Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 058: (TOS S02E05) The Apple

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Kirk and crew beam down to a primitive planet that worships a machine named Vaal. But when Vaal demands the landing party become his latest sacrifice, Kirk must find a way to convince the primitives to spare them - or die trying. We sing "Akuta Matata" as we discuss Star Trek Season 2 episode "The Apple." Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Twitter | TikTok | YouTube Drop us an email at [e-mail]! “Warp Speed” and "To the Stars" was written and performed by William Grobbelaar Music: https://soundcloud.com/williamgrobbelaarmusic Additional artwork by George Rateau: https://www.fiverr.com/georgerateau

Hey everyone, welcome back to yet another episode of yet another Star Trek Podcast. That's right, I say yet another so many times. My name is Majid. I'm one of your hosts for the evening. With me is my good friend Drew, who has the calves of a retired mailman. Or if you're feeling spicy, the calves of a rotisserie chicken. Hi, Drew. That's right, man. That chicken's been basted all night. That sounds interesting.

You know, I just I just want to say you missed an opportunity to use yet another yet another. Because you're back for yet another episode of yet another Star Trek podcast. I'm one of your hosts and here's yet another host. That's so crazy. I my mind doesn't think that way. Our third host, Brad, he's around. He's somewhere just not in this recording with us. He is, I don't know.

I think this would be a great time to play a game with our listeners, maybe drop in the comments somewhere where you think Brad is and where what do you think Brad is doing? We can get as crazy or as realistic as possible. So I'd love to hear what everyone thinks on where Brad is. I had heard that he had gone on a casting call to be a part of Survivor. They sent them home, but he just stayed there anyway. Yeah, I heard Brad was just naked and afraid somewhere. I did hear about a casting couch, but I don't know if it was

for a show. I think that was on the bus. You know what? This is how we get demonetized. We don't make any money anyway. Well, we're not going to show him on the couch. So I guess that's good. We're not going to show on the bus either.

This isn't a Boimler situation, is it? Although Brad probably would scream the same exact way once he realized what was happening. Legs of spread black box God oh poor Brad the things you do for your family and for fame Hey Drew, how are you doing buddy? Oh, man, I'm doing all right. I'm I'm tired, you know, it's uh, I All right. I'm, I'm, I'm tired. You know, it's, uh, I spend, I spend like one of my days off just catching up on miss sleep. Cause I worked like a God awful schedule and you know, it is what it is. So, so yesterday it was kind of a wash today. I actually put some jeans on and tried to be a little productive and, you know, I think, uh, I think I did

all right for myself, you know, baby steps, right? Yeah, no, totally. You got to work out in. That's great. Did you do legs today? I do legs every day, buddy. Right. Because you have to climb stairs in your house. Right. Well, no, I live on a I live on a ranch, so there are no stairs.

But no, I mean, in all seriousness, though, most of my workouts are full body. So I'm at least doing squats or lunges every workout. Unfortunately, with my schedule, I'm only working out like twice, maybe three times a week. So, you know, not the most effective routine, but it's the thought that counts. I wonder if you could survive a leg workout with me. I probably wouldn't be able to do the weight that you're putting up, but I bet you I can go with you.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, there's some days I train for just volume. So just adding weight and see what you can do and obviously with proper form. I've got, I'm gonna have weekends off for a little while soon, so maybe we can make that happen. Oh man, I would love it. There's a gym in North Haven, Connecticut.

It's called Monterey Brothers Powerhouse. I've heard of it. They're not paying me. I'm not paying them because I don't have a membership there. I went there once. And I love it there. I love it there.

It's like an old school bodybuilder gym. And they have so many different leg torture workout machines. Well, I can assure you that I have no business being in that place. So, you know, maybe we could just stick to your regular gym or my garage. My regular gym is your garage. Remember you worked through it in a day. So that's why the doors were left open. So that's why Metro is always fed. You know, funny story though. Let me, this is an interesting segue to a story I had not planned on telling on air. Okay. All right.

So we've been noticing that both of our cats, Dax and Metro, have been curious to in regards to the basement. Right. And we don't have a particular reason for keeping them out of there. Our basement is fairly empty. We just have some stuff. But I just don't want them getting in the habit of going down into the basement because there's a a very narrow breezeway that connects the basement door in the kitchen, uh, to the garage. Right.

And both our, our house is an older house. So all of our doors close with various and various degrees of effectiveness, which is to say that the kitchen door and the garage door don't really close unless you slam them, right? So a couple of times we've come home from running errands or wake up in the morning and go into the kitchen and the door in the kitchen to the basement has been open and I'm thinking to myself, well, you know, maybe we just didn't close it all the way or something like that, right? Apparently, what I didn't realize was that Dax had been opening the

door and going down into the basement without us knowing. And so my wife comes home from running errands one day, she sees that this door is open. And she's like like, oh one of us must have left it open a jar It blew open swung open on its own. She goes and closes it shut and and then we're like we're chilling in the house and we realized that we haven't seen Dax for a little while and We think he's probably just in the bedroom sleeping or something. Maybe he's under the bed All of a sudden we start hearing like this very muffled meow All of a sudden we start hearing like this very muffled meow. This poor guy got locked in the basement because he had opened the door, wandered downstairs. We didn't see him. And then we closed the door on him.

So cats are known for their revenge, right? Hey, it was his fault. Yeah, that that's victim blaming. He deserved it. He had it coming. I'm no lawyer. I just watched a lot of lawyer TV shows, and I'm pretty sure that's victim blaming. So I will say objection.

Okay. It's been or was it? No. Phoenix, right? All right. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I definitely definitely messed that up I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give you my finger though. All right, as long as you don't give me the merit either. Oh I haven't well listen. That was a Brad thing. I did that just to get into Brad skin, but yeah, but Brad's Brad's. Yeah Brad's Tour in the country

With the insane clown posse. So he's a jiggle. Oh, goodness. That'd be a good that'd be a good Photoshop. Yeah. So real sexy. We got we got an episode of Star Trek today. Yeah, we did. We did. And it was a very sexy episode of Star Trek today. Yeah, we did. We did. And it was a very sexy episode of Star Trek. I can't wait to get into it.

So why don't we just jump into it? Yeah, let's get started, man. Let's talk about season two, episode five, the Apple. The Enterprise crew discovers a seemingly idyllic planet called Gamma Trianguli 6, but Paradise quickly turns into a bananical battlefield. Mysterious flowers spew venomous darts and red-shirted ensigns drop like flies faster than the Klingons' one-liners. It's a horticultural horror show and Kirk smells danger more pungent than a Ferengi's steal. So many puns. Oh, that's okay. I'm sorry. Continue. Continue. Continue. As the crew investigates, rocks start exploding and well after three men bite the dust, they finally

encounter the locals, the feeders of Val. However, the serpent of trouble slithers in when they discover that the Valiants worship a godlike entity named Val, which is literally just a cave entrance that looks like a snakehead and has glowing eyes and fangs and sharp pointy teeth. Cute Spock's raised eyebrow and McCoy's medical skepticism as they ponder the true nature of this divine gardener. So we spend about a good 20 minutes of this episode with the crew wandering around wondering why they're getting picked off one by one by various things in this garden of Eden. And then they finally come across this one valiant.

He's been hiding and watching them in the shadows right Kirk punches him once this dude starts crying this dude is jack like he is not small he's shredded he takes a punch to the face and cries I love that because Kirk's like, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to hurt you after I just punch you in the face. He's crying. Oh my God. You hit me with your hand. It's like, well, he's like, I won't hit you again. It just screams domestic abuse.

Yeah. I've had that same conversation with my wife. Was she saying it to you? Yeah, she's like, Yeah, but you just well, I'm like, No, you just hit me. Yeah. I mean, it's my fault that I should have put the dishes away properly. Yeah, yeah. And you shouldn't have fallen down those stairs either. I shouldn't have ran into that door. Oh, this is gonna come back to bite her in the butt. Yeah. So what do you think of this episode so far? Up to this point?

I think that going from mirror mirror to this, I thought I was like, this is not going to really be that good of an episode. But I think it was interesting enough. We have more transporter problems and you would think, yeah, you know, after the last time you'd fix it. But no, still got more transporter problems. Look, man, I think you're going to come to realize that the transporters always broken. Oh, really? Is that like is the term McGuffin?

Am I using that right? I don't know but but sure Why not? Alright So anyway Kirk faces a prime directive dilemma as a crew debates whether or not to interfere with the value his way of life In while back on the ship Scotty is desperately trying to figure out how to deal with the enterprises engines issues That are conveniently causing the ship to pull into a decaying orbit around the planet. With red shirts diminishing faster than the ship's coffee supply and the Enterprise about

to crash land, Kirk decides it's time for some 23rd century warfare. He orders the Enterprise to fire phasers at Val, who exhausts its energy reserves and self-defense and basically kills itself in the process. Scotty says the enterprise is on the men and Kirk orders engineers to swing by vowel when they're done. As the Valiants face a world without their God like Gardner, Kirk tells the villagers to wink, wink, nudge, nudge and say no more when it comes to discovering their humanity. But on the ship, Spock questions if they've just driven the villagers out of paradise like in biblical Genesis. Not not the Star Trek to Genesis.

That's different Genesis. Kirk McCoy wonder if anyone on the ship could possibly play the role of Satan. Well, I guess it's you, Mr. Spock. To sum up the episode, don't stop to smell the roses because it might have darts. Don't stop to eat an apple because it might just be a snake in a cave. And don't step on any rocks because they might explode. Well said. What's up with those exploding rocks, man?

I don't know. The rock that I'm familiar with doesn't explode. Who? He's just explosive. Wait, no, you're not doing this to me again. I'm familiar with doesn't explode. Who? He's just explosive. Wait, no, you're not doing this to me again. I, listen, for the listener, wherever you are, Drew likes to mess with me when it comes

to Dwayne the Rock Johnson. The one listener. To the listener, the one listener. That's accurate. I mean, we have, yeah, we have others. We have two. I mean, yeah., yeah, we have others. We have two. I mean, yeah. Listen, stop it.

Drew likes to mess with me when it comes to the rock. And I showed him, I was proud of my Project Rock t-shirt that I got from Under Armour today, and Drew's like, who's that? I'm like, shut up, after I cried internally. Well, I still don't know who Project Rock is, but the shirt looked nice. That's just like, you know, listen, I still don't know who Project Rock is, but the shirt looked nice.

That's just like, you know, listen, I have to, if we don't support the rocks, various financial endeavors, who will? Anyway. So is the enterprise like the horniest ship? It sure does feel like it, right? Like I think everybody on the enterprise is going to bone town all the time. Like they are like checkoff today. That was, oh man, that was slimy. Oh goodness. He's not having a way to get you alone for a long time. Oh man. Yeah. Not a fan of that. If HR was there, right.. Right. Even even Scotty in this episode was like, boy, I'd sure like to go down to the planet and see

some gardens and stuff. We had a lot of sass in this episode. Yeah. Which I love sass. I love sass from bones because it's just, you know, it's classic bones. But we also got it from from Spock. Yeah, there's Spock gets shot in the chest with roses. He then gets propelled backwards by the force field. And he got he got lightning to lightning. He got lightning. Oh, right. At the end. Yeah. And Kirk is like, oh force field

He's like no Sherlock God yes, I took a beating in this episode. Yes, back to the spot like a beating and bones I think we finally get the he's dead gym quote, um Well, we've had that um We had Variations of it anyway. Okay. I think in this one, I think you just said he's dead.

Oh, I don't think he said he's dead, Jim. But but we've gotten that already. I'm almost positive. Uh, yeah, that's I, man, it's like this is so much going on in this episode. There was just so much going on. I won't lead on if I thought it was a good or bad episode. I want to save that for the review. But the culture was being kept alive, right?

The followers of Val. They're being kept alive by this machine. And there's a certain number of them. So. Who is it this who was with them, the woman that was with them, the Yeoman? Uh huh. What the hell's her name? Yeoman Martha Landon, who was apparently a ninja in real life. I don't know.

Did you see her throwing down at that fight in the end of the episode though? Oh my God. Oh my God. That fight was fantastic. She she did a judo thrower jujitsu throw on one dude and then kicked another one in the face. Oh, that fight by the way. I'm pretty sure that

That Chuck off kicked the guy in the nuts That sounds like something check off would do Yeah, I didn't man check off just what a what a horn dog That that check off guy. Yeah But yeah, no she was she was definitely throwing down she went to the the Kirk school of combat survival I think she's teaching there Yeah, I will say though that the fights have definitely gotten better this season, you know, you know these are these are fights that I'm I'm less inclined to roll my eyes at so they they've they put more of a budget, more of an emphasis.

Maybe William Shatner took some combat training too. Who knows? Yeah, I think the camera work has been better. You know, they've been, I think, showing the fights in a more action packed manner, you know, getting some interesting angles. Like I think about in Mirror Mirror when Spock was fighting five people at once and they had this above view from like the ceiling looking down on him, just manhandling, you know, the guys from the prime universe.

So we had some pretty dynamic shots in this one too, you know? Yeah. So it's either they are hiring more experienced, um, cinematographers, uh, or, or camera operators, or they're just paying for better camera rigging. Cause that's the least I think. Probably both. It's probably both. But no, I would agree with you.

I think, you know, this, the season definitely is more action packed and appealing in that way. I want to get back to the sass. The sass that Bones had when he found out that the people, the inhabitants of that planet weren't allowed to touch. His response so quickly is like, oh, does this sound like paradise anymore? Oh, Bones. There were some cute, quiet moments that I also appreciated when they were kind of sitting around and they were like, Hey Spock, you're the science officer. Why don't you explain how the birds and the bees works to our Yeoman here? Yeah. I was, I was, it was a wholesome, cringy moment, I will say. Well I believe it's safe, safe to assume that they would receive the necessary instructions.

And McCoy's like, from a machine? That I'd like to see. Yeah, clearly internet porn had not been invented back then. What did you think of the leader of the Val? What was his name? Akuta. Akuta Matata. It's a wonderful phrase. Yeah. So I couldn't help. I couldn't shake the feeling that we've met him

somewhere before. The actor. Who was he? I hadn't thought about his voice sounded so familiar. Hang on. So this guy's name is Keith Andes. Rest in peace. He passed away about 19 years ago. He has such a unique voice. It feels like I've heard his voice before, but just can't place it unless he just sounds similar to somebody else. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure. I mean, like, you know, looking at some of his roles, you know, he's been in a lot of things, but nothing in particular that would, you know, stand out to me anyway. Hmm. Cat's a secret. Yeah.

So during the fight scene at the at the end, I kept rewinding it. And my wife was walking by before she goes to her adjunct professor. That's just me like shouting her out real quick. She's an adjunct professor. That's all of it. I kept rewinding it because I'm like, wait, are these guys not wearing anything underneath the loincloth?

And she's like, what are you doing? I said, I'm pretty sure that guy's junk was visible. She's like, there's no way I said no, look, enhance, enhance. Honestly, it was so low definition that I'm gonna have to revisit the topic at a certain point. Go ahead and let us know about that. I'm, I'm, I'm not going to be pursuing that, but yeah, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to probably back off of that before the horny police get me. Yeah. Yeah. What did you think of Scotty in charge? You know, I, I like Scotty being in charge, You know, he's he's technically third in command of the ship and says Kirk and Spock insist

on going on all these, you know, death defying away missions all the time gives him an opportunity to be on the bridge. And we've seen a lot more Scotty this season, right? Like his goal in the cast is definitely elevated. So big fan of that. You know, I felt like there was some micromanaging from Kirk, though, to try to get Scotty to fix the ship as if Scotty wasn't going to fix the ship or at least try right. He kept telling him he's fired.

Right. It doesn't work that way. You have to bring him down to the planet and then shoot him. That's how you get fired in this universe. Yeah. Like seriously, you're stranded on the planet and you're telling your officer that he's fired. Let's say you weren't joking for a second. What's to stop him from just leaving your ass there?

The gravitational pull. That's to stop him from just leaving your ass there? The gravitational pull. That's what's stopping him. You see the implication? No, no. The implication is what Chekhov was using on the Yemen. Right, right, right. Yeah. Fair. And if no one's familiar with that term, just look up the implication. It's always sunny in Philadelphia. And.

You're welcome, because it's the classic type of it's always sunny in Philadelphia. Quote, I have a feeling you don't even need to put sunny in the in the search. Just put it the implication. OK, probably all you need. Right. put it the implication. Okay, probably all you need right because of the implication So who have we seen in charge So far, so we've seen Clearly we've seen Kirk in charge. We've seen Spock in charge We've seen oh we've seen Sulu in charge too too. Yeah, we haven't seen Charles in charge.

Nice. Nice. I'm going to high five the camera. That was a good reference. Thank you. Thank you. Right. So we've seen, Frank's is going to love you for the facts. So we've seen Sulu in charge and Mirror Mirror. Have we seen Chekhov in charge? Or is he still too young for that? Well, he's an ensign, so he would be like last on the block.

Provided he doesn't get fired for sexual harassment. Right. Yeah. I don't know. Chekhov like, his character is kind of, I'm not sure how I feel't know. Check off like his character is kind of. I'm not sure how I feel about it, because like they're diving in and, you know, channeling his wit pretty nicely. You know, I liked some of the like some of the lines he's had, you know,

talking about the Garden of Eden outside of Moscow. I thought that was fun. But also, like, I feel like he's just kind of rude to the captain. So I'm not really sure. Like, like, here's this ensign who's just coming in just barely out of the academy. And, you know, he's just thrown down and talking trash with the captain. Like, he's just one of the boys.

Yeah, a little weird. It's it's the kind of environment that Kirk Foster's apparently. I guess. I don't know. Picard would have shut that down. Picard's a better captain. And you're saying that you haven't even seen a single episode. I love Patrick Stewart.

Yeah, he's dreamy, isn't he? Yeah, I got to the episode of the Simpsons where he plays I guess himself Talking about his bald head. Uh-huh Fantastic. I love it now that you've read the book and he did talk about this in the book, too You have to track down the scene where he plays across from Ricky Gervais in extras oh He did talk about that. Yeah where he plays a cross from Ricky Gervais in Extras. Oh, he did talk about that. I'll have to send that to you later on. That's really funny.

Okay. So apparently there's this episode, it deals with the concept of a seemingly utopian society, which, man Which it's. It's a far cry from what we have today, you know. Yeah, this place was peaceful. And it was untouched, mostly untouched by man. Right. More or less. Yeah.

Yeah. The machine is keeping them alive. But now what happens? What happens after Kirk has... Wow. Doesn't he mess with the Prime Directive here? Well, yeah, they're kinda talking about that. And yeah, I would say Kirk absolutely violated the Prime Directive.

He interfered with the natural order of this society They say what I know like they need to get rid of like get off the planet and maybe Destroying vol was the only way to do it. But by destroying vol they also destroyed this this culture's natural evolution and like Spock was saying the entire time, whether or not we agree with their methods, they're healthy, right? Like they're clearly surviving, they're flourishing. So who are we to say that what they're doing is wrong?

Because they're not harming anybody else. They're not. And the only reason why they were gonna harm the crew, Shranded, is because they did mess with the natural order of things. Right. Because Chekov was a horn dog. Right. Yeah, they would have been fine otherwise. Yeah, they saw they saw Chekov putting the moves on that girl and they're like, yeah, yeah, all because of the Yeah. All because of the implication.

All because of the implication. He's clearly not going to say no. The the plants, the ones that shot the red shirt for Scott. I laughed. I said, this is why Kirk has you sitting in front of him. Yeah. So like at first I thought it was like a camera just kind of panning slowly. And I thought I was going to like zoom in or maybe it's like one of those submarine

things, you know, like coming out of the water looking around. I had no idea it was just going to proceed to like spit darts at people. You know? Yeah. I had. Yeah. I hadn't considered the possibility of there being this subterranean level where people are watching him. I did think someone was watching him, though, from inside the cave. I thought we're going to see some type of creature or giant IBM fax machine.

Yeah. Real real missed opportunity with the cave. Like they could have shown us so much more. Yeah. With the creepy green eyes like, yeah, they could have explored a little more with that. I agree. But I mean, not just still not a bad way to go. Though Kirk was wrong in blowing that thing up. Well, I mean, how was he going to get off the planet, though? Right. I feel like he could if he was a little more diplomatic, he could have worked with

Akuna. Yeah, Kuda Akuda. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe you're right. You know, maybe he jumped to the let's blow it up plan a little too quickly. Yeah, they I mean, we I still have to remember that they TV back then, even TV now network TV and broadcast basic TV still deals with commercial breaks. So you have to still contain within.

I think this episode without commercials is 50 minutes. I think that's what it was. That sounds about right. Without. Yeah. 50 minutes. And that includes a three minute title sequence. Right.

And not to mention the end credits. So that's what let's call that 43 minute episode. Right. At that point, you have to get a three act structure, establish the plots, the conflict and the overall resolution. And it's a lot to pull into. So I guess we really can't blame them. I say we look at like Discovery now, Discovery can pull off like a legit 58, 59 minute episode. Right.

You know, even if there's an act break, there's not necessarily a commercial. And there were, if you're an ad free, there were episodes of discovery, if I'm not mistaken, that were less than 40 minutes long. So yeah. So like when you're in the streaming world, like you have that freedom, you know, you don't have to necessarily abide by that strict structure. My wife and I just finished watching For All Mankind. We're caught up with that now. And there are some episodes that were 50 minutes.

The season finale that we just watched was an hour and 16. So, you know, we're not held to these standards of of commercial breaks anymore. We still get it. Obviously, there's still a lot of TV that's that's formatted for commercial breaks. And a lot of these shows after they've aired on streaming, they live life on networks that have commercials. So they do have to keep it in mind to some degree, but it's not as strict as it used to be by any means.

Yeah. If you had the opportunity to redo this episode in like today times, you know, um, today types. What am I a newspaper writer? Extra extra read all about it. We're going to today times. I'm not flexible enough to be one of those newspaper guys. Extra extra. I can't hear you. People said anyway, so if you had to, if you had the opportunity to redo this episode in modern times, what would you

do differently? I think I'd get to the... I'd get to Akuta faster. I think if you bring him in quicker, then that gives you more room to explore the villagers and explore vol. Cause like, we still don't really know what vol was about. We just know that, you know, they brought him gifts and stuff and he provided for them allegedly, right. But how did vol work?

How did it get there? What did it really do? We don't know. Okay. So a little more backstory for you. Yeah. Anything else you change? I mean, I think that's a big one. How about you? Same. I would want to know more about Same. I would want to know more about Val. And I think the way that I would do that... Well, first of all, I wouldn't have it destroyed. I wouldn't have it destroyed.

I would bring out the negotiation and diplomatic side of Kirk. So after he fights with the Vol followers, and he wins and there's a standoff, you would then switch to this diplomatic Kirk, saying, hey, look, we can kill you right now. We won't. We can, you know, we can destroy your way of life, but we're not going to, so why don't we work together to come to a resolution?

Safely. Yeah. And let's say that that wasn't an option. Then yeah, sure, let's destroy it, but let's also explore that cave, the wreckage. Yeah. Let's see what Val actually was. And then you have to make sure those people

are set up after you leave. Well, that would have to be a point I would need to make. Like, hey, yeah, there are some Starfleet crfleet crates with food of replicator, things like that. If you've already violated that prime directive, then, you know, making them, I guess, a part of the Federation. Is that that's a thing, right? It's a process. It's a little bit more than just that. But there's no reason that the Federation wouldn't be able to provide for them until they're able to, you know, kind of take care of themselves. Right.

Because you just destroy their means of survival. So if Starfleet is truly about the people and exploration and peace, then I would want to make sure that that gets across in the episode. And you see those people being set up for life. And that effort is made. Right. I probably wouldn't call Spock Satan either. Yeah, that was a bad joke.

I really didn't see the humor in that. Yep. I mean, if anything, Kirk is Satan. I would agree. And it seems like that was I feel I feel horrible the moment they came out of my mouth I'm so sorry what I'm Shatner please don't sue me yeah I know a lawyer though so I might be okay yeah I don't know if I can afford her though I don't think you can I don't know if I can afford her, though. I don't think you can. I don't think I can. Anything else you want to get off your chest about this episode?

I think that pretty much covers it, man. Maybe we should find out what Brad's doing to see if he has any thoughts in this episode first, though. Who's that? Brad. Doesn't ring a bell. Oh, he's a he's a follower of all as well. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. Where in the world is Brad? Hello. Can you hear me?

The signal keeps cutting out. I'm on a planet with adult Oompa Loompas. They haven't broken out in Song and Dance yet, but they are killing people because of the volcanoes God told them to. The apple clearly has fallen very far from the tree, and honestly I think I need to smack the crap out of Adam and Eve here. If I were on a podcast giving this planet a score I would probably go with a deadly seven for danger. Yeah a definite seven for All right, buddy, why don't we give this thing a score? What do you say? Yeah, I

Give Brad a zero No, no the episode oh Okay, so I No, no, no, the episode. Oh, okay. So I like this. So why don't you tell me what you think I'm going to score it? I think you're going to give it a six. Oh, my God. You're actually spot on. You're actually spot on.

I would absolutely give this episode a six. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. It wasn't as bad as you and I thought it would be. No, you know, no, really wasn't. You know, it wasn't it wasn't a complete letdown. Unlike unlike Brad's disappearance is let down for me. You know, it had.

This is the first time we've seen this kind of utopia on Star Trek, right? Because I don't remember this from before. Something like this. Yeah. Yeah. Even with who mourns the Adonis, it was just one guy living on a planet by himself. Right. So we've never encountered any kind of primitive civilization like this before. Yeah.

So I think this was a good introduction for me, at least, for that. And, you know, like we said, in terms of updating this episode or redoing it, what I think would be a good modern episode, you know, it doesn't take anything else away from how good or bad this episode was. I just think it was an okay episode. I could have it on. I could probably have it on in the background of doing something and glance over and be like, huh? Hey, I wouldn't put it on by choice. So, you know, there's that.

So, yeah, definitely a six. Definitely not a letdown. So what do you think I'm going to give it? I think you're going to give this episode a five. Now I'm right there with you, buddy. Six actually. Nice. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm on the same page as you with that. What I liked about this episode was I think it was a solid self-contained story. Right. I don't think it went too far, too far astray with what it was looking to tell. But I do think that I had a couple of missteps along the way. They could have leaned into the prime directive implications much more strictly than they did.

They just kind of glossed over it. And at the end of the day, it didn't seem like it really mattered. Right. Yeah. And like the prime directive is and should be a big freaking deal. Right. Like you're literally interfering in a culture. Right. Like they have that for a reason. So that. Yeah. And just thinking like episodes that you've seen.

Strange New Worlds. Right. reason so that and just thinking like episodes that you've seen strange new worlds, right? That culture that started developing warp capable nukes. Remember that? That was like the first episode. Yeah. Of the first. Yeah. It was like the very first episode of the show, right? Yeah.

Like that's basically the prime directive at work and why they don't allow any kind of technological sharing or cross contamination like that. Right. And Kirk's just like, oh, yeah, we're going to blow up the thing that keeps you alive and then go have fun figuring it out. Here's some condoms. See you suckers. Oh, man. But but that said, I was compelled the entire time I was watching it. I did not find myself looking at my phone all that often,

which I do think is a barometer of how interesting an episode is, unfortunately. Yeah. And I would definitely if if I'm channel surfing, I'd leave it on wouldn't choose it out of a playlist, but certainly wouldn't be opposed to watching again. Definitely surpassed my expectations. I walked in this expecting Oompa Loompas. Like the little purple people. Yeah. Like like from from Willy Wonka.

They're not purple. They're red with white hair. Oh, I'm not going to get political, so I will. Oh, wait. I'm going to say I'm sorry. They have green hair. My mistake. OK. Yeah, I won't get political, so I'm not going to say what I'm going to say. I don't get it. So you're going to tell me off air. I'm not going to. I'm definitely going to tell you off air. I'm definitely going to tell you off air. Oh, goodness.

But yeah, I'm going to stick with the six. OK, all right. And we'll just guess what Brad gave it. A DNF did not finish. Did not finish. All right. What do we got next week? Oh, man, I'm excited for this one. I was surprised when this episode finished playing and the next one queued up very excited for the doomsday machine. The enterprise or tell me more. The enterprise discovers a weapon capable of destroying

entire planets and a star fleet flag officer whose crew was killed by the machine, jeopardizes the crew on a crazed mission of revenge. Can't wait. Oh yeah. No, I thought that you were taking a dramatic pause. No, no, no. That was it. That was a, that was a description.

Oh man. That's, um, that's going to be interesting. Yeah, all right. I can't wait to jump into it. I am. That's how you know the secret. Yeah, yeah. I watched the episode, The Apple.

Two hours before we had to record fresh on your mind. Yeah, I know that after the last time we watched mirror mirror, you're like, all right, I'm going to jump right in. I'm going to jump on the Apple and I'm sitting here quietly like, uh-huh. I'm not going to make any promises like that. And how to tell you no secret.

Yeah. Part of me couldn't wait for the episode to end so I could watch the PlayStation state of play. Oh, anything good? I didn't get to watch it because I was being a good boy. I was being a good cohost and I didn't watch it. So I'll check it out later. I appreciate you.

I appreciate you too, buddy. Oh, snap looks like PS5 has a new rock video game. What are you doing, man? You do it to me. You're killing me. I want to go look at it now for everyone else. This was an episode of Star Trek. This was an episode. It wasn't great. It wasn't

bad. I would absolutely love to hear everyone's thoughts on this one. So, you know, what would you change? Like, you know, like I said, I have my things I think would take it and bring it into the modern times. Was Shakov truly a horn dog or am I just a prude? I mean, tell me how I'm wrong and yell at me in the comments. So again, I could hear anything about any of the things that we said today. So let me have it. Yes, let him have it.

Let you have it too. Keep me out of it. Unless I'm right, in which case, tell me I'm right. Right. Tell him he's right. And rub his head just gently. Yeah. Yeah. Well, until next time, everyone. See you next week.

Peace, love and soul. You know, you say see us see you next week, but it's every two weeks. I know. Don't don't do that to me. See you in two weeks. Thanks everybody for listening to yet another Star Trek podcast. We're a part of the Retro Sessions Network. This episode was recorded on January 31st, 2024.

I'd like to thank you for tuning in and listening. We have all kinds of links available in our show notes. If you want to check us out on social media, we're not difficult to find. Everywhere you can think of. We are at yetanotherstpod. That's on Twitter or X. Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram. We don't really use all of them, but you should follow us there anyway because you never know when we might start posting on one of those social medias again.

Of course we've got a website www.yetanotherstpod.com and of course that has links to our YouTube page as well. RSS links for iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you can think of you can listen to us. We're available. We also have two very special people that we'd like to thank. First up, William Grubhullar, he wrote all the original music for the podcast, that includes Songs of Warp Speed and To the Stars. Check him out on SoundCloud, lots of great work there, due to Genius. Also, another genius, George Ratao, who took the time to draw us up

like lower-deck characters. So you can buy the link in the show notes there. You can commission George for some fine work as well. Of course, we'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you would change in this episode, the Apple, so be sure to grab us on one of those social media platforms mentioned before and let us know.

Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.