like, well, everyone knows that taking on the
Borg's head on is good for a season finale. But what my theory presupposes is, we can increase
the tension by going where the cubes aren't any gestures toward this middle area where all
of the green cube pictures are absent. It seems like they're very much clustered up around it,
though. Yeah, they're right on the edge. Yeah. This is a region of space that they're very much clustered up around it though. Yeah, they're right on the edge.
Yeah, this is a region of space that they're calling the Northwest Passage, and it's a messy part of space.
It's shitty.
The passage is filled with intense gravimetric distortions, probably caused by a string of quantum singularities.
But it's got the advantage of being Borg's free.
Chicoate is like an interesting name for this.
My people were very familiar with this idea.
They go around the room and everybody's talking about
kind of preparations they're making.
Harry Kim has modified the sensors
to detect transwarp conduits.
Neelix is working on new strategies
for making people even more miserable
about what they have to
eat on board.
Does no of this feel fairly impotent, though, given what we know about the borks at this
point, like these crew people are doing the best they can, but like this is still a moment
in Star Trek where this is an unstoppable force.
Yeah.
And the best they can do is delay the inevitable.
Yeah, and the sense here is that Captain Janeway is kind of trying to motivate them by saying
we're going to do our best to get through this.
But she almost never captains like this.
We're going to get this done no matter what.
That tone feels really new from her.
I really like the direction by David Livingston here
because Janeway begins her concluding statement
at the McLaughlin group,
but then there's a camera move that begins halfway through
that kind of emphasizes how much confidence she has
in everyone.
Yeah.
And I think it's really well done.
I do too.
The docs idea for what he can do to prepare
is some kind of like assimilation vaccine.
Right.
I've analyzed every square millimeter of the Borg corpse we recovered three months ago.
He's really been like getting his mind around how assimilation works and we cut to kind
of a like a montage of the prep getting done like everybody getting themselves ship
shape. done like everybody getting themselves ship shape and the montage lands us in 6 Bay where
the doc has just like a bunch of
Borg's corpse pieces
on the table and is talking about the tubules that a Borg puts in your neck to start the assimilation process.
No one asks the doctor why he just
cut apart the Borg's body.
Is it easier to store that way?
Yeah, I mean, he just has only so much drawer space, you know.
Objection noted, we'll do this without you.
Do it.
Do it.
Do it.
Objection noted, we'll do this without you.
Do it.
Do it.
Do it.
Really bad look for Cass in this scene because, you know, they're talking about the potential
for a Borg's vaccine and Cass is like, I don't know, I've been doing my own research on
the subject tonight and just feel like maybe we should steady this a little bit longer?
Hey, Doc, what about my natural immunity?
You know what?
I was thinking about just getting assimilated and then just beating it through
a force of will, like a combination of a sauna and this green juice.
Yeah, she's like, and if it's my time to go, it's my time to go.
But then like she makes like a Facebook live when she's actually in the ICU and it's like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh oh.
Cassie's a vision here of a Borgs pile.
And ordinarily, I feel like this vision would be a good thing, right?
Hey, great.
Hey, pile of Borgs.
Rad.
I've got a premonition of a bunch of dead Borgs.
This is good, but she does not seem happy about what you've seen at all.
No, and strangely, Tuvac is the one that kind of comes up to the bridge to report on this.
There's a very big ellipsis here where presumably he's been called down to like talk to her.
She's had a bunch more visions, and he's up in the bridge telling the captain and Chico Te about
what's going on with her. You see these signs posted all around Voyager.
If you see something in the future, say something in the present.
Yeah.
So he's kind of going over this vision of the future that includes many faces of
Borg's death, but also the destruction of Voyager.
Yeah, so a little bit of good news,
a little bit of bad news, I guess.
So they're like, well, we're not gonna change our plan.
And just as they're saying this,
15 Borgs cubes suddenly come out of transwarp
and are incoming and their warp engines die.
I always wonder about moments like this in a script and on a TV show like how
do you get to this number? Because you could use any number. How is 15 different from
seven? How is 15 different from 29? Right. 15 is such an interesting choice. Maybe that's
like how much they had the capacity to do on the render farm. Yeah.
In the time they had to finish the production. It's a terrifying amount of Borg's cubes.
That's for sure. And they just tumble out of work. Yeah. And they're close. You know,
the ship is rocking. We get the like aft view up on the view screen of just a cloud of
Borg's vessels coming at them. And it seems like it kind of blows the ship around.
Like as they zoom past, it seems like the Voyager
is like caught in Eddie forces.
It's wild how inspired this moment was
from dances with wolves where Kevin Costner is like
in the middle of that buffalo stampede.
They even play the music.
During.
Yeah. middle of that buffalo stampede, they even play them use it. During.
Yeah.
What did you think of that scanning beam?
That was cool.
Yeah, I like that effect a lot.
But it was also neat that one of them turns away from the herge, does the scan, and then
goes back into the flock.
Yeah, it's like, eh, we'll deal with that later.
Yeah.
I love the vibe in the aftermath. What the hell was that?
This is like the cleaning lady and ghost busters having her ship blown up.
Yeah.
They've been left alone.
No damage.
Warp engines are back as quickly as they went away.
Yeah.
Stand down, red alert.
Are you kidding me?
What the hell are you doing?
What is the problem with maybe just a all-time red alert
from this point on?
We're like backing it off to yellow,
just for like while we kind of get our heads around
what we've just been through.
I feel like there's a video game reason
why you don't wanna be on red or yellow alert all the time.
You're consuming some kind of energy resource, but.
Yeah. If they need a valor surge later, they don't want to keep the R3 button pushed down now.
Good call. Janeway is like, all right, I'm going to be in my ready room doing research,
because now is when I will start doing research on the Borgs. Yeah. Borg homework really takes it out of Janeway.
She is burning the candle at both ends
when Chicoetay comes in and is like,
Hey, what about a dinner date?
And she's like, I have a lot of work to do.
I see.
You fucked up Chicoetay, you didn't bring the flower.
Yeah.
Gotta bring the flower, man.
Yeah.
He did that exactly once, walking through the bridge,
carrying a flower, and then he knew big mistake.
Hahaha.
Kim's counting him off.
One, three, 15 carnations to go to.
Hahaha.
Hahaha.
That's a lot of carnations.
So what she's reading are the accounts of every Starfleet captain that's ever come across
the Borgs.
And she quotes Picard.
She quotes another captain.
She's trying to get some insights here.
Jakote is like, hey, you know, we could just not go through Borg's space.
Like there's probably unexplored parts of the Delta quadrant.
Maybe we could find a way to get home that, you know, leapfrogs it somehow.
You know, it sounds so much better than dying by assimilation,
dropping that birdie into a hot bubbly tub and letting me massage their shoulders.
Just get the tension right out of you. hot bubbly tub and letting me massage their shoulders.
Just get the tension right out of you. Those boobs look like they might need a massage too.
What?
It's nothing to be ashamed about.
What do you think?
The J.C. vibes in the scene are really intense, right?
They are super intense.
You're not alone, Katherine.
I mean, as present as those feelings are in the scene,
what is absent is the dread of a Borg encounter.
Like, what goes on said here is,
is Janeway is reading stuff from captains
who lost to the Borg.
All of them.
They all lost.
And they're, and except for Picard,
they're probably all dead.
Yeah.
And there's nothing useful to read here, I think.
And I think it would have been interesting to understand a bit better why Janeway believes
she can succeed where literally every other captain she's reading about has failed.
That's never a part of this conversation.
And I think it's a part of what Shikote should say as support for his argument.
Yeah.
I mean, instead of trying to support his argument, he's just trying to support her in this scene.
And that's really appreciated in this moment.
She says this thing about like I didn't know you from Adam three years ago.
Now I can't imagine not having you at my side or something like this, but they
get interrupted because they get some news.
Those 15 Borg ships, they've lost their readings on them.
And so they warp over to where those Borg ships blinked out on their instruments.
When they drop out of warp, it is Borg 359. It's like the aftermath of a Goth Kids birthday party.
Just ripped open black cubes.
Mommy and daddy did not get me the candle I wanted.
More eyeliner.
Sweet. So yeah, they're like, what could do this?
This is a lot.
And they come up to a larger chunk of board cube that has something alive near it.
And they get this up on view screen.
It's a biological starship from what they can tell.
We've seen biological starships before,
I mean, notably Tin Man.
Tin Man.
But it's interesting how non-biological,
this biological starship looks, right?
Yeah, it's got a lot more starshipiness to it, I guess.
I guess it's Brown, is like the thing
that looks biological about it. That's the one thing about's brown, is like the thing that looks biological about.
That's the one thing about it.
It looks like a ship in every other way, except it's brown.
And it doesn't respond to their hails or their scans at all.
So, I can't penetrate it.
They want to get a closer look at it.
So, Janeway sends Chicoetay-Tuvac and Kim over in an away team
to do a close range scan.
This is an insane idea, right?
See if they can see something close up that the ship can't detect from far away.
Per our previous conversation to Kouté, we're going to see where the support rubber meets
the support road right now.
I felt like this is a death sentence. This is so dangerous.
It's very scary. Every time Starfleet's go over to a board ship, it's very scary. And it's
that like you're in a haunted house where the occupants are walking around, ignoring you until
they decide not to. Yeah. This place is a tomb. This place is a tomb. It almost goes without saying,
except for the Borgs doing repairs,
and that other one rhythmically moving,
like one of Davinci's jack-off machines, right?
Like, why is he trying to assimilate the ship like that?
And he's like doing like cow-milking motions.
This, this, this.
Yeah. Looks like he's trying to assimilate that dick.
assimilate me daddy.
Captain the Captain. The U.S.S.
The U.S.
They find a her in the side of the board ship
that leads right into the biological ship.
Captain, permission to go inside.
Granted.
Interesting design here, right?
Like in the HR-Gagger tradition.
Yeah.
The idea of a living ship has been seen in science fiction before. This is a new spin on it. Yeah. The idea of a living ship has been seen in science fiction before.
This is a new spin on it.
Yeah.
You know, interestingly, like the board have some HR Geeger energy as well, but I feel like
they kind of, like they are kind of hard to the technical side of the HR Geeger energy
and the interior of this ship is hard to the biological side.
Right. It's like, it's all ribs and spinal columny looking shapes.
Yeah, I mean, they're finding like fluids moving around,
but also computer circuitry sharing the same space.
Yes.
Meanwhile, Sees Harry Kim's death.
Harry Kim has been left on the board ship to download
like tactical data from
the computer and it's just Tuvac and Chico Tay on the bio ship. I hate this. I think you got to go
over with an even number of dustbuster club members because it's the buddy system. So important.
One, Ensign Kim is none. Two is one, right? And Cassie's Harry Kim's death, which just makes me even more concerned.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Kim is like doing the one thing that's going to get noticed by the Borgs, right?
He's messing around with the tax documents.
Yeah.
And waving is gun around every time he hears something go bump.
Yeah.
It's just a squeaky feeling.
And they come across that Borgs pile that casts on a vision, right?
Yeah, did you see how they made this? No, this is a pile of action figures. Oh, wow
Isn't that awesome? That's great. Yeah, so it's it's comped into the scene. Yeah
Wow fun when they're when they're all dead and like
Yeah, wow, fun. When they're, when they're all dead and like partially decomposed,
I think that really works.
Like you don't need an actor wearing makeup.
The plastic action figure is all you need.
And they're all melted into each other.
Yeah. Yeah.
So when Kess gets her vision of Harry Kim death, she tells the doc,
the doc radios it up to the bridge and they're like, okay,
we got to get them out of there.
And the captain radios to them to let them out of there. And the captain radius to them
to let them know, but they can't get a lock. The transporter is all of a sudden not working.
And Harry Kim is looking at his tricorders readings and he's like, something's moving in here,
man, and it ain't us. When BLT can't get the transporter to work, the look that Janeway gives her is so withering.
Did you watch this take?
Like, did you, did you look at her during?
I've never seen Kate Mulkrew do this before and I was totally there for it.
It's really a like, maybe you're not chief engineer material.
Kind of look. Yeah. And VLT's plan B is to lock onto the bones.
She says this might work.
You know what's gonna happen if it doesn't work Ben?
You're just gonna beam back bones.
Yeah.
And then you're gonna leave like gelatinous skin
over there on the board ship.
Do you think that's gonna be useful to the boards?
Could they assimilate that and make a drone out of you?
Yeah, just the goo.
It might even make it easier for them.
Yeah, they just beam in metal bones.
Yeah, they'll get you up on a table,
and they'll sort of inflate you,
and then they'll put metal rods inside.
This is a stupid thing I've ever heard.
So while BLT is working on this,
the OA team is kind of moving through the ship,
trying to get away from whatever is moving around
in there with them.
And this is when they come across a couple of
borg drones getting taken out by this creature.
It like bursts through a wall.
It box these borgs, just punches them really.
It's not shooting a ray at them or anything.
No, no, it really packs a wall up.
Yeah.
It's got that super strength.
Yeah, one of those moments where you kind of wish they would do it and HD remaster
avoidger, just so that they could take another stamp at some of the CG.
Because you don't like the action and you don't like the glance?
Yeah, the glance makes it look a little bit silly and not scary in a way that I think it needed to look.
I wonder how much they considered going full alien here and just not revealing the thing at all.
Yeah. Yeah. I feel like this is right in that post-jurassic park CG heyday
where they're just like, we're putting full CG characters
in everything.
And we don't really care that they don't look that good yet.
Now, this is their best effort.
And they're able to beam away the dust-bestered clothes, bones, skin, and
all.
Yeah, but not before Harry Kim gets punched in the gut by this thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And contemporaneously, this bioship powers up.
Yeah.
It powers up weapons, castes seeing visions of the creature that they encountered.
The bioship is like licking shots at them,
and the bangers are like really, really intense.
But just by the skin of his teeth,
Tom Parrish is able to warp them out of there.
I love the moment where the beam hits Voyager,
like one shot really rocks the ship.
Yeah.
It does not look like they'll be able to warp away at all.
It looks like a leaf in the wind when that happens.
As they kind of catch their breath once they've gone to warp, Cass is telling the captain
about the telepathic experience she had with the pilot of the bioship. So that they're referring to this guy as,
and it does not seem like a nice character.
They're telepathic species,
and they've been kind of on the fringes of her awareness for a while.
Captain, it's not the work that we should be worried about. It's them.
What did it say to you? The week will perish."
That's like the opposite of what Jesus said.
Yeah. It's a weird, right? How people speak for him, saying things he would never say.
Yeah, weird.
Can Kest still freshen people up?
Yeah, could she freshen this guy up?
I'm only asking because it sure
seems like you need to bring all of your defenses to bear against this two pronged threat, this
Klingon dick of threats. Like, I'd want to know if we could weaponize Kess for some fresh
inups if we had to, but yeah, it seems like that's a callback that hasn't been done in quite a while.
That would have been nice in the Mugloff one group if they'd been going around like, you know, two-boxing.
Like I've got the shields and the phasers modulating. The doctor's saying his thing about the vaccine.
Kess saying, I've been working on freshening stuff up, I'm getting a lot better at it.
Janeway's holding a mug of coffee and then puts it up to her lips and she's like, oh, you're right. Nice work, Kes.
A greatest-gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity
to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all.
FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post show hangs, to make
friends, and share their embarrassment.
Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour.
Let's do it!
The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates
in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com
to get more info. That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates
and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour.
I'm Jordan Morris.
And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go,
we make pure, delightful nonsense.
We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level.
We got stupid with Judy Greer.
My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards.
Pat Noswald.
Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries?
Thank you.
And Kumail Non-Giani.
I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which
is impossible to use.
Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org.
Look, your podcast apps already open.
Just pull it out.
Give Jordan Jesse Goat try.
Being smart is hard.
Be dumb instead.
Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line.
These clouds are really freaking me out.
I hate having to stand in line.
And boy, what do I?
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 argument. We get on the art. Yeah, it's about terrain. It's about to destroy humanity
Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually we're podcasters
We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality
claims of the paranormal stuff like that and you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out.
We would love to be on the boat.
We came two by two.
What do you think?
Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org.
We're not selling ice to gold.
We come back from a commercial break and the captain is doing a captain's log as she walks down
to six bay where Harry Kim is out on a bio bed with a very very very upsetting
Growth on his face. Yeah, he looks like he fell face first in a pan of lasagna after the cheese has been nicely broiled
He like you lasagna. the cheese has been nicely broiled. You like you lasagna?
Yeah, he looks ultra nasty.
He looks like that borg's that they found
on the ship earlier covered with that lasagna cheese.
Yeah, the doc says basically this is metabolizing him
from the inside.
This is just like a few cells from that alien's fist
and it's eating him alive.
The infection is spreading.
You can't even like anesthetize Harry
to like take the pain away.
Harry is just like lying in excruciating agony.
That is such a vivid description that they use on this show.
It's really well done.
Yeah.
Yeah.
At a cellular level, this life form is just destroying
everything it touches.
It's, it sounds awful.
And the doc does have an idea for how to cure him.
And that's to do with Borg's nanoprobes.
Yeah.
Because they're, they're immune to Borg's nanoprobes right now.
But since the doc has been studying them with the idea of making some kind of a nanoprobe
vaccine,
he's figured out a way to cloak the nanoprobes
to the cells of this alien,
so that the alien cells assume that the nanoprobes
are friendlies.
Kess takes great umbrage with this.
She's like, now look, we don't know what Kim's wishes are here. And I don't know how
he'd feel about getting some sort of vaccine to protect the rest of the crew from whatever this
thing that he's got is. I don't think we should just assume that he would want this. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, right. Do we have to force this on a crew member? You know, I've been doing some research on ancient Earth woman, Terry Shiveau, and I'd
like, Jesus Christ, you're bringing her into this.
Yeah.
I mean, it's kind of a race against time vibe here, right?
Because this thing is moving fairly quickly in the dark needs time to study this new
cure, if it is a cure at all, modifying the probe takes time and he just doesn't know if he
has time to modify enough to make a difference before Harry is gone.
I think it's really notable at the end of this scene that we get real tears out of the
corner of Harry Kim's eyes.
And I mean, this is obviously a call back to Picard's assimilation
where you see the tear out of the corner of his eye, which I think represents the only two
examples of dramatically cried tears in Star Trek. Like, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like
this is like a notable visual that Star trek only deploys when absolutely necessary.
Yeah, it is very upsetting.
It's very apt that you compare it to a Picard going through
that. I feel like it feels very similar.
Totally unnecessary is them tracking the camera down
Kim's body to kind of his waist area
and the growing dark spot there
Yeah, like give him some dignity guys like he's really going through a lot everybody my HP's their pants It's the coolest really
Yes, done an engineering BLT is reporting on the data that Harry was able to get off the
Borg's cube and she's saying this is referred to by the Borg's as species
8472 and they say in the information here that the only species that's worse is species
553780008 because if you turn the calculator. Am I making any sense here?
What's the get pass that they're talking about how the board just like can't even wrap
their minds around these guys because they can't assimilate them and therefore they don't
know anything about them.
And as they're processing this, they get to the Northwest Passage and find that it is
just flooded with biotip.
I'm detecting 133 bioships. More are approaching.
Yeah, that's the reason the Borgs have kept a wide berth. The bioships are coming out of a quantum
singularity, Ben. I mean, anytime the word quantum is ascribed to a singularity, I think you could
infer maybe a time travel aspect to it.
It's a time travel. Maybe. Oh. I mean, it's not chronometric particles, but yeah.
Quantum involves like a multiverse. Does. Suggestion, does it not? Yeah. And Chicote asks about that,
like, because, because Cass seems to be the person that has the most understanding of what's going
on and he's like, are they coming from a parallel universe? And she's like, I don't know, because Cass seems to be the person that has the most understanding of what's going on.
And he's like, are they coming from a parallel universe?
And she's like, I don't know, and she's not like here.
Can you scan the singularity and find the timeline where Chico-te is in a bathtub with Janeway?
And is there a way that you could maybe, like, even if you had to lock onto my bones,
to sort of beam me over there in the
place of the Chicoete that's in that timeline.
I want the one specifically where he's moved on from the shoulder rub and he's kind of rubbing
other stuff now.
Sounds great.
Yeah.
And Kes cannot be distracted by this request because she finally gets a feeling for what these bio-ships are onto. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and you're in the anti-vax crowd and you start to realize who
else is in the anti-vax crowd, like species 8472, you would hope that that would give some people
pause, but unfortunately not. Yeah. I mean, no one wants to look wrong. Yeah. No one wants to
feel like they've made a mistake. No. So Janeway orders the ship out of there. This is a huge bummer,
right? They were planning on taking this passage.
Yeah. And now it's blocked by these bioships. And Janeway's got to just have a bum out moment in her
ready room. And she calls Chico Te in with her where they they wrap about the possible plan ahead.
They have basically three options like get killed by the Borgss, get killed by species 8472 or give up or chest massage.
Some four options.
No, I'm saying three, like die by assimilation, die by species
5471 or just like a lifetime of hot tub and exploring each other's
birdies. I don't want to like guide you in a specific
direction, Captain, but like given those choices, what would
you say about a lot of bubble bath? And Jane was like, there's
gotta be some other alternative. We have to find it.
It's not said, but it seems like Janeway has made her decision. She's not ready to tell the crew
that it is tub time. Yeah. So it's a, we'll tell the crew in the morning, but I'm just going to have a dark night of the soul in between now and then. Right. Yeah. She's not going to be able to sleep though. No. She's not the only
person having a dark night of the soul. Da Vinci's having one too. Maybe consulting someone
who has a variety of masturbation devices will finally help me chill out enough to fall
asleep. She finds him in his workshop with a whole bunch of metal apparatuses in
between some candles and the wall. And he's like, this is what passes for a
tax documents folder in my time.
Doesn't like he's playing with hand puppets like, doesn't this look like a
bunny? And doesn't this look like a pair of big round breasts?
I took the liberty of drawing a hot tub.
Do you like, why is everybody wanting me to get into a hot tub today?
I don't think that's going to work for me.
He is tripping balls in this scene.
He really is.
But then it's not happening.
But he's not so far gone that Janeway doesn't ask him advice.
Yeah, and she gets to kind of ask it in the arugula of his time.
She can't talk about boards and species and stuff, but she says like the path ahead of
me is fraught on both sides.
I'm in between what you could call a rock in a hard place.
It's like the jack-off machine ahead of me.
I could die using, but I could also die
in some other way masturbating.
I can't see an alternative.
Period appropriate.
I imagine he suggests that she appeal to a divine authority for inspiration.
If your imagination fails, ask God for his imagination.
And Janeway rejects this out of hand, but then comes up with the idea of maybe I can appeal to the devil instead.
I love this. I knew Janeway worshiped the devil.
There's coffee in the devil.
Yeah, fucking heck, man.
Hell yeah.
Do you wanna come to my birthday party next year?
Hey, you know, he's got a lot of weird machines.
He bezzled up.
My mom doesn't like me calling myself that, but I'm gonna get my name changed when I turn a chain.
More like bezzled up.
So we come back in Medium, McLaughlin Group.
Is here too.
Yeah.
And Tom Paris has taken great umbrage with the suggestion
that Janeway has made off camera, which is,
what if we bring the doctor's stealth nano probe
to hack to the Borgs, they can assimilate BC's 8472.
And in return, maybe they'll let us get through here unscathed and unassimulated. to the Borgs, they can assimilate BC's 8472,
and in return, maybe they'll let us get through here unscathed and unassimulated.
And alliance with the Borg?
More like an exchange.
Tuvac said the thought that I had in exactly the same moment.
I was like, why wouldn't the Borgs just take
what the Voyagers got?
And Janeway Abelly retorts that, well, they couldn't take it because we're gonna store it in
Doc holiday and we'll just murder Doc holiday if we have to.
And this is a plan that the doc totally co-sides.
You're my guarantee.
Certainly.
Yeah, she's like, it won't come to that, but that's a lot of hoots, but to assume that
they won't need to, right?
Janeway has never been more casual.
Like she has not slept a wink last night,
but you can tell she has gotten it out.
Yeah.
She is very chill.
After all night spent in the Leonardo da Vinci's
palace of pleasure.
Shhh.
Ha ha ha.
I wait to focus, in mind.
Yeah, she's really clockworked herself.
Uh-huh.
Leonardo da Vinci has not found the secret of flight, but he has found where the clitoris
is.
Yeah, yeah.
He's a genius in that way.
It's subtle.
So the bulk of the crew, having their marching orders leave the room, but Chicoete stays behind
to register a complaint, and he registers it in the form of the scorpion on the back of
the fox parable.
Right.
Hence the title of the episode.
We know this story intimately.
We do.
And Janeway does not,
Janeway does not suggest that she's heard it before.
She lets Chico Tay tell the story.
Chico Tay's a great storyteller, that's why.
Yeah, doesn't really give the sense
that she is down to be condescended to like this though.
Right, I like this for Beltran though,
because they give him the one or like they start wide, they push in on him and then they
end wide again. Yeah. Or maybe it's the opposite of that. But
they like give them a nice sequence to tell the story up.
They do. And I think that this scene is very much the climax of
the episode for me. Now, I think the climax occurred in the
holiday. Then actually many climaxes. Obviously Janeway
busted tons of nut in the
collodac. She's taken Rikers mantle and run with it. No way. She set the record.
Yeah. I mean, Rikers has a refractory period. Janeway does not. Yeah. She really
argues vehemently for her position here, which is that there's a passage in one of the Starfleet
captain's logs about how the borgs are the most evil species, but species eight, four,
seven, two feels like even evil or somehow.
Right.
Yeah.
And I mean, like there is one thing that I kind of wish they'd spent a little bit more
time on in the scene, which is that what Janeway is proposing here is enabling the Borgs to commit xenocyte.
Miriam atrocities ever more.
Yeah.
We'd be helping the Borg assimilate yet another species just to get ourselves back home.
It's wrong.
I'm with you, Ben.
I love this scene.
This is my favorite scene in the episode.
And it's because of how hard Janeway and Shikote argue their their points.
Yeah, it's really intense. And it does not really feel very resolved at the end. Like she has made
her decision and is arguing that he needs to stand up and support her basically in this scene.
What I don't like about this scene is that like Janeway makes this argument about his lack of trust in her
instead of having a different opinion about strategic advice.
And I feel like that's really manipulative
in a fucked up way.
Like we're making fun of how all Chicoete wants to do
is massage those boobies.
And that's why he's offering this counter proposal
as a strategy, but that's not in this scene at all.
Like it really is Ch Cote's belief that strategically,
it may be best not to engage.
Giving a new weapon to the board is like a terrible,
and potentially catastrophic idea.
Yeah.
And Chainway's like heartbroken about this,
like because she's made this argument
about loyalty instead of strategy.
And it becomes like a heavy-lice the crown moment for her.
Like I'm alone at the lead of this ship.
And I don't really have somebody that has my back 100%.
Yeah. Yeah.
At the end of the scene, Chico Te reaffirms his position in the chain of command.
And the ship pulls up to a board star system where there
are board planets and cubes just like floating around all over the place.
Couldn't you have spent so long here in like multiple establishing shots?
I wanted to see every angle of this system.
I wanted to see a ringed planet, but the ring on the planet was all Borgsy. Yeah, that would have been cool. Yeah. They pull up to a cube and get
hailed, and it's the, you know, boilerplate, board meeting somebody that they
intend to assimilate stuff. We are the board. You will be assimilated.
Pretty quickly though, Jane White is beamed over to the board ship to confer with the big empty room
that we've seen before. I was wondering if the tractor beam was extracting one of the bathrooms
from Deck 3 while this was happening. Boy, they're really going to miss that bathroom if so.
Yeah. We get the scene where negotiations are opened up with Janeway and the Borgs. And the Borgs initially just
want her to pay first and trust them. And she's like, I'm going to happen, guys. Yeah.
What she's proposing is she will give the information to them after they've safely traversed Borg
space. The Borg have a great point about this. They're like, that's going to take too long.
Where like, our shit is going to be dead by then.
Yeah. But also they make the case that BC's 8472 is here to kill the whole
galaxy. Like they're coming through these quantum fissures and they're not
going to stop until everybody is dead. And that is a an interesting framing
that I don't think that I had really considered in the argument
between Janeway and Chico J earlier, like the idea that this is a galaxy level existential
threat.
Right.
And that the only way to stop it is to kill species 8472.
It's the sort of threat you could construct an entire season of Star Trek Discovery around.
You're really good.
Yeah.
What does this thing, what?
D M A.
It seems like they're really getting somewhere before the banger start.
Yeah.
A bunch of bioships come out of another quantum butthole and they like link up and Alder and the Borgs planet.
And the exploding planet is like damaging the cube.
It's dropping bangers on Voyager.
It's destroying other cubes as the debris cloud
explodes outward.
As wonky as some of the effects have been in this episode,
this one was first rate.
Yeah, it was really great. I mean, the end of the effects have been in this episode. This one was first rate. Yeah, it was really great.
I mean, the end of the episode is literally
just the cube escaping barely with voyage
or in its tractor beam.
Yeah.
And we get a 2B continued card up on screen.
I really love that they're tethered together,
the suggestion being that they're stuck
in whatever the circumstances together.
Yeah, it's like being handcuffed to the bad guy.
Yeah, it's like doing a potato sack race with a bad guy.
Hmm, you're not gonna win that race.
No, bad guy's gonna fuck you up every single time.
Yeah, unless you give the bad guy the code to genetically compromise species 8472.
Did you like this episode Adam? as you give the bad guy the code to genetically compromise species eight four seven two.
Did you like this episode Adam?
Ben, I love this episode.
It was, I mean, breakneck pace throughout one thing I did not like though is that when you hire a
Jonathan Reece Davies and you don't have him bellow at someone. What are you
even hiring him for? He's one of the great bellowers in the game. He doesn't
yell at anyone in this episode. Sad. It's really sad.
So yeah, just a ton in the pro column,
that check mark in the con column.
Yeah.
Need more bellowing.
What have I you been?
No episode is perfect at him.
That's true.
Yeah, I liked this episode a lot too.
I mean, it felt like a more contemporary version
of Trek in terms of its pacing.
I was scrambling to keep up writing notes and watching it.
And I think that they did a good job
designing a scary species that doesn't,
that feels like somewhat inspired by the xenomorphs,
but not a direct ripoff in any way.
And yeah, like the stuff with Kess.
It's gotta be hard when the best things are already been made. Yeah. It just can't be topped. stuff with Kess. It's got to be hard when the best things already been made.
Yeah.
It's can't be topped.
It really can't. It's so good.
And yeah, like it does kind of feel like, you know,
more versus boring. It goes kind of the conflict
that has been set up there.
Yeah.
So yeah, I really enjoyed the episode.
I can't wait to see part two.
And I think that that is always our test
in these two parters is like, does it get you thirsty for the next part?
The best part of greatest gen is that we don't have to wait an entire summer to watch.
Oh!
And now the conclusion.
The conclusion will be next week.
Yeah.
Right here on this podcast.
Yeah.
For right now we've got to go read some priority one messages bin.
I'm gonna get over on there.
I do.
Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.
Need a supplement on it.
A supplement on it?
A supplement.
Yes, extra.
The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship.
Adam, our first priority one message is of a promotional nature,
and it is from Dan.
Goes like this, just finished DS9, Quark was the best part, and F warf forever.
Wow.
Now starting on Voyager.
Thank you guys for helping me enjoy the turkeys.
I'll need it.
As we're approaching the F where Janeway meets her spirit lizard,
it broke all sci-fi everywhere for me,
and it took years to recover.
I'd like to plug my sister's podcast,
Scandalist Diamond.
Dana and Jen discussed Jackie Collins novels,
dating disasters, and whatever's making them laugh.
So subscribe to Scandalist Diamonds,
wherever you get your podcasts.
God, if your podcast is about Jackie Collins novels, that's a thousand episode run you've got there.
Yeah.
Jackie Collins, a very prolific author.
Yeah.
Cool.
For real.
Oh, and dating disasters, I guess depending on who you are.
Yeah.
Probably a thousand of those.
Yeah.
I only have like a couple, but I feel like I could podcast pretty much
add infinitum about how disastrous they were.
You know what it always feels like? An add infinitum amount of disasters when it's to
you personally, huh? Well, if you like those novels or you just like laughing and listening
to stories about dating disasters, check out Scandalist Diamonds.
Not a turkey in the bunch, I bet.
No.
All good.
Ben our second priority when message is from Wesley.
Just to Eleanor.
That message goes like this.
Happy Birthday, Ellie.
I'm sending this in September 2021.
So instead of the embroidered pillow, I'm getting Adam or Ben to say,
you are not responsible for anyone else's feelings, I love you.
I'm glad you're my sister and that we get to bond over Trek and our mom's a rational hatred
of Major Kira. Whoa! BNA please give us a Chris Brenner drop.
I'm Chris Brenner. I'm Chris Brenner. Brenner Information Systems.
You know, Interface Operations Net Access, Channel 90.
That Chris Brenner!
Wow!
Your mom is dead wrong about Major Kira.
What the hell?
I want to resist the instinct to just really go hard at Eleanor and Wesley's mom here.
I think we all know what I want to do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think Wesley and Eleanor know how I feel.
Yeah.
What do you make of the significance of the requested date being late May 2022 and Wesley
saying that they're sending this in September of 2021.
That must be a thing between Eleanor and Wesley, huh?
Oh yeah, I guess so.
Because we're not that late with P1s, I just want to make that clear.
Yeah.
Our last P1 is from Zach Brager, it's to all Star Trek nerds everywhere.
Goes like this.
Was Geinen a villain of omission all along?
The queue hadn't flung the entrepreneur to meet the Borg.
Wouldn't Voyager, season 3 episode 1, have been first Borg contact?
If so, Voyager wouldn't have the knowledge to defend themselves. Voyager would be assimilated.
The Borg would fail to repel species 8472.
And 8472 begins a galactic cleanse which would include the Federation.
Was GuyNin okay with that?
GuyNin knows everything. GuyNin knows the beginning and the end.
Yeah.
I think this is an interesting theory.
Hmm.
I feel in a volmission, I like that a lot.
That's like a like a lie of commission versus omission.
Yeah.
Interesting theory by Zach Breger.
I mean, she let things unfold the way they needed to.
Sure.
Maybe she had Nanobarati in the back pocket,
like, hey, like, worst case scenario,
we can always get in touch with her.
She's out there somewhere.
Yeah.
She's got that big, big ol' goatee spaceship.
She kicks ass with that thing.
You don't want to put the goatee spaceship
near the rings of Saturn. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha on dot org slash jembo tron set it up today we sure appreciate it.
Hey Adam.
Zappin did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda?
I don't like to do this but I think I'm going to give my Shimoda to Janeway herself.
Wow just because she's got a ton of hubris for someone playing on a team that's never won like
I'm putting an asterisk on best of both worlds part two because like that was
unconventional warfare in a way that like felt a little bit like cheating like in a straight-up head-to-head matchup
Oh, yeah the part where the refs that there's nothing in the rules that says a
dog can't play basketball against the borgs. Yeah, I mean, it's like Washington generals versus the Harlem Globetrotters like
like that was the one game that the general is one. Yeah, so it feels a little strange for Janeway to be making big money moves here strategically given the track record of
the Federation against the Board.
What about you?
I'm going to give it to BLT.
I don't, this is like a little bit unfair because I don't think it's entirely her fault.
Seems like something that they came up with as a team and executed on.
But the long range probe really seems to be her baby in this episode.
And like they say it the second they start talking about it.
Like now the board know we're here.
Yeah. Yeah.
Don't send it then. Yeah.
Either send a probe that is like very, very surely not going
to get discovered by the boards or don't say don't send one
that's just like, Hey, Federation Vessel on its way
from this direction. Send a probe that destroys itself. Yeah. If it contacts especially the Borg.
If the Galactic Empire can come up with that for Hoth. Right. Can't the Voyager come up with that
for the Dequad? Yeah, precisely. Probably not entirely her fault, but BLT gets my Shemota award for that.
Well, Ben, I have a guess about what the next episode is going to be about.
But just to be sure, I'm going to need to hear you tell me about its story, capsule,
and also where we're at on the game of buttholes, the World of Caretaker.
capsule and also where we're at on the game of buttholes the little the caretaker. Well we are on square 48 of the game of
buttholes right in front of a space butthole that could take us
down to a cocoa no no on row two which we have hit recently.
Just another legendary episode by yours truly.
That cocoa noono episode.
Yeah. I mean, you still, oh, you could have done the Coco Nono today.
Yeah.
It's like, like, a thank you for supporting us on the drive kind of thing or.
Oh, yeah. I'm definitely insufficiently grateful. You're right, Ben.
Uh-huh.
Asshole.
It sort of seems that way.
But when I roll this bone, it will determine how we watch season 4 episode 1
Scorpion Part 2. Captain Janeway forges an unlikely alliance with the Borg.
Cap over. Wow, there it is. You're required to learn as you play. Roll.
You play, roll. And I, Adam, have rolled a six.
What shot us past that space buttonhole, but did land us on a Quark's bar episode on
Square 54.
Wow.
So we do have a drunk assort next week.
Okay. Hey, that'll be fun. That will be fun.
Looking forward to a very, very big episode, a big cast shake-up next week. So, uh, looking forward to it.
You too. Thanks to everyone who listened and everyone who supported us in the drive at maximumfund.org-slash-join.
Kind of thank our producer, Wendy Pretty,
who really is just making us look good out there.
Doing a great job editing the shows
and keeping us on schedule,
keeping the good ship a X-Rage Shimada running.
She's kind of the BLT in the engine room,
making sure all the pistons are firing the right way.
Thanks, everyone who came out to our show
in Austin last week.
Everyone knows the Boston show was the wine show.
That Austin show, most definitely the beef show.
You're indeed.
Yeah, we've been having a great time on the double dumbass tour.
We got to thank Bill Tilly, our card daddy, who runs the social media's for us.
He's on their at-greatest trek on Instagram and Twitter.
Can those of follow? They're really fun!
Yeah, he makes it so much fun to be a friend of DeSoto online.
That's for sure.
It should be a crime, man.
We gotta thank Nick Dittmore, who did our show art, and helps us with all the graphic design stuff.
Here at the expert'symota, and we gotta thank Adam Ragusia. bit more who did our show art and helps us with all the graphic design stuff here at
expert shimata and we gotta thank Adam Ragusia.
We made our original theme song, the Janeway song, basing his work off dark materials in
a gentle placard song.
Look at this, overflowing with gratitude.
Gratitude is all up in our attitude and we will be back at you next week at another great episode of Star Trek Voyager
and an episode of the greatest generation Voyager that is decimulating.
Hmm.
I can't see.
A-simulating to decimulating?
You can have to stack up on my alcoholic beverages.
Oh yeah. And my alcoholic beverages. Oh yeah.
And my broad.
You're going to be slurring our decimulation.
Yeah, that's a great word of a time.
Artistone, audience supported.