The Greatest Generation - She Puts the Beige in Bajor (DS9 S3E5)

Episode Date: September 24, 2018

When Major Kira is given an unwanted makeover, her aestheticians give her the hard sell on accepting her new look. But when she begins to question their motivations, she’ll have to depend on those she hates the most to get her out of this mess. How do you defend against a “look dunk”? What are the seats you should choose for your wife on an airplane? Do you ever want to get handsy with the loaf? It’s the episode that makes us question our very identities!

Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Hey friends of Disodo. Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry. If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life. Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,

they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take. Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal discussions about how best to stand with the unions and we are continuing those conversations in a dynamic situation. We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines are in these digital spaces,

and we would never intentionally cross one. With the information we have, we feel like we can do more good talking about and supporting the strike and continuing our show as planned. We'll keep you informed about what all this means for greatest trek specifically. Today we're making a contribution to the Entertainment Community Fund. This fund exists to help all the people whose livelihoods have been put on hold because the AMPTP refuses to negotiate

in good faith with the unions. It provides financial support for writers, actors, and all the thousands of laborers who make the shows that we talk about here and without whom we wouldn't have Star Trek to cast pot about. Those folks are all out of work because billionaires, company shareholders, and the executives of these companies don't want to compromise on the length of their yachts. We hope you'll join us in supporting entertainment workers in a challenging time, especially after they've already endured several years of challenges brought on by the pandemic

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecisoto for labor.com. That's friendsofdisoto for labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew, Deep Space Nine. It's a Star Trek podcast by two guys, we're a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast, I'm Adam Pranika.

I'm Ben Harrison. And this is an unannounced special episode, Ben, because we are looking at each other during... Yeah. This is an unannounced special episode, Ben, because we are looking at each other during the year. We are in my basement. We are both standing because there is only one chair available and in solidarity, you are standing with you. You're not using the chair.

Yeah. It's fun to stand every so often. Just change your perspective on things. This is how they should do crossfire type shows, right? When you're getting into a really heavy conversation, why not have the people stand up? It's all in the hips. When you're making a trenchant political critique of somebody. That's, I think we've talked about how much more fun it is to do a show in person and easier also because,

like expression is so important when you're having a conversation. And hip expression almost certainly is a big part of that. Yeah, all the thrusting is lost on you. I'm glad we have a desk in between us, I think. I think that'll really help for today's episode. I'm not often able to enjoy the fruits of our PO box when we open things up, because I'm usually

in a different city, but I see a big pile of packages over here. What do you say we rip into these? Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you. I'm receiving a code 47. Verify? It is Code 47, sir. Starfleet emergency frequency.

Captions eyes only. I want to play Santa, so I'm going to be a, I'm going to be doling these boxes out. Fun. There's your first gift, Ben. This one is a Manila Enfulope-type packages with the bubble wrap built into it, and on the back of it it's got

um That classic image of Riker with two scantly-clad babes that I think Q Like willed into existence for him. I don't need your fantasy women One of them is thinking to herself. Thank goodness the items inside are machine washable in cold water on the gentle cycle And then out loud, Riker is saying, everything I own has to be washable. And then the other babe is thinking, tumble dry on low, sigh. That's on the outside of the package. So the people at the PO box facility definitely know what dorks we are now. If they didn't already. Laundry flirtation is a form of flirtation I'm not familiar with, but I'm not familiar

with most forms of flirtation. Ben is brandish to knife. Yeah, I'm hoping I didn't destroy anything and cutting into this package. We have a lighter atom. It says, hi there, Edmund Ben. I hope you like these travel bags. When I saw this print online, I knew I had to have custom printed fabric to So something special for you guys. As a thank you for regularly making me laugh so hard I choke up coffee snort laugh and make other people at the gym wonder why that crazy woman is laughing her ass off on the treadmill It sounds like we've really made her our life noticeably worse. Yeah, this doesn't sound good I had a lot of fun at the Vegas greatest GenCon

and it was really cool to meet you fellas. I have to apologize for a comment I made. I said that you both looked so much younger than I imagined what you do. And then doubling down on the whole thing. And then said to Adam, especially you, you're like a child. Oh God, insert foot in mouth.

I hope you didn't think I was saying you're unmannedly or being insulting. I meant to say that you have such a youthful face. But I suppose it's no big surprise that someone who's a huge trek fan is also socially awkward. Anyway, I hope these bags can maybe come in handy for carrying toiletries and stuff on your travels. You guys are the best. LL AP Mariah. I do remember Mariah, and I do remember those comments. The thing that she didn't include in that letter is that she reached out and touched my face.

And like pinched my cheek. Oh man, these are amazing. Whoa, yeah, these are probably like dot bags, right? Dot bag size bags with awesome TNG fabric. It's all different characters from TNG. And most prominently, it's data doing the finger wag. Yeah, these are great faces. Yeah.

There's Riker with the Picard doll from Captain Picard Day. Oh, yeah. There's Beverly Crusher from the Remember Me episode. Definitely. There's Warf from all episodes Warf is in. Picard doing the like two fists by his face and grinning like a kid. Wow, what a great, great gift. Thank you so much. Look at this. There's even so's an official tag onto the inside. Maria has a custom-selling company, MyDobbo Originals. great, Mariah. Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to using this bag to

carry my various creams I use to keep my face so youthful and shiny. Thank you, Mariah. Alright, got a second package here. This is a package that to get enough postage on, somebody put over a dozen stamps on. The package it looks like, which is a lot of fun. That person just did not want to go to the post office and they just used every stamp they had in the drawer. Yeah, this should be enough. This should cover it.

And we have a note. Hi, Ben and Adam. First and most important of Adam is a poor man's Kyle McLaughlin, and Ben is a poorer man's Jameaine Clement. Oh wow. I've never gotten that before. You know what the rule is about that,

that whole, you know who you look like, right? Yeah. Like, you should be 100% sure that's a compliment. Right, yeah, it's a don't compare anybody's looks to anybody else's unless the person you're comparing their looks to is famous primarily for being good looking And that's the Jordan Jesse go rule, right? Not exactly sure. Jameen qualifies. I mean he's kind of vulnerable

Just like you back to back packages that are a little bit yeah a little bit look donkey That's a new term I just came up with that's a great term. Let's see kindly find two handmade fan arts and closed Please enjoy them in the most conspicuous places in your homes as Zach my second-in-command and I have been doing with our my second-in-command and I have been doing with our premature assimilation tour poster. Obviously, I love the pod and I'm very excited for my most favorite series, Voyager. Thanks guys, Victoria. I like Voyager a lot.

I'm definitely on board for Voyager. I don't know if Adam will follow me. Who knows how this show is going to end? And when? Ben is brandishing his knife again. I don't know if I should be. Okay, we got a picture frame. That's very cool.

What we have here is a framed cross stitch saying this old enterprise. This will definitely go up on the wall in my office. Yeah. I love this. It is not nearly as embarrassing as our tour poster. I think we got the better end of this bargain. Yeah, thank you Victoria. That's super cool

Ben we have a couple of letters that I am going to open and while doing so I'm gonna hand you a Box one big box here This letter comes from Australia. Whoa. Oh, this is a this is a letter from Imaging Cassidy. Hey Our friend from Australia just a quick note to let you know that greatest gen brightens my day. I've been close to souvenir too from what we are all hoping will be Australia's starfleet. Our own humble answer to your upcoming Space Force. And it looks like this, they've named it Arse.

Which is Australian research and space exploration. to explore and understand the deep unknown look no further than ours. That is right up my alley humor wise. Yeah, I got a couple stickers in here. And by alley I mean butt. Imogen has started the podcast known as Classically Awful. Yeah, right there. And she does the show with her sister? Yeah.

One day my sister and I hope to catch a live show, maybe a pirate broadcast from Star Trek, the cruise who knows? Best wishes and pets for Darwin. Immission. Well, I mean, that's a nice thought, but I also have a dog. A dog that could use some pets himself.

Well, we'll split them up between the two of them. We'll give sprocket half of the pets and then when I go home, I'll give Darwin the other half. That's unfair. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so check out Imogen and her sister's podcast, Classically Awful. See, that's how you get a commercial P1, past the goalie. Yeah, you attach three one dollar stamps to. It's stamps huge discount Our other letter. Oh boy. What we have here is is a Hawaiian driver's license

Created to look like them look love and drivers license from from super bad from super bad So there's that milk toast initiate guy is the picture and the name is Adam McLeven Pranaka So a relentless stream of of dunk of look donkeys of look donks. Yeah, let her says Hey guys greetings from the warm honeyd bosom Adam I had a chance to play with a bit of new office equipment today And I thought maybe you would like your very own personalized novelty ID in the style of McLeven. In the 2007 hit comedy film Super Bad so I made one for you. Hopefully you'll be able to get into all the best parties on the Trill Homeworld and maybe even get in good with the Ankylo sores.

Love you guys, signed Hacker Man, PS Bintarong, PPS Tellgerum to join Baby Nation already. Wow. Yeah, this is a fake ID. And we have one final package. It's a big medium flat rate box from the post office, from Philip, and he has used crumpled up grocery bags as packing material. Okay, thanks.

And we have a big box of mirror mirror cards from the customizable card game. Whoa. And we have another box of cards from Rules of Acquisition here. And here is a letter. Dear Adam and Ben, sorry about the last batch. I couldn't remember if the box I sent was one I had meticulously opened, come over and

then hermetically resealed, or another identical looking box. I really need a better tracking system. I cannot vouch for the provenance of these boxes, so I've included pro-fuel-actic materials for your protection. I thought you might use these packs to combine your game of war with my pathological need to hear you open 20-year-old trading cards while I try to work. Keep up the greatest work, Philip. Wow, well, thanks to everyone for just a big, big bundle of joy at the PO box.

Yeah, that was really fun. No thanks to the face-dunking. Yeah. Could have done without those. at the PO box. Yeah, that was really fun. No thanks to the face-dunking. Yeah. Could have done without those. Listen, we both look in the mirror every single day. We know what we look like. You don't need to make comments about it.

Yeah. Oh, you know, kind of germane to the episode today is this idea of looks and vanity. Yeah. Why don't we get on to it Ben when we talk about Deep Space 9 season 3 episode 4. It's called second skin. And this is not in reference to like a a lamb skin. Very thin condom. Very thin condom. That would have made for an interesting episode. Yeah. We open on Lieutenant Dax and the rep

element. Kiro is like is kind of blowing Dax off because Dax wants to go do hollow sweet stuff with her. Yeah, and it introduces a fun conversation that I feel like we've never seen before, which has to do with the attitude about Hollisweets and Hollis Dex. Dex is writing for their fun and utility as a recreation. And Kira kind of rides on the side of, well, if it's not real, how fun or scary or exciting or whatever, can it possibly be? And sort of like assigns a value to it, a diminished value based on like the lack of stakes involved. Yeah, I mean, my wife recently said to me

that she expects to play less than 30 minutes of video games between now and her death. That's her prediction on how many video games she will play. Wow. She's just zero interest in it. She's never played a Mario Party. Nope. Just. Wives love Mario Party. This is the thing that we know. I was not aware of that because my wife doesn't and has no interest. My wife loves Mario Party and she hates video games. So maybe give it a try. You play civilization with your wife, right? I do, yeah, that's the other game. You guys play past the iPad, back and forth civilization.

It's changed how much we enjoy air travel because when we sit next to each other on a plane, we just play civ and the flight goes by like that. That's great. I always tell my wife, I'm gonna get seats next to each other and then don't, because I'm a monster.

It's really like, it's related to that concept that you've told me about, which is like when you get hotel rooms, you always accidentally get a room with two beds. Yeah, whoops, I guess we'll just, I'll be on this one. It's a good thing she's not a viewer. You're secret safe with me, Ben.

Yeah, they're already late for their Hollisweed appointment. So late that Quark left the bar to come looking for tax. I guess they don't make a lot of use of the fact that they're all wearing con badges. Yeah, that and the like the current technology of cancellations incurring full charges Yeah, that and the like the current technology of cancellations incurring full charges seems to be not a thing in the future.

Quirk should be on top of that. You would think he would. Yeah. But yeah, so they're late for their thing. They're like, all right Quirk will be there eventually. And they're about to leave when Kira gets a face time call from a very bland beige woman. She puts the beige in Beijor.

She sure does. I'm sure if they'd styled this character differently, I wouldn't have said that, but it's like a beige room and a beige frock. And just everything about this shot is super beige. And she's like, hey, I'm doing like research. And I wanted to ask you about the time you spent at this Cardassian concentration camp.

And here's like, what come to me? I was never at Elm's for. Which is like, well, we have a very specific record of you being there for like a week. And curious like, can you Jackie and Laurie me? The picture of this record. Yeah. And what pops up on screen, it's a ponytail version

of Kirin Eri's. Yeah. Rockin' a tight pony. Amazing that this beige lady invented Jackie and Laurie. I thought Jackie and Laurie did that. In a beige room with beige curtains. Be in beige. Be in beige

This is a real slide whistle to opening theme to because like DAX who isn't in the rest of the episode hardly at all Cytles up a side cure and it's like it's you Yeah, and then they get the like the doesn't the camera pan up to that evil lofie lady. Yeah. And like, the, you know, the music goes dun, dun, dun. They kind of bang, bang the, the rolling, timpani sound. Yeah. Into theme song. For such a cheeseball open. Yeah.

After the open begins a fairly relentless feeling of paranoia and like in the way that Memento made the main character question his identity and existence. Yeah. I think for a 40 minute episode what begins at this point is is a story well told and it like a lot of DS9 episodes that give away the ending right away, I think they obscure that starting now. Yeah, it's a fun mystery that stays a mystery and like has twists and turns

that are not super ham-visted telegraphs of what the result is gonna be. The investigation starts with Odo. Oh, and Cisco being involved because Kira elevates the question to her, to her superiors rightfully. Because she has zero memory of this prison camp hanging out and and yet there is a, there's a lot of evidence that it in fact happened and she like gets on FaceTime with you know, Odo suggests this I think that they talked to other people that were there during that span of time.

Right. And the first time, first guy she FaceTime, she's like, I'm looking into some stuff about this prison camp. He's like, oh yeah, I remember you. Yeah, you had a pretty rock and pony at the time. What happened to your hair different or something? pony at the time. What happened to your hair different or something? Yeah, but like this, this feels like it takes so little to tip Kira over. Yeah. Into this story, but this is the, this is the inciting incident after the inciting incident of like holy shit to have been seen in this place that I don't remember

really sets her down this path. Yeah. And the path is like personally investigating the truth of this. And so Kira packs a small bag for Beijor and she's going to go investigate this thing herself. It seems like they should be able to give her a runabout, right? Everyone else gets a runabout. The chief gets a runabout.

And plus we saw an episode where Kira like demonstrated her abilities as like an attack pilot. Is she not, is it because she's not in Starfleet? Maybe. Or maybe she just likes to fly commercial? She likes to ride the subway. I'm going to actually do need to like get a few miles to qualify for my platinum butt plug this year. Yeah.

But anyway, I'm going to do a mileage run on, you know, sit back in coach with the plebes. This is a moment where we see a suspicious face again. The suspicious face that we Panned up to pre-credit sequence has returned and has followed her. Yeah, into whatever conveyance she's on her way to, which I think is a transport, right? Yeah, the commander wishes her well. It seems that she's been given a great deal of leeway to go just like spend as much time

as she needs looking into this. I love how Kira is basically at Odo's bedside on a similar mission. Like, with him, 100%. Like, let's figure this out together and Odo is like, well, see you later. Good luck. 100% like let's figure this out together and Odo is like well Later good luck I I hate flying commercial Most people would think I do fine with that. I could just turn myself into someone smaller Worst prank ever played on me was on a commercial flight

I was in my bucket in an overhead bin and somebody took me out and poured me into the latrine. I was blue for a month. Gold to cotton. Gold to cotton. So we also get a catch up with the doctor and Garrick. Garrick describes something similar to what Quark has been dealing with, which is the economy on Deep Space 9 is somewhat depressed because of all the fear surrounding what's going on on the other side of the wormhole.

For some reason, living under the constant threat of dominion attack has made people less eager to invest in new clothing. So he's got lots of free time. Evid only he has a lot of free time to make his own kooji sweater. He has I think two or three different costumes in this episode. Garek does. Yeah, he looks great. The function of this scene made me think that it was just to serve as a reminder that Garek is here because nothing happens here. This is like a sub one minute scene between them and then it's over. Yeah, I think it's to cue us. Some Cardassian stuff is a foot.

Yeah. And I think I guess that establishes that Garrick is somewhat confined to Deep Space Nine. It seems like the gentleman's agreement between him and the spy apparatus of Cardassia is, if he hangs on Deep Space Nine, they're not gonna bother him, but if he leaves on Deep Space 9 they're not going to bother him, but if he leaves they might throw a bag over his head and push him into a van and peel

off. You know what I would like the bottle episode with Garek at some point that just follows his moment to moment life and the paranoia that surrounds that. I think you could make that episode at this point without revealing too much about his true identity or his life or his motivations. That would be, you could see that being a pretty terrific episode. I would watch that. The beige archivist from before blows in a face time to Cisco to say, hey, she never came and Cisco is like Yeah, Cisco home improvements In response. Yeah, the the major has gone missing she she got on that transport and You know the last reported sighting of her was leaving the airport for this beige place that she was gonna go

hang out at and Yeah yeah, she gone missing. Let's talk about Kira's placement in the hierarchy of bejorins in terms of how much protection she might need any given moment she leaves the station. Because I get the sense that she's fairly unique in status. Right, like she has a rank, but also she has a lot of like political import because I get the sense that she's fairly unique in status. Right, like she has a rank, but also she has a lot of political import that is not necessarily attendant to that rank.

It's more about who she is and what she does. In a way that like many modern diplomats don't typically go alone, places I kind of feel like she should have an attaché or something right. I mean, maybe this is the Fulmy once moment and yeah, after this she's gonna have a detail You could see that you could see her being the type that would be reluctant to have such a Sure protection package. Yeah, she can look after herself. She's a she's a tough lady We cut back to a darkened room and The voice of Kira and suspicious face. Yeah.

Fully lit. They're having a brief conversation before Kira steps into the light. Yeah, because that lady that we've panned up to in the in the Reppelmat scene at the beginning also followed Kira onto the transport. Right. Now here she is in this dark room. And it's a pretty fun like twilight zone looking to mirror moment.

Yeah. And Kira in full Cardassian loaf. It evokes that feeling of the TNG episode when Troy became Romulan. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like it's shot very similarly, too. Lots of closeups with wide-angle lenses. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like it's shot very similarly too. Lots of closeups with wide angle lenses. Yeah.

They do not make the face look good. Right. It lends that's wider than 50 millimeters. That's where the phrase, camera ads 10 pounds comes from, is because it's actually seeing more of the sides of your face. So it makes it look thicker and bigger, which is why a lot of interviews are shot on like 85 millimeter lenses

because they're considered very flattering. But I think also that wide angle lens that's super close up is like a horror trope. Like you see it a lot in horror movies where you can tell that you have a wide field of view, but you're not seeing very much because of how close it is to its subject, and that's a very scary paranoid feeling. This is consistent with a visual style guide

that we've gotten for Cardassians from the start, which is like shoot them from below, or light them from above so that their skull-like faces, cast shadows over their eyes. Totally. This is, they continue that theme in this episode, especially in its weird to see an avisator in this get-up. Yeah.

She looks really different and it's not just the makeup, it's the complexion. Yeah. It really changes. And the way they light her, like, she's lit very specifically and differently in this stuff. Now, Visitor is somewhat famously claustrophobic. And she hated this episode because

of the makeup requirements. And then she wanted to cut a shooting day short because she was getting squicked out so bad. And the director, Les Landau was like, no, I mean, we need to make our day. Like, we've got a couple more scenes to do. And she actually began removing her makeup on set, like as an act of defiance. So I think it's a dog rugged. There's a couple of scenes where she really gets handsy with the, with the loaf, you know, where she's like touching her face in horror.

Yeah. And I kind of expected her to start like pulling the pieces away. Yeah. Like I knew, like obviously the implication of these scenes is that's like her actual skin and she's been surgically altered, but knowing that it's latex or whatever, it almost looked like she was about to start peeling it and doing a mission impossible with it. I feel like that would have been a great decision

throughout the episode. In the same way that like, if you burn the roof of your mouth and you can't stop tonguing that part, like for her to constantly be like distracted with what her face is at this point, would be an interesting choice, but I can understand how with this level of makeup,

you just can't touch it. Yeah, the people there are telling her, this is her real face. Yeah. She was a Cardassian sleeper agent. The reason she doesn't remember that is that, like, to have flawless deep cover, they actually erased her memory

and gave her the memory of a real bejure in woman. And at one point, they even demonstrate this by beaming the body of actual cure and a Reese into the room on a slab and showing it to her. That's a great scene. That's a, and they're presenting enough evidence that all she has is her own personal conviction about who she is at this point. They're showing her evidence, very compelling evidence, to the contrary of what she believes about who she is. It's like the ultimate gaslight.

The credibility of this has been introduced in a couple of different episodes, most recently the episode where O'Brien is taken back to Cardassia and put on trial and Boone is discovered to be a test tube person in his own right, like a person with horrific cosmetic changes done to him. Like their abilities in this area are now established. It's established, yeah. And it's fun to see the writers going, well if that is true of boon, what else could be true?

What could we do with that? If that then, yeah. The main interlocutor in this scene is Entech, played by Gregory Sierra. And this guy is like a totally great like 70s and 80s that guy from TV. I'm going to read off some TV credits for you here. He played characters in The Walten's. Kung Fu. Maghiver.

Sanfordon Sun, Mission Impossible, Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues. For an actor of a certain age, that is like blackout bingo of great TV. I know, right? Like, Bill Tilly has seen every episode, but this guy has ever appeared in. Yeah. But he's really great. He's like, he's got a really a good affect for this, where he's like, you know, like, this is gonna take time.

You'll get used to it. Until your original memory reemerges, I don't expect you to believe a word I say. Yeah, the idea is that Kira is not Kira. She is Iliana Gamor of the Obsidian Order, which is another faction of Cardassia that we have come to understand more and more. Yeah, and something that is associated with Gerek,

who already established as being in this episode. The interlecuter, he is both good cop and bad cop at the same time. Right, yeah. He gets a lot to do and I feel like he's kind of great in this episode. Yeah. Come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, what are you doing? Come to a fore, what are you doing? Come to a fore, what are you doing now? Come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, come to a fore, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha rain, alpha, alpha rain, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, alpha, I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.

I'm scared. Exactly. In parallel, there is an investigation happening on DS9, which is what happened to Kira. And the evidence indicates that she was either beamed away or killed by a phaser set to kill, which is an interesting bit of science in that both forms of energy Leave off the same type of casting. Yeah, yeah, the that's not good That McLaughlin group issue walk where they go over that is really tense like they they are all really performing the The characters believing that Kira may be dead. I

Really like how this a and b story weave together because while they're trying to figure out what happened to Kira, Kira is trying to figure out what happened to Kira also. Yeah. Like it seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to shoot a phaser set to vape at it, right? Like why would they have to do it in that particular part of Bayshore? Like why not just get somebody on the station to vaporize her? Right. And you know, if you were gonna kill her to make a point, you would also make it abundantly clear

that you were trying to make a point and evidence to that effect would be there. Like it's scary to think she might be dead, but they don't really have a strong indication that that is the case. On Cardassia, we're introduced to another Husky Legate. Yeah, Legate Dad. Yeah.

Yeah. Who is just all shoulders, all shoulders and barrel. Like, Legate's all have dad bod, or Legate bod in the terminology of this podcast. Yeah. Yeah. He also does the thing that that Vortigae was doing when he comes in with the, where he puts the rock

over his dick. What is up with that? I don't know. People love doing that on this show, apparently. There's no pockets in either of those uniforms. It's the problem. No pockets or belt loops. What if he'd come in with his hands and pockets though?

We would be, we would be flipping out. He comes in with like a legged cardigan, like a dad, a dead cardigan. That's terrible. Anyways, he really misses her. He's like very upset that she doesn't remember him. Apparently, they've given her some drugs that are going to like jog her memory to bring back everything that's been suppressed. But like, she is not revealing any indication that that is working at this point.

I don't believe a word of it. It's not a great scene for Dad. No, it's clearly kind of pulling rank on Entek because Legit Dad is a member of the ruling council of Cardassia. He is like about his powerful politically as you can get. Not to mention, he has a very high rank in the military. So while this guy is like telling him, hey listen, like you, you know, she's not ready to see you

yet, her memories haven't started resurfying. He's servicing, he's like, fuck you, get out of my way. I'm gonna go see my daughter. He sent my daughter in my daughter and that's a compelling argument it's a fun conflict because intake is good cop bad cop and dad is good cop yeah it's two good cops against one bad cop yeah it's two good cops one bad cop I liked how his loaf looked. It seemed more like lived in, like it was a little like wrinkly and older looking.

Like a baseball glove in the back of a closet. He looked like he'd, he'd like a layer of nicotine on him almost. That's fun. He looked great. I thought that this makeup was like particularly good. I don't know. I was looking for this and I couldn't quite tell, but in the way that you can tell related

klingons are related because of low similarity. I don't get the same sense that it works like that for cardacians because I don't think there's enough detail in cardacian low. Yeah, like Warf and Alexander having roughly the same type of head ridge as distinct from what Gauron's head ridge is not something that we're observing in the Cardassian universe.

Garrick bursts into a McLaughlin group and tells Cisco and Odo that he can't tell them how he knows this but Kira is on Cardassia. Yeah. And they should know that she's in great danger. You never quite know what he's up to. And it seems sometimes like he's pursuing the goals of the Cardassian state and other times like his at odds with them. And in this episode, he seems to be very much at odds with Cardassia and and the security state there. odds with Cardassia and the security state there. And because his motivations are unknown, the moment that Cisco uses this to extort him

into boarding the D, which is what I guess we're calling the defiant in the DS9 universe, to go to Cardassia with them, is like, you don't know if that's extortion because you don't know how many moves ahead Garrick is playing. In the scene he's like this is fucked up there's no way I want to go with you like retrieving her would be impossible. By going to Cardassia you're basically throwing me in the van I've been afraid of since being on DS9. So his, he is protesting, but because Garek is such a chaos agent and you never know his motivations, you don't know if those are his true feelings. Like Garek is so interesting in this episode.

Like when he first like talks to the doctor, it's that thing of like, you know, I happen to know something that's going on and the doctor's like, fuck you, I don't care. You know, like Garek tries initially to be subterfuge guy and then when the doctor kind of ignores him, he's like, no, actually there's an emergency and we need to talk about it. Yeah.

And anything that seems out of character for Derek might be a ploy, which is really fun. Like, that character is always interesting because of that. One of my favorite scenes is the ongoing interrogation of Kira and her absurd answers to the question that they ask her. How many Starfleet personnel are stationed on Deep Space 9? 30, 40,000. And this is proving to be very frustrating to all of those involved. Yeah, and like so frustrating that they even question whether this process of wiping an agent's memory before sending them into the field is a great strategy.

Maybe we shouldn't be doing it this way, but this is the way we did it with you. So we gotta just work together on walking this back. One of the, I mean, to go back to what we were talking about in the beginning, one of the things that this episode does really well is, I mean, to go back to what we were talking about in the beginning, one of the things that this episode does really well is, you know, people are having these conversations in front of Kira in a way that makes it seem as though they're dramatizing this for her benefit and ours as the viewer. Right. But not so much that their conversations

are unbelievable. Right. Their frustration seemed real and grounded. And you would hope so, right? This is the moment in the episode also where I really started to think about how much it would take for me to question my own identity or how little that might take. Because if you were to put yourself in Kira's shoes, what's your tipping point?

I mean, a body has been produced in front of her. I also wondered like how much time has passed and I was a little unclear on that. And I mean, if it was a few hours, I feel like I would be able to maintain my confidence of self, but if this is going on over a week and she's isolated and has no way of

communicating with the outside world and she only has the information that is being presented to her by the people that walk into this room and the bodies that they'd be in this room, that's pretty terrifying. A major tipping point here is where she finally views the video diary that she was given when she first arrived, something that she had been reluctant to do. Yeah, they give her a little honey stick. And this seems to do the trick for her.

She seems pretty shook by this moment. And speaking of shaking, the trip to the Cardassian homeworld is not going great because the D has been spotted by a couple of gallery class. So what happens here is a pretty fun scene, Ben. They are able to somehow mask their identity, their ship identity as a coberian freighter. So it shows up on radar as something else. And that seems like a form of technology that we've seen before. One kind of technology that we have never seen is Cisco's like, yeah, turn me into a coberian for this facetime. This is the coberian freighter, Brutton units, and Captain Viterian, how can I help you?

And we do shot reverse shot between facetimes, and you get it from both Cisco's perspective and the Cardassians perspective, and it's this coberian alien with Cisco's voice, saying, hey, we're in a real hurry carrying this order of the Cardassian homeworld. This is not a good time to do a pullover and check situation. He's an animoji, basically. Yeah. And this does not work on these cardacians and so it is up to Gerek in desperation to drop the masks.

You're not covariance. Very observant of you. And he totally does that thing where he changes his attitude. Yeah. He turns into the boss. And big dogs, these cardacians ships away from them to leave them alone. It's a great scene for Garrick. It's pretty fun and really opens up a whole new line of questions about what power he actually wields. It reminded me a lot of the Ducat episodes where they were fighting the make-wee's together and Ducat and it had a similar experience where like he big dogged on top of Cisco. Right.

And that's almost like physically the same thing that happened. Like Gary basically steps in front of Cisco and it was like I got your plan failed. Now I'm gonna do something that's not gonna fail. It's interesting how often that happens to Cisco as a character. And we at least I don't see that as a weakness in him. Yeah. He's having his milkshake drink. Yeah. And it doesn't make him weak as a character. We magic, right? Yeah, I mean, I think it's just because like they're sort of on the other side of the border in a strange land, you know, like it's

it's a function of where they are and what they're doing. It's foreign country expertise. Yeah. And Garrick explains that he knows all this because he heard it while he was heming somebody's trousers. That's like such a perfect Garrick explanation. Long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, more, more. Give me your buddy more and stop. Have a time. Back on Cardassia, we get the scene that you are told to expect any time there is a character questioning the true nature of their identity.

Kira Punch is a mirror. Yeah, and that is a really dangerous thing to do. I mean, she... For bad luck reasons alone. She grabs her hand like it may have cut her, but like the scene in Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen smashes the mirror and then has a bloody hand.

That's famously real. Like, he really, like they didn't know he was gonna punch that mirror, he was really drunk, he really punched it and his hand was gushing blood and he stayed in character and they kept shooting for a while. While he sat in his underpants with blood pouring out of his hand. He blood-branded.

I wondered if there was a sheet of plastic in front of the glass so that when she smashed it, it didn't cut her skin. Because I don't know if I would agree to do that. I mean, I wonder if much like the glass bottles that are made out of candy glass and are used as like stunt bottles for breaking. But this breaks like glass.

I know, but I'm wondering if like, is there a mirror equivalent to that? That is safe in this way? I mean, you get so many mirrors punched in TV and movies, like that has to be a product, right? Yeah, but I don't know. Now, now, Visa tours my favorite actor on the show. I think she's the best actor on the show,

and that's not a statement meant to diminish anyone else's efforts here. Yeah, she's just a beast. She doesn't go 10 out of 10 in this episode emotionally. Yeah. This is maybe the only scene that she gets close. What do you think of that choice? She never falls apart into existential pieces. She's like, I mean, she's very upset in that moment. She's doing the crying in the lap thing. Yeah. But it doesn't, yeah, somehow it doesn't feel like she's totally given up or anything. And she's so capable as an actor of doing that.

I wonder if there's a version of these scenes where she got a couple of takes and they just chose the seven instead of the 10, you know? Or is it that she's like making a choice as an actor, like she's upset, but it's not, like she's not broken yet. She hasn't gotten there. Yeah, Papa Legget. Legget daddy. Papa Cardigan has tipped over into a form of empathy

that is actionable. He catches her attempting to escape and feels such sympathy for her and recognizes that whatever they're expecting these drugs to do would have happened by now if they were to happen. Wouldn't it be better to allow her to go or help her to escape? It's that thing of, I love you

and I want you to be happy even if that means I can't be around you anymore. Yeah. Thing. And that's a pretty remarkable journey for that character to have gone on. This isn't a decision that's come to independently. There is a little bit of a deadline because her mind's resistance to coming around full circle

has made it so that You know the interrogations aren't working. She's gonna have to be taken to the obsidian order to be interrogated and Everyone on the scene knows what that could mean. That means Floating sphere with a hypodermic needle. She's gonna lose a tooth It's not gonna be great. She's gonna see a number of lights, she will be asked how many of them there are, etc. He gives her a Seiko ladies watch. It's beautiful. And confides in her with the help of a buddy, like he can't get her off the planet,

serve as a loan, he brings a buddy in and he's like, hey, this guy's gonna help you leave. And also, I am a dissident. And this is the part that illuminates the light bulb in Kira's mind. She's like, shit, maybe this isn't about me at all. Maybe this is entrapment for Papa Cardigan. Right, cause I mean, like it doesn't quite make sense.

If what she believes inside of her is true That she is in fact here in a recent not this Cardassian lady. Yeah, then why are they going to this effort to convince her otherwise? Like what because they want intel about deep space nine like that seems like something they could easily get in yeah lots of other ways and they don't need to like trick her. Enter Intek from stage left, you know, with phasers at the ready. Yeah, and a couple of people with rifles. Yeah, so they get the drop and curious suspicions are confirmed, but then Cisco and crew beam

down and get the drop on them. So it's drop on drops. I suggest you lower your weapons. Cisco has a over the shoulder bag that he like wings across the room. Yeah. Which ends up being Odo. I thought it was gonna be like a knock everybody out,

like a sapper, like a satchel charge or something. Yeah, like a flashbang or something. Yeah, and instead it's just, it's Odo gooping up and in back of Ntech, because he's like, he's like, drop your weapons and Ntech thinks, like, why should I drop my weapon? And then there's Odo pulling the phaser out of his hand. What would have happened if Cisco throws the bag at Intek and hit him in the face?

Could Odo have suffocated him like a plastic bag? I wonder does that make Odo vulnerable in some way? Like if you started ripping at Odo as a bag, does that hurt him? What's Odo's tensile strength? He works in an airport. What's Odo's tensile strength? He works in an airport. Great scene because Odo gets the jump from behind, but unfortunately, Papacardi's assistant gets shot in the fray.

Yeah, so I mean, the reveal is that this has been a big city and order operation to nail this member of the central command as a dissident. And Garrick's dog remains big in this scene. Yeah. And they like start to make their retreat like they're there to rescue Kira and they don't really care that much about what happens to Daddy Long Legate. A.K.A. Daddy Long Legate, A.K.A. Papacardi. Yeah.

Yeah. He gives by many names. Yeah. But like they're, you know, they're making their retreat thinking that N.T.C. has been disarmed and turns out he had a second pistol, which he always got a check for the second pistol. Like, that's very basic disarming some of the somebody Odo. Right. And so he has to get vaporized.

But then they don't vaporize the other two of city and order people that are there, which I thought was a huge mistake. It's like a heat, you know, like if you've already killed one of the guys in the armored car, you don't leave witnesses. Drop of a hat these guys were rocking roll. He had to get it on.

Yeah. Yeah. Fucking wane grow. It is fucking rugged when Garrick does this, and it's special because it's Garrick. Yeah. He wields lethal power in a scary way. It is the vape setting on the phaser.

His mask has totally slipped. And all I could think was if you killed those other two people, it might not be the star Starfleet way or whatever, but then the guy's secret is safe, right? Like the like, he'll have a lot of spleen in to do when they come around and find a bunch of obsidian-order bodies in his daughter's childhood bedroom. Yeah.

But it's not necessarily blown his cover as a, you know, a potentially like Starfleet friendly element in the central command of like, like view that for the asset that it potentially is guys. They really hang him out to dry. Yeah, not good. Because the second they walk out, the people with the rifles are just going to pick them back up off the floor and be like, all right, you're coming with us. Sucks that our bosses did. It's an exciting escape scene that we don't get for time. You really want to do this.

Here, now, okay, okay, let's do it, do it. The button on the episode is fairly abrupt too because we cut from this scene basically back to DS9, back to a D surgically altered Kira. Yeah, and so they've taken the legate with them, which I just, I don't get. There's never a moment of take me with you, even. Yeah. Like that parts glossed over.

And he's like gonna go live in exile and some planet. He's still wearing his uniform, which I thought was weird. Yeah, if you're gonna live in exile, I think it's time to change the costume, right? What that cardigan on that you've always wanted to wear. Yeah, if you're going to live in exile, I think it's time to change the costume, right? What that cardigan on that you've always wanted to wear. Yeah. It is revealed that Kira had been surgically altered, which we could have assumed. The dude on FaceTime in the beginning was a Cardassian agent who has now disappeared. And not only that, Ilyana, the daughter of Papa Cardi may still be alive, like that part is not resolved completely.

They picked Kira because she looked a lot like Ilyana, like they had similar bone structure basically. I read, and again, research, that one possible ending that existed in a version of this script is that Bashir does a deep, deep dive on Kira's DNA and it's inconclusive about her true genetic makeup, which would have been an ending with a higher gravity than this one, I would say. Yeah, I mean. This feels a little neat. As this show figures out what it is, it has often found opportunities like that to add

to how interesting a character is to leave themselves another episode to write about this storyline in the future and has often actually gone and done that. This is an example of that to some extent as a spiritual sequel to the episode with boon. But to miss that opportunity is kind of surprising at this point. There is that that doesn't feel good, but there's one element of this ending that really frustrated me, which was, why do you accept a gift from a card-assie and they could easily be a listening device?

Papa Cardi allows Kira to keep the Seiko wristwatch. Yeah, it'd be funny if they just had a little, you know, after the credit sequence where she goes back home and puts that thing in the in the microwave and like sets it on 30 seconds just to fry anything inside of it just in case. There's this moment and Kira's emotions in recognizing Papa Cardi to be a good father. And this is a good moment for Nanavizator, but this is a terrible moment for Kira, which I don't believe at all. Like I don't believe this isn't keeping with her character.

She was a resistance fighter against these people. She's known this guy for a couple of days. I don't think you change how you feel about a race of people who have been hellbent on destroying your world. I don't know. I mean, he has saved the cat a bunch of times. Like she's seen him have moral choices to make a number of times now and he has consistently made the right one.

It is satisfying in that way and a way that is appropriate and right. It just didn't feel honest. I don't know, maybe I'm like going too far to defend this, but I don't think that's quite how racism works. Like, there are plenty of racists with people that do racist things that have a black friend or whatever. Yeah. And it's like, it's not.

Pobbacardi is Kira's black friend. Yeah. Yeah. No, I've got plenty of Cardassian friends Did you like this episode Ben? I? Did despite my being a little sleepy when we watched it. I really enjoyed it a strong Kira app very compelling premise and I think that they they rose to the challenge of telling that story in a lot of ways. And I really enjoyed it. How about yourself? I agree. I really like a Behind Enemy Lions style story, which is what this is. Fun rescue

mission. If you're going to have a Behind Enemy Lions style story, I would like to see Owen Wilson in it, but if he's not available, you know, or Gene Hackman. The new D is serving a nice utility on this show. They're able to make stories that require some travel and some battle. Yeah, more fun way. More road trips are always welcome. Yeah. It's nice to have a Kira app after feeling like it's been a while since we've had one. Like, good job by them.

And a good story. I love finding more about Garek, especially great Garek episode. Maybe even a better episode for Garek than it was for Kira. Shit dog. Shit dog, we have some priority one messages. You want to see what's in the back? Let's take a peek. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.

You need a supplement on that. supplement on that? supplement. supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, our first priority one message is from Angie. It's for Jeremy. The message goes like this. We met through the TGG group last year and somehow made a connection from 850 miles

away using a mix of memes, messages, talks and skypes. Now we live together. Whoa! And I have never been happier. Dang! Happy birthday, Jeremy. I love you with all of my heart! Damn! Thanks Ben and Adam for bringing us together. PS has been to rung shout out to the warm honeyd bosom for their support.

If the warm honeyd bosom ever turns on us, we're really screwed. That is like the radicalized core. That's like the obsidian order of greatest gen viewers. Yeah. I mean, of all of the great things to have happened as a result of this show, the ones that feel like matter the most are like the life-changing things like we hear about from Jeremy and Angie. Yeah, that's really cool. People finding each other and making lives together.

What the fuck? Like this dumb fucking show did that? Yeah, that's really cool. That's amazing. Maybe the show isn Like this dumb fucking show did that? Yeah, that's really cool. That's amazing. Maybe the show isn't so dumb. Oh, it'll always be dumb. But it's powerful. Adam, our second priority one message is from Constantine, and it's to Mike and Jan from

Canada. It goes like this. Dear Ben and Adam, it took me far more episodes than I would like to admit to realize that Nanavisator was not a pun. I recently came into $100, so if my wife asks, this was a legitimate moving expense. I hope you'll be more responsible with it. Shout out to my DM, Mike, and my Dacturak, Yan. That's a D apostrophe, a-k-t-u-r-a-k. I don't know what that word is.

The only men I know that celebrate Captain Picard Day. Wow, well, I don't come into $100 often, but I do know one thing, Ben, you gotta watch out for paper cuts. Hahaha. I enjoyed that far more than you deserved. I enjoyed that far more than you deserved. If you think we would enjoy a priority one message, or if you can think of somebody else that would enjoy one.

Yeah, go to Maximumfund.org slash jumbo tron where personal messages are $100 and commercial messages are $200. They are one of the great, great ways to help fund the ongoing production of the greatest generation. Hey Adam. What's that been? Did you find yourself a drunk Shibota? Drunk Shibota!

The moment where Garrick just fucking kills that guy was shocking to me. And for that reason alone, like there are a lot of compounding reasons up until that moment why Garrick, even without that, probably would have been my Shimoda. Right. But he's on an away team as a guest, who just takes it upon himself

without asking permission or like going over the plan for... Or like the rules of engagement for this operation. There's a scene we don't get, which is like probably Cisco telling Garrick, like we're not going in weapons hot. We gotta get her out and like, with a minimum amount of bloodshed. We don't want this to turn into a diplomatic incident.

We're going into the family home of a member of the central command. Bloodthirsty Garrick though, will not have it that way. Well, he saves their bacon, right? He does. he's more of a bacon saver than Odo and if you had told me that they'd be on the same Rescumision and one of them would be the day saver. I wouldn't have guessed it would be him Yeah, Odo just just pretended to be a book bag for half the time What about you Ben? I thought about giving Odo my drunk

Shemoto for that exact reason, but I'm gonna give it to Chief O'Brien who just doesn't appear to be on anybody's mind. I feel like it's been a couple episodes now that we haven't seen or heard anything about him. He's in the background of a scene, like, and you see, you see like three quarters of his back. Is it his stand-in? Yeah it could be a stand-in. I mean you know sometimes you just want to take a break and I respect the chief is just getting to cool his boots for a little bit. Yeah yeah he's had a lot to do lately. He. He's been under a lot of pressure. Yeah. He said a lot of shit happened to him.

Yep. Got that, got that, got that gold press. Got that, got that, got that. Gold press, like that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre- and post-show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it! The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info.

That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards.

Pat Noswald. Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Non-Giani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are open.

Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goat try. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what do I?

These giraffes do not smell good. They do not, and they've such short nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this. We gotta get on the art. Yeah. It's about to rain. It's about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out.

We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org. Shack the rock, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, lop, l that idea. The Amazon description is, Odo tries to convince a young, violent gem hadar that there's more to life than fighting and killing. Those couldn't sound more different. Yeah, very different episodes.

There's like a kid in the wreckage. I have a punch up for this episode. Okay. Why isn't it Kira making this case in the wreckage. I have a punch up for this episode. Okay. Why isn't Akira making this case as someone who has previously fought and killed in her life? Hmm. I don't know.

Maybe because the right... What the fuck does Kork know about this? Maybe because the writers are like, now we can't have two Kira episodes in a row. Kork's like, you can work in a casino. It's great. It's guaranteed money. Like we have a very depressed economy here on Deep Space 9 and I'm still making money

to lose money as a casino owner. To let a casino go bankrupt. Impossible. Would be speak a catastrophic level of badness at business. People would think I am an idiot. Ha ha ha. Ben, it's time to see how we're gonna do this episode. Famously. We have just wrapped up the first 100 squares of Game of Buttholes. You're required to learn as you play, Roll. I'm gonna commit to having the real Game of Buttholes

up as the Gach.biz slash game. But we started this on square one. We are going to now roll them bones and find out where we are going. I will be the one that rolls that bone. Roll that bone. And I have rolled a five. Tula! Did I win? Harvey. Which puts us on square six. A plain old square. I love a plain old square. That's a nice a plain square. Mamma mia. Well, one thing that's not plain at all, Ben, is the quality of our listenership who participates in conversations about every episode and every dumb thing we say. Yeah, you can participate in a whole bunch of places.

You can leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts. You can go use the hashtag greatestgen on Twitter. You can join the Facebook or Reddit groups. There's also something called Discord, I believe. Yeah. One thing that we should shout out more often and often and are remiss in forgetting to sometimes is the wiki page that is lovingly maintained

by a bunch of friends of DeSoto. It's got all of the inside jokes you know in depth. It's got a They track all the Chamotives drunk and otherwise and Anytime you hear us say something that sounds like a reference like chances are pretty good that if you go to the wikia you will find information on where that came from. Also need to give a deserved shout out to the moderators of all those places.

Facebook mods especially you've been doing a hell of a job in putting out some fires. In a great way we have empowered them to do that work, so we would ask you to be kind and respectful of their many efforts. Ben and I don't spend a lot of time in these places, I think mostly because we've realized that they aren't for us, like they're for you guys to talk to each other and start dating each other and get married. Obviously if you're not dating somebody from one of those groups, you're doing it wrong at this point. But where are you waiting for? Yeah, the, you know, there is a tendency in online groups to evolve occasionally.

And we have felt really lucky that the groups that get together, surrounding the greatest gen, are really like respectful, awesome people, and the amount of flaming and bad behavior is extremely low relative to the rest of the internet. So if you are in a position to give a hat tip to your mods and administrators on whatever thing you participate in. We really encourage you to do so because they do awesome work and they are a big part of why those

places are safe fun hangs that aren't the miserable horror show that the rest of the internet is. Yeah, less miserable than most other places. That's the greatest gem promise. that is. Yeah, less miserable than most other places. That's the greatest gem promise. Hardy had tip to our friend and co-conspirator Adam Ragusia for re-editing the dark material theme music into our DS9 music and creating all of the interstitial music that you hear on the show. It does a great job over there in Macon, Georgia. We gotta thank the great folks at Maximumfund.org.

If you'd like to support the show, go to Maximumfund.org slash Donate. Card Daddy Bill Tilly, making a fun trading cards for every episode we do. And everybody that sent all these great gifts that we opened this episode, thanks guys. Yeah, no kidding. Ask a mod what our PO boxes.

We don't give that out on the show. Ha ha ha. With that, we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9 and an episode of the greatest generation Deep Space 9, where your hosts may be convinced to give up this life and try something different. Ha ha ha. This may be convinced to give up this life and try something different.

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