The Greatest Generation - You Never Go Full Clipshow (S4E3)

Episode Date: October 17, 2016

When an innocent prank puts a little boy’s life in danger, it’s not great timing for Data’s dad to hijack his mind, and by extension the whole ship. Things go from bad to worse when Data’s brother Lore shows up, and Soong is blinded to Lore’s fairly blatant evilness by fatherly love. What was that situation on the Pakled ship like? What’s gonna happen when Data is up in the stirrups? Where do you buy those blankets for protecting an elevator on moving day? It’s the Klumpiest episode yet!

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 friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation, a Star Trek podcast by two guys who were a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I am one of your hosts, Adam Prennicka.

I am your other host, Benjamin R. Harrison. Adam. Yes. I have some news. Okay. From one of our viewers, Joe Herford. Is this one of those, I wish you would have messages? No, that podcast juice crack may have been premature. Although, it's not your premature, my friend. Oh, you're one of those never on schedule but always on time type of guys. I think my friends might describe me that way. This may drive you to drink nonetheless. So a viewer named Joe sent us an

email and he was listening when we started talking about the fact that we all have odd numbered portfolio prints trading cards. And so he, and a lot of people have like clarified a little bit of this for us, that the series 2 is what the even ones come in. And that's the, you know, the other episodes in the series. But he dropped kind of a kind the other episodes in the series. But he dropped kind of a, kind of a bomb in this email. He said he sat there and opened every single packet of cards in the entire box in less than an hour.

Oh my God. Did not come up with a natural yager. That is trading card gluttony. Can you imagine? Yeah. That's like eating an entire party stuff on your own. Yeah. Can you imagine just like lasing around on the couch covered in cards after that? Like, uh, can't believe I opened the whole thing. That is shameful. That is shameful. No natural yaggers in the box.

And he said he went to eBay and ordered himself one. He ordered himself a mail order yagger. That's what he did. Yeah, well, so listen to this. This is, he copy and pasted something from the eBay page and I can tell that it's definitely from the eBay page because it is in size 25 Comic Sans Blue. Yeah.

And I quote, you are about to purchase a personally autographed trading card signed by Biff Yeager as Chief Engineer Argyle. This card is part of the sold out Star Trek, the complete TNG 1987 through 1991, series one, which have been released by Rittenhouse on July 13, 2011. This card was not available in the packs as it is given to the dealers as a case incentive card. Oh no. That means the natural yager that we have been chasing may not, in fact, exist at him.

This whole thing has been a lie, is that what you're saying? I mean, I don't know. There's some stuff in here that makes me think maybe it's wrong. Like it says 1987 through 1991, which I think that we've definitely got some cards in these packs that are from series episodes that came out after 91, so I don't know, maybe that's a different kind of pack, I don't know, it's just headcanon at this point. How does this make you feel, Ben?

Do you want to stop doing the card bit? What are we even doing it for? Well, I don't know if I need to remind you that I've opened a George Baxter card and a Joanna Miles card. We're doing it for the backster, aren't we? In this bit. It makes sense. I feel like it's paid off in certain ways. It's paid off in backsters is what it's done. Yeah. Sometimes I make my joy in a miles and my backster card do a little kiss like a

That's cute. Ben, I think what we have to do That's cute. Ben, I think what we have to do, what we must do, what our mission must be henceforth with respect to these cards, is to continue opening the cards until they're gone. Okay. We should also get the even cards. Yeah, we've got to get the evens. So we can fill out a set. That should be a thing. And also, we need to buy up all the Yagers we can. I am ready to put the market on Yagers. I'm ready to artificially inflate the market on Yagers. Yeah.

I'm ready to do that. I'm ready to, like, create a Yager bubble is what I want to do. Oh, yeah. I want to do. Oh yeah. I want to blow it up in order to pop it. The growth in Yager prices is unsustainable. I've seen the big short. I know how this works. I would listen to an episode or two of Planet Money.

I am going to buy every Yager I see on eBay from now on. And I better get hop in before this episode publishes, otherwise I'm gonna be behind the curve by telegraphing that move. So like an investor wouldn't want to say that he's gonna buy up all the coal or the aluminum. That would be bad.

That would be bad business. I need to hurry up and do that. Okay, I'm going to search eBay to see how many Biffyagers there are. Okay. And then we'll have a greater understanding of what my total... Okay, one, two, three, four. There are four signed Biffyagers on eBay right now, ranging from 899 to 1822. Wow. And none of them are in the United States. Really? Oh, we got to repatriate these Biff Yeager cards.

I think we have a plan. I am going to buy it now on all of these. Okay. Adam, I want to get in on this. Can I Venmo you half of the total? You may. Cool. What's fucking do it? Hahaha.

I'm really pumped about this. This is good stuff. You know what, sometimes you get an autographed anything and it looks like the autograph is the same for every single item. You look at these Biff-Yagers. He clearly took some time to sign his cart. I can tell that these were authentic signed cards when I opened my JoAnna Miles and it is clearly the handwriting of an old. Of an old who has been sitting with a crippling hand cramp for the last three hours.

Yeah. Oh man. Who does not remember portraying this character? But she's an old lady. I mean, look at her. She's old. Well, we have an episode coming up here, Ben, that features an old. Yeah.

It's season four, episode 3, Brothers. We open with a pretty harrowing scene of Riker serving as the kind of like Dean of Students. A young boy is escorted into the observation lounge and he's in big fucking trouble because he did a prank on his little brother involving laser guns and a ketchup packet and convinced his little brother that he'd shot his big brother dead. And I guess a little more complicated than it needs to be, but the little brother ran off and then ate some fruit and the fruit has parasites living in it.

And so the kid is in quarantine on the ship and they're like desperately racing to get to a star base, which is apparently the minimum medical facility needed to deal with this parasite infection. She seems weird. I don't know what star base would have that the enterprise wouldn't, but I guess we just have to take

their word for it. I thought after the whole clip show episode that the enterprise crew would be a little reticent to have anything on board that would be considered a toxic parasite. Yeah. Well, I think it was on a planet, I think. Or was it? Yeah, I mean, that one was on a planet, I think. Or was it? Yeah, I mean, that one was on a planet, of course, but like, why would you want to keep that thing around?

No, but wasn't this on on a planet also? No, I thought it was on the board. I thought it was in the... Is it the Arboretum? Arboretum, yeah. Oh, I wasn't paying that much attention. Two things I did notice about this, one, the kids' parents are unsubbatical,

so they're living as children alone on the enterprise, much in the way Wesley. Wesley, the boy. The boy. Young Wesley, Crusher. My son. Did. Which is a crazy idea.

And two, this kid's name is Jake. Were they unsubbatical during the Wolf 359 incident? Because, oh, geez. Talking about some concerned parents. Yeah, who knows. Look, we love vacationing on the hood. It's just a good mid-priced hotel for us that we like to get away to. Yeah, decent but not great continental breakfast on the hood. Yeah.

There's definitely, the scrambled eggs are definitely reconstituted, but at least there are scrambled eggs, right? It's not just micro--evil oatmeal tubs. Not a galaxy class breakfast buffet, if you will. Right. One star shitty parking. And yeah, right, or just sort of like spins a conference room chair around it, cool teacher style. And it's like, look, look kid,

I'm gonna rap at you a little bit, some knowledge. You can't be going around faking your own death in front of your younger brother. That's just not cool. Yeah, it's pretty intense. Like he's definitely like playing the disciplinarian here. It's fun to see Riker and Imagine Riker as a parent because so much of the poor parent,

parent ambivalence, weirdness around kids, Angle is played at Picard's character, that I often forget that Riker's batching it to. Yeah. He just doesn't have a stated position on whether or not he likes or wants kids. So it's kind of fun seeing him have an interaction like this. Yeah, it's good. It's, it's, it seems like he's able to do it without plunging into a crippling sense of strangeness the way Picard does. They only have so much time to get to the

starbase and they're like, well good good news we're really close to the starbase and they're not even like really pushing the engines. So data is supposed to like escort the kid down to 6 Bay to see his brother. And while they're in the elevator, data starts like twitching his little head. And he like hops off the elevator and the kid is just left there like a WTF. And data shows back up on the bridge like at the same time as Riker and Troy. Back so soon Mr. Data. And he sits down and starts coding in warp messages.

And everybody's like, huh, weird. We're changing course and going way faster. Captain, did you request a course correction? And Jordy's like radioing up. I didn't say we could increase speed to warp 9.1, sir. Don't do that. Who's doing that? Stop that. They do not have the engineer's consent about this course correction or acceleration. Yeah.

Wesley is denying he knows anything. What's that by whom? Not by me, Commander. I'm just starting asking data. Data who programmed the new coordinates? And data is just ignoring everyone and staring at the view screen and twitching occasionally. And eventually the environmental controls blow out on the bridge.

Evacuate bridge. Departive support failure in 30 seconds. They have to evacuate. And data makes a show of trying to get off the bridge with the rest of them and then does not. He returns to a seat and starts like locking out the controls. He mimics Picard's command controls by mimicking Picard's voice to lock them out of the ship so like the rest of the main bridge crew go down to engineering to run the ship from there.

They cannot, like, data is one step ahead of them the entire time. Yeah, as they're triaging the situation, data has stopped any possible plan of theirs from working. They're like, well, we could run the ship from engineering. That's no problem. And then immediately that firewall comes down. And they're like, well, maybe we can separate the ship. Let's go ahead and do that.

Then he locks out their ability to do that, which really disappoints Riker, I'm sure. Rikers like Gargling, Green T, getting his saucer separation orders ready. And the code, like this is, I think we've talked about this before. Data is the most terrifying thing that they have on board because at any moment, if it struck him, he can impersonate anyone, he could kill anyone with his bare hands, he's terrifying. personate anyone, he could kill anyone with his bare hands. It's terrifying.

It is Worf's job to be chief of security. It is. Worf doesn't help at all in this situation. I mean, in his defense, it's fairly quickly that Picard decides to send him and Riker in a desk buzzer club climbing through the Jeffries tubes to try and retake the bridge manually, but like shouldn't Worf have built some shit into the enterprises computer systems to do a two-step verification that it has the right person reading in the command codes?

Yeah, yeah, this is where one-step verification gets you in trouble right here. Yeah, yeah, what should have happened is they all go down to engineering and Picard's cell phone buzzes and he's got a little pin code on the screen there and he's like, what? No, I'm not trying to change my password.

We know that data has an off button. Like this might sound inhumane to me, but I think they got to rig that off button for security reasons. Like get a little, put a little collar on him or put something on the button that they can trigger remotely, because this just doesn't make sense.

This is potentially one of the most valuable pieces of Starfleet material, and it is completely outside of their control. And it is an, at this point, an unknown force that has taken over data as well, who's also, you know, could be considered a valuable piece of starfleet material. Hey, check it out. Also, not the first time that the enterprise has been stolen or be a data or data brother figure has done shit like this. It's not like this should be a surprise.

I guess what we're trying to say is Warf is terrible at his job. Sorry, Warf, one star. So I'm... Shouldy security. So there were... You get some really cool scenes here where they're troubleshooting how to get back on the bridge.

And one of the scenes takes place in the Jeffries tubes, which I thought was really fun, especially because you get a lot of off screen dialogue. Like, there's Riker down at the bottom of basically a well. Like, he's down at the bottom of a Jeffries tube, you don't see him. He's like yelling up at Jordy. Like, they're banging on stuff down there.

They're like not wanting to get electrocuted. It's really fun. They did a lot with a little in these scenes. And it's the set equivalent of like being a kid, turning a cardboard box into a spaceship. Like it's a very simple set that they use. They use in a pretty cool way. Absolutely.

Okay. The other thing that happens during this is we have kind of a quiet scene with the nine year old kid that is in his stasis chamber or his quarantine chamber or whatever. And the doctor is like reaching in through a force field, doing some tests and waving some instruments over him. His big brother who did the hilarious prank comes in and the little boy rolls away and doesn't want to talk to him. But this is some good stakes building that shows doesn't tell, which I appreciated, you know.

You know how some old names, like classic names, come back into fashion sometimes, like, you know, you'll have people having kids right now and they'll give them grandparents style names. Right. These little kids name is Willie, which I think is a hilarious comeback. Like in the 24th century, Willie's cool again.

Yeah. I could see it happening. Great name. Maybe his name's after Willie T. Kirk. I never felt like this kid was in danger. He's got a mushroom cut. He's going to be fine. Yeah, I mean, you lay eyes on any haircut on this show and you're pretty much...

Yeah. Stakes ain't that high. They're hair telegraphing. Yeah. So then data programs in this awesome cascading force field gambit, they've managed to turn off all of the transporter beams, I guess, for site to site. So he's gonna have to go to a transporter room. And-

Yeah, so check it out before we get too far. The enterprise goes an orbit of a planet and the only way that they know that they've done this is by looking out a window. And so they posit that data may be trying to leave the ship So Picard's like let's lock out these transporters. It's make sure he doesn't go anywhere But data has other ideas. Yeah, so he he sets up these he sets up these force fields to like engage and disengage as he walks through the halls So they keep showing him like coming around a quarter and a couple of desk buster boys

Running at him and then they like plow into a visible force field. At port. Establish. And then he like steps through where that was and he keeps going. And he eventually gets to the transportor room door and Wurf is like right in front of it

and he gets a force field to door and Wurf is like right in front of it and he gets a force field to like inch, wharf back until he's got enough space. I already used to stop! Computer, begin scan phase. No, no, it's too close! Um, and Wurf seems to be pretty scared of this force field. Like he does not want to touch it. I think he just in general does not like being shocked by anything. Yeah. He's got that warf lightning problem. He now clearly has a problem with force fields. He doesn't like doors.

I mean add this to the list of things that like doors, I mean, add this to the list of things that are favorite Klingon warrior does not agree with. Right. You got to feel for him anytime data is not on his side. He feels trapped immediately. And this force field being there is once again just reinforcing that. Yeah. So Tade gets into the

transport room and he comes around the corner and like riker and a couple more. And I guess like O'Brien and like a dustbuster guy are standing there waiting for him. And he just he just puts a force field up around the transportor itself. And then undoes the like thing that was preventing psych to cite transport and beams himself down into a jungle. Yep. So Data's thrashing around this jungle and he comes upon a structure and goes inside and finds an old in there. An old hunched-over, Brent Spiner and cake makeup.

Turns out it's as pappy. Dr. Nunean's zoom, which is the guy who made him. Yeah, and data is still kind of dazed, but there's a great motion control shot here where there's a camera move in it, and Nunean soon walks up to data and reaches up and like pats him on the cheek, which is another run of those things that you see in TV from time to time. I don't think anybody does in real life. Yeah.

No one's like that in real life. Yeah, the effect is pretty good though, right? Like they reach in like another hand from below the screen and pat him. Like you don't see the elbow. It's so great. Yeah, fun. You never want to show that elbow.

No. Like Brent Spiner and the show is doing, like they're doing clump work the entire time. And they're selling it great. Like you can't see any of the lines pretty much. Yeah, it's pretty sophisticated clumping. I would like the volunteer to take this old bird out of a misery. Yes, well, you definitely something like that about model.

Yeah, it's nicely done. I didn't notice any like dirty mats. Like there was a couple of times when the eye line wasn't perfect, but like so few that it was like, yeah, these are, whoever is running the special effects on this is a fucking pro. What kills the eye line effect is another mistake

that betrays it and without a secondary mistake, like you can totally forgive the eye line thing. I'm totally with you. Totally. So, so soon has to like, undase data and that involves sticking a sharp implement into data's mouth in a couple of places. He takes out a prescription sunglasses toolkit and turns his tiny screwdriver inside his mouth? Yeah, it's the tiniest Phillips head he has. Yeah, you don't want to strip that bolt. No, yeah.

Well, on the newer models, they use a torx head, which is a lot harder to strip than a Phillips head. And I prefer it, but... The Riker head always strips the mouth bolt. That was awful. I liked it. I thought it was funny. And that sort of wakes him up.

He turns a couple of screws and data is back to being data again. Without any memory of how he got there. I failed to recall how I arrived here. Data comes back from this trance that he was in. And he is kind of perplexed. It is real slow in this episode, I want to say. He keeps, it really takes him a long time. Every time a new piece of information comes to light,

to like incorporate it into his worldview. And so the first thing that's ahead fuck for him is that Nunean Tsung is alive in the first place. They had all understood Tsung to have been killed by the crystalline entity. And the fact that he's there, the fact that he doesn't remember anything. All of this is tripping him up, and, you know, he's he's confused, like genuinely perplexed.

And, uh, Swing is not like, not exactly Mr. Exposition in this scene, so he's mostly just kind of crazying around and not filling in any of the gaps for data. And Swing in sort of flipping the switch, the homing beacon on data, like completely ignores the idea that he might be doing something important or deadly. Right.

Or whatever, like, what if he hit the switch two weeks earlier? Like, did he take the enterprise away from the interaction with the Borg? Like, yeah, it would be called the board slash data incident yeah like so many old people not reading the room yeah yeah he's not really considering anyone else's uh position on the matter right and he hits the switch so the homing beacon attracts data so that works but unfortunately it also attracts lore well it's like it ahead of ourselves. That's not. Because there's a lot of fun and games before that happens. So let's talk about what Tsune looks like. This is Brent Spiner in makeup that is old man makeup

that is only slightly more advanced than the terrible old makeup that they put Dr. Polaskian in the olden up episode. It's a tighter burlap sack. I don't think it was intentional, but they didn't get far from Dustin Hoffman with this makeup. Oh yeah.

He looks weird and weird enough that I kept thinking like, wait, is that Brent Spiner? No, it is. I know it's to be Brent Spiner, but it looks like it could be somebody else in just weird makeup, you know. They play with height in a way that really helps them too, because yeah, Sings posture is super crouched and he's also made to be a shorter man and he's shot that way too and Data's erect posture and he may or may not be standing on a box during their scenes together like the height disparity helps sell the effect. Yeah, and soon like, he's like, you know, disabled data's communicator. And they're like, he's like got data doing like a bunch of

games, like there's a scene that opens up on data like, rubbing his belly and patting his head and like whistling pop goes to the weasel, which is Datas' favorite song to whistle. Mm-hmm. It's like, soon is really putting him through his paces. He's really impressed that Datacan do three things at once.

It's like taking a cray computer and playing minesweeper on it. To test it, it makes no sense at all. Yeah, that seems to be working okay. Oh, nope. I clicked on one of the bombs. Shit. Yeah, yeah.

God, what a waste. Meanwhile, on the enterprise, like things are not going well with 9-year-old Willie, who's, you know, glowering in his isolation chamber. And there's like, is this a little bit of a boy at a bubble, isn't he? Yeah, there's a scene in here where like, the doctor is like trying to get Willie to feel bad because Jake feels bad. She's like, you know, like, he feels terrible too.

It's like a, it's sort of like victim blaming where he's like, like, you know, he's suffering too, you know? Like, this is not great for his reputation. God, I know. I thought her position was really weird. I have a fucking life threatening parasite lady. I am allowed to be upset about this. I'm about to go full clip show in like the next 20 minutes here.

Oh, you never go full clip show. Yeah, that's how you know you're really sick. Oh. Doctor, how is he? Well, I'd say he's about 20 minutes from full clip show. You better go in and say your goodbyes. Oh my God, they didn't know it was that dire. We're lining up some tapes from some beloved episodes that you may have forgotten. There's one scene that really stood out to me

between data and soon, which I thought was really well executed bit of trek, which is data is like sitting in this crazy, carved Chinese looking antique chair. And I'm sorry, did you, did you mean to say Chinese? Hahaha. It has the greatest chairs, the oldest chairs

from the furthest flung parts of China. Hahaha. Nuneun Su and Kadeel with the Chinese, he deals with them all the time, he rents them apartments, he makes them androids. Believe me, he knows how to deal with the Chinese. He deals with them all the time. He rents them apartments. He makes them Androids believe me. He knows how to deal with the Chinese His name is soon. It sounds a little Chinese. Who knows? Yeah, but yeah

Data is sitting there and and just tosses out the question, why did you make me? And it's an interesting question, and it's an interesting, I mean, it's not the first time in science fiction that a sentient being has had the opportunity to ask this of their creator. But I thought this scene was really well written, so soon sort of engages him in a socratic dialogue about the nature of being a creative and the way humans erects narratives for themselves that extend into the past and potentially into the future. And I think he actually,

like, you know, maybe for the first time in the show, like data asks a question and gets an answer that's in terms that he can fully wrap his head around. Like this doesn't lean on an emotional angle that data can just sidestep, you know? Yeah. I really like this thing. I think it's a great. angle that data can just sidestep. You know, yeah. I really like this thing. I think it's a great, a great bit of dialogue. And they're just kind of wrapping it up when the door opens

and who should walk in at them. But Pac-led lore. Pac-led action kit lore. Yeah. He's just in full dump mode. Yeah, he's super dumpy. He's literally wearing an outfit that is made out of moveers blankets.

Ha ha ha. The blankets you put inside an elevator of an apartment building. Yeah. I think that's what he's wearing. Like no joke, I'm sure that that is what the material is that they use to make this costume. And he's like in total like space-doubt zombie mode when he first comes in the same way

data was. And so there's a scene where a student is like, you know, munking around in his mouth with the glasses toolkit. And data's like, please stop what you are doing. This is dangerous. Lord is a bad person. Yeah. Do I need to tell you about the time we connected his butt to the rest of his parts and turned mom on our ship?

Not great. So when he comes to, he, he tells them that he was floating out in space for a couple years before a pack led ship picks them up. Ben, how badly would you have wanted to see the bottle episode of lore being brought on board the pack led ship and just like their interactions? Whatever brought him to this planet, I would have loved that so much. Oh my God. That's like a, that should be like the, the second comic book in the Pranika Harrison comic book universe. It's like, is like the, the entire story arc taking lore from getting

beamed into space to landing on this planet. Laura is one of the smartest things in the galaxy. Could you imagine him spending any length of time with these packlets? I bet he murdered all of them. How could he not? Well, I mean, either that or like, I mean, he's already like a known manipulator and con artist.

That's sort of the MO of the packlets too, but he's gonna run rings around them. But I could see him like roping them into schemes, you know? Yeah, yeah. Getting them to do his bidding. His dumb bidding. Bidding that they might understand. Mm-hmm.

We look for biddings. Biddings to do for you. Would you like some really dumpy clothes? Clothes that make you look like shit. Once they're all together, songs like Look, it was a mistake. I mean, I didn't know lore was alive, but it's sort of a happy coincidence. We're having a little family reunion right here. The whole reason I flipped the call button on data was because I came up with this phono

motion chip. Yeah. And I think it would be great to install it in your data while lore looks on non-threateningly right and so soon has completely rejected every warning and misgiving that data has out of hand like Every everything that data has said about the crystalline entity and how lore collaborated with it totally and not only data is warning, but like the citizens of the previous planet were like,

this Laura guy is a fucking nightmare. Like this guy is terrible, we hate him, he's no good, turn him off, make a different one. And that was the whole reason he even made data. So I don't understand what Dr. Sings deal is with not believing anyone's opinion about him. I guess it's like the vanity of parenthood, right? I think that's a...

You think your kid is perfect. Yeah, I think that's absolutely the point they're trying to make. And data gets a little like a little bit short-circuited here because he realizes that a bunch of the things that lore told him about him being an imperfect second draft after lore was too good and you know the colonist didn't like him for that reason so data is wrapping his mind around the fact that lore told him a bunch of lies and he just keeps repeating that to himself. It was a lie. Another lie. I am not less perfect than lore.

I am not less perfect than lore. Yeah, he's still not 100%. Yeah, sure. Lore has bounced back from this fugue state much more quickly. But yeah, so the decision to install data with this emotion chip is announced right in Lors Presence, which kind of a dick move is apparent, right? Like, like, we have decided that that you get a cupcake, but not you, twin brothers, like

dick move move yo. Yeah that's not going to go very well. And wouldn't you know it? It doesn't. Yeah. If there's one thing you know about lore it's that his primary move is to pull the old switch aru right? Yeah. He wants to double make gum with data. Yeah, he's going to take off his pajamas and data's pajamas and switch them up. So around this time, the crew has gotten back onto the bridge. They've restored life support and they've shoved a crowbar through one of the doors and gotten it open, warf looking on in awe of this process. Of this door technology?

Yeah, and so they get up there and Warf keys into the computer and he starts trying to like make changes and the computer keeps buzzing at him, saying he doesn't have the proper clearance. And so the ship is basically like dead in the water. Like data has left them totally helpless to re, uh, reactivate the ship. Like you left this like insanely long password, uh, before, right before he left, which, which, you know, it was like, it's almost like a dead air gag on family guy,

how long the password is. Sure. It's like he left the kid in a hot car and just left the car behind. Yeah, which is like, yeah, this goes exactly to what you were saying about how responsible this is of soon. It's like, is it so important for Shing to put this little,

little spare rank pip into Data's neck that he's willing for a nine year old boy to buy the farm because of it? Sure, or millions of other people that could have been put at risk. Like Shing could have sent a subspace transmission like a normal person. Like it would have gotten to him.

Right, if soon had said, hey, data come visit me on planet, whatever, like don't tell anybody, data would have been like, oh man, like I would love to see soon. I'll just like request a leave of absence and go on my vacation and then come back. Sings behavior makes me question his craftsmanship to be quite honest. A lot of geniuses are kind of nuts at the end of the day.

Yeah, I guess so. I mean, he is one in a long, long line of surpassingly brilliant male scientists who have retired to planets where they live alone and go totally nuts in this show. It's true, it's sort of a late motif, huh? It's a big time, it's a big time trope. Yeah. So yeah, he has data up in the stirrups. And you're gonna feel a little bit of pressure.

He gets data's neck open. This is one of the best like opening data ups. I think I can remember. Because it's like a big chunk of his neck folds out, but they're like these right angles. I love the idea that there are imperceptible seams in data data skin. You know?

Yeah, I dig that. And by pushing on a certain spot, it opens up sort of like a gas cap door on some cars. Like some of them have the little finger hold. And others, you just have to press down on to open up. Yeah, yeah. He's a fancier car in that respect. He puts this thing in it, retracts into the neck, and then he flips the flap closed. Soon doesn't realize it immediately, but the second data opens his eyes, it's very obvious that it's lore. And this just goes to Brent Spiner's hilarious performance in this part.

Like he really makes them to completely different characters in a brilliant way. And Lorde, like, doesn't have to keep up the pretense that he's like a reformed and nice guy anymore, because data is off in the other room, and there's nobody to stop him just thrashing soon. And Adam, I don't know if you noticed there's a lot of glass tables in this space, but we managed to find a way for an old man to go through one of them. It's as transparently foreshadowing as like a folding chair in the corner of a wrestling ring.

Just like, we know it's going to get used. Like, there's a banquet table just at ringside. Like, the Spanish announcer's table is what these glass tables have become on the show. Yeah. The Spanish announcer's table is what these glass tables have become on the show. Yeah. I don't know if you watched the stunt, but it's pretty clear that it was like a big piece of plexi and not glass, because I think they make like the broken glass sound effect, but you just see this huge slab of unbroken glass go down underneath it. They fully in the glass breaking key chain toy.

Yeah. Everyone had them. We were a little uh-huh. Boy that seemed like it was going to be a good prank, right? Did you feel like Spiner was more over the top as Laura in this episode than he was in the first lore episode. Yeah, I think he is a little bit more floored in his depiction. To me, he's real Nick KG from Face Off. Like, like he is totally turned up. And I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Yeah, he's totally cast your showing it for sure. Yeah.

I don't know. I liked it. I did too. It just made me wonder, like, did he have to go that broad for stupid viewer, you know? Like, you gotta be able to tell him apart somehow. And then the don't be full of talking in it. There's some different stuff he does with his lips and eyes that I think sell it, but I think it's fun for it. He's a very like, he's a very baroque villain lore.

And it's almost like a, it's almost operatic, the kind of, the kind of disagreement that data and lore have. So I don't mind it. Yeah. And it speaks to the Castor Troy vibes too, because Castor Troy was the same way in of disagreement that data and lore have. So I don't mind it. Yeah, and it speaks to the castor Troy vibes too, because castor Troy was the same way in Face Up. I get the joy! Woo!

Unnecessarily dramatic and demonstrative. Yeah. My love is a people long and tough about which long and thus have little feet. Tell me more, you're not going to. So war slips away and the Enterprise crew is like figured out a way to trick the transporter into letting them beam down and they get down there and they find Nunean soon like crumpled up in a heap on the floor where he got tossed

through the the table and it's really weird. Like they haven't even seen his face and juries. Like, this is Nunean soon. A guy that data didn't even recognize initially. Yeah, well, data doesn't have any memory of them. But you would think that he'd like looked at a picture or something, right? Yeah, you'd think that'd be important.

You'd think that Troy would have shown him the ancestry.com entry. Yeah. It's just a line between two things, Dr. New Lee and Dada. Yeah, it's like, come on, how could you miss it? It's the only other thing on the page. I can't believe I paid $50 for this. Okay. Yeah, so data gets brought out by Warp. He's like turned off still and Riker flips the switch on his back and he's like, ugh. Here I am. And soon tells him how to override the memory block.

And I guess like what he says in Data's presence is enough for Riker to realize that none of this was Data's fault. Still crazy that they continue to trust data implicitly after this. But that's not the first time that's happened. As data grapples with the death of his creator, they play the one song. The one song that this show plays when you really got to have some feels. And that is the dolphin polishing song. Did you notice that? I didn't, but that's great.

Real, Synthy, then it is all right for you to die. I sort of expected in this scene where, you know, it's like, Sings final words to data, like they're saying, like, we got to get you out of here, you're old beat up and you're like, I'm going to die here. And, and hit like data asks, ask everybody else to clear out so that he can have like last words with his father. And I really expected to like disappear and the blanket he was under to like slowly crumple like when Yoda dies. Like it was played for exactly that tone. Yeah it was. But as it was, he just dies like a typical TV old man, doesn't he?

Yeah, I don't think that they actually show his eyes curling up in the back of his head or anything. But he definitely is not long for this world when they leave. Data retrieves him by staring Skyward and doing a super creepy laugh to warn robot God that a robot creator's coming. Yeah, probably that. Yeah. Yeah, and then the little button on the episode

is that they've gotten the kid to the star base just in the nick of time and he's responding well to Treatment and data has given him a couple of the toy dinosaurs that Nunean's sitting at around his his house and he and his brother like back on good terms and playing and Data's like whoa he like forgave his brother. Can you believe it? And I think it's Beverly that says like, yeah, data, brothers forgive each other. Which is so assinine because data's brother tried to murder them many, many times. And this kid faked his own death

and was forgiven for that. So not quite equivalent, Beverly. False equivalence. It's one of the big problems these days. True enough. Bended, you like this episode? I did. I thought that if all of the rest of the episode was terrible, that scene with data talking

to us doing about why he was created was great. And I feel like it gives you, gives you anybody a lot to think about. And I don't know, it's fun to see Spiner, Spiner around a lot. And there were a lot of cool elements. How about yourself? Yeah, I think this episode is emblematic of, like the second half of Star Trek the Next Generation as a series. Like lots of complex sets, a lot of stories having to do with character development,

especially where data is concerned and his character's growth. I think I like the episode as it was, nothing about Willie and his brother rang as sincere or important or, like, it feels like that storyline was only written so Beverly could put her button on the episode. Like, okay, so we know the very last line of the episode

is gonna be brothers forgive. How do we write our way to that line of dialogue? And it feels like that's how they did it. It was that weak. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. So I thought it was an episode that I liked with a lot of problems.

Yeah, and I mean, I'd say that the biggest problem by far is the fact that that in that button, data is just back on the ship and all is forgiven. Like, there is no time given to the idea that data is, like if data's mind can be taken over by one person, what reason do they have to believe that it can't be taken over by somebody else? Oh wait, that's already happened before. It is crazy to keep data around at this point. It's bonkers. It's so bonkers that Picard's hometown mayor

wants to throw him a parade. That's how detached they are from the reality of their situation. Yeah, that is a real mayor of La Bar type situation. Yeah, yeah, and you know what's fucked up is they don't even mention it. It's not like this is a bottle episode after another bottle episode where data does this shit. Or the other episode with the biners where the ship gets stolen.

Like the ship gets stolen many times this series. Data goes off many times and they do nothing to address the problem. It's maddening. And what's so maddening about it is like this could turn into story. You could do something with it. It's not like it's just a dead end where like, well, we can't ride our way out of this one, so let's just ignore it. It's just fucking lazy. Yeah, I totally agree. On a show that depends so much on exposition and character building, like, there you go, we

could have had an entire episode about, you know, like, there's a great tension in the episodes where, uh, where Maddox was brought in to decide whose property data is and, and in what ways to study him for, for the Federation. Like, this could be another chapter in that story. Like, data we love you, but you're dangerous. It's also runs parallel to the old man's storytelling that they do with Seric. And to a lesser degree, Captain Picard himself.

Like, data is great, and we love him, and we care about him, but he can't drive the car anymore. Like, why don't we have an episode like that, and we just don't? Yeah. That was a real tie-rate, Ben. A greatest-gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre- and post-show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it! The Sherry Reembarishment 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 Sherry Reembarishment 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 ball-rock 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 already open,

just pull it out, give Jordan Jessie Goat try. Being smart is hard, be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this.

We've got to get on the art. It is about terrain, it's about historic humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans, but 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 investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two. What do you think?

OnoRossinCari, available on MaximumFund.org. Hey Ben. What's that Adam? You find yourself a drunk Shimoda in this episode? I did. Man, I'm having a tough time deciding between two drunk Shimodas. Do you want to help me break the tie? Sure.

You can sort of like breaking a cookie in half. I had a hard time finding a Shimoda at all, so maybe if you take the half that you want more, I will make the other half my Shimoda. Okay, so my two are as follows. One, number one is Worf, because of a facial expression he makes when he gets back up on the bridge and tries to invoke clearance to like take back over the computer and it tells him he doesn't have alpha-2 clearance. Like, that's a warrior's clearance, Ben. Yeah, Michael Doran's performance is so funny because it's clear that he made a decision that warf, it's been a chip on short Worf's shoulder that he doesn't have this clearance. I love that.

Like, he is fucking pissed. And so that's my first Shimoda. My second Shimoda is Nunean Siung. And it is an actual drunk Shimoda. If you go to the 40 minutes and 22 seconds mark in the episode, you can see this. When they find him slumped in the corner after Laura kicked his ass and bounced, you see him slumped under the bookcase and in the foreground, there is a giant cocktail shaker. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, he's got that Spencer's Gifts-sized cocktail shaker. Yeah, the one where you can make four cosmopolitan ones. I've got one of those. That guy really knows that a party. Yeah, I just, I love the idea of Nunean soon living alone on DeGopha and being like, I want to make a cocktail, but I don't just want one cocktail. I don't want one, because then I'm just going to have to keep making him over and over again. And look at me, I'm old. Yeah, I don't want to have to shake it four times.

Yeah, yeah. Oh man, that's a great call. He knows how to party. Yeah. Good pick. So, do you want to pick one and I'll take the other? I have to say because I own one of those cocktail shakers. I might prefer the shaker, Shimoda. Okay, it's yours. Thanks buddy.

What do we have coming up on the next episode? The next episode is season 4, episode 4. Suddenly human or slick back trilogy. Part 2! Yes! Picard risks war when he refuses to return a human boy to the alien father who raised him and may have abused him. Do you remember this episode, Adam? It's really hard for Picard to let go

of the boys that come into his life, isn't it? I guess so, yeah. I totally, I remember this guy having real Jake vibes to me like almost indistinguishable from Jake If I remember not Jake from not Jake from the episode we just talked about but Jake that Jake the shuttlecraft Jake of Jake in a shuttlecraft fam. Yes Jake of Grand Theft Previa. Yeah. Yeah Um,. I recall very little other than that. Would you care to invoke a veto? Or I am going to do what I mentioned in the last episode, which is if I don't remember an episode,

I'm not going to veto it as a rule. I feel like it's sacrilege to veto a slick back trilogy episode. Oh yeah. Yeah, we can't do that. That would be horrible. We would be monsters if we did that. How are people gonna get the second story in this trilogy? It's impossible. It's like not watching the second Jurassic Park movie and then going to the third Jurassic

Park thinking you're gonna know anything about anything. It's impossible. Can you second Jurassic Park movie and then going to the third Jurassic Park thinking you can know anything about anything. It's impossible. Yeah, break. You just lost. Yeah, you're in the lost world. I tell you that much. So you have no frame of reference here, Donnie. You're like a child.

The wanders into the middle of a movie. You want it up, Walter? What's the point, man? Yeah, no videos for me. What about you? No videos for me. Alright, let's watch it. Adam, before we go on today's episode,

I'm just going to float this. I don't think we're quite ready to announce anything specific, but if you live in the western coast of the United States, there is a strong likelihood that we may be coming to a city near you to do a live episode or two of our show. This will be our first ever tour. So keep your ears peeled and your eyes peeled on our Twitters and Facebooks and everything because we just had like a big meeting and we're getting excited about the idea of maybe doing a tour and I want people to actually come so while we don't have anything specific to announce yet You know I'm looking at Seattle Portland, San Francisco type of places. Yeah

Consider yourselves warned In in the way that we typically do things we we like to announce our intentions, months and months in advance, except in this case, I think, I think we're looking at like November, right? Yeah. Mid November. Yeah, mid November is probably, it's probably when this would happen if and when it does. So if you're fortunate to have a workplace situation

where you can take some time off, just take off all of November right now and then we'll get back to you with some specifics when we have them. Yeah. Call it a sabbatical. Rent that RV, call out the ones. Right, girl, take care of your kids.

Follow us around on tour, it'll be great. We should point people in the direction of maximumfund.org slash donate. That's where hundreds of our viewers go and financially support the show with their own money. Thank you for everybody that that goes and supports the show. We hugely appreciate it and you get to feel like you're helping make this happen every time you hear an episode. It's right. There's a couple other ways that you can support the show too. If you like what we say enough

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It's right. We also appreciate any sort of signal boost you can give us as far as telling friends, co-workers, family members. Writing about us in a major national publication. Throw in us a review on the iTunes. Yeah. Or where have you? We're like in Striking distance of 800 as of this recording. That's pretty cool. Pretty great

We should thank dark materia for our music and Adam Regusia for our other music Thank you both for all of the jam and tunes people here on this show and Thanks to all of our listeners for viewing. It's been fun recording an episode here with you this week Adam. Thanks Ben. It's been fun for me too. With that we will be back at you next week.

See sincerity doesn't play on this show. It just doesn't. No, yeah we should never have tried it. Another great episode of Star Trek, the next generation and a... Slickback! Episode of the Greatest Generation. Make it sound. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture.

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