The Greatest Generation - Quid Pro Dome (VOY S7E18)

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

When Seven goes for the record on the holodeck instead of staying at her post, Voyager takes heavy damage and the simulation starts overloading her brains. But when she’s caught in the act by Dr. Mark, he introduces her to the idea of work/life balance but fails to admonish her terrible crimes. What do you get when you pimp the toast? Which slash fiction did this story inspire? How has Star Trek failed men across the decades? It’s the episode where the burlap belies the smash.It's MaxFun Drive! Support the production of The Greatest Generation.Friends of DeSoto for Democracy.Friends of DeSoto for Justice. Friends of DeSoto for Labor.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 YouTube.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz! MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

It's Greatest Gen Drive 2024. And right now we need your help in order to keep making the Greatest Gen and Greatest Trek week in and week out, year in and year out, during what is now our eighth year in making these shows. Eight years! Too many years! Or not enough? You be the judge. Adam, I am so excited about this pledge drive in particular

because we have a new membership benefit that has never been done before. We have never done this before? We've never done it before, and we're gonna tell the people about it in a later break, so you have to listen! I'm racking my brain about what this is. I think this is going to come as a surprise to me too.

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There are Miriam reasons to support our shows during the Greatest Gen drive. And we'll be back a little bit later to tell you why even $5 a month can help make sure history never forgets the name, Greatest Gen. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage. Watch your back, son. I'm Luke.

I'm Captain Cap. Bring Janeway of the UQSS forth. I'm Captain Cap. Bring Janeway of the UQSS forth. I'm Captain Cap. Bring Janeway of the UQSS forth. I'm Captain Cap. Bring Janeway of the UQSS forth.

I'm Captain Cap. Welcome to the Greatest Generation. This is 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. I fucked up. Yeah, speaking of human error, right?

It's like sitting down, writing the first page of my notes for this episode and really just like marveling at the irony of this. Just a little behind the pod we sat down not much more than an hour ago to record this episode or at least Adam sat down to record this episode. And I had looked at the wrong square on my calendar and everybody knows this, I'm legendarily bad at calendar. It's cause you were homeschooled, Ben. Like, I get it. If that was homeschool, my parents' home is very fancy.

But yeah, I looked at the thing and it was a pilot season episode that I think will come out at the end of this week that I thought we were recording today. Right. I was wrong. I was dead wrong. There's maybe never a more clear example of the ways we are different than calendar because Because I cannot function in my life without a calendar. I just can't do it. My brains can't hold my schedule in it. I am totally dependent on it. And your freedom, God, I wish I had that.

I mean, I think that my brain can't hold my schedule in it either. And I rely on calendars. I don't know if like there's a special kind of dyslexia that only applies to calendars, but if there is, boy, do I have it. Yeah, you've got, you use a clindender. It's been really bad lately. I showed up at a doctor's office two weeks out of date. I was two weeks early, fortunately. Last week I was telling everyone I had jury duty this week, so everything was on the bubble. And then I went to check if I had jury duty Sunday night and realized that I had it next week.

Point to the part of your schedule where the calendar hurt you, Ben. I am so bad at it. And it's like, it really feels like a shortcoming of my brain. Like there's something about my brain that cannot cope with calendars. Like I want to learn, I want to take a class that would help me be better at this or something. But I sort of think I might just be, this might just be my lot in life. Like I might've gotten dealt the deck of brain cards that didn't include calendar. I don't know, man. Like I'm probably the last person to ask about how to structure a life competently.

But like in my case, I can be late for things by checking the calendar three or four or five times to make sure that the thing I'm leaving the house for is actually happening. Like I'm shocked that you left the house without being sure that you had a thing to go to. It takes a lot to get me out. Yeah.

It's bad. It's really bad. Well, I think that I have something to learn from today's episode because it's really about forgiving yourself for, you know, your human errors in many ways. That's one of the messages of the episode, right? Is it? Maybe. Let's find out what the message of this episode is, Vin. You would rather I not forgive myself. Is that what you're saying?

No, I'm wondering what exactly the message is from this episode. It's Star Trek Voyager Season 7, Episode 18. Human error. Rebirth course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo tubes, I'm not turning them out. Hard! Very, very brief cold open here, where we see some hands playing on a banana, we see

the metronome, we see... Here's another... What? What did you call it? A banana. Oh man. Should we just start over? How about you?

You want to know something else amazing about how my brain works? I sat down and started to watch this episode a couple of weeks ago to like get out ahead of things. And I started notes. I found these notes after I had started like scrambling to watch this. Yeah. Your notes started autocompleting.

Well, the first note that I made when I sat down today to watch this was Pananner. First note that I wrote down when I watched a couple of weeks ago, also Pananner. What are we doing? What even is this? Just goes to show you, we don't have a lot of free will, you know? We're just, we're basically, you know, large language models that just react with best guess to everything. This is not a Star Trek hate watch show. You can go get that shit somewhere else.

But I'm going to say this, Ben. The cold open that I like the least, by a long shot, is the one that ends without a crescendo into moment before theme? What the fuck is this? You can't just fade to black while Seven's just playing piano. That's not a cold open at all. I think that they fuck themselves. This happened, I think, one other time in Voyager that I can think of where the cold open involved somebody making music so they couldn't dun-dun-dun when the reveal happens. That's what it is.

It's the diegetic versus non-diegetic music-ness of it, right? Yeah. Like, the reveal is that it's Seven of Nine Sans Dolphin, and that should be a dun dun dun, but she's too busy tinkling those ivories for the score people to come in and fill in the gaps. And if you've never watched this show, this is the first time you've watched an episode of Voyager, you're like, I don't, like, what is this?

The theme starts and it in its seventh voice going, Hey, it's me, seven and nine. I used to be a Borgs and now I'm not. I used to be, uh, not attractive. And now, when I take my hair down, take off my glasses, start playing piano. It's gonna blow your fucking pants off. Trying to get home with my super lame crew. start playing piano. It's gonna blow your fucking pants off. Trying to get home with my super lame crew. I'm the only one that seems to be doing any work around here.

Willing to work 24 seven if need be. Anyway, Star Trek Voyager, that's the name of the show. There's just like a little reel of explosions and people turning to camera with the actor's name. It's just all the Nazi-Hero-gen shit that she fought off last season. What show is this? There's a universe where that's the show.

Yeah, yeah. People are like, not my Star Trek, and Ben and Adam are like, yeah, woo! After the theme, it's a baby shower. Star Trek and Ben and Adam were like, yeah, woo! After the theme, uh, it's a baby shower in the mess hall. And it is extremely well attended. Ben, how many people attended your baby shower? Didn't have one. Wow.

Yeah, didn't do it. Wow. Wow. Yeah, it was, uh, I don't know. We were a little overwhelmed at the time. Didn't really have the wherewithal to plan anything. I don't go to many baby showers. Might not surprise you to know this.

The stress of the bring is enormous. And this is a feeling that Tuvok doesn't feel at all. He knows exactly what to bring to a baby shower. This one, of course, being for BLTs and Paris' baby. He brings Pyramid Puzzle. Yeah. It's a puzzle that gets seven other puzzles for you to solve, and then they each get seven other puzzles.

It's very pointy as a baby toy goes, right? Does not seem like something you would want to leave unattended in the crib. You want to like cut a little slit in some tennis balls and, and put those on all the points, I think. Right, right. I love, I love B Dunks' object work with this. Like, he's so funny throughout this scene. Like, oh, I love this scene like that's a puzzle

And then he like can't put it. You know it falls apart in his hands, and then he's like Struggling with it for the rest of the scene just in the back There's a kind of comedy that goes like a normal Doofus unable to do the most normal things and this is Tom Paris in this moment like Biffing the pyramid puzzle. Carrie can't get those bots put away. We learn a little bit about what's going on in this scene, or we think we do.

It's explained that Seven's implants have been removed and she doesn't need to regenerate anymore. So she's talking about like, I want a uniform from the captain. I want to make like I'm want a uniform from the captain. I want to make like I'm a real member of the crew. And the captain's like, yeah, like you might also want a bed. He's like, I've been studying the career of Deanna Troy.

And it feels like very late in the series is the time where I could be fitted for a real uniform. Right. Chakotay saunters up and suggests that Seven make a toast on behalf of the baby. Ooh, I hated this moment. Do not pimp the toast. Because what you're gonna get is pimp toast.

Like, you're gonna get a bad toast. Luckily, Seven fucking crushes this. Good job by her. Spur of the moment. And to all the bitches out there, I will turn you out. Oh, very good. Incredible toast. I mean, that's the thing.

Like, I wouldn't pimp Seven into a toast because I would never expect her to have this in the chamber. But there are people that you know that have a great toast, like ready to go at the drop of a hat. Yeah. You know? Yeah. That's what kind of makes the reveal so great

is because Seven does not seem as though she would be a person with a toast in the chamber, a toast in the slot, if you will. But she does and she's totally capable. And it's like a really sweet and heartfelt toast, and then she goes off the top rope onto Tom Paris right at the end, just for good measure. It's great.

And may she inherit a sense of logic from her mother. Oh. It's a toast and a roast. Love it. That's all the best toasts are. Over on the bridge, they're picking up something weird, A toast and a roast. Love it. That's all the best toasts are. Yeah. Over on the bridge, they're picking up something weird and I'm picking up something weird about this segue

because we have all the crew together in the mess hall and then we cut to the bridge and our crew's there. That rarely happens in a Star Trek episode, this sort of sequence of scenes. There's usually a passage of time edit to the outside of the ship or something similar and we get sequence of scenes. There's usually a passage of time edit to the outside of the ship or something similar, and we get none of that. A corridor interstitial.

Right. Yeah, we don't get that here. We're right on the bridge right after the mess hall, and Paris is picking up something weird on the sensors and shares it with Chakotay. And I mean, Janeway and Tuvok are there too. This sort of like teases that the previous scene might have been a fantasy, a holodeck simulation. And

then Seven reveals that to be the case when she has to turn it off before going to the bridge to help check this thing out. Yeah. Don't you think it's interesting as Seven walks out of the holodeck, you know, like her dolphin goes back on her uniform changes or whatever, she's going to manually do her hair. The holodeck can't do hair. Yeah.

Isn't that weird? I mean, it kind of makes sense, right? Like, you know, on PlayStation, people's hair always looks like really weird and digital. It's too complex for the holodeck processors to handle. Yeah, just like it can't render that much stuff in that close of proximity all at the same time. Yeah, that's weird, huh? Yeah, I mean, it could, but it would get really hot in there.

Yeah, she's got to get that bun into shape before hitting the ass lab. I was wondering, like, I don't know how a bun like this even works. Like, it seems mathematically impossible to me the way her bun kind of looks like, like there's no fold in the back, right? It all just kind of like comes together.

You know how when you tie your shoes and like, if you tie them well, they should just come undone? I've never done that before. With the tug of one of the shoelaces, like, without getting all fucking stupidly knotted and then you got to dig in there with your fingernails to like break up the knot. Ideal shoelace tying is like bloop and then the laces fall open. I wonder if you're rockin' bun the way Seven is, or any about to be beautiful woman in a late

90s to early 2000s movie, like if you need the bun to be situated in a way where you just like pull out the one pin and it just like cascades down. We need to pull it out. Assist me. Are you suggesting that there is a quick release mechanism on late 90s hot girl bun that is reversible? Like you can put it right back up almost as fast as it tumbled to your shoulders. That's what I'm kind of saying here.

Yeah, like there's an intentionality with the bun to make it so that at the drop of a hat you could become beautiful just by releasing the hair. Right. And if you need to go back to being an anonymous nerd in the background, you can throw it right back up and nobody will notice you. Yeah. A Boggs, if you will. Gentlemen, we have a winner. These bangers that they're getting

are kind of all over the place. They're like, some are close, some have a winner. These bangers that they're getting are kind of all over the place. They're like, some are close, some are far away. They're all around the ship. They meet up in the ass lab, and Seven is like, yeah, I mean, these are kind of all over the place, but I don't think we have any reason to alter course. So I'll just keep an eye on it, and the captain

orders to keep an eye on it. And then they're talking about the big surprise party for BLT's baby shower. It really seems like for most of this episode, the baby shower and everything about it is the most important part. And this meeting in the ass lab is an example of this. Like, hey, where are the explosions coming from? I don't know. And I don't know if we'll ever figure it out. Anyway, the real business is BLT's baby shower. And this assumption that Seven won't want to go. And I love Tuvok here because...

You were really disappointed you didn't get to see the bowling tournament in the Big Lebowski, weren't you? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's the whole world going crazy! Tuvok's like, look, I don't know if you've noticed this, but we're actually more alike than different. You know, gatherings like this suck for me too. Want to be like wing people for each other? Yeah.

Seems like that could be a good arrangement. Yeah. Neither of them really wants to go. I get to give this weird pyramid thing that I always give it every baby shower. They probably expect it. I don't even bother wrapping it anymore. I'm gonna give this weird pyramid thing that I always give it every baby shower. They probably expect it. I don't even bother wrapping it anymore.

There's Duvac with his pyramid. Yeah. Our course is locked in. Do it. Listen to me very carefully because I'm only going to say this once. So we cut over to some empty quarters where Neelix and Seven, who is now undolphined and in uniform, are standing and he's talking about, oh, like great new quarters, really nice that you've got this, but you know, throw some paint on the walls, put up a tchotchke or two. This thing is real sterile.

Probably still smells like Klingon funk from a couple of episodes ago. The dark secret about a quarter suddenly becoming available, Ben, has got to be that someone's died, right? Yeah, somebody went out an airlock or similar. Yeah, workplace accident is likely gonna free up some quarters availability. Somebody was working in a restaurant kitchen in Canada and things went left.

Neelix has got all kinds of ideas about how to decorate and she's taking that suggestion and running with it, like with the pictures and the frames and so forth. But when Neelix suggests that the carpet might match the drapes, that is a conversation ender for Seven of Nine and he can get the fuck out at that point. You do not get to have an opinion about that, Neelix. It's Mr. Mott down in the barbershop and no one else. Two blueberry blue stripes with an orange inlay.

I appreciate your aesthetic insights, but I believe I can proceed on my own. Here's Chikote with a Starfleet duffel bag containing a Dreamcatcher. I was thinking a lot about why the duffel bag? And the answer is obvious. You don't want to be Chikote walking around the corridor carrying a Dreamcatcher, do you? Like that's just got gotta suck for him. Like, look at you, Chakotay!

How about that? You're doing the thing you're known for. Like, all the white people giving him, like, respectful nods, and it's like, shut up. Like, leave me alone. Not just respectful nods, but like, so much deference. Like, wow. Yeah, referent.

Yeah. Like, oh, God, can I just exist? And it's not like it's like obscuring what that is to wrap it in, you know, wrapping paper, right? Like everybody sees the circle of wrapping paper and is like, oh, there's Chakotay. Off to gift a dream catcher again. Hey, Chakotay, I made fry bread last night. Hey, we all don't eat fry bread.

All right? Like, cool. That's the one thing you know. You went on vacation in Santa Fe once. Congratulations. There's an energy to the duffel bag and the gift and the Dreamcatcher and all of this that feels a little bit flirting adjacent, doesn't it?

Well, yeah. It kind of helps that Neelix fucks off. That's good. As soon as he leaves, it becomes even more apparent. It just kind of leaves them alone together. This really feels like in the same way that the Ur episode for the J slash C community is the one where Chakota and Janeway are stranded on that planet with that virus and he makes her the bathtub.

This feels like the most important single piece of canon for the C slash 7 community, right? It does. And like, we should be careful here because I know that this inspires a lot of passions. Our friend Bree Belke won't park in the C7 section of a parking lot, for example. She takes a pretty hard line. Yeah.

She'll also spray paint over those numbers and letters in any parking garage she's in. Yeah. It's like, why is the back of your car just full of spray paint and stenciling material, but, uh, at the risk of making a villain of myself to the entire C slash seven community, as horny fantasies go, this is as tame as it is possible to get. Like housewarming gift and then like, okay, bye.

Like so unsteamy is this romance at this point that I was just like shocked that this even took off as an idea. Do you think that there's slash fiction out there that involves Chakotay sticking himself through the dreamcatcher? himself through the dreamcatcher. Do you think that there's slash fiction out there involving Neelix not leaving?

Oh, probably. You know? Yeah. Chikote is very specific about this. He's like, look, when we're not on duty, you don't have to call me commander and I hope to call me commander. And I hope you call me something else completely when we have that dinner you've invited me to tomorrow. And I think there's a moment in every you'll want to go on a date question and answer, where the recipient of the invitation has to figure out what to bring.

And Chikote makes a grave error by over-promising the bring here. He promises to bring wine and furniture. That's too much, Chikote. That's weird. Yeah. And what is it like flat pack furniture? Is he like inviting himself over

to build a bunch of Ikea shit in her apartment? I don't know. We may never know. That's not Riz. No. We cut over to Six Bay where Dr. Mark. Oh, hi Mark. Is singing his lullabies for seven.

These are lullabies that he sang during the baby shower that she flaked out on. And she's in there for her regular checkup, but she's also got a shoulder problem. And this is something that Dr. Mark is happy to fix, but how did she get the shoulder problem, Ben? Probably moving her arm back and forth really vigorously. Yeah, what didn't we see at the end of that previous scene?

Did you feel like that was headed toward an H.J. though? Like it didn't seem like that to me. Like, again, like I'm just shocked by how unsteamy these interactions are. Maybe after we cut away, they play a sexy game of dream catcher toss. Oh yeah. It's a self-officiated game called Ultimate Dream Catcher.

Yeah. Yeah, it sure is. I mean, you're going to throw out your shoulder doing that hour after hour. Oh, yeah. She does not seem interested in getting this repaired and also doesn't really want to talk about what she's been up to with her free time. My personal life is none of your concern. Yeah, I think that this is an important scene. It makes it clear just how much of a fantasy world she is going to when she visits the holodeck.

Like, it makes it clear that the Borg equipment in her body is nowhere close to being removed, and it's actually kind of causing her to suffer a little bit. Like, she doesn't want to, like, take care of a procedure for a thing that's causing her pain right now. She's kind of like the equivalent of like the iceberg imagery and HR department will show. Like you're seeing the dolphin and stuff on her face. You're seeing the borgs that you can see, but there's a borgs iceberg under the surface of the water

that you can't even perceive at all. And that's like the stuff that's in her shoulder and the rest of her body, right? Right. And I that's like the stuff that's in her shoulder and the rest of her barity, right? Right. And I think that like the fact that she's willing to endure that pain because she's so eager to get back to the holodeck is indicative of just how like compelling this all is to her. I mean, this is the energy behind breaking the record

that every man knows about. This is the energy behind breaking the record that every man knows about. There gets to be a point where it is extremely painful and yet the record, if you will. You gotta break the record. Your parents aren't gone for the weekend every weekend, are they? How much of this has to do with Dr. Mark being the person who prized though?

You know? I think that's a great big element to this too. I mean, it's, yeah, it's like, that's a tension that's all through this episode in a pretty subtextual way. Like the fact that he like definitely still sweats her is just boiling below the surface, but it never really quite gets named.

Yep. Before they can really like get into this argument, a banger gets dropped and up on the bridge, they're picking up weapons fire, creating shock waves all around them. Yeah. And it knocks out their warp drive. Weird energy to this scene because like

stuff is exploding in space all around them. And yet like they don't act or appear to be in danger directly from like an attack. They, they very quickly recognize that this is incidental. Right. These are shock waves coming from explosions that are happening far away, but they're

happening all around them. So it doesn't seem like anybody's going for them specifically. Yeah. And when they go down to the ass lab, Seven is able to show them surveillance footage of what is causing this. And it's long range subspace warheads that

are hitting like unmanned drones. And because of the explosions kind of constant nature, it's made warping out of here a challenge. So they are in an area where lots of explosions are going off and also those explosions are making it hard for them to leave this area. You remember playing Missile Command, like the old video game? You gotta intercept those missiles before they hit the ground.

The missiles are just like a line coming down from the top of the screen. This is the evolution of that in motion graphics form. I found this really enticing to watch. Like there's kind of nothing going on there, but I'm like, oh yeah, look at that thing. Going after that other thing, blow it up. I feel like Missile Command was one of those early computer games

that was like, when you were a kid, you were like, what the fuck is a computer even for? But then you saw like a computer game like Missile Command and you were like, this is cool. There it sits. This is what it's for. If they don't have 3D Star Trek Voyager themed Missile Command and you're like, this is cool. There it sits. Right. This is what it's for. If they don't have 3D Star Trek Voyager

themed Missile Command for the Apple Vision Pro, I feel like that is the main reason that this is a product that has failed to find an application as yet. I know, yeah. It's like only something that tech assholes in the Bay Area wear while driving their self-driving cars and no other functional use.

Good news, bad news here. Bad news, 48 hours from when they can have working warp drive. Good news, that leaves 48 hours for Seven to go jack off in the holodeck. Yeah. Computer, activate Chakotay simulation. Ha ha, it's Sato.

And also, Ichab shows up to be like, hey, I'm here two hours early to relieve you so you can go do whatever it is that's making your arm hurt. This is a prescription from Dr. Mark. Dr. Mark has prescribed Ichab. Yes, Ichab. Directly on the shift. New. From the makers of Head On. Available at Walgreens. He's been studying Earth literature so that he can say things like, don't kill the messenger

with some confidence, I guess. That's fun. Don't kill the guy squeegee in the turds either! Cause then who's gonna do it? I don't think it's you! You don't want this! Believe me. Not in those high-heeled shoes that are built into your costume somehow. We're all better large men, check, check. I've got tickets that...

We're not. Are you selling a Heist? Gold. So, Adam, we're calling it greatest gen drive, and there's a reason for that. I think you put this really well when we were talking about it offline. You know, I think that in the past, maybe it has caused people to hesitate, like, oh, I don't want to support a company just because my favorite Star Trek podcast is on it. Right.

And so I think that, like, the thing that we've got to explain to people is that your support directly goes to us. Our shows are largely directly supported by Friends of De Soto. Right. We pay the network to host our shows, and they run the website that allows for the contributions that make our show possible. And the network connects us with advertisers and that helps us go to. I think you could compare it to Patreon,

but it's a lot more full service than that. You know, they're not just processing your credit card. They're providing a ton of support to us. And specifically, the large, large majority of listener support dollars during the Max Fund Drive go directly to the shows that they are related to. So we're calling it the greatest gen drive to really highlight that.

Don't get it twisted. Yeah. This is about the shows. Yeah. And the other great thing about Maximum Fund is like, we just get to make the show. Like all we think about day in and day out is making the show. Like they leave us about day in and day out is making the show.

Like they leave us alone. They don't have any editorial input. Try to imagine what the network would do if they knew what we did on our shows. We'd be out on our ass immediately. If they heard any of the stupid shit we say. Yeah, they leave us alone. We leave them alone.

It's great. Yeah, so maximumfund.org slash join Yeah. They leave us alone. We leave them alone. It's great. Yeah. So maximumfund.org slash join is where you go to set up monthly listener support. And monthly listener support is absolutely crucial to us. Our costs are way up this year, and I'm sure everybody out there can relate to that. That's just true of the economy writ large. But we are not selling quite enough sex candles through Podshop.biz to make up the difference.

Right. And the contributions go toward making the show possible. And by that I mean like covering the payroll that we've got, equipment that we need to make the show, the server space, collaborating with the folks that make all the neat graphics and occasionally edit the show for us. You're paying artists to do art when you become a supporter at maximumfun.org slash join. And we literally could not have been doing

what we've been doing with Greatest Jan and Greatest Track for the last eight years without you. That's just a fact. And look, the drive is important every year for us to be able to plan out all the fun things we want to do for the FODs. And not reaching our goals during the drive really means that we've got to sacrifice a bunch of things

that we don't want to. So go to maximumfund.org slash join. I was just doing a little bit of math, Ben. Check it out. Okay. 52 weeks are in a year, right? Is that still the amount of weeks in a year? I stay checked. We're doing two little bit of math, Ben. Check it out. Okay. 52 weeks are in a year, right? Is that still the amount of weeks in a year? I stay checked.

We're doing two episodes a week, one of greatest gen and one of greatest trek. That's 104 mainline episodes. That doesn't count a bonus episode every month that comes out in the Boko feed. So that's 116 episodes a year of just our dumb shows. Amazing. If you divide that into 12 months, that equals like 10 episodes a year of just our dumb shows. Amazing. If you divide that into 12 months,

that equals like 10 episodes a month, roughly. Wow. And if you're supporting at the $5 a month level, that's like 50 cents an episode. Isn't that crazy? If you tip your bartender more than a dollar a drink, I think you can swing 50 cents an episode. I'm just saying like, as occasionally shitty as our shows are, I know they're worth more than 50 cents to an FOD out there.

I would hope so. We're not asking anyone to make a great sacrifice in order to help this show go. This is all about asking the folks who do have $5 a month, who do have $5 more a month to begin supporting the show or to raise their support of the show, to go to maximumfund.org slash join and help us make our budget goals for the year 2024. Adam, we teased it in the first pledge break. And you and I talked off mic about what this was.

Yeah. You were generous in reminding me. I mean, we've had three or four meetings about it, but you did forget. You showed me a picture of my own signature on the contract. I couldn't dispute it. Yeah, I mean, it was, it's harrowing how forgetful

we're both becoming here. How is it that I have baby brain? I have guest brain. That's what I have. Yeah. Yeah. You've had a lot of house guests, man. Yeah.

It's okay. It's okay. You're not getting as much sleep as you're used to. How are you consoling me? We are going to tell everyone about that brand new membership benefit that will benefit all Friends of Desoto who support the show in the next Pledge Break.

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And thanks for supporting us during Greatest Gen Drive, 2024. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. So over in the regeneration alcove, Seven gets it set up.

It's like anyone else. You know, you get your nighttime routine, put your night water in the nightstand, get your, your pillow fluffed up just so, but she doesn't get in the alcove. She turns away and we cuts to engineering where BLT and, and Kim are struggling to restart the warp core. And it looks like they've been struggling for a long time. This is where Seven went. I was surprised.

I thought she was headed right back for the holodeck, but no. That's her too. She goes to talk to BLT because she missed that surprise party. She's feeling bad about it. She brought a baby gift. Inside a very sparkly box are a pair of very little,

fabulous, glittery booties. Well, they're certainly unique. You ever think about how difficult this must be to shoot? Like, so that you're not getting reflected light off of these things? Mm-hmm. Like right into the lens? Yeah.

I did read that they cut a scene from production where Seven is reading the newspaper and in the classified section, she sees an ad that says for sale baby shoes lined with bio thermal insulation never worn and Like sheds a single tear Take two Ben did you notice that BLT opened the little card in the box and it said, baby shoes, never Borg?

That was an amazing moment of like both of our instincts for comedy like crossed in midair and created a sort of a comedy holocaust. Yeah. Boom. What do you got? This kind of turns into a like, how do you do your hair girl sort of scene. You have an appealing coiffure.

What is your grooming regimen? She's interested in, like, putting on a bit more fetching of a look. See, Neelix could never have this conversation. This is a BLT in seven conversation. Only them. Mm-hmm. The engine grease tip seems to have worked because we cut to... Cut over to Kim.

Did you say engine grease tip? It must have been alien intruder on board. Get up, Harry. You called? We cut over to Seven's fantasy hollow quarters and she has put on a dress from the Vava Vroom section of the department store and changed her hair, put just the right amount of engine grease in and the camera swings around to reveal Chukotay standing there in a burlap sack. Why does Star Trek always do this?

I don't know. Star Trek has a thousand ideas of how to dress a woman to make her attractive and sexy or whatever. Star Trek has no idea how to dress men across the decades. Have you noticed this? It's really staggering. Like deep V was better than this, but not much. Deep this V? It should have been a deeper V. Like this vest that he's wearing. Beltran showed chest in that boxing episode,

you remember? Like he'll take it off. He's a burly man, he would look great with a deep V. I know, but instead it's four layers of burlap. He's gotta be pitting out in there. Ah, I feel so bad for him. They are working together on cooking dinner. She puts him on carrot cutting duty.

And he's actually a little bit better than Ben Sisko at this. But not by much, Ben. Like, this is another thing about Star Trek. No one knows how to cut carrots. Like, the sawing action that he starts with. Knife technique and Star Trek have never been friends. Oof. But it's an opportunity for him to, like, you know, get in close with her and like dip his pinky in the sauce

and let her suck it off. A little preview of things to come, I guess. Uh... Uh... As far as, like, stage intimacy goes, I would much rather kiss a person than suck their finger, I think. I think this has gotta be the worst.

Right, like what you have to keep in mind is that these are coworkers. Yeah. Their boss told them today at work, one of you is going to be sucking sauce off the other's finger. And probably for multiple takes. off the other's finger.

And, uh, probably for multiple takes. She does. I mean, I think it's like partly character motivated that there's a little hesitation there, but there probably also is a hesitation based on like, do I really have to suck this guy's finger? Did we make sure he scrubbed under his nails? Yeah. That fucking finger better smell like alcohol. Sounds great.

Like Purell, I mean. So it does sort of look like they're gonna take the Dan Savage advice and fuck first. The scene gets hotter and heavier. Nothing like watching carrot after carrot get sawed in half to put a little lead in the pencil, eh, Chagote? I mean, as a Borgs, this has got to be very erotic for her, right? Like the number of limbs she participated in the removal of. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She's made a lot of cans smooth in her time. I have all the genitals.

You know, like not all sex is for reproduction. Maybe Borgs sometimes cut a limb off and, like not all sex is for reproduction. Maybe Borg sometimes cut a limb off and put a machine in its place for fun. Yeah. Not just for assimilation. We're seeing a lot of implants in places where you can see them, but maybe they're the invisible implants. Right, right.

They start kissing and we get some like glitchy sounds. What's wrong? This is something that's happened a couple of times and it's like a cause for concern, but we don't get any resolution on it because the camera fades out and when we fade back up, we are in the midst of a spooky nightmare where Seven of Nine is playing classical music to her metronome and, you know, having bad memories of the time the doctor slammed her for being a recluse and then, like, seeing her Borg's reflection in a mirror.

So, like, the film paper of suggested science fiction television sexy times goes like, fingers suck equals oral, or metronome signifies the pattern of thrusting, or like dream catcher equals butthole. Right. This is an ecosystem of these metaphors. Metaphor.

Made to suggest this intimacy. This is symbolism we should all be aware of as we embark, you know, this is just basic sci-fi media literacy. You know those borgs are metronomic with their fucking pen, gotta be. Well, that's underlined by the assimilated metronome we see. How badly did you want this prop?

I paused the episode and I looked it up immediately. Where is the Borgs metronome? I couldn't find any evidence of it. It's not just that Garrett Wong bought it off of auction. It's as if it never existed to begin with. That's so frustrating. That's like the best prop I've ever seen. I know. I've won it real bad. I wonder if it works.

Looks like it does. Yeah. I mean, it looks great. It was all a dream. Band 7 wakes up on the holodeck in Chakotay's arms while Chakotay Actual radios her. And this inspires the question, does Holo Chakotay hear Chakotay Actual and would that kind of break the holodeck if he did? Yeah. I don't know. I have a couple of quibbles with this scene.

We saw this apartment. It is a studio apartment. There are not rooms, right? Like there's a kitchen area and then a couch area and then a bed area. And she and Holo Chicoate slept on the couch together? Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. And he's still in all his burlap?

Gotta take off the burlap, guys. So they didn't fuck, right? Like, there's no way they got down if he's still in the burlap and they're on the couch. I mean, maybe it's just finger sucking on the first date. Maybe so. The camera pans over to his fingers and they're just totally raisin' out.

Like he's been in a hot tub for hours. You call this healthy? He maybe like wakes up after she's summoned by Chikote actual. So she's like fixing her hair on the way there, then kind of gets razzed for showing up to work late. They're working on, uh, you know, coming up with a way to anticipate these explosions within, uh, you know, enough time to like do something about it.

When the next one comes. There's a little bit of professional and also social curiosity to this, both from Chakotay and Ichab. And she's not in the mood for any of this. Hey, Ichab, no bits on bosses. Like, pipe the fuck down. Yeah. The energy between Seven and Chakotay is almost like between Tasha and Data the day after they

naked now. Great call. Yeah. It never happened. She's like, I don't really want to be around you right now while I think about what just happened. But yeah, like, Ichab catches all of the backlash When he leaves, there's a moment where Seven recognizes that she's slipping at work and people are noticing. That's what the scene's all about. And this is kind of addiction adjacent, isn't it? Like this is the depiction of a person's addiction getting worse when it affects the work that they're able to do.

The facial expressions she's making here are exactly the same as the ones that I made when I hung up the Zoom call having showed up to record prepared with the wrong episode. Yeah. It's like, God, I'm really fucking losing it. And then instead of watching the episode, you went to try to set the record. I went to jack off. You're really improvising well.

It actually sounds like you saw this one, Ben. I'm going to need to go get a couple more gym socks because this is going great. Coffee, do it, blast, coffee, blast. Make it, make it, make it yourself. Cut over to the holodeck where Seven and Holo Chakote are sitting at that piano bench and she's playing and he is mighty impressed with how dextrous her fingers are, except he has a request for the next song. Kind of reaches out and stops the metronome and she stops playing.

And his whole idea here is that like, I want to hear more of your heart and less of the beat. And she's frustrated by this because she's not used to playing without a metronome. And he kind of like encourages her through this frustration. Don't you see what's happening? The metronome is holding you back. This is an episode that surprised me because it's so much Chakotay, even a Vitalo Chakotay. Like, wow, great to see so much of him. But also like, this is the first moment in the episode where I kind of wished that Seven was receiving this kind of encouragement from more people than just Dr. Mark. Like, the stuff that

he's saying to her, even though he's a hollow man, this is good stuff, right? Even though he's a hollow man. Tim Mam. This is good stuff, right? Yeah. I mean, I thought it was a little distracting when he pulled the music down from the top of the piano and said, like, I love heavy metal and she starts playing the notes and it's the Pina Colada song. It's really struggling to land the plane on that joke. Once again we are interrupted by subspace missiles exploding outside Voyager. Yeah. Halo Chikoti's like,

when is my subspace missile finally going to explode? It's just all finger stuff. Yeah, quit messing with my dreamcatcher and work your way around to the front. going to explode. It's just all finger stuff. Yeah. Quit messing with my dream catcher and work your way around to the front. Yeah. That's what she says. So it's time for Seven to get back to work because it's her sensor modifications that she promised earlier that was going to be necessary to get them out of this pickle. Yeah. And she is like AFK while this is happening. So, you know, she has to run and make some predictions

and it does save the ship, but not before they like have breaches in the hall and shit. When the missiles start raining down all around you, that's a bad time to get someone's out of office message. Thank you for your message. I will be checking email in the ass lab infrequently. I will be pounding it out in the holodeck with one of my coworkers. I'm guilty of a terrible crime, doctor.

It's an interesting little interaction between the captain and Chakotay also, because a very like chain of command question comes from the captain. Like, she works for you. Why wasn't she where she was supposed to be? And he goes, why don't you fucking ask her? But in a kind of like, I've already done the thing that I'm empowered to do. Like, I already what's up with you to her,

but you've got to like bring her in for a meeting. Like that's your job, it's not mine. Yeah. I command from the rear, real chill and conversational and confrontation's more your thing, captain. Yeah, it's kind of a, you're gonna really catch it when mom comes home moment. And we get the scene where Seven catches that smoke in the captain's ready room.

This isn't the first time you've left your station over the past few days. It's embarrassing, right? To have the statistics of how much time we've been spending in the holodeck read back to you by your boss. She's trying to be a cool boss also. Cool boss, like kind of shaded with the, I know everything that happens on the ship at any time. Like, do not force me to look further into this. Cause yeah, like Seven is like, oh yeah,

I'm like running a simulation in there on how to like make a better gravimetric array. And Jane was like, cool. Well, you'll have to show me your work later. Right now, the ship is in crisis and was nearly destroyed because you weren't paying attention. So that's kind of where I'm focused right now.

You're averaging seven hours a day in the holodeck. And I am aware of the record. Do you know how long Harry Kim spends in the holodeck every day? I lasted 22 minutes. Seven apologizes because that's what you got to do here. And in the ass lab, it seems like this is a direct cut. Like seven goes back to work from this meeting.

Yeah. And it kind of feels like each through missing social cues is just there to salt the wound. Like, Hey, like you did a little bit of work on detecting these explosions so that they don't destroy the ship. And I vastly improved your method. And that's just not what she's trying to hear right now. The captain will be pleased.

Yeah. I mean, 10 extra seconds to pick up these explosions before they happen is kind of a kick-ass improvement to the whole system. That seems like it's life-saving. It really does. How about like, Ichib not being able to tell if a woman wants to fuck him, but is definitely sure when a woman is mad at him. I think that makes a lot of sense.

I can see that she's mad at you from over here. That's no secret. It's funny how like he's pretty young, but like which is more important to him right now for his survival? Definitely the second one. Yeah. She's feeling real bad about the situation though, and asks him for another pithy quote from his study of earth literature. And he comes up empty and she's like, okay, well, I guess I'm heading back to the holodack. And he's like, Sefen, come on. Hasn't basically everybody talked to you about this at this point? Yeah. The record will still be there tomorrow.

How many credits has she saved up? This monopolizing of the Holoduck is going to be a real problem for everyone else. Yeah. Well, I guess it may be like it's like the ships in crisis. So like you can just go there. That makes perfect sense. Yeah. This fake place is as good as any to die in, I suppose.

It's like when you go to a bar or restaurant that doesn't have televisions in it on Super Bowl Sunday. It's just like, man, this is chill. Yeah. It's amazing. I bet. Ha ha ha. She runs the Chikote simulation.

And Chikote simulation is not going to make this easy, Adam. You can tell this is fantasy Chikote because he eats meat, huh? And lots of it. Oh, wow. Yeah, good call. Did you notice that? Like she wants to make him, uh, lamb, I think, in the first scene. And he shows up with a roasted chicken in the like room service.

What is that thing called? The, the lid and plate situation? Under that dome. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, he brings plate situation? Oh yeah, under that dome. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, he brings dome, but I think the expectation is dome also, right? It's a real dome for dome kind of, you know. Quid pro dome.

Does Seven only have one dress also? Because this is the same dress she was wearing when they did finger stuff earlier. Does Seven only have one dress also? Because this is the same dress she was wearing when they did finger stuff earlier. She's like that lady from Battlestar Galactica. I'm number six. And also, crucially, this is not a we need to talk kind of outfit either. It really is not. If it's the same dress you wore when you smashed.

But they didn't smash, I don't think. Yeah. Yeah. The bur smash, I don't think. Yeah. Yeah. The burlap belies the smash. But Holo Chikote is wearing his, we can't end like this, babe, kind of carpet sample shirt and jacket combo, right? He really is. Boy. Props to Seven for running the simulation and not like rage quitting when this doesn't go super well.

She doesn't change the difficulty on the game. That's for sure. When I'm in a big battle in a video game and I realize that my character is going to die, sometimes I'm just like, you know what? I'm going to load from save and try this again. She does not. She hears him out and Gilda Cicote really gives it to her. If it was within his power, Cicote would load from save. But it's not his program. It's hers. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. Is that understood? I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. And you have just crossed the line. The staticky sound from before comes in and and like this was a part that that confused

me a little bit before my headcanon was that it was like communication from the bridge to the holodeck that was sort of muffled in some electronic kind of way. Oh I was thinking maybe there was something like coming out of the explosions that was sort of muffled in some electronic kind of way. Oh, I was thinking maybe there was something like coming out of the explosions that was affecting her Borg stuff and like, you know, oh, like we're, we're going to forgive Seven for getting like all fixated on this stuff because it was an external situation. But the point is it's unclear, right? And so when the sound happens again, I was, I was thinking about

what the hell it meant. And what it, like, my thinking was that it was already something else when it is confirmed that it is not. Yeah. She has to like call in for medical emergency as she's kind of losing consciousness and Mark rematerializes in the holodeck. And I love that he thinks that this is Chikote actual initially.

Like there's a moment where like this Chikote says something weird and he like gets a look from Dr. Mark. Yeah. And then Dr. Mark is like, uh, end program. And it's like, oh, that guy wasn't really here. There's probably a moment in every medical professional's life when you're confronted

with someone trying to break the record. And like this moment washes over Dr. Mark in an awful wave. Yeah. The only thing that stays behind when the program ends is seven, obviously lying on the ground and then two halves of a broken pencil fall on the floor. Dr. Mark picks up one piece of pencil and like holds it to his face and he's like, oh, oh God.

Has this been in his dreamcatcher? One of our more interesting missions. So Sevid wakes up on a bio bed in Sixth Bay and it is explained to her that her cortical node like started to go on the fritz and Dr. Marcus like, yeah, like, I don't know what caused it. It was working fine when I looked at it the other day. And I kind of need to know like what was going on in there when you went unconscious, when you went loose in the legs

because that's gonna help me narrow down, you know, whether this can happen again. To her credit, and I think to anyone's credit in a medical circumstance where a doctor needs the truth in order to prescribe the best course of action. Like, she's pretty honest with him. Like, she hasn't had her basements flooded since Unimatrix Zero. And she wanted to get back into some of that node play.

I've been trying to recreate some of the experiences I had there. And she's like, look, if this is gonna be a problem for me and my health, like, I'm just gonna go delete the program. And the doctor's like, no! You this is going to be a problem for me and my health, like I'm just going to go delete the program. And doctor's like, no, you can't delete it. Like, here's the thing. Can I tell you something, Seven? No one likes to work. You think we go to work every day, like,

and we're not thinking about the other things we'd rather be doing? That's life, okay? So don't delete the fun stuff. Just find a sense of balance so that you can do both. Bofa. That should be your goal. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think this is one of the best scenes in the episode because like we talked about before, it is totally shot through with that subtext of this being very painful for the doctor and something that he has to really

like knuckle under to remain professional through. But aren't you glad how far they downplay that? Yeah, I mean, I think it's like to his great credit. I think it's barely detectable that he has a personal problem with this because of his affection for her. I mean, it's to his credit, especially given the fact that her hair is still down around her shoulders. You know, I didn't even consider that and how powerless a real man and not just a hollow man would be in the face of that hair.

It's not a bun. It's down around her shoulders and therefore... She's beautiful. Hey, good news. The Warp Corps is back online. around her shoulders and therefore she's beautiful. Hey, good news. The warp course back online. Yeah. Thanks to Kim and BLT and on the bridge, it's time to punch it. So Paris does, but the problem is they soon pick up another warhead on the radar and what's the target.

It's them for For the first time, one of these warheads has acquired Voyager as its target. And it has torpedo countermeasures. Like they send a whole bunch of their extremely rare torpedoes out to this thing for no effect. You know, they come up with the idea of like, oh, maybe we can like hit it with a frequency. So they try hitting it with a frequency and it just rotates, it adapts. So that's not going to work. So Seven is in the ass lab, unburdened of her romance with Holo Chukote now and looking

for a little bit of redemption. And she comes up with the idea of beaming the detonator out of this bomb. And she's going to have to thread the needle because it has to be really close before she can penetrate the shielding around the detonator with the transporter beam. I mean, Janeway is not the reason for this action, but isn't this always how it goes, right? The, the person who fucked up is the person who has the greatest motivation to fix the problem. Yeah.

And here's seven getting in there, trying her darndest to fix it. And the way she proposes fixing it is like dangerous and then more dangerous because she's like, let it get closer, let it get closer so I can beam this thing out. And in the end, when her plan of beaming this part of the missile away solves the problem

and like we cut to the exterior and we see this thing pop, deeply unsatisfying as a cutaway. Like it's like a half a second of this thing turning into pieces. I wanted to go in close and see them kind of like bounce off the hall, you know? Yeah. Yeah, we don't get that. So with the threat eliminated, we cut back over to the alcove where Dr. Marcus come to

visit Seven and she seems to know what he's going to tell her. She's assuming that it's bad news. And Dr. Marcus like, yeah, you're actually right. what he's gonna tell her. She's assuming that it's bad news. And Dr. Mark is like, yeah, you're actually right. Your node issue is such that if you start to feel a lot of feelings, your node is just gonna shut you down. This is like what the Borgs do to you. They don't want their drones out there

freelancing emotionally. And because we weren't able to remove all of these things, that's going to be a part of your life forever. You want to have a romantic life outside of work? No deal. Shut it down. He's like, look, I don't have a cure, but I have an idea. Like we could just book you for many, many surgeries

and we could even start tomorrow. Seven says no dice. She's okay with just being a workaholic. What's unintentionally funny about this scene is that when she walks past him and plugs herself into the regeneration chamber, she's hung up on him. Right? Yeah.

Like in a very physical, very aggressive kind of way, she has hung herself up on him in this conversation. I need to regenerate. Seven. Good night, Doctor. It's impossible to slam a smartphone. It's impossible to slam a tent flap, but somehow she accomplishes both in this scene.

Yeah. Yeah, and in our final scene in the corridor later, Chikote actual fast walks up to seven and wants to go to the mess hall where Neelix is cooking Tlaxian. Did you hear what he was cooking? Yeah. Tlaxian tenderloin in ten minutes. I'm no longer interested in cooking.

I'm troubled by this. Like, you don't realize it when you read the title, having Tlaxian for dinner. Yeah. But, um, yeah, Neelix is canceled. So she turns him down, but when Chikote walks away, I think he very clearly does the turn around and check out that ass move. He really does.

Yeah. So, I mean, like the C slash seven people aren't completely off base, right? I mean, I wonder if it was ever a decision between her checking out his ass or him checking out hers, like if the first one was ever on the table to suggest that maybe she would never be over this kind of interest, but it appears as though she is.

You know what would have been great is if he walks away, camera racks to his butt, and she turns and looks at it, and then she turns back to camera, and there's like a little like electrical surge on the dolphin. ["Take Off Your Clothes"] Take off your clothes. Fade to black. That's the ending I prefer, Ben.

Did you like this episode? You know, I'm really easy to get along with most of the time, but I don't like bullying. I don't like friends, and I don't like you. I miss you. I really liked it. I tend to be a little too self-critical sometimes, and I obviously screw up, screwed up today, screwed up big time. You do mess up a lot, but that doesn't mean that you need to be self-critical a lot.

I just, I need to be kinder to myself. And I think that at a certain level, that this is an episode about that. And I, it's a little sad to me, because I kind of feel like Seven doesn't quite get the right message from it. Like, I think that her kind of committing to a life where she doesn't get to love

at the end of this episode is a sad choice for her to be making. But I feel like it's a long journey for a character like this. And so I don't like fault her for that being the place she's in at the end of this experience. And the other thing I really liked about this episode is how lower decks it felt. Not in the, like, cartoon sense, but in the sense that, like, there is a thing that is, like, very important to everyone else on the ship that is not what's most important to Seven.

And she is constantly going like, fuck, right, right, right, uh, let me do my job a little bit and then get back to the thing that I'm trying to do. That's really interesting as attention. Yeah. She doesn't give a shit where they're going or how long it's going to take to get there. Yeah. So I really liked that aspect of this.

I thought it was really well written in that way. Like the times where, like this job is very different from any other job I've had, but I've had plenty of jobs where like something is melting down and I'm like sitting in the corner, you know, watching a bunch of people freak out because like the client is pissed about X, Y, or Z and just going like, God, like I wish I cared. Like these people all seem to really give a fuck. You're far away going for the record. It was like, I wish the walls on this cubicle were a little bit higher so that this going

for the record didn't feel quite so risky. Yeah. I think my thoughts about this episode go like this. I'm constantly troubled by the idea of Barclay-ing a holodeck as a concept. I don't think it's right that real people are used here. And I don't think it's cool that Janeway got her Michael Sullivan as a like fake hollow love interest. And that kind of gives her a pass in the creep category.

Right. Where Seven does not get that because it's Chakotay, because it's an actual person and I kind of wish that it wouldn't have been such a retread. Like, I understand why they couldn't do it that way. You can't just keep making Michael Sullivan's for the people on the ship to fuck because you're just going to be retelling the same story. I understand why it kind of had to be different, but I almost wish it went darker when the doctor noticed that it was Chakotay and there was more of a harder line about that being a part of her program. That should have been brought up, like legally, that should have been something problematic. We have a lot to talk about, Mr. Barkley.

I don't like that it was never commented on. Yeah. And here's Cicotte walking around like just being Cicotte, never the wiser, not knowing that his dream catcher is just being fucking blasted in a holodeck seven hours a day. Wouldn't you want to know that? Would. Would want to. Yeah.

So I had some complicated feelings about it. Like as a performance, Jerry Ryan's great in this. And so is Robert Beltran. It makes me sad that Beltran is used here in a moment that actually doesn't further the Chacote story at all. It's just the fake Chacote, but he's very capable in these moments. So yeah, I like the performances maybe more than the story is what I'm saying. moments. So yeah, I like the performances maybe more than the story is, is what I'm saying. Fair. Well, Adam, this would normally be the time where we throw to a Priority One message or two, but this is a Max Fun Drive episode. So let's talk a little bit about that right now. Okay.

Priority One message from Starfleet coming in on Secure Channel. Ben, Priority One messages are a fun way to make FOD's words come out of our mouths, but support for the show is really what makes the show happen week in and week out, month in and month out. Yeah, if you sent a P1, we really appreciate it, but the monthly support is the thing that we rely on and the thing that we really build our annual budget off of.

So we really appreciate the monthly support big time. Yeah, to everyone out there already supporting, thank you very much. You've made the years possible for us up until this point, but this is a brand new drive for us in a brand new year ahead. That's why we're calling it Greatest Gen Drive because it's about the show this year.

And in honor of that, we have a brand new bonus. We made a lot of hay about this, but it's finally here. This is the pledge break where we tell people about this new benefit of being a supporting monthly member at maximumfund.org slash join. You ready for this, Adam? What I love about this bonus is that it's not just a one-time thing. It's a thing that can be enjoyed over and over again. Anybody who has a membership in good standing of Greatest Gen and or Greatest Trek going forward

will get discounted tickets to live stream events. So, for time in Memerium, if you keep your membership up and running, you will get a discount every time we do one of our streaming shows. So, Four Time Immemurium, if you keep your membership up and running, you will get a discount every time we do one of our streaming shows. So, you know, we've done the re-encounter at Farpoint and we streamed our Wales movie show. And they're big, really fun events that we like take a lot of care to film them. Like we put as much production work into these as some comedy specials, I would say. We're planning at least a couple for this year.

And if you are a member, you're gonna get discounted access. We talked about a number of ways to make this work. One of the ways was like stamping the palms of the FODs who support, and then they would just never be able to wash those off to get discounted tickets to the streaming shows. That didn't seem like it was going to work.

So instead you're just going to get an offer code in an email. Yeah. That, that glove that David Duchovny wears in Zoolander proved to be more expensive to produce enough of than we would benefit in membership support. So we're always looking for ways to give more value to the FODs out there. This year we're going to do the discount on the streaming show. You're also going to get all of the bonus stuff that we put into the feed. New episodes going into the bonus feed every month from us.

And that just adds to the giant pile that already exists there from over the years. Just a great big pile of weird... Steaming pile of... Unusual shows that I love how we use the bonus feed. It's like a weird sandbox for us that we get to play in. It's so fun to come up with different weird stuff to do every month. And there's a couple of things in there that are like running series and other things that are extremely weird one-offs, especially movies and specific weird episodes of TV shows.

This year's bonus episode from Greatest Trek is another pilot season episode. We watched a show called Space Above and Beyond and it's like one of the most high spec sci-fi pilots I've ever seen and we had a ton of fun talking about that. I mean, we did it because so many FODs suggested that we do that for pilot season. Yeah, we weren't gonna and then you guys kind of bullied us into it.

So now if you don't, you know, go and support at maximumfun.org slash join and listen to that episode, we did it for nothing. Also in that feed, you're gonna get the Re-Encounter at Farpoint show video now available to supporting members. I'm so excited about that. One of my favorite things we've ever done

was the Re-Encounter at Farpoint. I think it's such a funny show. It's so random and weird. And if you haven't seen it, or if you saw it and want to revisit it, it is in your bonus content now, if you're already a supporter. And it can be in mere moments if you become a supporter. I mean, I think that you made a great point in the last break. This is not a process. It's not an application where you wait to hear back. You literally click the link in the show notes of this episode that you're listening to right now

with the device in your hand. You're going to be on maximumfun.org slash join in moments. You, you know, beep a few boops, select your support level, you select your gifts, you select which shows you want to support. Please pick both our shows and you're off to the races. You're in that bonus content feed. And boy, there's some great stuff in there. Dozens of hours by us and hundreds of hours

by shows across the network. Yeah, what's great is you can tailor that feed to your specific interests. So it doesn't have to be the entire network and the thousands of bonus episodes that exist up until now. You can just choose the shows that you like that have bonus content. Make it your own feed.

If you're a member who's been a member for a while and now is a good time to upgrade your support, get up to that $10 level. Get the Sounds Great enamel pin or get up to another level and get the pin and a bunch of other gifts. We really appreciate everyone who can join, boost and upgrade to help us meet our rising costs. And if you sign up right now at maximumfund.org.join, make sure you select the greatest generation and greatest track when you do. Hey, if you can't swing it, don't feel bummed about it. We're talking directly to the folks who have it like that. Five or 10 bucks a month covers the cost of the folks who don't. Like, especially

at the $10 level, Ben, that's like two $5 memberships right there. See what I'm saying? Hell yeah. And when there was only one set of memberships in the sand, that was when the $10 membership was carrying the other one. Precisely. You get what we're saying here. If you got it like that or you got it even more, support for the Friends of De Soto who can't this time around.

Maximumfun.org slash join. Thank you so much. Hey, thanks a ton. Hey Adam. What's up Ben? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? Incredible. Dr drunk Shimoda? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda.

I mean, I'm just going to go by the letter of the law here. I think it's a, it's seven of nine. Whenever you get hooked on the deck, I think that makes you the Shimoda of the episode. Going for the record on the holodeck. Yeah. During a time of great crisis. I don't know.

I don't know, seven. Maybe save the record for a, another time, a safer time. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's also just like, I mean, I don't want to get too Seinfeld with it, but like when you're a lady going for the record is like, I mean, like, is that really an impressive stat? Like if you're like multi-orgasmic anyways, you know. Oh, you're going to get letters for that.

But my drunken motor is Tom Paris just for the object work with the, with the Vulcan puzzle. Yeah, that was great. I didn't have time to do this and I re-round and re-watched that because I thought it was so funny. So, uh, good job by him. Yeah. It makes me wonder if B-Dunk Sever did any mime work.

It's pretty good physically when he gets the opportunity. Tremendous. Physically. Also honorable mention to Harry Kim, who low key got the most savage dunk of the episode when Severn just offhandedly goes, I've never been in Harry Kim, who low-key got the most savage dunk of the episode when Seven just offhandedly goes, I've never been in Harry Kim's quarters. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, and why is he giving BLT's baby a pair of his adult diapers? Harry, is this your idea of sex? Did you look for the adult diapers prop in your searches, Adam? I didn't.

I don't want those. God damn it. Garrett Wong won that auction too. He was stating the obvious again. Do it, do it, do it. Okay, Adam, it is time to talk about next week's episode and how we will be doing it for the what? It is an episode called Q2, season seven, episode 19. Q's unruly and omnipotent son wrecks interstellar havoc when he

is left in Janeway's care. Sounds like a fun one. Sounds more difficult to care for than a couple of Irish setters. Yeah. The Lilis Delancey, I guess, will be on board next week. Oh, this is a, this is a Delancey? I mean, if Q's there, right? Oh, I thought you were talking about

the actual actor's kid. Maybe, I don't know. Okay. We'll see. We'll see if it's a Nepo baby Q. Keegan Delancey! Whoa, really? What the fuck?

It is a Nepo Q! Wow. Holy shit. I loved his later work in the sketch show, Delancey and Peel, but I'm excited to see this. Amazing. Our runabout is on square 31 over at gach.biz slash game, where we keep the game of buttholes the will of the caretaker.

A couple of things we could hit. We could hit a Delta Flyer Square, which would janeway us up to that Measure of a Man Philippa L'voire Square on row 80. We could also, I think, hit a Tlaxian Champagne episode. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. So I'm going to roll this this bone see what we do. Oh my god I hit it! We're doing a measure of a man episode next week, Adam. It brings a sense of order and stability to my universe to know that you're still a pompous ass.

Courtroom is a crucible and if we burn away irrelevances until we're left with a pure product, the truth. When people of good conscience have an honest dispute, we must still sometimes resort to this kind of adversarial system. Hopefully we can make some good law out here. And for good measure, sit on this. Amazing. That's the episode where we flip a coin and argue either the pro or the con side of an episode. Yeah, if we can remember to keep doing that over the course of the episode, that's what happens.

Sometimes that's difficult. Yeah. But yeah, it makes for a real fun episode. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. So hey, gotta thank Windy Pretty, our intrepid producer and editor, who keeps everything running on time, gets these episodes out every single week, and deserves and earns a full-time salary with benefits

because of the largesse of the Friends of De Soto. We gotta thank Adam Ragusea, who made the original theme song of this show and has never accepted a dime from us, despite our best efforts. No, return to sender. That's what he does for all of our checks. Yeah. Gotta thank Bill Tilly, the card daddy and consigliere of the Uxbridge Shimoda Corporation.

Gotta thank our new social media director, Rob Adler. Really excited that he is on the team now. Look for tons of fun stuff coming to all of our social channels going forward, including a monthly newsletter. We're gonna be sending out a monthly email, and I hope people will sign up for that. Yeah, big year for us. I think this is gonna keep making it more and more fun to be an FOD.

Yeah, and thanks to everyone who already has supported us for years and everybody getting ready to support us in this Max Fun Drive episode. We really, really appreciate the support. With that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager and an episode of The Greatest Generation Voyager in which it is finally revealed that Ben and Adam's real last name is Rodfairy. We're also Nepo babies. Oh, jeez.

Make it so. Make it so. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Captain John Lupicado, the U.S. 10th Phantom Price. Make it show Hey, each of Did you know I could disappear if folks don't support the show at MaximumFun.org slash join? That would be really shitty!

Like my job! I'd disappear like the Polaroid and back to the future! You know what I hope each of the Friends of Soto aim a pipe of support at the show, much like that pipe of sewage that was aimed at the settlement I lived in. This of course is the money pipe. It is significantly less gross and upsetting than the sewage pipe.

And I just really hope that the friends of DeSoto get their $5 and $10 a month support and put it in to that gross gross pipe. So sign up now or upgrade your support at maximumfund.org slash join. You do your work so I can keep doing mine. Thank you. Maximum Fun. A workaround network. Of artist-owned shows.

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