The Greatest Generation - The Klingon Jukebox Doesn’t Take Quarters (DS9 S7E8)

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

When the Little D does a supply drop at a Federation forward operating base, they get more frontline action than they bargained for. But when their position is about to be overrun, Sisko hatches a pla...n to hoist the Jem’Hadar on their own Jem’Petards. Why isn’t Quark wearing cargo pants? How close is AR-558 to LV-426? How do you get cauliflower ear-energy? It’s the episode that likes the free, fresh wind in its hair.  Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Prophets!Support the production of The Greatest Generation.Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!Facebook group | Subreddit | WikiSign up for our mailing list!

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Hey friends of Disodo. Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry. If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life. Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,
Starting point is 00:00:35 they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take. Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal discussions about how best to stand with the unions and we are continuing those conversations in a dynamic situation. We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines are in these digital spaces,
Starting point is 00:01:01 and we would never intentionally cross one. With the information we have, we feel like we can do more good talking about and supporting the strike and continuing our show as planned. We'll keep you informed about what all this means for greatest trek specifically. Today we're making a contribution to the Entertainment Community Fund. This fund exists to help all the people whose livelihoods have been put on hold because the AMPTP refuses to negotiate
Starting point is 00:01:25 in good faith with the unions. It provides financial support for writers, actors, and all the thousands of laborers who make the shows that we talk about here and without whom we wouldn't have Star Trek to cast pot about. Those folks are all out of work because billionaires, company shareholders, and the executives of these companies don't want to compromise on the length of their yachts. We hope you'll join us in supporting entertainment workers in a challenging time, especially after they've already endured several years of challenges brought on by the pandemic
Starting point is 00:01:55 and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdisotoforlabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. The car of the UK, the FN1, the MN2, the Benjamin, the better isn't Star-P easy, in Space 9. Welcome to the greatest generation. Deep Space 9. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star
Starting point is 00:02:36 Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica. Mail call, Adam. Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you. I'm receiving a Code 47. Verify? It is Code call, Adam. Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you. I'm receiving a code 47. Verify? It is code 47, sir.
Starting point is 00:02:49 Startly emergency frequency. Captions eyes only. We have a PO box. People send things to the PO box, but also occasionally people will just send things to the maximum fund out org mother ship. What's happened this week? Oh, no. KT, the office manager, I think is the only person
Starting point is 00:03:09 at max fund that is currently going into the office. Wow. In order to make sure that the lights stay on and that things run smoothly. You imagine being the only person working in an office? The only one. That means all those sodas in the fridge are theirs. Yeah, yeah, totally.
Starting point is 00:03:30 So we got something from there as well. KT was kind enough to bring it by the other day. And I had a few things from the PO box piling up. So what do you say we get into these things? Yeah, I wanna see what we got. I'm gonna open this first one. It's just a plain old regular size envelope from Brian and Jennifer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Starting point is 00:03:53 Brian and Jennifer have clearly sent us either a check or a bill. Let's find out which. Dear Ben and Adam, just wanted to let you know that the greatest generation has helped remind me how important Star Trek TNG in particular has been in my life. In both middle school and high school, it helped me make friends when I basically didn't know anyone.
Starting point is 00:04:14 Now, thanks to the pod, I'm finally watching Tube Space 9 through to the end after falling off in college. Please find and close a trivial pursuit genius edition card that my wife handed to me saying, send this to the greatest generation. Well, when you read it, was it written that way? It sounded very intense just then. Emphasis mine. It took me a second to figure out why, but when I did I agreed with her completely. I hope you enjoy this fact that it's changeentially trek-related but wholly relevant to the pod. So these folks have
Starting point is 00:04:48 ruined their home copy of Genius Edition Trivial Pursuit. Let me see if I can find what's going on here. Hmm, okay, here we go. What? Does a man suffering from diphalic terata have? Oh, is this the question that makes fun of me? Is this having to do with bowel movements? That condition is the name of the condition of having two penises. And there's our answer. So all klingons are suffering from diphalic terata.
Starting point is 00:05:26 Diphalic terata. You know what, with enough time, I think we could have put that together, based on the root words there. Yeah, diphalic was a big tip off. Right. But we don't have time or headspace. This is a mailbag episode. These things take forever to record and edit. Really glad that that card is no longer in their house. Either put it down the garbage disposal or mail it to us. Yeah, totally understood. Our next letter is a medium to small manila envelope from B. Cotton in Lafayette, Indiana, it's to Messer's
Starting point is 00:06:08 B. Harrison and A. Pranica. That's us. Oh, I'm a Messer, alright. This is a letter that's been sent through the mail in a manila envelope that just folded the little metal hasp down on the back of it. They didn't lick the little adhesive strip. I like that lot of trust in, and what did you call that, the hasp? Yeah, that may or may not be called the hasp, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:06:34 Alright, here we go. Messer's Harrison and Pryonica, it appears I may have been too cute in trying to send you a brief note of, I forget now, but it was probably gratitude. Here is attempt number two. May the USPS have mercy on its soul. And then along with the note is a letter that got returned to sender because- You're that. Because the address E for our PO box here was listed as two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a star trek by guest. I guess the post office near my house didn't think that
Starting point is 00:07:16 that was specific enough to put in the PO box. The postal workers in our country are under enough pressure Without trying to do bits on them. So here's what I would say no bits on postal workers After the foreseeable future, all right. This is a letter that's been sealed with a wax seal and like a signate So well, it's pretty exciting. It's it's not a bottle of maker's mark no, and it's a It's a postcard with a cat doing like a shampoo mohawk on another cat. I can see that. This is written in cursive and it's been a long time. Let's see. It says, dear Ben and Adam, the artist's name is Pepe Shimoda, which is very close to P.P. Shimoda, which makes me wonder if
Starting point is 00:08:07 Dr. Bashir and Jim ever cross paths or cross streams. Also, the painting brings to mind the Halcyon days of the Star Trek haircast, except its hair cats. Wow. I love it. I swear to you, Q, I'm sober, you guys. My personal situation doesn't permit me to increase my max fund contribution or purchase a P1, so you'll have to settle for this card as a small token of my appreciation for the
Starting point is 00:08:39 smile you bring to me every Monday. Also, I'm writing this with a Newton pens pen that I received in exchange for writing the copy for the commercial P1 a while back. Wow! I remember that P1. That was a really neat pen company. Did this person just swear to Q? Did I hear that right? Yeah, but I think that's the Star Trek Q and not the awful cult on the internet that is Okay trying to whip up the freaks of America into an anti-Semitic fervor the John Delancy Q a lot more fun significantly I significantly. Anyways, thanks again and much love Ben
Starting point is 00:09:30 Cotton and this is a lovely picture of some cat So thank you for sending it in Ben and thanks for Copywriting a P1 in exchange for a pen. Yeah, thanks for that very cool. That is a real power move to write a letter in cursive I don't think I could do it. Yeah, I think my penmanship at this point is very, I mean, I guess you could call it cursive. It's a bunch of wavy lines most of the time. It's illegible in the way that much cursive is. If I really want something to be read, printing it out.
Starting point is 00:10:01 Yeah, all right. Next one is from Kids Keepa in Hartford, Connecticut, and it's to Oxbridge, about a LLC. Oh, look at this. It says, thank you for your generosity of time and for bringing joy to so many people. Shannatova, Hava and Josh.
Starting point is 00:10:18 This is Shannatova. Hava and Josh are the hosts of Star Trek and the Jews, which is a podcast that I was a guest on recently, talking about being a person that did not grow up in a Jewish tradition, but participates in one now, and they have sent me a Star Trek Yamaka. That's amazing. This is awesome. This is just a time for the high holidays.
Starting point is 00:10:45 And, uh, Are you going to wear it, Ben, for the high holidays? Well, the great thing about the high holidays this year, Adam, is that they're all being done over Zoom. So, I have a special and, uh, inside is printed into infinite diversity and infinite combination, Star Trek and the Jews.
Starting point is 00:11:04 They've even included a little, a little beret to clip the, the keepa to my hair so that it won't fall off because. That's amazing. Anybody that's worn a Yamaka for any amount of time knows that it might fall off and you won't notice that it did because it still feels like you have it on your head for a long time after it has slipped away.
Starting point is 00:11:27 Wow. That is a danger. That's so great. Thank you so much, Hobben Josh. Next package is from En Brown in Ride, New Hampshire. And it's the TGG. This is like a bigger priority mail envelope. It's got TGG. This is like a bigger priority mail envelope. It's got the bubbles.
Starting point is 00:11:49 It's got the bubbles. Dear Adam and Ben, this isn't a P1, so I'll try to keep it short, but I wanted to say thanks for all the laughs and single-handedly making me a Star Trek fan. Wow! I started thinking. Single-handedly.
Starting point is 00:12:02 Yeah, we did it. If you can convert one person, really. It's worthedly. Yeah, we did it. If you can convert one person. Yeah, really. It's worth it. Yeah. I started listening to TGG years ago during the TNG days because I was curious. I got about 40 episodes in before I decided I needed to watch the show as well. I love that this person's curiosity lasts.
Starting point is 00:12:23 Like, I was curious about drugs So I did 40 lines of cocaine It only went uphill from there. I've been closed a couple of things that I thought were fun that copy of first contact with the neat cover art a story in a nov visitor told about auditioning for the role of Kira and the only trek joke I've ever come up with that doesn't embarrass me. Glory to you and your house! Nathaniel be from New Hampshire. So, um, let's see. No pressure to read this on the air or anything, but I thought you would get a kick out of Ninova's wearing docks and bumping loud rap music in the car on her way to her audition
Starting point is 00:13:06 to get in character for Tira and maybe check out my dumb joke. And then this says it's from the Alpha Quadrant webcast, Nuna visitor's audition anecdote. She says, I remember going back and going, no, wait a minute, this isn't a woman's role, this is, because you got to think 25 years ago what I was getting was, you know, kids get off the couch and sit comms, really light stuff where you were the girlfriend, or the victim of the killer, nothing well-rounded, and this comes along and I was thinking, wait a minute, this is a man's role, they made a mistake! And when I found out it wasn't a mistake, I was so excited. I remember I had a dark green shift dress and I went out and got a pair of dock martens. And the dock martens kind of informed me where I was and who I was.
Starting point is 00:13:54 I listened to a lot of rap back then. I still listen to rap, but I really pounded it in my car on my way to my audition. And it was my prep for it. and I walked in and I was fully Kira when I walked into the room. Wow. Kira, that is the fucking great anecdote. And auditions never easy, it doesn't matter who you are. Like it's interesting to hear that someone of her talents could still need to conjure an edge, you know. Right, yeah. I mean, how do you get into that character
Starting point is 00:14:27 is a question that only she can answer. I wonder if she's still got those boots. Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah. Uh, the Star Trek joke in question, to the tune of Lil Jon's Get Low, Deep Space Nine, damn she fine. Tell her she can warp it to me one more time.
Starting point is 00:14:50 That is a tweet. That's fun. So I read a tweet on the air. And here is the last tape. Yeah, the last thing in the box is the VHS of Star Trek First Contact. It's the kind with the hologram label where you look at it from different angles
Starting point is 00:15:08 and you see different things. And it's the board queen, data and Picard, and depending on the angle, data and Picard, are borgified or not. And... Depending on the angle, Billy appears as the hero of the film. As an important character in the development of Warp engines.
Starting point is 00:15:30 Yeah. Where's Lily's statue? There's the Zephyrm Cochrane statue and he's got his hand raised as if to the future. Where the fuck is Lily? Yeah. There should be a 10 times taller statue of Lily, right, you know, like standing over him. The Lily statue should be in front of Zephram Cochrane.
Starting point is 00:15:53 One hand giving Zephram Cochrane the finger, the other hand pointing toward the future. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Getting shit done. This is the last package. It's from bow in Rochester, New York This is the one that went to Max Fun and it says care of friendly fire and greatest Jen. So We'll see what's going on in here. There is a sub package here Was that also returned? Yeah, this is another oh this went to the original Yeah, this is another... Oh, this went to the original PO box in Seattle, it looks like. Wow. Yeah, as soon as I closed up that box, they couldn't fucking wait to switch it off. Let's check out what's in the, what's in the returned package.
Starting point is 00:16:36 This has been, this has been in the mail system for years at this point. Got a piece of paper. It's to the greatest generation and then parenthetically the podcast about Star Trek. Hi guys, I found these in a shoebox and I didn't know what to do with them. I suppose you could use them or pass them along or something. I just got into the show through Movie Crush and I'm still listening to season five of TNG, but I'm already a huge fan and basically can't listen to anything else. Thanks a lot! Wow! Thank you, Bo!
Starting point is 00:17:06 Movie Crush, our buddy Chuck Bryant's beloved movie podcast. Love that show, love being on it. Yeah, you're doing a series on that show on your favorite director, P.T. Anderson. That's right. And I am doing a series on that show about my favorite directors, the Cullen Brothers. We're both regular guests on Movie Crash now. Pretty fun. What bow is sent are a series of OG Star Trek cards. These are the ones with the like maroon border that are mostly episode specific.
Starting point is 00:17:42 Those are the cards that I spent my $20 bill from grandma on when I was a little kid at The sports card store that was a story I told very early on Yeah, it was generation. I remember that story. Oh, man. There's the the blue ones about original series Star Trek in here as well. Yeah, get those out of there when I went to that sports card store I was giving I was saying give me the next gen stuff, man Keep that TLS stuff out of out of here got $20 here, man This is awesome. Thank you, Bo well
Starting point is 00:18:18 We've reached the bottom of the mailbag for today I know that we've a lot of people in our email box asking for the PO box and I will I will share that soon enough. I've got a big move coming up and like the number of objects coming into the house really radically needs to be limited at the moment. But thanks to everyone that sent something in, Adam, we were almost besieged by mail just now. We were almost besieged by mail just now. Almost 558 packages came in during your last visit to the PO box, right? What do you say we get into Star Trek Deuce Phase 9 season 7 episode 8, the siege of AR558? 5-5-8.
Starting point is 00:19:10 We begin with a scene of live band karaoke. It's something I've never done but secretly been interested in, the idea of being backed by a live band. This time, in the scene it's rum with a piano player doing a rendition of an old Vegas lounge song. Not a great singer, is Ram? No, he's auditioning to get in as the opening act for Vic Fontaine. And I mean, Vic Fontaine is artful in the way he lets Rom down. Two singers on the same bill. That's a one way to take it to the Dead'sville.
Starting point is 00:19:53 But we know the real reason why they're not going to let Rom be the opening act. It's nice to be told that it's not the quality of your singing. It's that this isn't the act that we're looking for. And that's how Vic Fontaine lets him down. I need a stand-up comic or something. And this gave me the skin crawly feelings because anytime Star Trek suggests the idea, even of a stand-up comic, only bad and unfunny things happen. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Starting point is 00:20:24 So I was like looking on either side of the frame for a Joe Piscopo to arrive, and luckily there was none to be found. I made a living doing this. Yes, I did. That was very fortunate. Yeah, Romm is not going to be the opening act. He is told that he's not the right race,
Starting point is 00:20:41 but the race that Vic Fontaine is looking for is hologram. Rob is like ready to leave the club and Vic Fontaine. Like no, actually the exit door's over here. It's through the kitchen. Fucked up. Yeah. Kind of a random cold open for this episode. Like really almost no bearing on what happens.
Starting point is 00:21:04 Yeah. episode like really almost no bearing on what happens. Yeah, it's an exit ROM enter busier who is there to collect a honey stick full of Vic Fontaine's greatest hits. He's going to like much like a person going on a road trip. You want to be ready with stuff to listen to. And what is suggested here that he's going on a supply run, and he wants a collection of Vic Vantane's music to help lighten the mood for this mission. Yeah, I think it's interesting that the little D is a holodeck free ship. Dude, I was just going to ask you that, which is knowing what we know about the Holla Suites and the Holla Deck.
Starting point is 00:21:46 How do you make decisions on ship design based on like your hierarchy of ship needs? Yeah. I feel like Holla Deck should be a little bit higher than it is because Holla can do so many things for a crew, not just entertainment. Why wouldn't you put one all jacking off? Sometimes you need to make a model of the warp core from back when the ship was in the shipyards at Utopia Planesha so that you can make a pass at the person that designed it. Bullshit, man. It's just bullshit.
Starting point is 00:22:19 Sometimes it's fucking to make babies. It's not just recreational fucking. Hahaha. Yeah. Sometimes you fight a turtle face guy. Sometimes you fight a skull face guy. Yeah. It's interesting that there isn't one on the little D. I get it. It's sold to us as a hammer. Like it's a utility ship with bunk beds in it. Right.
Starting point is 00:22:45 There will be no creature comforts here, but like there's more than one way to use a holodeck, you guys. Totally. Yeah. Get your mind out of the gutter, okay? And also, like I wonder about their different sizes. Could you make a holodeck out of a broom closet? Right.
Starting point is 00:23:02 How big does a holodeck need to be effective? Right. It seems like the hol need to be effective? Right. It seems like the Hollis sweets are way smaller than the ones on the enterprise, right? Yeah. I think so. Anyway, we know it's Friday because Ben Cisco is checking out that week's casualties on. I think after seeing it several times, what is suggested is a sort of Vietnam memorial wall
Starting point is 00:23:27 that just keeps growing as the war goes on. Yeah, it's a pretty grim. He is always in a bad mood when he's looking at this. And he gets interrupted in his referee by Odo who has some, you know, iPad of information to report. And there's actually a few casualties that aren't on the wall right now. I thought maybe maybe you'd want to see these extra 40. Breaking news captain.
Starting point is 00:23:58 Oh. So this goes as something here that I thought could have turned into bits for Odo. He says, like, you know, I used to breed every single name thinking that that was the least I could do for the people who gave their lives in this conflict. Now they just blur together, like, founders in a lake, or whatever. founders in a lake or whatever. Sort of like they kind of anonymize themselves, like one liquid going into another liquid and then becoming a part of that,
Starting point is 00:24:33 that main liquid from before. Yeah, it's just like a big golden pool of dead people, not a lot of Odo in this episode. This is the last we see him. You mean I got into my makeup for this one scene? Cool. I'm glad you made me look extra sad this episode. Very little Kira in this episode either. We get a radio call from her to Cisco at the end of this scene, the little D.
Starting point is 00:25:03 Ready to go. And go they do, Quark is going to be on the little D for this mission and is quite upset about it. He's been asked to do some fact finding on behalf of the Negus on the front lines of the war and he was making like logistical complaints, but we know that Quirk is a coward and he doesn't want to go be in danger anywhere. And that's like the main reason he doesn't want to go. But he's also saying like, you know, my bar doesn't run itself. I need to be there. And Ezri is there in the mess hall on the little D with Quirk Tellagham. Like, you know, give me a fucking break.
Starting point is 00:25:45 Like the head of your entire species tapped you on the shoulder and gave you an ask you to do something for him and you're belly aching about it. Give me a break. I don't wanna cut to the end here too soon, but Quark is my favorite character in this episode and I think it's because of how his story arc begins. His very reluctance to be here, the suggestion that this is just a supply run, it's a very
Starting point is 00:26:12 low stakes thing, but still like, what the fuck? He's saying what we're saying as if you are, why am I even here? Right. I wasn't even supposed to be here today. Right. Right. I wasn't even supposed to be here today. Right. I also like that quirk is doing this. Like the way quirk is dressed is the way quirk is always dressed, which is fancy. But like, you know, he's like going somewhere
Starting point is 00:26:34 that is like not, like he should have like cargo pants and like a mountain hardware puffer jacket on or something. You know, instead he in like a waistcoat and has like a giant broach on his chest, you know? The scene transitions into one of bangers. When a banger gets dropped on the little D and the next scene is insane to me. So quark goes out into the hallway and finds- It doesn't want to be left alone in the unexploded torpedo memorial mess hall. Right. He said he's got bad memories about that place. He goes out into the corridor and finds
Starting point is 00:27:14 a very chill wolf just walking at subwalk speed. Should the corridor, a person who you would think would be on the bridge during any and all bangers, or at least if he's not there, running as fast as he can to get there. It made me wonder if Worf, as sort of the backup captain of the little D, like when Cisco's not on the little D, I feel like Worf is most often in the captain's chair, is Worf like coming up to the bridge when he's not even supposed to be there? Maybe, but I, I could not get over his lack of urgency here at all. Like, like, there's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
Starting point is 00:27:59 it's slower than you would I would walk on a sidewalk going to have lunch together. Yeah, it's like, oh shit, wow, fuck, the ship might get blown apart. Well, I still wander up to the bridge and see if there's anything I can do to help. Who knows? Have they stopped with the cloaking of the little D also, now that they know that their exhaust pipe gives them away, Do they not even try? Yeah, I feel like there is a very vague sense that the gem had arc and sometimes see through a cloak and sometimes not.
Starting point is 00:28:32 And I never know when that's gonna be a thing. Yeah. Gold to cotton, the cup, gold to cotton. So anyway, Quark makes his way up to the bridge with Wharf and Cisco treats Quark's presence like Quark is Cassidy Yates, a deeply withering moment here between Cisco and Quark. Can you invite a hero like to join me in the mess hall for a Raktochino Quark? I'm just leaving.
Starting point is 00:28:58 And it's also not a great moment for Nog who has a family member on the bridge potentially embarrassing him while he's trying to get work done. But they do dispatch this tick, which just seemed to be there to kind of harass them. This is the Chintaka system. And Quark had the impression that this was like firmly under federation control, but like he came to the checkout the front lines. What did he think was going to happen?
Starting point is 00:29:23 No combat? Yeah. No combat? Yeah. Not the case. They are beaming down to this place, AR558, with supplies for the troops that are stationed there. It's the doctor, Captain Cisco, Nog, Esri, and Quark. It's the OATM.
Starting point is 00:29:42 One of the most scattershot OATMs that we've ever gotten, I think. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's an away team full of Rudy's for sure. They really make up the Star Trek caves in an LV426 kind of way. Like right away, this is a place that does not look like fun. It does not look safe. No, yeah. And they basically, like, it's firefight already. They beam into a firefight, but it's federation phaser firefight. This really reminded me of the planet
Starting point is 00:30:15 that the original Kai got left on. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's like, some of it is caves for sure, but some of it just looks like caves, but some of it just looks like caves But you can't see like I'm assuming that there's sky in some of these sets Never forget original Kai band. Yeah, still out there. Yeah, unable to be killed being killed and then coming back to life periodically Trying to make peace among those random
Starting point is 00:30:43 first warriors. Yeah. It's almost friendly fire here. Yeah. Before being given orders to stand down among the star fleets, they stopped shooting long enough to realize that it's friendly is all around them. Those are federation places.
Starting point is 00:30:59 The people that were shooting at them were frontline soldiers that have been defending this place. And we meet a few of these characters. We meet Vargas, who is the one that started looking shots in the atmosphere. Who told you to open fire? I saw the movement I thought it was the gym and door. Once you delighted to see Raymond Cruz here.
Starting point is 00:31:18 Yeah. Always delighted to see Raymond Cruz. Definitely cast for his Patriot Games energy in this role. He's really carving out a nice Danny Treo-like career for himself. He's got a really good soldiery look. He often plays a soldier, but some of his soldier characters also, they have, I mean, they're fully colored characters and within their lives and moments of comedy, like he's not just a one note actor, but he does play very similar characters
Starting point is 00:31:50 throughout his career. I really like his work. That gear of a guy who has like been taken way past the limit of what he can handle is really good. And that's what he is here to do. He is, you know, five months into, you know, a stationing that was supposed to last 90 days max before they were rotated off the front lines. He is pissed.
Starting point is 00:32:13 He doesn't care what your rank is and whether you know it or not. We also meet Nadia Larkin, which I wondered if she's any relation to the infamous Edward Larkin. I got the double-eyed man. I'm super-marchin. Makes you wonder. She's the lieutenant that's been left in command of this place after the captain and commander that were over her were killed a few days ago. And AR558 is an important site that the Federation is defending because it's got a Dominion Communications
Starting point is 00:32:49 node. The only reason anyone gives a damn about this place. And this was once 150 frontline soldiers that have been whittled down to like 40 something. And they've been just kind of marooned on this planet defending this site. Well, engineers among them try to figure out how this communications node works and whether they can like start decoding Dominion messages that are being transmitted through it. The SADS monitoring device, if you see here, you'll be sure every out-to-modern piece of equipment
Starting point is 00:33:18 we have to ensure your safety. The vibe of this scene is so instructive, right, in a way that a show tells you what it is, early on and what its rules are. I was really blown away because, you know, what the idea is that this is a pliarun, and it may not be a big deal, even though it's behind enemy lines, but Raymond Cruz's attitude... Take it easy, Vargas. Take it easy. What would love to take it easy? As fucked up as everyone is down there, the hard-boiledness of the entire scene,
Starting point is 00:33:49 it really catches you off guard. And I think one of the aspects that is so uncomfortable about this location is how Captain Cisco treats the moment. And I really wonder, like if you're directing this episode and you're directing Avery Brooks, it made me wonder if Winric Colby dialed Avery Brooks back a little bit because it felt like there is a scene and characters down here that would invite a kind of reaction that
Starting point is 00:34:21 only Avery Brooks could give to things being very bad and desperate. And I don't feel like this is a great Avery Brooks episode because he is so tempered and neutral in an environment where it would be okay to observe and feel the kind of trauma that he's seeing around him. It's actually off-putting to everyone all the other characters that he meets, I think, because he's so clean and from somewhere else, and they expect him to be leaving. Like, maybe I'm answering my own question by describing him that way, but I could have used more Avery Brooks trauma because he's so good at it. The story that they're trying to tell here is that he goes from the number of names of dead people has just become an abstract number to me in a way that, you know, like, I feel like is understandable to me in a whole new way.
Starting point is 00:35:16 Like when you look at like a coronavirus chart on the internet, you're like, fuck, bad news, but it's not like, it doesn't feel that personal. But it's interesting that they save that realization for the end instead of beginning it right here, which it easily could. This is a fucked up scene and it's traumatic to witness. Yeah, it's intense. We get to meet this communications array and some of the people that are working on it,
Starting point is 00:35:43 including Will Robinson, one of the Starfleet engineers working on this played Will Robinson in Lost in Space. Yeah, pretty fun. This engineer begins a pattern of conversation with Ezri Daxx that makes me want to rewind the season and go back and play the Ezri Dax drinking game, which is anytime a character asks Ezri, are you a blank? And she says no, but my previous host is a blank. You drink.
Starting point is 00:36:16 Yeah, yeah, you're gonna die of alcohol poisoning by Episode 8. Yeah. Yeah, and at what point does a symbiote get to claim that they are a thing that a previous host was? Is a question that came up watching this conversation because she is the thing she's describing. She is an engineer. She is not was.
Starting point is 00:36:40 She seems like she's better at it than he is, right? Yeah. I mean, he didn't know that his frequency discriminator was drifting. She did. You don't want to discriminate frequencies in the 24th century. We're past that. All the frequencies are the same.
Starting point is 00:36:56 Infinite frequencies and infinite combinations. That's the way of the future. To be quite honest about it, that is an appear. A bucket of pay. Mr. Bucket, I have to Quark are observing another of the characters down here that we'll get to know a little better is the episode goes on. This is Reese wearing a necklace of Ketrocell white tubes as if they're severed ears in a Vietnam war movie I have a war. You gotta become war. Nagas super impressed by this like like speaks of it with
Starting point is 00:37:35 covetous tones and you know considers all of these People the the 40 people that have been able to hang on here to be heroes. And Quark is really horrified by these people. Like he is, he's got like a very hobby and view of human beings. Let me tell you something about humans, nephew. Which is that when humans stop having nice shit, they revert back to a very vicious state of being, which is a very interesting,
Starting point is 00:38:08 like a very unstartic idea, I think, but I think it is a very forengy idea. Like, forengy have this inherent suspicion of everyone, and I am personally much more everyone. And I am personally much more a fan of the Rousseau view that human nature isn't inherently evil the way quark seems to think it is. But no, but deprivation can be a factor in in turning people in a way that can be dangerous. And I found quark's description in this scene. Something that I know I'm thinking about a lot differently in 2020 than people did in 1998. Right. It's interesting. I mean, I tend to have an optimistic view of these things that like in tough times people pull together in my, you know, like I think it's like much more likely that an institution engages in like horrific shit
Starting point is 00:39:08 than a group of people that are faced with a challenge. Yeah, that's well put. I mean, this is a, you and I have talked a lot offline about just what life is like, what life has been, what life could turn into in the short medium and long term. And I found just even talking to you has been good therapy for me because you are more of an optimist than I am. And that's it's been comforting. It's interesting to have a character give voice to this kind of idea in Star Trek. Right.
Starting point is 00:39:48 Have it feel authentic to the universe because Star Trek is such a techno, utopian, optimist universe. And, you know, I think Deep Space Nine is rightly cited as one of the darker Star Trek series, but I don't think it is in the human characters where it's darkness lies. It's in the kinds of things that the humans confront. Another aspect to the scene that I really like that is really elegantly done is the idea of a family member who has seen as a father figure, which work kind of is to nog.
Starting point is 00:40:26 There is some jealousy here, like Reese is a total badass and clearly quark is not and he's seeing nog appreciate someone else and look up to him in a way that like he knows he could not be that same type of person to nog. And so I feel like there is a little bit of familial envy happening here. In the caves, Bashir is trying to kind of triage some of these soldiers. He's helping Vargas with some injuries. And Vargas has a bandage on an arm that Bashir reaches for. if Argus reacts very badly to this, like to the point of holding a phaser under Bashir's chin and saying like, you are never going to touch that that bandage. And he explains like this, you know, a compatriot that fixed this wound up was killed immediately
Starting point is 00:41:19 after putting, putting this bandage on. This is like the remnants of his uniform that he ripped up to help me. And now he's dead. And I have this bandage on and I'm never gonna take it off. I'm never going to like dishonor him by taking this bandage off. Your hands off this bandage.
Starting point is 00:41:40 When you've cast a Dramon cruise, I mean, this is the scene that you imagine using him in. He's... Yeah. ...excellent in this. And I love how close they get with the camera in this scene. Like, it's as close up a shot as you get in Star Trek usually. Like, the ECU on his face as he processes this memory and talks about what it was like to...
Starting point is 00:42:04 Like, see you guys, that he thought was kind of an idiot, but it was like to like see a guy that he thought was kind of an idiot, but that was kind to him in a moment like this dead on the ground. Yeah, I mean, there's a real wounded animal vibe to this happening and it's your proximity to these characters that makes it feel dangerous in a way that you're saying when the camera's up close, this is hurting the Vargas character. And even though Bashir is trying to help, it feels very dangerous for him to be so close to him. And that pathos is so needle-picking.
Starting point is 00:42:31 And it, like, you see Bashir realize, like, oh, I thought we were walking into a place where other people that are also in this war with us need some help, and we're going to help them out a little bit. And he realizes that like the war has been much, much harder for these people and he is kind of putting his foot in it in a way. Vargas takes Bashir over to the side and he's like, uh, the war is far worse than is generally known on AR558.
Starting point is 00:43:05 Find this uncle well and to rise. Bixirco's straight to Cisco and is like, hey listen, I know that this is an important site, but what you need to do is get word to Starfleet that these people are on the brink. Their physical health is one thing, but the morale issue is not great. It feels like the whole crew needs a kick in the ass or a pat on the back side.
Starting point is 00:43:28 He is kind of in the middle of making this case when the first Houdini goes off. Yeah, this is an introduction to the concept of a subspace mine, which appears out of nowhere. You can't scan for it because when a mind is in subspace, it's not scannable. So if you walk down a corridor and you're scanning for minds and there's no mind there, it doesn't mean there's no mind there. It means that a mind could appear there before you've arrived or after you're gone and it doesn't matter. Scanning doesn't do anything. They just appear at the end. I don't know why they named these after Houdini because this
Starting point is 00:44:05 seems like much more of a mine freak to me. They name them Houdini because the mine doesn't explode. It flips you upside down, handcuffs your wrists together and dumps you in a giant thing of water. Yeah. There was a there was a version of this mine that just made you sit in a in a block of ice and time square for a week. No, no, David, but no, no, but it wasn't as effective. Later on, Reece gets who do you need by being attached to a bunch of balloons and he just goes up into the atmosphere. Yeah, yeah. The pen and teller mine is another variant that tells you about libertarian politics for some reason, and you're like, give me a break, mine. You knew the episode was going to drop a moment of choice here on Cisco, and that occurs when bangers are dropped on the little d-wallets's an orbit. And Cisco's on the surface. He's got to make a decision here.
Starting point is 00:45:08 Does he allow himself and the crew to be beamed back up? Or does he cut the little D loose for its own survival? Bob, who is that soul? You have a hair trigger aimed at your head. What do you do? The decision he comes to is that the little D should leave and leave the away team behind on the surface, but big picture wise, Ben, this is like leaving a general on the battlefield in the front line.
Starting point is 00:45:37 Like, what is the comparison here? Right, it's like, like, Nicheo. I'm from the trap. Well, I kind of pays my ass. It's a nice of the chop liver. It was never beaming over to the board cube to see if they could turn off power nodes or whatever. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:45:54 And it feels like Cisco is kind of a de facto belt buckle with how much control he has over the battlefield. Right. with how much control he has over the battlefield right right now. So it doesn't feel correct that he would either be on this away team or rightfully give an order for the ship to leave him behind. That in an episode that I really liked felt like a big clang in the logic of it. Yeah. I think that what they needed to do was just tweak a couple of things about like what the situation was in space, like if it was say- Make it that they can't beam them back.
Starting point is 00:46:35 Like yeah, it's a mega tick. If the little D drops its shields, it's done. Yeah. We got a bug out and he says, get out of here. Like we need to defend this anyways or something like that. Get out and save yourself. Make the danger so acute that they got a bug out. But to make it just a choice that Cisco makes
Starting point is 00:46:56 didn't work for me. I'm a rain, come to a fore, I'm a rain, come to a fore. What are you doing? Come, what are you doing? I'm a rain, come to a fore. What are you doing now? What are you doing now? What are you doing now?
Starting point is 00:47:10 Not be guard, not be guard, not be guard, not be guard. He gives the order that they got to hold this position and they man the front lines and Cisco starts trying to like scan life with a tri-quarter to see if he can detect Jim Hadar trying to overrun this position. And what Lieutenant Larkin explains is that they can't detect any Jim Hadar because all signals are getting jammed in both directions. We jammed their sensors, they jammed ours, that's how it works. Nog is the main detecting device that they have
Starting point is 00:47:46 because of his big giant ears. So he's the person that they're leaning on to tell them whether or not Jemadar are coming, and he can't hear anything. I love the head fake of what the hell is Nog going to do here on a mission like this. This is fucking stupid too. Yeah, the years.
Starting point is 00:48:05 Yeah. Oh, the years are actually super useful. Reese is such a badass. He may be the most badass Star Trek character we've gotten in quite a while. Are you nuts? I said, who's the all-time biggest badass? Not who's a dude nobody's heard about? He's got kind of a Randy Cattur quality about him.
Starting point is 00:48:22 Like, he looks like someone who did college wrestling. Like, he does not have cauliflower ear, but he kind of has like a cauliflower head. Yeah, he's cauliflower your energy for sure. Yeah, we get our first battle scene here, not long after this, we'll be confronting Jim Helalagrams. Who appear.
Starting point is 00:48:46 And I think it presents a kind of paranoia that pervades the rest of the episode after this, right? Like, is this real? Is this not? I love the way they set the scene up too, because the de-gem-ed-ar just start kind of like walking at them, and they're not really firing back. They don't seem to be like trying to move tactically. They're not like trying to stay undercover
Starting point is 00:49:09 as they advance on the Starfleet position. And it's just like, what are these cannon fodder as jemm at our doing? Like shouldn't they be trying to win this fight? And then you realize that they aren't even really there. Yeah. The holograms were just a ploy to figure out what the position and force strength of the federation was. And they're kind of realizing this and realizing that
Starting point is 00:49:35 they've been had when another one of these Houdini minds goes off. Every time they've got a scene where they're processing shitty information like this, it gets made even shittier by somebody getting exploded by a Houdini. I love slash hate this. I love that it's an ever present danger. I love that you hear the bangs off screen. It's meant to make you jump and feel awful at the same time.
Starting point is 00:50:09 There's this going on, there's a growing tension between quark and Cisco about nag being sent off on this mission. And I love how they're both kind of fathers in a way. And the question of whether or not Cisco would send Jake out there is raised in a way that feels very real. It feels like so much of Quark's character is like bitching to bitch about stuff and being annoying and doing things that make Quark Quark
Starting point is 00:50:41 but so much of his character in this episode is about asking questions that feel very grounded in the reality of the moment. I bet you wouldn't send Jake out there. Jake is not a Starfleet officer. There is a new urgency around detecting these mines and Cisco. Is this job to Kellyn and Ezri to figure this out? Like how are we going to detect these subspace minds?
Starting point is 00:51:08 And they get to work on it. Meanwhile, Quark discusses this situation with Nog and discusses how almost disgusted he is in Nog's behavior. Because he kind of feels like Nog is Uncle human a little bit, right. Yeah. Right. Like he's he's trying to impress these people and and court can't imagine why anyone would want to do that. Yeah. Look at you. You hold that phaser rifle as if it were made up to you. I really like that Nog has never wavered from this belief in himself and his place in Starfleet, though, you know? Like, his closest family member is questioning his reason for being, and his reason for being
Starting point is 00:51:52 the way that he is in this moment, and he's totally committed. Yeah. And Quark is, too, like Quark is saying, like we, if it had been the Ferengy sitting where the Federation was sitting when this had started, we would have, this wouldn't have been a war. We would have figured something out that was beneficial to everyone. Yeah. And that doesn't buy that. When Nog goes out on this mission with Larkin and they find the gym had our training camp,
Starting point is 00:52:15 it's clear that Nog is good at this. He's not just a punchline, the way that he can often be in moments like this. Like he's brave. He, he uses his special skill, he gets the job done, the mission is accomplished, but when the firefight starts, shit goes down in a bad way and he's one of the ones that gets shot. Yeah, Franky always hit that high note
Starting point is 00:52:39 when they get hurt, don't they? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I like how this sequence works though. The fire descends on them and their mission and we cut back to home base and their return. And Larkin's been killed in this firefight. Nog is put on a stretcher as soon as he arrives and Reese does that kind of battlefield begrudging honor thing where he tells Cisco like how great he was out there. There is a moment where Quark accuses Cisco of not caring about Nog,
Starting point is 00:53:14 the way he cares about other soldiers, and Cisco saying like, I care equally about every soldier under my command. And it made me kind of wish that Quark had been a fly on the wall in that opening scene with Odo because I wish he'd flip that shit right back in his face. Like, oh, really? Because I thought like three days ago, you were saying the names blow together for you. And it's like, it's just a bunch of math at this point. Like, that's a great call. That should have been called back somehow. In a, you don't know what it's like kind of way. That I feel like is appropriate for a moment like this.
Starting point is 00:53:52 But as it is, this is an example of Cisco absorbing and not directing his feelings toward other people. Yeah. And being a leader, it does math, at some points for him. But I also don't disbelieve him when he says he cares about his soldiers, because when he goes and talks to Nog, like, he is a great comfort to Nog. Is the word given, Admiral?
Starting point is 00:54:18 The word is given. Nog feels like he's responsible for Larkin's death, like, he failed the mission and Cisco's like, no man, like the things that we needed to know were the things you came back and told us about. Like the mission had casualties, but it was not a failure, it was a success. The sheer tells Quirk that,
Starting point is 00:54:42 that Nog is gonna lose the leg and that there are a couple of options on the table. There's lobotomy just to just to clear the patient's memory of a traumatic event. It's what I recommend the most in cases like these. We've already arranged for a family on Frank and I that are prepared to tell him the lie that he was born without a leg and that he has always lived there with them. He's going to work as an airport security specialist. We've done this several times. It's kind of a playbook. Yeah. I mean, and the reason for lobotomy is that there's no hope that the typical
Starting point is 00:55:25 biosynthetic limb would take in a way, because this is a nice bit of world building about the gem had our weaponry. Like, we know that there are things that they shoot at you that make healing the wound extremely difficult. And so it stands to reason that we're you to get a leg shot off, that your ability to grow a new one would also be compromised, right? Yeah, the the gem and our fight nasty. One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one,
Starting point is 00:56:01 one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, I'm ready for it! Stop! Hammer time! Esri and Kellyn have cracked the code. They're working together, figured out a way to tune a tricorder to reveal the position of these mines. And when they do, it is fucking crazy how many mines there are. These are floating all throughout the Star Trek games. They look like they would be an awesome way
Starting point is 00:56:25 to brush up on your lightsaber skills. Oh! Ah! Poké religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster to side, kid. I love the cut over to Vargas, who has had one materialized like three inches from his face. It's really well done, this reveal.
Starting point is 00:56:44 Good job. So we get the typical battle scene prep moment where somebody draws a diagram of the battle in the sand. This is a this is Reese kind of describing how the gemhead are will have to get to their position if they're going to try and storm it. And Sisko has come up with the idea of moving these Houdini minds over to this ravine that the Gemadar will have to come through to get to them. And there is like a moment of like, hey, didn't, why were we just talking about how minds are like a really unethical way to fight a war?
Starting point is 00:57:21 It really puts the mind on the other foot this time. The plan like this. I feel like it would be one thing if Starfleet was manufacturing mines and laying them down places. It's another thing to use your enemy's minds on them. Yeah. And this is something that Ezri is the one to give voice to. She's got the, she's got the second thoughts here, but everyone's like, shut up Ezri. This is the plan. With 10 minutes left in the episode, I wondered at this moment,
Starting point is 00:57:55 is this app really about the minds? Like, is that what the episode is about? The minds and their use. Oh, like, like, is this going to become a thing about, like, I can't believe you use minds at AR-558? That's kind of where I was at, because at first I thought this was an episode about the communications array, and then I very quickly pivoted into, oh, this is an episode about a wounded character and how it will affect them. And now it's about using a battlefield technique, using a weapon that you have moral issues with.
Starting point is 00:58:31 And I'm seeing how much runtime is left, and I'm like, which is it going to be? What's the lane? Yeah, I think it's an episode that's in some ways about all of those things. They get there, there's like a few minutes of tension in anticipation of the battle that has broken when Bashir turns on his honey stick Bluetooth speaker. It starts playing his Vic Fontaine records for everyone. Slightly unnerving. Yeah. What the hell is that?
Starting point is 00:59:03 It's not a great season for Bashir. I think you and I can agree about that. But this turn into Bishir being the guy at the beach with a boom box is maybe yeah, maybe the worst aspect to him. We brought our kids to the beach today, sir. We don't want to hear pull over that S2 fat blasting at 10. You know what this scene made me think of was that scene in three kings toward the end, where they get the Mercedes limousines and they're escaping and they're out in the desert and Chicago's,
Starting point is 00:59:42 if you leave me now, is playing. Yeah. That's the vibe when VIX music plays on the battlefield. desert and Chicago is if you leave me now. I was playing. That's the vibe when VIX music plays on the battlefield. It's a stylishness to this incongruity that I don't think you often get on Star Trek. It's like college level stuff. Yeah, and very late 90s stuff too. Right. Right. The final battle really gave me final battle of platoon vibes. Yeah. They're converging from all sides on our position.
Starting point is 01:00:13 They're inside the perimeter now. We're like going to budding rifles up against their chins to fight them off situation. And a very terrifying image as Cisco hits the ground and a gem had our is about to shoot him and we fade to black. That platoon description is so apt because what is the score doing here? The score isn't doing a war music. This is not like Conan the barbarian music score here. This is like the adage of a string score. Yeah. From platoon and that changes everything about how it feels.
Starting point is 01:00:54 So lovely fucking war. Roblox six out. To the episodes of credit, you really don't know whether when the camera fades back up if Cisco's going to be around or not. Right. I mean, like you're doing the television math like Cisco probably comes back next week, but I don't feel like it's a foregone conclusion. What a bold choice to kill him in episode eight of the final season. Like that would have been incredible. Seriously. So the profit is the, the, the, the M.O.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the
Starting point is 01:01:25 the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, This is not an excuse anymore. Right. There's an elliptical edit here, right? There's the blackout and the come to. And one thing we glossed over a little bit was that Quart kills a guy during the battle.
Starting point is 01:01:53 A guy who who rushes the infirmary, like it goes off in this battle scene before we blackout. And when we come to again, it's a race that helps him up. out. And when we come to again, it's a Reese that helps him up. Kellyn's dead, which gives us like the counterpoint of the peaceful warrior is the one that dies. It's the battle weary warrior that lives. The Ring of Jesus Fire. Yeah. Nicholas of Gem had our tubes guy. Maybe it's just fine. Yeah, and it's a, it's a Ben Cisco
Starting point is 01:02:28 that doesn't really have feelings about his own survival and very soberly like take stock of the scene and is like mission accomplished. Yeah, Wurf tries to gas him up about how great a battle this sounds like it was and that is just not the mood that Cisco is in. The US has very cruises arriving with replacement troops and they beam out of there with Reese Worf and Cisco. Reese leaves his crazy gemhead art knife behind.
Starting point is 01:03:05 Now to sentimental man. No, I mean, and if you were writing a film paper about this episode, I think you might consider this scene one of importance, right? For a man like Reese to lay down his weapon, could mean his life changes here. Maybe he never fights again. Maybe, I don't know, maybe he never fights again, maybe I don't know, maybe a number of things, but I think it's a significant moment. The button on the episode is in Cisco's office where Kira comes in with Friday's numbers and Cisco sort of recommitting himself to not treating this as an abstract
Starting point is 01:03:49 of recommitting himself to not treating this as an abstract number of dead people and re-evowing that he needs to think of each of these people as a whole person who is now gone from this world. It's a very grim, grim episode. When I think about whether or not I like the episode though, I think it really comes down to this moment. Because for it to have weight, I think you need to get with the idea that Cisco is a changed person from the beginning to the end. And I just don't want to believe that Ben Cisco ever thought that these people were blurring together and weren't individuals that had died during war. I just... I don't know if the episode did enough to establish that he had lost the feeling of this thing. And were it to do that, I think his journey is more profound. But I'm not saying I didn't like the episode
Starting point is 01:04:45 because I did. And I like that we get a hyper realistic Star Trek episode depicting war as a horrible scary place where it's not romanticized and beam weapon heroic. It's like ugly and charred and scary, where legs get shot off. And like, who is the one who lost innocence here? Is it Cisco? Did he have innocence to lose?
Starting point is 01:05:15 I think it may be Nog, but like this didn't feel like a Nog-centric story in an interesting way. Like it seemed like it kind of focused much more on Quark and Cisco than anyone else. I wonder if moving the focus a little bit, like, I know a lot of people praise this episode for going as dark as it went to making the darker points that it does. But I wonder if you don't get even darker by by moving the focus around a little bit differently, maybe on to on to nog specifically. But I think we're going
Starting point is 01:05:55 to have future episodes that that hopefully drill into that a little better. That's sort of the promise of deep space. Not at this point, right? Like if if if a stone was left unturned, you can actually hope for it being reflipped in the future. Yeah, I mean, I think on TNG, a character would get his leg shot off in one episode and then it would come back the next and there would be no conversation about it. Right. Well, I mean, do you want to see if we have any priority one messages in the inbox to turn over. We're definitely not going to reject that transplantation. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.
Starting point is 01:06:38 You need a supplement on top. A supplement? A supplement. Yes, extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Stop alone. Stop alone. Stop alone. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Then our first priority one message is from Savannah to you and me. Oh, hey.
Starting point is 01:06:56 Message goes like this. Now everyone knows that I'm a little bit embarrassed to be a huge sci-fi nerd. But what this P1 pre-supposed is, maybe I'm not embarrassed enough to keep myself from dropping 100 scarves onto awesome dudes that are also big nerds? Thanks for all the laughs. Hey, thank you, Savannah. That is a super nice message. I don't know where you got those laughs, but they didn't come from us. Those must be misplaced laughs. Right. Yeah, sometimes the viewers supply the laughs. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:07:27 Not a lot of laughs in this episode, as an episode of DS9 for sure. Yeah, yeah, I felt it felt hard to be a comedy podcast talking about this episode, didn't it? Yeah. We have another priority one message. This one is from Kevin L, and it is also to you and me, yeah. We have another priority one message. This one is from Kevin L. And it is also to you and me, Adam.
Starting point is 01:07:48 It was like this. Thank you for all you have done to help support Black Lives Matter. I was unsure where to focus my efforts. I really appreciate you taking the lead and showing others how to help financially. You guys gave me hope for the future when I had none. Remember when you are down how your everyday leadership has already helped so many people. Wow. That's really sweet Kevin, thank
Starting point is 01:08:13 you. Yeah. Kevin is referring to our fundraiser that we did surrounding the uprisings in response to the George Floyd murder that I think we promoted for a while on here and probably we could do to promote more often. It's Friends of Disoto for Justice. I think the short link is bit.ly slash greatest trick. Those that have contributed to Friends of Disoto for Justice have already raised over $70,000, which is really incredible. Pretty astonishing. I am so proud of our viewers for doing that.
Starting point is 01:08:55 That is just the most amazing thing. Well thank you to Kevin and Savannah for supporting us. And if you'd like to get a message on the show, you can go to maximumfund.org slash jumbo-tron, where it's a hundred bucks for a personal message and 204A commercial message. And we super appreciate all the help. I don't know. I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, I'm gonna get that gold press, 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!
Starting point is 01:09:52 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.
Starting point is 01:10:15 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 spaceweirds. Pat Noswald. Could I get a ball-rock burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Nanjiani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry.
Starting point is 01:10:39 Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. All right, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really frigging me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this arc.
Starting point is 01:10:58 We've got to get on the arc. It is about terrain, about a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans, but we're actually, we're podcasters. Yes, probably. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie?
Starting point is 01:11:12 We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so same life, something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. Hey Adam. What's that been? Did you find yourself a drunk Shemota? Incredible. Drunk Shemota! We were talking about it before just how
Starting point is 01:11:48 unfunny this episode was. I think the only one having any fun might have been, uh, Ram. But even Ram didn't have fun because he gets the big letdown by Vic Fontaine. So I think I'm going to make my
Starting point is 01:12:00 Shemota Vic Fontaine. Wow. Seems amused by Ram in this scene is, this scene is made to let him down easy. And I think does give a big city let down here in a way that only he can. So yeah. Vic Fontaine, my drunk Shimoda. My drunk Shimoda is wharf for that scene at the end when he's trying to, I think he's trying to comfort Cisco,
Starting point is 01:12:28 but there's a culture gap issue at play because Wurf suggests like this, this was worthy of story and song, this battle. And Cisco's like, you guys pay for stories and songs with blood? What the fuck? And really flips that back in Warrowspace in a way that I just felt so bad for a war.
Starting point is 01:12:54 The Klingon jukebox doesn't take quarters, man. Takes blood. Warrows was just trying to help, man. So Warrows my drunk Shimada. A couple of good Shimadas. Do we have a good episode coming up, Ben? For that, I will ask you to see what's on the launch pad, while I head over to the game of Butthold.
Starting point is 01:13:22 Will the profits? Yeah, well the next episode is season seven, episode nine, covenant. Kira is held hostage by her old enemy Ducat, who has become the leader of a Bajoran religious faction. Oh no. Yeah, I don't know how that happens. Huh. Alright Adam, I've got to roll a dice on a game that game is at guck.bizslashgame and it determines how we will be watching this next episode. Currently our runabout is on square 22. Just out ahead there is a banger and I think we could also hit a naked now episode, potentially here, if I roll
Starting point is 01:14:08 a six. You really need a big roll. We got it. We got to make up some ground here. Too many shoots, not enough ladders. Yeah, this is, this game is bevelinally based on shoots and ladders, but we didn't build any ladders into the game, did we? Oops, I'll shoot. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Chula! Did I win? Harvey.
Starting point is 01:14:37 Well, I have rolled a four, so a pretty big roll. Then the upper hand, things, but gets us to square 26 regular old episode next week. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to that. Looking forward to talking about more deep space, nine goodness with you. Yeah, looking forward to a Kira episode.
Starting point is 01:14:59 Yeah, that's really what I was getting at. I hope we have a couple of centerpiece non-visitor episodes in store before the end of the series. I think she deserves it. Yeah, me too. Well, that will all be next week. In the meantime, we could use your help
Starting point is 01:15:17 if you've enjoyed the program and would like to support it financially. It'd encourage you to head to maximumfund.org slash join and set up a monthly membership. You'll get all kinds of bonus content from us and from all the other shows on the network as well. As potentially prizes, I think there's magnets and t-shirts and stuff in the non-max fund drive part of the year for new members. Every new member is greatly appreciated. We appreciate everyone. It's really it's really miracle to think about to be honest. Yeah it's totally changed our
Starting point is 01:15:57 lives and we super appreciate it. You can also follow us online. We've got a couple of social media accounts under the tag greatest trek on Instagram and Twitter. Follow the greatest trek accounts. They're really fun to follow and those are run by our good buddy Bill Tilly, the Card Daddy. That's right. Part of the reason our show sounds so good isn't just Ben and I talking into these professional quality microphones. It's the music and we love the music on this show. The original music made by Dark Materia, the updated introduction and interstitial music made by a friend of the show Adam Ragusia who's also a great big YouTube star. Go watch a
Starting point is 01:16:43 video of his. If you got a free moment, I don't think you regret it at all. He does great video. No regrets. Tell a friend about the show, give us a nice rating online, check out our other shows on Maximum Fun. We got Friendly Fire, our hit war movie podcast, and the greatest discovery our podcast about all the new Star Trek coming out. We're having tons of fun over there,
Starting point is 01:17:11 and I bet you would enjoy that if you enjoyed this. Buy an ad over on Star Trek, the pod directive. Yeah, Advertising is our show on our behalf. We're not going to pay for that. Yeah, Advertising is our show on our behalf. We're not gonna pay for that. Yeah, you already said you wouldn't. Well, 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,
Starting point is 01:17:38 which I hope isn't one of our last times to lavish praise one of our favorite actors on this show. Love Letter to Nana Visitor. Might be though. Yeah, it might be. Might be her last episode. Who knows? Getting toward the end here.
Starting point is 01:17:52 We're winding down. It's scary. Make it sound. Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture Artist-owned Audience supported

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