The Greatest Generation - Grandpa's Cum Cave (VOY S5E18)

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

When Chakotay is trapped in a boxing dream stuck inside a flashback, he does all that he can to float like an Alshain and sting like a Denevan parasite. But when it turns out Voyager is stuck inside y...et another anomaly, things start to get chaotic. Do holographic boxing gloves still smell gross? Why does Boothby need a side hustle in a post-scarcity society? Do the chaotic bros hang out in chaotic space? It's the episode that pulls no punches, but maybe should have.It's Max Fun Drive! 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 on Twitch.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz!

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 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,
Starting point is 00:00:35 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,
Starting point is 00:01:01 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
Starting point is 00:01:25 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
Starting point is 00:01:55 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! Bringing one of the U.S.S. Border. Captain Captain Captain. Bringing one of the U.S.S. Border.
Starting point is 00:02:26 U.S. Captain. Welcome to the greatest generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica, and up until a moment ago, we were wearing exactly the same sweatshirt.
Starting point is 00:02:41 I like how you took yours off, but I kept mine on even though I'm covered with rain. You're wetter than I am. I'm still wet from the shower though, so. I'm so wet right now. Says no one listening to our show. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha How you doing today, Adam? Oh, I just one of those atmospheric rivers in LA kind of days, and I hate it. I hate it so much. It sucks. I'm not leaking, though. My house isn't leaking.
Starting point is 00:03:12 Hey, that's good. I saw the weather report and I got up into some spaces with some clear silicone caulk above a lot of my doors and windows and ran a bead. And the caulk is holding? No leaks in the studio. I'm so happy for you. I'm still pretty leaky over. My rufre has not responded to a text in weeks.
Starting point is 00:03:33 I've got a cock recommendation if you'd like one. I've always wanted you to tell me what cock you recommend. Oh yeah. Feels good in the gun. Really massive ropey beads. You're laying good in the gun. Really massive, ropey beads. You're laying down in your cracks. Yeah. Well, like, they might be a sponsor. So don't say it.
Starting point is 00:03:52 You know, tell me off air. All right. I will. Hey, if you're listening to this, but would prefer to be watching it, we're going to be posting this Marin in our YouTube channel, in addition to being on the podcast feed. Oh, yeah. Because we're going to do a code 47, Adam. It's going to be great.
Starting point is 00:04:11 It's not going to get taken down because no one ever sends us copyrighted music as a code 47. Yeah. Well, we have tons of packages here from the post office, and I think we will make our editor crazy if we don't jump right into it. So what do you say? Alright, let's do it. We appreciate our editors at Uxbridge, Shimoda. Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you.
Starting point is 00:04:32 I'm receiving a code 47. Verify? It is code 47, sir. Stockly emergency frequency. Captions eyes only. First one here is a flat package. It's from Andrew in Silva, North Carolina. Like Tom Silva?
Starting point is 00:04:50 It's spelled differently, but I'm sure pronounced the same. Sure. We have a compliment from all the people that sent all of this stuff in, so don't worry. Boy, there's just a stack of the same sizes of paper here. It's like a manifesto, is that what we got? It does look sort of threatening. It says, dear sirs, it is our most sincere hope
Starting point is 00:05:09 that this letter finds you quite well and close you will find zero glitter and 10 custom Voyager Madlibs plus a special surprise Madlib at the end from the author of the frozen floating Harry Kim P1 and his perfect girlfriend, slash editor, probably fiance, by the time we read this. So optimistic sounding for someone who listens to our show. We hope that the metahumor pleases you,
Starting point is 00:05:37 that the linguistic absurdity delights you, that dare we say it, our offering may say it even the pod gods themselves, but please understand, we are not trying to pimp you into doing madlib segments. Really, really, really. Just writing them for you was joy enough. So if you don't want to, then just don't. I love it the longer it's going, this is great. You've both made many a road trip renovation project and dinner at home that much more fun to share together. You've long delighted the F-O-D, one and all, and made our lives better. We are forever your humble servants in all things, etc. Thank you again and again and again. Andrew and Jess, wow! Thank
Starting point is 00:06:16 you, Andrew and Jess. If Andrew's speaking for Jess, I doubt Jess would be down for the humble servants forever and ever. Part of that letter. Yeah, we've got story on one side and part of speech on the other. So you can't even cheat. You can potentially do a solitary madlib with these. Just like you used to do as a kid. Oh, man, this is great. I have long missed our Star Trek madlibs,
Starting point is 00:06:43 Marins, and I would love to bring them back. And now we have an opportunity. I would love to do those with you at some point and not just because we were practically begged. Hahaha. I feel like we were begged as much not to as we were begged to do it though. That was the begging version of passive aggressiveness.
Starting point is 00:07:01 Hahaha. Hahaha. That's what that was. Adam, our next package here is from all the way in Dublin, Ireland. It's from Rebecca of Dublin, Ireland. Wow. A city that I lived in for five months during college. That was where I did my study abroad.
Starting point is 00:07:20 All right. Dear Ben and Adam, greetings from an Irish FOD. Yes, the package has made its way from Dublin and closed as a rare and specifically Irish piece of Star Trek TNG merch. These are locks of Orla Brady's hair. These are many rolls of hard sweets, candy, made under license in the 1990s by Oakfields and Irish sweets company. As a kid, I sent away for the collectible A4 poster, which was for your collection of since in the 1990s by Oakfields, an Irish sweets company.
Starting point is 00:07:45 As a kid, I sent away for the collectible A4 poster, which was for your collection of holographic stickers, one in every pack of sweets. Having found my incomplete poster, I bought a bunch of unopened sweets on eBay. Sadly, my collection is still incomplete, but I thought, who better to share my duplicates with? You can fight over who gets the boy, the boy,
Starting point is 00:08:07 and generic Romulan. I know a European date for a live show would be too much to ask, but if you ever find yourself on the Emerald Isle, you have some loyal fans here already, always happy to dust off my walking tour of Dublin for you and fellow FODs, enjoy Rebecca. PS, I'm also saddened by the absence of an Ankleosaur from my very grown up dinosaur, Shaqainri?
Starting point is 00:08:30 Ankleosaur. What the last word is. You always get the hard part, trying to read those, doctor's prescriptions. Well, Adam, I'm going to open up this interior package. It's kind of, I don't know, maybe you could fit like four Dexocards kind of a size. Oh man, and they are still in the package, these sweets. They are star-checked. The next generation, Sherbert-filled fruit-flavored drops.
Starting point is 00:08:57 Look at that. Those aren't roll-os. Yeah. It contains a collectible holographic sticker. What do you say I rip into one of these and see what kind of sticker we got here? Oh man, is that the sticker? That Commander Riker sticker right there? Good sticker.
Starting point is 00:09:14 That's the rule on Greatest Gen. We always eat the things that are sent to us immediately. The things from the 90s that are sent to us. Let's see, I got a green flavor of candy. No word on whether it's green because it's so old or because that was the original color that it was. I think mesaphones will be interested in knowing whether or not that's a hard candy or not.
Starting point is 00:09:35 Is that a chewy? If it once was, it is no longer hard. And now all of our mesaphones have left the chat. No, make them stop! Make them stop, please! That looked very bright green for a thing And now all of our mesophones have left the chat That looked very bright green for a thing that's 30 years old you can tell it's got the good stuff. It tastes bad We have lots of them. So there's so many does it taste bad because it never tasted good or because it's turned All right, maybe you should you should spit into a bucket It's turned. Little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little,
Starting point is 00:10:07 little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little,
Starting point is 00:10:15 little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little,
Starting point is 00:10:23 little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, half of the stickers as well. Wow, thanks. I need to get the A4 posters so that we can put our collection together. Got to. Alright Adam, staying on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, this next package came all the way from Berlin, Deutschland, from Sasha. Got some pages here. On page one of three, I've got some Informat screenplay here, Interior Podcast or Studio Day, the card voice.
Starting point is 00:10:49 I think that we should have sent this a really long time ago, and then a walk-in voice. Do you want to do the walk-in line, Adam? This is for your ass. And this is directed to you, Adam. Oh. Dear Adam, until I radically changed my diet, I had a ton of digestive issues, so I feel connected. And until I met she, who is my wife, I didn't know of the blessings of Badei Brings.
Starting point is 00:11:14 They are amazing and sadly, not common here in Germany. What? But wait, there is now a solution. You mentioned on the show that you were sometimes missing having a Badei on tour. Then that your recording studio did not have one. Not everyone can be as bathroomed blessed as Ben is. But now you've moved. Yes, we wanted to have sent this really seriously a long time ago.
Starting point is 00:11:37 So you may only need this on the road. Maybe you will not use it. But we do hope you will. In this box, you will find a large mobile bidet for home, a small one for travels. Ben and you can also each choose one if you want. Wow. You don't want Ben to be sad and you're out. If you cannot decide, we will send you another set. How to use it? One, screw to the top of. Two, float the buoy. Three, screw the top on. For put in Two, float the buoy. What the radio, boy? I sure... Three, screw the top on.
Starting point is 00:12:06 Four, put in position and push the buoy. Five, enjoy! Of course. Wow. I'm surprised that you're allowed to send that through the mail internationally. Yes, indeed. Uh, it's really, it really looks
Starting point is 00:12:22 troublingly like a, uh, a good electric toothbrush, you know. Oh yeah, yeah, you don't want to confuse those. You picture stamens and culber picking them up and, in unison into the screen and be like, no, no, no, don't do it. Wrong thing. When you're at use the same toothbrush level as a relationship,
Starting point is 00:12:44 I don't know that you ever get to use the same travel but day In terms of intimacy too close. That's a high bar Here's a letter addressed to me from the same center from the same center Dear Ben she who is my wife from Brazil Elena and I do not want you to be sad and feel left out That is why we wanted to have included a little cachasa tasting. Your drunk pen out of pronunciation of cachasa was on point, by the way. But the pleasures you two are into are not legal to send through the mail, at least not
Starting point is 00:13:18 from Sodom and Gomorrah aka Europe. Therefore, one of my pleasures is able to be sent to the mail and you just showed me them. Yeah, okay. Therefore, we could only include Unfermented Alcohol, A.K.A. Sugary Suites. Please share with Adam. We don't want Adam to feel sad and left out. Wow, there's a lot of concern for each other.
Starting point is 00:13:40 Yeah, I like this. There's a lot of emotional intelligence going on in modern Germany. Good for them. One is a buttered caramel hazelnut delight from Eastern Germany, the other two are chocolates from Bremen, a harbor city with a long tradition of importing goods from the global south under morally highly questionable circumstances. By the way, we couldn't even send eggnog chocolate. It's a war crime!
Starting point is 00:14:02 I've been to Bremen, Adam. So is this blood chocolate? Blood chocolate delicious. I mean, he's talking about the tradition of the city. I don't know what the actual story is with the city these days. I see. Oh shoot, I didn't even notice there are replacement heads for your travel, but.
Starting point is 00:14:21 Yeah, you're gonna want those. So we've got a bunch of delightful looking candies here. We've got some hatches, edla bitter. We've got some fiodora, hutch-fina volmich. Oh yeah. And what would a care package from Germany be without some fettibambina? It's got Zartbitter in it, apparently. So I'm pretty excited about Fetty Bambina and all of these delicious-looking chocolates. Looks like there's one last secret little thing in here. It's a very ornate little, unfoldy package. Oh boy!
Starting point is 00:15:04 It's got, are these euros or, oh no, they're like Polish money, I think. Mm-hmm, you got a Poland, right? Yeah, that'll come in handy. Oh man, we've got some business cards. Is that chocolate too? Like, maybe you should try eating a couple. It doesn't crunch quite like Zartbitter, for example.
Starting point is 00:15:21 Ha ha ha. Dear Ben and Adam, dear Adam and Ben. If you do ever happen to be in Europe, please let us know and we'll provide you with many of the fine Spirits, wines and beers our continent has to offer. Please share this message if you will FOD's of Europe unite Let's find each other on discord and mastodon so we can provoke slash finance a live show here Harris would be very suitable and Trek Cannon, but Old Berlin is way more affordable. Plus, you can come here and miss the familiar site of New Berlin while looking at the moon.
Starting point is 00:15:53 Because by 2373, New Berlin was large enough to be seen from the earth in the daytime. Don't wait until Riker misses New Berlin in 40 years from now. Be ahead of him. And it's close to Poland. So much closer than it used to be. Huh.
Starting point is 00:16:09 Adam always wanted to visit or revisit to somehow motivate you in a weird sentimental way. Foreign coins may be able to. We included 12 SWATI 69. Mm. Nice. Enough to buy you a delicious Polsky Pibo and a shot of delicious Zobrauka. Am I pronouncing any of that in a way that you recognize?
Starting point is 00:16:31 Oh, yeah. I love Zobrauka. Thanks so much for making our Monday's marvelous. Thank you for converting my wife from a Star Wars fan into a Star Trek fan. And thank you for all the years of laughter. We can't wait for you to board the Star Trek Enterprise. You'll love the new doctor, all the best from Alaina and Sasha.
Starting point is 00:16:53 Dang, thank you, Alaina and Sasha. Well, the right about our need for a European trip that's economically feasible. Yeah. I appreciate having all those options. Yeah, that's great. And we've got so many more packages to get through, so I kind of want to just keep running. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this.
Starting point is 00:17:10 I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. I'm not that fond of this. the ARS Technic Art Ercle that was published after a few episodes of the pod had been released.
Starting point is 00:17:25 Next gen meant the world to me when I was a kid, so when I found out there was a podcast that would celebrate this show that I loved so much and held such fond memories for me, I was really excited and knew I had to go download episodes and start listening. I will always remember listening to that first episode while I was taking a shower and lathering my pasty fat ass thinking, I know more about next-gen than these clowns when a magic moment occurred. At the 14 minute mark of the episode,
Starting point is 00:17:52 when Adam suggested to Ben a certain, inescapable fact about our dear captain's past and his potential relationship with a certain beloved the boy. And from that moment, I understood what Euglorious bastards were truly bringing to the table and I've been a loyal viewer ever since. And close, you will find the auction catalogs from Sotheby's, where they had a very large
Starting point is 00:18:11 prop and wardrobe auction when the Burman era of Star Trek was winding down. I enjoyed these photos of the props and thought you'd genc might too. And if nothing else, you can see from the included sales summary just how much money care at Wong Drop. Ha ha ha ha. That's great! Best wishes as you continue boldly potting where no pot has potted before and severely yours Denny. Wow!
Starting point is 00:18:33 And then there's a second letter here from she who is Denny's wife and she says, as she who is Denny's wife I was introduced to the pot by overhearing an episode he who is Denny's wife, I was introduced to the pod by overhearing an episode. He who is my husband was viewing. My first thought was, why are these guys embarrassed to like Star Trek? Star Trek is awesome. And I was slightly offended. But then I heard the drunks' charmote a bit, and you have been a loyal viewer ever since.
Starting point is 00:18:57 You guys have kept me laughing and helped me through my dance battle with pancreatic cancer, losing him and the subsequent depression. Thank you for bringing a light to some very dark times. Thank you for creating such a wonderful community of FODs, and thank you for inspiring us to install Biday's on all of our toilets. This is a real theme this episode. See, Ben, we have done some good in the world, haven't we? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:21 Yeah. L-L-A-P-H-E-D. P-S, factory seconds, and Santa Monica mountains are incredible. Wow. So these are the actual auction catalogs of some actual Star Trek crap. A bunch of those props needing to be glued together. Yeah, these are full color of like... Looks like a high quality document there.
Starting point is 00:19:45 Like glossy thick pages. The command chair from the bridge was auctioned off. Amazing. Oh my god. There's so much cool stuff in here. We get to take Garrett Wong up on his invitation to go over to his house. I can't wait to see his prop collection.
Starting point is 00:20:00 I'm sure that he's rescinded that invitation by now. And look at these spaceship models. We could've owned these if we were on top of this years ago. We were not, not on top of it. We fucking blew it, Adam. Look at all the beverageware from Star Trek that we could've gotten. Bottles and glasses from Quartz bar. It's getting more upsetting than more you show me. You don't throw something like this away.
Starting point is 00:20:27 No. Well, this is just the greatest and there's two copies of this, so you'll have one to look through as well. That's great. It is fun to look through. These auctions were in 2006, Adam, so we missed the boat by quite a lot. The only way to get back to that auction is time travel. Yeah. Maybe we could get our hands on some, uh, some chronometric particles. Yeah, it's time travel.
Starting point is 00:20:49 All right, second to last package here. This one is from Kia in Danville, California. This is, uh, two Ben and Adam read one first, two only if you really want to. Heart rice cube. There's two letters in here. The one you probably want to read on here. Check out this vintage.matrix printer paper.
Starting point is 00:21:08 And this really is vintage.matrix printer paper. Cool. Dear Ben and Adam, I would type this, but printer ink is expensive, and I had this old Sharpie I needed to bleed dry. Been a long time listener, almost since the beginning, but never had time to write or support via max fun. But I felt like I owed you something for the years of enjoyment and chuckles so please find and
Starting point is 00:21:30 close some near mint condition comics. I've read these several times and found the stories engaging and creative especially since these are all sci-fi comics and characters I enjoyed from when I was not so old. Perhaps one day when you give in and do enterprise, I'll have some spare scarves to throw your way. But until then, happy holidays. At the time, this was sent. And my gratitude for this embarrassing podcast. And then a heart from Kia aka Rice Cube.
Starting point is 00:21:59 So we've got a bunch of Star Trek, the next generation and Dr. Who crossover comics here. Hey. Star Trek and Green Lantern crossover comics. Cool. I didn't know that Green Lantern did crossovers with Star Trek. Because I know that they did crossover with the X-Men, right? Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:22:20 But isn't Green Lantern DC and X-Men as Marvel? Oh boy, you're gonna get a lot of letters, Ben. Am I wrong about that? You really shouldn't have to ask. No, I think you're right. It's just a thing, but people are gonna want to explain why, and that's the thing. I don't care to know why. Well, we can just ask people not to send letters, right?
Starting point is 00:22:39 I recently consolidated all of the Star Trek stuff that's been sent to me, and I found a box of comics that Bill Tilly sent that looked like every single Star Trek comic that had ever been made. It was a stack like a hundred high. This is a pretty big stack of comics. Thank you, Kia, I'm looking forward to reading these. It looks like Star Trek of every era.
Starting point is 00:23:06 It's even got 2009 Star Trek. Wow. People in it, so it's got a lot. Yeah. OK, buddy, we have one last package. And this one I did have to take a peek inside to ensure that it wasn't a glitter-related package. Because I think maybe what happened
Starting point is 00:23:24 is it busted open and shipping. And the post office had to like repackage it Oh, no, it's like it's like fragments of an exterior that are taped on here And you got like the post office equivalent of a TSA ticket that said that we looked through your package. There is a letter here sent from Dan on the 11th of September 2023 to your Ben and Adam. Apparently I did some inebriated eBay while watching Star Trek 6, and this showed up. The hinge is a bit loose and I thought about opening it up and seeing if it could be tightened, but decided it's best to leave that to the Shimoda Studios prop department. Could I note this person and just call it ebay-breated?
Starting point is 00:24:07 Hmm, I like that. In my previous Code 47, Potatoes and Whisks, episode 430, you hoped I wasn't disappointed that somebody'd beat me to the potato punch. Unfortunately my reaction was less than fligmatic. What the gift lacked in quality I'd hoped would be made up in primacy. I imagine Ben could give a reasonable impression of me storming around my office, bemoaning the fact that they'd sat on my shelf for months waiting for a live show I missed. Ah well, say la vie. Anyway, having caught up with Voyager, I'm now in the greatest trek backlog.
Starting point is 00:24:41 I was tempted to include a screed about the unrelenting dumb of the disco and Picard writers rooms. But opinions are like the back of 2Vex's head. They can get you straight up murdered. Thank goodness for lower decks and thank you guys for making even new trek a fun place to be. All the best, Dan. And what Dan has included here, Adam, are the microphone lamp things from the briefing room at the beginning of Star Trek 6. What? When Admiral Cartwright and everybody are telling them about the practice explosion. So cool! You can see that the hint does need a little bit of tightening and maybe it's like the the arms on sunglasses you just take a little jewelers screwdriver and tighten it right up that's great I wonder if it works I plug it in oh it's got plug it in this is a halogen light I'm a little worried about the tape on the on the bulb like
Starting point is 00:25:39 melting if I plug it in hold on this is like from that era of the 90s where all desk lamps were like 10 million degrees. Yeah, that's a good call back to the temperature of desk lamp bulbs. I think we all remember those days, Fron. Yeah, I mean, there was like news stories about like halogen lights like burning people's houses down, you know? Yeah, I'm not going out like that. And I don't want you to either. It works! Wow! Amazing. Thank you for not only sending us a lamp but a working lamp. People are going to walk into Oxbridge, Shimoda Studios East, which is what I called my house, and ask, why do you have that weird lamp from the nighties?
Starting point is 00:26:23 Yeah, and ask why do you have that weird lamp from the night? Anyone who's a visitor to expert Shimoto studio's east should know the answer to that. Yeah, it's like a test You have to pass on the way in you should have a door to your studio with a little flap and there's no Challenge question. It's it's more of a challenge object. You hold it up. And if the person is sufficiently surprised and delighted by that lamp, then they get to come in. All right Adam, do you want to get to the episode we came to talk about today? I thought you'd never ask. Weird one today, it's Star Trek Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha He's got a head full of aliens. Get them out! And a couple of clip show devices all around. You really see the head and neck configuration to the clip show device. I like that. It's like he's experiencing the worst moments of his entire life
Starting point is 00:27:35 and also the throat goat at the same time. But also because some blood has been cut off from flowing to his brain, like it's going to give him a great big pop. It's pretty hot. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to die in chaotic space if whatever is going on does not go well. There's a conversation being had between the bridge and six bay that help us gather that Shikote has become sort of an ambassador in his mind. It's kind of hard to follow much like the rest of this episode. I mean, a type of beginning I like is the just being thrown into a story and figuring it out.
Starting point is 00:28:15 That is not my main problem with this episode. No, but I would say that when you set the tone like that, then the rest of the episode should go a long way toward clearing up what that was that just hit us at the beginning. This was like the hardest to follow voyage or episode I can remember. It doesn't make any sense. I can't understand it. I'm scared. I'm losing my mind. Because it's non-linear, like we go back to the beginning and then by the time we catch up to this moment, there's no regard for having caught up to it. We just... Right. Zoom past it by the time we get here.
Starting point is 00:28:47 It's an unusual format. It really is. So when we come back from the title sequence, Chico Tay is suffering. You can tell he's really fucked up by the way he's pulled his bangs down over his forehead. Yeah. He's confused. He's upset by the voices in his head and also the bad haircut. And that's enough to upset anyone. He's confused. He's upset by the voices in his head and also the bad haircut.
Starting point is 00:29:05 And that's enough to upset anyone. It seems like he also just kind of needs to have the situation re-explained to him. So the doctor is like, do you remember the other day? And I'm like, oh, finally, we're going to understand what's going on in this episode. It's practically that thing you run into in the movie airplane where like all the characters are looking at the camera as things are being explained. Like this is more for us than it is for Chico Te, right? I guess. Yeah. I also happen to have airplane too, which coincidentally we just recorded a bonus episode about what the guys from the flop house never stop plugging. That's in the bokeh feed for you, people that support our show.
Starting point is 00:29:47 I love that Chicoete is laying prone here for no reason except a better frame, you know, with Chicoete and the foreground and docking the background. It is a really good frame though, right? It makes him seem like desperate and confused in the way that he is. And so when we go to our flashback, it's a flashback to a holiday program that Chico Te was running where he was boxing. Yeah, this is a pastime that future people enjoy boxing without headgear. I mean, if the safeties are on, is that the same as headgear? I thought that was going to be revealed as the reason his bangs are so fucked up because
Starting point is 00:30:28 like when you put on the headgear and take it off, your hair is going to get must. Oh, yeah, you get gear hair. But yeah, that's not what happened here. I mean, the guy he's boxing with might have even worse hair because he just has like a mohawk, but it's a mohawk of hair that has been braided. I mean, the contest really in this scene is for worst looking back of the head, and it's between this guy and Tuvix.
Starting point is 00:30:55 I forgive you. And I don't know who I would bet in such a contest. It's really upsetting because the way that they did the loaf around the hair sort of makes it look like if you squeezed around each braid, it might come out like a head of a zit, you know? I don't like thinking about that. This guy should go on Dr. Pimplepomper as what I'm saying. Go on it and then don't tell me when it's on.
Starting point is 00:31:19 If you needed to feel some comfort at him, you can, because Boothby is also in this scene, and he's in Chico Te's corner. Hey, there's a Boothby. Boothby. But that Booth. Boothby's the name. When I call me Boothby, I firmly, I should hope so. I've been attending these rounds for 50th point years.
Starting point is 00:31:41 The one I know needs Boothby. Pretty hard to ignore the similarities between a booth B in a corner of a boxing ring and Mickey from Rocky, right? Booth B a more soft spoken Mickey, certainly. And I think unfortunately that's part of the problem because Ray Wallston is so soft spoken. One of the great things about the Mickey character is that it feels at times
Starting point is 00:32:05 like he's yelling as loud as he can to get Rocky's attention and to motivate him. You don't want to know. You don't want to know. You don't want to know. You don't want to know. Okay, I'm going to tell you. Right. And Ray Waston is kind of taking the opposite tack with Robert Belchrand's character. The thing that got Ray Wallston cast as Boothby, his gentle grandfatherliness is really working at cross purposes with his corner man in a boxing gym energy here. So yeah, I agree, it doesn't quite work,
Starting point is 00:32:38 but apparently this is something that really happened to Chicoate, like he got trained as a pugilist by Boothby when he was at the Academy. I guess so. So Boothby has like a side hustle? So he likes botany and boxany. That was so stupid.
Starting point is 00:33:00 Adam, I just got a letter from the network they're saying that people are dropping out precipitously from membership in the greatest generation. Yeah, I understand. I would leave if I could. I wanted to call attention to one thing that I'm sure you noticed was that Ray Walston's kind of Saturday night,
Starting point is 00:33:18 living this scene a little bit. You can tell by his eye line that he's reading Q-cards over Beltrend shoulder. Yeah. Did you get that? There were a couple of times where I thought Beltrend might be reading Q cards in this episode. Yeah. When he's like receiving messages from the ether with a bunch of techno babble in it, I was like, this guy can't possibly be memorizing this nonsense, right? I don't know. If I'm in an episode where I'm the featured character and I've got to be shirtless adjacent Mm-hmm. Or whatever. I'm gonna be doing shops more than I'm gonna be working out my lines
Starting point is 00:33:52 I want to look plump and vascular. That's the American dream. Yeah, I also thought that Boothbees coaching just seemed insane like yeah Chicoata is not letting his opponent land punches and Boothbeam's like take the punches that'll tire him out. But I'll also get your ass kicked Boothbeam. That's the Rocky strategy. Just get punched and punched until the other guy can't punch anymore. It's like the Homer Simpson strategy for sure. A greatest gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why?
Starting point is 00:34:35 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, I'd 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.
Starting point is 00:35:03 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.
Starting point is 00:35:23 Pat Noswald. Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Camille Nangeani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out.
Starting point is 00:35:39 Give Jordan Jesse Goat try. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, Ross. 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?
Starting point is 00:35:54 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, about a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans, but we're actually, we're podcasters. Yes, totally. We are podcasters, so it's different.
Starting point is 00:36:11 Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. Of course, it's long day.
Starting point is 00:36:32 You're right. You're going to have to send me the ring carefully, because I'm going to say this once. You're going to have to be careful. The fight does not go well. There's like a distracting moment where Jakote sees some kind of like, you know, max green saver from 2002 special effects behind this guy.
Starting point is 00:36:51 Yeah, it's enough to distract anyone. And then he catches one right in the dome, goes down hard and he wakes up in six bay where the doctor is using a vegetable peeler to fix Chicoete's illness. The doc doesn't quite believe that Chicoete is okay. Like he believes that Chicoete is guessing about the number of fingers that he's holding up in front of him. That's a fun detail. You got lucky.
Starting point is 00:37:20 And Chicoete in this scene tries to impress upon the doctor how great boxing is and the doctor just can't understand it as a medical professional. He doesn't see any good coming from a pugilist sport. Pointless violence, that program shouldn't even be in our database. Yeah. This seemed more like a debate than an argument to me. There's reference made to like, oh yeah, remember we got in a fight when you first came in after your boxing match? Yeah. And I was like, when are they gonna have the fight? They clearly don't totally agree on this,
Starting point is 00:37:49 but it doesn't quite feel like a fight. And I feel like that also made me feel a little bit like I wasn't totally following what was going on. I mean, the doctor should be happy that Ticacote boxing involves never getting hit, basically, and that this is a one off. This was a very bad outcome that doesn't normally go down when he's having a boxing match.
Starting point is 00:38:10 Do you think Chico-tay walks around mostly having conversations that go like, this never happens to me? I'm sorry, I mean, you all have to understand, this is not something I'm used to, to most people he encounters. I'm sure Sesca's heard that once or twice. It's not normal. Maybe it's something about you. That's why I tooko tape was laying prone earlier on the six-paper.
Starting point is 00:38:41 He wedged his boner up into his boxing shorts and then laid down on his belly so that nobody could see what was going on. Also like detecting some something strange about the head injuries he's received, which is that they have some sort of energy weapon symptoms to them. Yeah. They're just kind of getting onto this as a line of inquiry when a banger hits the ship and Chicoate has to go up to the bridge. Chicoate conveniently takes a left into his own quarters on the way to the bridge and changes into his uniform before arriving. I really want to know like the total time in transit that that is. Yeah. Well, we know that it's 17 seconds from any bridge in Starfleet to any six Bay, right? Does that get Scotty off the hook for taking his nephew up to the bridge
Starting point is 00:39:31 instead of six Bay and Rathacon? If that was only 17 seconds, what difference did it make? Well, 17 seconds from the bridge to six Bay, but then it's like four minutes to engineering. So that's right. Yeah, that actually makes it worse for Scott. So yeah, getting dressed seems like not the action of a man who feels like he must urgently get to work, but what did have undone the seriousness of the scene if Chico Te is about to leave six Bay and the doctors like, Hey, take this and throw some uniform to change into in the turbo lift. I would love that detail. Oh, man, he's like, got his pants off so that he can put the uniform on and the doors open and 7 of 9 is there. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:13 That's what this show does, that you go, Dave. Why didn't they do that in this episode? And then Chico Tei's got to go prone on the turbo lift floor. Talk about turbo lift. Yeah, try to last more than 17 seconds. Go, day. I lasted 22 minutes. So he gets to the bridge and we find out that we're in an anomaly episode. We get to see this chaotic space that they're in front of and then there's a really cool effect where they're trying to back the ship off and the chaotic space sort of overtakes them.
Starting point is 00:40:54 Yeah, chaotic space watches the ship go in reverse and it's like trying to understand what they're doing. Very start trick six kind of way. Sorry, Ben, that reference didn't quite hang together the way I thought it would in my head. I'm still sort of trying to puzzle through it. I agreed with it because I'm trying to like, yes, and you. So remember when, when Kirk's Enterprise is like trying to figure out where the cloaked bird of prey is, and then the cloak bird of prey is shooting at Kirk's Enterprise, and
Starting point is 00:41:23 then Kirk's like, back us off, back us off. And they pilot the ship in reverse. They're trying to figure out what the other ship might be thinking. And Spock says something like trying to figure out what we're doing, going in reverse like this. Seeing of like maybe we've got them detected. I'm picking it up now, I'm getting it.
Starting point is 00:41:41 And that's been today's segment of, behind the joke. I'm picking it up now, I'm getting it. And that's been today's segment of Behind the Jumps. So Seven of Nine has some Borg insights into what's going on. And she calls the senior staff down to the ASLAB to give them a presentation she has prepared on chaotic space and how dangerous it is. I don't like the statistical significance of so many ships, board ships specifically encountering crazy space and only one of them surviving the encounter. I don't like those odds at all. And it doesn't seem like the one that survived,
Starting point is 00:42:18 like, learned anything about how to survive it. You know? Yeah, like the idea is that the one that survived got lucky and that's it. At this point in this scene, I was like, is Chico Tei's hair messed up because he's going crazy in this episode? Or is this just going to be his hairstyle now? Because he went to the trouble of getting in his uniform, but his hair is still as messed up as it was in the first scene, which takes place in the future relative to this scene. Wet Caesar back in the late 90s was more than just a new style and instead like a betrayal of someone struggling mentally. It would have hit a lot different, right? In like 97.
Starting point is 00:43:04 Right. Yeah. People would have been much more different, right? In like 97. Right. Yeah. People would have been much more worried about Clooney. No. I don't like these ads either, Ben. And like they sort of leave this ass lab meeting with no answers at all. And we follow up with Chico Tei, who's gone back to his quarters. And finally fixed his hair.
Starting point is 00:43:23 So it was literally just he had time to either fix his hair or put on a uniform, but not both. Yeah. We get a return of the pan flute, late motif here. I never thought we'd hear it again. It didn't either. I really thought that that had gone the way of the regrettable joke from the past. Yeah, a quarters now festooned with every kind of Pendleton blanket there is. Yeah, he's like hearing stuff. He like the door seems like it's ringing. He finds his boxing gloves on one of his Pendleton festooned
Starting point is 00:44:01 loungers and he he goes out in the hallway and turns around and the boxing gloves are gone. [♪ more dramatic music playing in background, the boxing gloves have to really stink inside, right? Like, they have to be, as far as sporting equipment goes, among the stinkiest kinds, right? When I played hockey, the hockey bag
Starting point is 00:44:19 like wasn't allowed inside the house, it had to stay in the garage. Hockey bags are legendary for that. Yeah, they're bad, but I bet I bet gloves are worse. They gotta be. They gotta be so bad, because there's no inside outing a boxing glove. Yeah, you can't air it out the way you can like your shin guard from hockey. You can like leave open.
Starting point is 00:44:38 Well, I mean, what's great about these boxing gloves is that they're no longer stinking up Chicoote's apartment. They've disappeared because they're a hallucination. Yeah, so no worries, back to work Chico Tei, back to running the bridge. Don't tell anybody. And so he does, and he's up there. It's just kind of a lot of like chit chat
Starting point is 00:44:58 about this chaotic space and kind of people tossing out casual suggestions for like, hey, what if we tried this? And then the camera goes all like, all swoopy and start floating around the bridge whenever it's on Chico Tei. And you can tell he's really not stable and he's starting to hear things again. This is scary stuff because his grandpa had the crazy gene.
Starting point is 00:45:18 Yeah. He takes a swing at two Valk and of all of the bridge crew to take a swing at, he's probably the best one, right? Like, two-vacabally dodges this and takes him down to the ground. But like, you gotta believe Kim is taking that one to the jaw if it were him and his place, right? In Chicote's delusion, did he have the boxing glove on
Starting point is 00:45:39 when he threw the punch? Because I feel like you throw a really different kind of punch if you've got the boxing glove on or not, right? I agree. Yeah. This was like the original premise of MMA, right? Like we'll get like one guy that knows karate and one guy that knows Brazilian jujitsu and put him in a ring and see which one wins. Oh, you're saying this is a this is Vulcan style martial arts versus pan flute style? Yeah, and we find out which wins every single time. My favorite part of this episode is where two Voc is on one side of a 90s Lexus and Chico Tez on the other side and they compete over who can do the most damage to it.
Starting point is 00:46:20 That's cool. Yeah. And that's just a cutscene. I know. Wow. This episode rules. The Street Fighter 2 is so much a part of the zeitgeist. It was. It was. Even Star Trek, participates. I know you don't want to do it.
Starting point is 00:46:37 Perfect black. Make it yourself. I know you see this as an opportunity to grow. Make it yourself. So the captain comes down to six bay, where Chico Te is laid out on a biobad. And at this point, I was like, I guess we're still in the flashback. This isn't just like a, you think that's bad. Remember the time when, when chaotic space aliens stripped the protein, Jeff, my DNA. When chaotic space aliens strip the proteins off my DNA. And, you know, you cut away for five seconds or something, and then you're back in the episode. This is not that.
Starting point is 00:47:13 We're still in the flashback. There's a guy in a chicken suit fighting two valk like through every part of the ship. And, yeah, the crazy gene, the one from that he inherited from his grandfather has been flipped on. And I think we can say crazy gene, Ben. I think we have to say atypical gene, right? I'm quoting the episode here.
Starting point is 00:47:37 My uncle gene was also an atypical gene. Oh, you have an uncle gene too? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, definitely some regrettable use of language surrounding. The Levi's I got from the thrift store, also atypical jeans. Ooh, yeah. Yeah, the gencos that I got at lost rest for less atypical in more ways than one. Somehow two left legs on those jeans. The site just didn't think it was possible.
Starting point is 00:48:10 Yeah. So during this scene, we get the pan flute of providing a family mental health history as Gico Day runs this issue down, where his grandpa saw things and heard things and refused to treatment because, you know, his spirit was injured and he had to honor that injury. That's not the way Chico Te thinks about these things,
Starting point is 00:48:32 but it is what he has to draw on as an example. One of the main frustrations I had with this episode was that at this moment in time, the question is raised like, is crazy space the reason for crazy chico-te? And the doctors are like, I don't know. But we all know. We all know at this moment that it's the crazy space that's done this to him. And so we have to be dragged through this story of everyone coming to this conclusion that we've already gotten to.
Starting point is 00:49:04 And almost as those they Are impatient to get the episode over with Janeway goes back up to the bridge and they're like well, why don't we just try using impulse engines and get the fuck out of here? Right. Yeah, let's just go They start going but then they stop because they pick up a cool spooky ship on sensors And I was like get some sensor readings of the cool spooky ship on sensors. And I was like, get some sensor readings of the cool spooky ship and keep going. Yeah, why stop?
Starting point is 00:49:28 Why stop now? That's not how they do things on Voyager though. No, not when you're in chaotic space. This ship was really cool though. I thought it looks great. I like seeing ships outside of windows and not the view screen. There's something that just hits different about that, right? Yeah, and I like that we never get a really clear view
Starting point is 00:49:49 of it because of the way the special effects of chaotic space kind of like slice it up into triangles. This McLaughlin group is a stand up McLaughlin group, right? Is your one. What's the deal with chaotic space? You rarely get this kind. They're looking out the window in the conference room and they are all listening to this final distress call of the captain.
Starting point is 00:50:12 Only an episode where Pat Buchanan isn't on because he wouldn't put up with that shit. Yeah, he's not standing. Fuck that. And the doc tells everyone that the crew who hallucinated for a year and then they died. What a terrible way to go. They died of exposure too, like a whole breach opened up. A herald breach? Or?
Starting point is 00:50:34 Yeah, the captain is like, let's not move now. Let's not go anywhere and do anything silly. Well, she has some interesting ideas. She's like, go loot that chip for its sensors. There's coffee in that derelict chip. Also, the doc wants that captain's body beamed over so we can do a Y incision on it. I was like, oh man, we're gonna get a crispy alien.
Starting point is 00:50:58 This is so exciting. How about new? Yeah, new? No. How about new? Yeah, nope. No. Elyonautopsy, we edit past the alien autopsy into the on-screen report that he's showing the captain with like an ECU of some protein coating that got stripped off of something.
Starting point is 00:51:16 Yeah, we spent all the budget on Chico Tei's hair this episode. We can't show the why. It's pretty similar to what's happening with Chico Tay. And that's interesting. Yeah. Chico Tay is watching this report with everyone else. And he's like, is this a good time for me to take some mushrooms? Because I really think it's a great time to take some mushrooms.
Starting point is 00:51:40 And the doctor is like, we tend to be taking mushrooms to go day, but if you're going to go on a trip, here's these clip show devices. Yeah. I love the construction of like permission to trip balls, Captain permission granted. It's big fun. So Chico take us back to his quarters and lays out the bindle that he uses to go on mushroom trips and begins his vision quest. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:05 And he wakes up in a misty, you know, slightly desaturated Sears Garden Center. And it's pretty quickly talking to this old man who's, you know, disoriented and kind of, you know, speaking in metaphor. It is dark as a Star Trek Picard season three episode before Paramount corrects it and re-uploads it to the feed. Are you following along with that shit? No. Paramount Plus keeps putting out incorrectly HDR'd episodes of Star Trek Picard.
Starting point is 00:52:41 No kidding. I'm going to paraphrase Terry Metallis because he's been very diplomatic on Twitter about this. What the fuck is Paramount Plus doing to my baby? They've murdered my boy! Before putting it online, and this has happened the last few episodes. Dang, that sucks. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:59 The screeners look good. I mean, they're not in 4K HDR, but they look good in HD. As many problems as we have with Paramount Plus, I think the creators of Star Trek Picard have more and worse. And like, looking what they did to season two. It wasn't supposed to be like that. Just look at season two.
Starting point is 00:53:21 I was supposed to be in it. I'm supposed to be a recurring character. They had me in the trailer and then they took me out of the show. You think that's bad? Try to watch season one. So we're not getting like super key information from grandpa, but he wants Chico Te to come with, right?
Starting point is 00:53:46 You know what's nice about the Chico Te's grandpa character? Is how good he seems to be feeling? Like, I think so often the depiction of old suffering from dementia is terrifying. And I'm saying this is someone who has had a old with dementia in my family, it sucks. It sucks worse than maybe anything I've been through to be up close to that. And Chico Te's grandfather here seems to be having a great day. There is that kind of dementia though.
Starting point is 00:54:20 Like we have an older family member who's going through it right now. And there was a part where she could feel it slipping away dementia though. We have an older family member who's going through it right now and there was a part where she could feel it slipping away from her and that was really scary and hard. But then when it was gone, it kind of like released all of the anxiety that that had produced. She was happy in that way. She doesn't remember her daughter, but she is not freaked out all the time. God. What a moment of dead seriousness in this show.
Starting point is 00:54:50 We just had. Yeah, there are all kinds of ways to be afflicted. And Chico Te's grandfather has, I guess, one of the better ones. He's trying to find the place where his spirit lives. And evidently, that spirit is inside a pitch black cave. Yeah. So Jakote follows him into the aperture of this cave and turns around a corner and finds that he is in a boxing ring. So that's apparently his grandfather's spirit is in the gym. Man!
Starting point is 00:55:25 Man! But before they get to the gym, like they're in the center part of the cave, like the center part of the train tunnel, and Chico to the younger turns on his black light, and it is like, oh no, grandpa. Oh no. This is where your spirit lives. Looks like your spirit's been living all over these cave walls. Why is your spirit cave like a Nike shoe box
Starting point is 00:55:48 that you keep under your desk? So they make it to a place that smells only slightly better at the other end of this thing, the boxing ring. And Chico Te freaks out and wakes up and is like, oh, the aliens were trying to talk to me in there. But which aliens is he talking about? Like, is he talking about the aliens that they just found on the ship?
Starting point is 00:56:13 Could you tell whether Chicoetay wanted to wake up or he was woken up? Like, this is part of the episode that's so confusing to me. Like, who wants this? You see him starting awake. So it's not like a hyposprae that's waking him up? I would have wanted to wake up in the middle of the cave.
Starting point is 00:56:28 That's the part that I want to leave. That's where you start awake. Ha! Thank God it was just a nightmare. It was great as come cave. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's not how mushroom trips work, right?
Starting point is 00:56:45 You don't just like start awake and you're not in the trip anymore, right? I've never been on a mushroom trip. I've tried so many times and I always fail. But as hallucinations go, due to drugs, and I've had very many of these either, not very many of them go sexual, right? Like the trips are often like spiritual and not sexual.
Starting point is 00:57:06 Or are they? The drugs that I've had combined with my personal disposition as a man have not typically gone in a sexual direction. Okay. That's good. All right, I just wanted to do some research there. So there's aliens in his mind and I couldn't really figure out which aliens he was talking about, but I guess they're chaotic space aliens. Right. He's afflicted. He's now chaotic. This is the scene where I thought he might be reading off cue chords.
Starting point is 00:57:47 I don't think this is a not interesting idea. This idea that Forcicote to get with the aliens in his head, he has to drop his defenses against a mental affliction that he's terrified of because of what it's done to the members of his family. It's a very interesting twist on the episode where Troy has like dreams of the aliens on the other side of the anomaly telling them how to get out, right? Eyes in the dark. Yeah. Like send some hydrogen out here so we can blow it up.
Starting point is 00:58:18 Right. It's not quite articulated in a way that is clear though. Frazes like Rantillic trajectory. Don't exactly give you confidence that he is giving you usable, actionable information from whatever he's in communication with. Yeah. That is a guess that does not win Wheel of Fortune.
Starting point is 00:58:38 No, that is not correct. Yeah, like the word first contact gets dropped in the briefing that the doctor does for the captain So they are treating this as like an interesting new alien that they need to be trying to communicate with There's an interesting conflict happening here between the captain and Jacote that begins here and that goes throughout the episode Which is you don't want us to die do you, it's worth being uncomfortable if it means saving us. Right. I mean, that goes to the theme that's established
Starting point is 00:59:11 in that first scene where Boothby was in Chico Te's corner and saying the thing about like the real boxing matches with your own fear of getting hurt or whatever. This is like not being afraid of the baseball when you're playing Little League. You know, you got to get your body in front of it. That's a, that's a Jane Ways tale in ChicoTe.
Starting point is 00:59:29 Like pitch your brains in front of these aliens. That way you can catch the message that the trying to send us. When I tried out for Little League when I first started playing, my dad told me that in the car on the way to the field where the triatur being held. And then he volunteered to be one of the dad's catching balls in the car on the way to the field where the triatur being held. And then he volunteered to be one of the dad's catching balls in the outfield. And the sun got in his eyes and he caught a ball in the face and it split his lip all the way up to his...
Starting point is 00:59:54 Oh my God! And his face was just like gushing blood and he like got in the car and drove himself to the hospital so that I could continue my little league. What? But it's like I'm not getting in between the ball and the ground, no fucking way. And you've been traumatized watching your dad take one to the dome.
Starting point is 01:00:13 Wow. I mean, I also was like, holy shit, what a fucking bad ass my dad is. He's like, got like literally the most grisly injury I've ever seen. And he got in the fucking Camry and drove like 20 minutes to a hospital. There's rarely ever been that much blood in a camera before. Or since do you think you make the team if you catch one in the face and then
Starting point is 01:00:42 leave tri out halfway through? That's Ben Harrison. His dad is a fucking savage who sucks at baseball. Ben has a genetic predisposition to catching baseballs to the face. For some reason the gene's been switched on. We should make him catcher so he's got to wear the catcher's mask. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Chico Te is being asked to turn his trembles to Rage's and continue making first contact for the good of the ship.
Starting point is 01:01:16 He's feeling a type of way about it because he doesn't want to go spar with kid chaos. Take this haircut for the team. Ha-ha-ha-ha. He's told. Ha-ha-ha-ha. So the doctor kind of like lulls him back into the vision quest. And when he goes back in, he's got a security team led by two Valk with rifles aimed at kid chaos. And Boothby is trying to talk him out of murdering kid chaos. But like all of the rest of the crew
Starting point is 01:01:45 are really like writing for like, do whatever it takes to stop kid chaos. I'm not that much of an idiot when I watch movies and TV. I wrote papers on this stuff in college. Like I'm pretty sharp about this. You gotta believe me when I say that. But when I saw Tuvac and a bunch of security people
Starting point is 01:02:02 carrying phaser rifles, I was like, are they there too? Like, are they wearing something that puts them inside Chico Tei's hallucination? Do we skip a scene? What are you doing here? It sort of broke the episode for me to see familiars in Chico Tei's hallucination instead of just like
Starting point is 01:02:20 grandpa or whatever. Like there is a scene that's a little later that feels sort of inspired by profit experiences in the wormhole. Yes. But this isn't that. It's like two-vac riding for the most violent solution. Parasang, kid chaos is going to kick your ass.
Starting point is 01:02:38 This is the most hallucinatory moment of the episode. This is all over the place. It's wild. And it cuts around. Like there's a part where Chico Te is working the heavy moment of the episode. This is all over the place. It's wild and it cuts around. Like there's a part where Chico Te is working the heavy bag on the bridge. There's a part where the doctor is in like a lab coat like dancing around on the in the ring.
Starting point is 01:02:56 You remember that episode where we went from conference room through the bridge into the ready room? Yeah. I love the variation on that. Being in the center of the bridge, doing a wet pan from conference room over to ready room. Yeah. I love the variation on that, being in the center of the bridge, doing a whip pan from conference room over to ready room that we get here. There's a lot interesting about how this is set up. I was like, I am not following.
Starting point is 01:03:14 I had to rewind so many times and then like the rewinding was unsatisfying. I like rewound a bunch of times and then I went and read the plot summary on memory alpha and I still don't feel like I totally got this episode. There sure is a diminishing returns of weirdness, right? Like when you especially get into hallucinatory, it seems like this. You can go too far and maybe they did. Yeah, and it's like we're also still in the flashback.
Starting point is 01:03:42 So we're in a hallucination within a flashback. When do we catch up to one again? I don't know when that occurs. He winds up back in the Sears Garden Center with grandpa, and it's a big, I'm nothing like you, grandpa. I'm not going to be a crazy person. I'm not going to succumb to it. You know, and the grandpa saying, like, hey,, like it's not the worst thing in the world.
Starting point is 01:04:07 It sounds for a moment like grandpa is speaking for the aliens too. Yeah. And flotters there in the background. Yeah. And Trevis. They both hear the bell from the voxing ring in this scene. Like they both seem to be experiencing the same hallucination, except grandpa is a hallucination. Right. So that's weird. It seems like the boxing matches back on, but the doctor, you know, in his lab coat,
Starting point is 01:04:33 enters the ring and is like waving his hands over his head that it's like medically unwise for to co-taid a fight. And he gets, he gets woken up by hyposprae. And I couldn't tell, was he like on the floor when they wake him up? Yeah. Like how did he get to his apartment? I was just like, what the fuck happened?
Starting point is 01:04:56 I don't get it. What exactly don't you get? I wish I knew whether the episode was intentionally confusing or this is a mistake, like a continuity error. Yeah, because it's a big continuity error if it's an error. And it's not really the kind of mistakes that Star Trek typically makes. It all adds up to a feeling of discomfort
Starting point is 01:05:17 throughout the episode that I think is intentional. Right. But it's to what extent there's any coherence to that. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. They have underserved it. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. You have just crossed the line. Back in reality, but I guess still in the flashback.
Starting point is 01:05:37 It doesn't make sense. They're dropping bois. Seems like a good plan. It does seem like a good plan. It's like how you get out of a negulum, if you will. Boy, I definitely had negulum flashbacks. You seem to find no tranquility or anything. You know, they find that they've been going in a circle.
Starting point is 01:05:56 Not a surprise. This sucks. This is so frustrating. Back in the Aslab 7 has called Janeway into report a pattern that she's found inside this crazy space. Is it like a naturally occurring thing or is it something trying to communicate? Janeway seems to know in this scene and when we cut over to six Bay, Janeway tells the doctor that the thing that she saw in the ass lab is familiar to her because it is the nucleotide Resonance frequency that she remembers from an exam question she got wrong back in her academy days How convenient what kind of memory does Janeway have?
Starting point is 01:06:39 I remember every wrinkle on Tom Mervant's penis. I Could draw it for memory. Well, it's like a poker player. He's always remembered the big losses, but rarely remember the big wins. So she remembers the question she got wrong on the exam. She remembers Tom Mervyn's penis wrinkles because they constitute the big losses in her life. Great explanation. So that means that the signal that they found
Starting point is 01:07:11 has been a form of activation in the DNA inside Chicoote's body. But Chicoote, like they sort of gesture over to Chicoote, who's in Six Bay, is a fucking mess. And he's there like babbling about both a boxing and the people who live in this crazy part of space. It's not an hallucination, not a vision quest, it's a prize fight! He's got real, I could have been a contender energy and wants to be sent back in to fight
Starting point is 01:07:38 kid chaos. It's just got to stay off the ropes at him. A lot like his grandfather. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Perfect. Where's the dude? Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Starting point is 01:07:56 So there are so many scenes where Chico T is like, I gotta get back in there to fight these aliens. And no one at any point is like, we don't fight on first contact to go to, like, you should try to communicate and not fight. But that's never an angle of correction that anyone takes with him. Like everyone seems to intrinsically understand the metaphor of this. Yeah, it's real weird.
Starting point is 01:08:23 Like they still are like trying to work in the, this is really a fight with your own self, stuff into the scene. So like, he persuades them to let him go back in, because I guess it's all a metaphor, and like the fight is the communication. Things are getting more urgent because the bangers are starting to get stronger,
Starting point is 01:08:44 and Chico-Tate does get back in the rain. communication. Things are getting more urgent because the bangers are starting to get stronger and Shikote does get that in the rain. So he goes in and he's got his make-wee smaller bath robe on. It takes that off. It's very shiny shirt. It really made me laugh. I love the reveal of boxing in a rash guard. I read about the pre-production of this episode to Cote,
Starting point is 01:09:07 like well before this episode was even a glimmer and the writers I was like, look, if we ever do a boxing episode, give me a heads up. I wanna like try to get myself into boxing shape. I'm in shape, but I'm not in boxing shape. So promise me you give me a couple of months to train. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:23 Robert Beltran was told he was gonna do the boxing episode 10 days before. There is no amount of shops that you can do to make yourself good on TV in 10 days. So I think that's why he's wearing the rash guard. They're like, you know what show you're on, right? Robert, you know that we have no respect for you as a production staff. What the fuck? Beltran could have broken the internet. If he takes off his rope and he shredded like Stallone
Starting point is 01:09:53 and Rocky IV. Oh man, I would love to see that. I would be so excited if that's what happened at the end of this episode. I would forgive any continuity error this episode had in it if he was totally fucking swall at the end of it. Can you imagine how fucking crazy the slash fiction would have been? Had it been revealed that Chicoate is absolutely ripped and exploded underneath that uniform?
Starting point is 01:10:20 Oh my god. Time Mervin certainly never picked me up into a standing 69 before. You have the strength of four men to go day. I'll lounge in your bathtub any day. Sounds great. So he starts boxing with Kid Chaos and this is where we start cutting around and it's like they're using the words spoken by characters Previously in the episode to say new thing so it's like cutting from Janeway to 7 of 9 to grandpa to the EMH to back to 7 of 9 To like get a sentence out
Starting point is 01:11:02 You are lost. Do you understand? I love this part. This is like the dialogue version of a ransom letter using a bunch of cut up magazines, you know? Totally. Yeah. I thought it was really cool.
Starting point is 01:11:17 And like cooler than the profits experiences in DS9 for that reason, because it's like. Because it's faster. And it's a higher degree of difficulty. Yeah. Like you have to write everything that you need characters to say in order to have enough raw material for a scene like this.
Starting point is 01:11:37 And I was really worried they wouldn't have enough raw material, but they did. I know that's often a concern for you and people near you. I mean, I'm surprised that we have PodChap.biz, given all of the raw materials that are required to run a web store like that. What I love about PodChap.biz is that it's a print on demand. So the raw materials are none of our concern. That's what I love about it too, Adam. So the big reveal here, Ben, I had so many guesses about who Kid Chaos would be. At that for a moment, it was going to be Chicoete.
Starting point is 01:12:09 Yeah. Because that's the real opponent in any boxer's life, right? Right. Themselves. You see this guy here staring back at you? Yeah. That's your toughest opponent. But Kid Chaos is full of stars, and Kid chaos does not wear a rash guard. No.
Starting point is 01:12:25 Kid chaos has the body for this and yeah, so the dialogue is essentially like this is our house and you've got to get out and you may be confused about how we're going to tell you all you everything you need to do. And so like in a sort of lucid state, Chico take gets up and is like, okay, like they're telling me, but I like, can't hold enough things in my head. So I gotta run up to the bridge and punch this information into the console.
Starting point is 01:12:54 And he goes and like, you know, throws Harry came out of the way. This is like my wife and I go into a grocery store and my wife telling me what to get and I don't have a list. I gotta run in there. And I to get these things before I forget. You never know what's going to happen on supermarkets, wheat, get out of my way.
Starting point is 01:13:16 No time for a cart. Cut your arms full of like 300 items So he puts in some coordinates and stuff and they throw the impulse engines on they get out of there Chico te kind of collapses from the effort. He did it. He did it, but at what cost been hmm Yeah, now he's totally out of his mind. What if we got out of his mind Chico te the rest of the series What if we got out of his mind to co-ta the rest of the series? I Loved the special effect as they leave the chaotic space. I like that too kind of two shimmery voyagers. Yeah becoming one Yeah, and then blasting in a cave in total darkness
Starting point is 01:14:02 It seems like the voices in chicote's head don don't go away immediately, but they do go away eventually. And the button on the episode is Chico Te, literally getting back in the fight. I love the punch to black. I like a fun cut to credits. And you definitely get one this episode. Yeah. Really good.
Starting point is 01:14:24 But did you get a good episode before the credits been? Hmm, great question Adam. I think I have made myself clear that there's a lot of things in this episode that I thought were really neat, but overall I think it's a really messy, confusing, bad episode. And it's such a shame because we've been like, really wanting a good Chicoete episode for a lot of season five and feeling like he's really been getting short-tripped.
Starting point is 01:14:52 And this is a big, like I think Robert Beltrane is great in this episode. I think he does a great job with either a script or an edit that is totally unintelligible to me. This episode made me feel dumb and I was missing stuff because I found it so confusing. At no point were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.
Starting point is 01:15:22 Yeah, we're professional media reviewers, and this one was really hard for me to hold in my mind. I thought, you know, much like the jazz gummies that we like to take, there is a sweet spot for scenes of hallucination, and I feel like this episode is just too strong. Right. In that way.
Starting point is 01:15:45 This is like a 10 milligram hallucination episode, and I really want like a 2.5 milligram hallucination. That's what I'm getting at. I'll always respect the attempt in going big and in this case, I do, but I don't think that it creates a satisfying episode at the very end, outside of some very interesting performances that we get.
Starting point is 01:16:10 Like this is a performance over story type of episode that I don't think we get that often. One of the pieces of trivia that I read about this episode was really fun and that this, the story made Rick Berman angry about how smart it was. And, and,
Starting point is 01:16:29 and wanted it changed to make it simpler. Wow. So, yeah. I had to tell who won that conflict. Okay. And all of a sudden, don't. Okay.
Starting point is 01:16:44 Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. that conflict. Okay. And all they said and done. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel. Need a supplement on. A supplement on? A supplement. A supplement. Yes, extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Well Adam, there are no priority one messages on this episode because this is a Max Fun Drive
Starting point is 01:17:04 episode. We hope that folks listening to this not during the max fund drive will consider supporting our show by going to maximumfund.org slash join and setting up a monthly membership. There's no level of support that we would deem too strong for us. Give me the full 10 milligrams, baby. Yeah, 10 milligrams of support would be really appreciated. But look, a five is all you can swing. Hell fucking yeah. That'll do the job. Hey Adam.
Starting point is 01:17:34 Zepin, did you find yourself a drunk remota? Drunk Shimoda! I was gonna give it to Chico Te the Younger, but I think I'm gonna give it to Chico Tay the younger, but I think I'm gonna give it to Chico Tay the older for Just the bliss that he felt for most of the time he was on screen happy and doddering Yeah, I could get with that. Those are some old goals for me Yeah, it's not so bad once you get used to it. I've got something terrifying That's that's running through the DNA of my family on the men's side.
Starting point is 01:18:10 So, yeah, I should be so lucky. Man, that is very persuasive, Adam. I think I'm going to draw a line through what I wrote down and join you on the old Tricote Square. Wow. That's a great drunk charmota. All right, Ben, you know what's next. and join you on the old Tricote Square. Wow. That's a great drunk charmota. All right, Ben, you know what's next.
Starting point is 01:18:28 It's game time. We're heading to a gach that biz slash game or the game of buttholes. The will of the caretaker is kept. We've got a couple of squares we could hit. It looks like we could hit a canar with demar square. And that's one where we invent a cocktail that tastes like what we imagine canar would be.
Starting point is 01:18:52 But don't we have an actual bottle of canar now? There's a bottled canar on the shelf behind me that's like the official star trek canar, which I believe is red wine. But then also a friend of DeSoto made like a morrow that was designed to be a canar. If we land on that we should do that episode together and we'll drink the canar. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:19:09 Canar actual. The other thing we could hit is a caretaker square which randomizes everything. We roll a 100-sided die to find out where the shuttle goes next. Oh, that's fun. It really is. I'm going to go ahead and set this up and roll this bone. Oh, but before I do that, I gotta tell you what the episode's gonna be, right? Lay it on me. It's gonna be season 5 of so 19. Think Tank.
Starting point is 01:19:36 Voyager is ambushed by a race known as the Hazari. With no way of escape. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. All right, rolling the bone. And I wedged us right in between the Kenar with Demar Square and the Caretaker Square. Tula! Did I win? Harvey.
Starting point is 01:19:59 So, regular old episode next week for, think tank. Love it. Well, this is our second Max Fund Drive episode of the year. And our final Max Fund Drive of the year for this show. We are just so grateful for everyone who's supported Max Fund Drive once through the end of the month. And if you haven't supported already, be sure you hope you'll consider doing so. I know how it feels sometimes to listen to a drive episode of your favorite media property and go, someone else will do it, someone else will support
Starting point is 01:20:34 so I don't have to. But I really want to encourage you to be the support you want to see in the world. It really makes a difference for us. It's really important that we get our show supported. It helps us keep going and make new plans. I'm looking this candy IA. It says it's, it's that it expired in April of 1998.
Starting point is 01:20:55 Can't eat this Christ. I shouldn't eat in that chocolate from Germany. What was I thinking? The expiration is old enough for you to date. We got to thank our producer, Wendy Priti, who keeps all of the production plates spinning over at Experts Shimoda and Rob Adler, who edited this week's episode. We got to thank all of the hardworking folks at MaximumFund.org,
Starting point is 01:21:19 who help us with all the logistics of getting episodes out every week. We got to thank Bill Tilly, the card daddy, to run our social media at Greatest Trek on Instagram and Twitter. And gotta thank Adam Ragusia who made our original theme music. Hot Shop Dad Biz is where you pick up an item to put on your birdie or drink coffee out of or put a two-week glass on top of to protect your wooden table. You know?
Starting point is 01:21:43 You respect wood, don't you, Ben? I do respect wood. Well, 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's Bustin' Jerry! It's Bustin'! Bustin' makes me feel good. at smmfund.org. Comedy and culture.
Starting point is 01:22:24 Artists owned, audience supported.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.