Yellow Cake Bakery (ENT S3E7)

Here's to the finest crew in starving.

When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me.

This is a parody.

Paramount owns the song.

Welcome to the Greatest Generation.

It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast.

I'm Adam Prannica.

I'm Ben Harrison.

You like Star Trek jokes, Adam?

Yes.

I came up with one the other day.

I wanted to run by you, see if I can get a silent laugh or no laugh at all.

Yeah, I got to tell you, I think there's a legion of FODs listening right now thinking I am exactly the wrong person.

Yeah, this is like test this out on Charlie Brown thinking that Lucy is not going to pull the football away.

Yeah.

This time I'm really going to kick it.

Do you think that Quark has ever said the following in the process of romancing a lady?

Hey girl, I got an ear infection and the only cure is umoxicillin.

Yeah, that's good.

That's really good.

Oh, this is this is the new thing.

This is the form of approval I'm allowed on this show.

I strongly believe that a laugh is something you take from someone.

That was really funny, Ben.

I put it on Blue Sky and it didn't really get the reaction I was hoping for.

I thought I was going to be like the main character of Blue Sky for the day, you know?

The dozens of people over there would lift me up on their shoulders and parade me through the most obscure town square on the internet.

Just imagine seeking the approval of strangers on a social media platform.

What is this?

10 years ago?

I mean, I wasn't seeking it.

I was trying to take it from them, you know?

Yeah, I like that.

I like that aggression.

I like that ambition.

I wanted to get that shit.

Ben, I got Ben drink drunk last night.

No kidding.

Yeah, in my mind, the definition of that is cruising along, being responsible about your alcohol consumption, and then throwing a crazy drink on top of everything.

Uh-huh.

I'm out of town with my wife.

We're celebrating a career achievement of hers and taking a few nights away from home.

And we were having a nice dinner last night.

We're not going to dox your wife and say what the career achievement was, but let's just say someone's moving up in the old Trump administration.

It was delicious wine all the time, afternoon and in the evening.

Why did I decide to order once dinner's done?

Like plates are getting picked up, would you like a dessert?

Why did I order a strawberry Mai Tai?

Hell yeah.

And let me tell you, brother, the lights went from flickering to just out at that point.

I was a ghost ship that night.

Wow.

Wow.

So you didn't recover much of what happened post-Mai Tai.

Could there have been more drinks?

I recall it with shocking accuracy.

It was just the degree to which the things that I did or said made any sense

afterward.

And, oh, brother.

My body's reaction to what I did to it last night

continues.

Dang.

Did the broad not come into it?

Did we not employ our customary prophylaxis?

Here's what I'll say about Broad.

Broad, a product I love, believe in, and am a full-throated sponsor of.

I can't sleep when I take that stuff.

It gooses my heart rate in such a way where I'm like, oh, I can't sleep.

My heart's pounding out of my chest.

So a largely sleepless night last night without a headache, which is why I take Broad.

I do not have a headache hangover, but I just feel underslept and a little stomach distress.

Fuck, welcome to my world.

Yeah.

I get that without even having had the fun of a revelrous prior night.

Can't wait to leave your world, Ben.

Fucking sucks.

I was thinking about getting myself a neuropsych evaluation to see if I'm not just depressive and anxious, but also

like neurodivergent in some way or something.

And I was describing some of my symptoms to hold on.

We have an entire audience of FODs with an opinion about this.

Yeah, that's what I was inviting.

Are you ready to be repopularized on a minor social media website?

Because I think this is going to be more popular than the joke.

Yeah, I described that and I was like, you know, all pretty much under control.

And she was like, you might think that.

You know?

That is a neuro doctor's version of that was funny yeah it really was yeah man what's wrong with you that makes you think this

let's let's work this out on the show i don't know uh i mean i've basically been in one form or another of mental health care for 25 years i don't think we're any closer to getting to the bottom of that yeah

You're on the precipice of a very popular article in JAMA or something.

Yeah.

Jama, the professional pajamas wearers quarterly

for sleeping comfortably.

Yeah.

You know, these fucking professional pajama wearers out here forcing their ideology on all of us, they JAMA it down our throats.

Not quite as good as the first joke, but still pretty good.

Okay.

I mean, it's not a Star Trek-themed joke.

It's inappropriate to the show.

I want to be published in JAMA, the journal of pajama-wearing professionals.

I think that that would be nice.

Are you a jammy sky?

I'm just like an underpants and t-shirt myself.

I need something besides an underpants and t-shirt.

Often it is an athletic short.

Yeah.

My father sleeps in like a full suit of

like just put the period there.

You know, tuxedo when he's sleeping formal.

Yeah.

Look, you don't want to get woken up by surprise and be unprepared for a formal gathering.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

I mean, imagine there's cannipes being passed.

Cannape's my ass.

There's a waiter walking around in your bedroom with a tray full of flutes of champagne.

You pop out of bed and your...

Your dick is flopping out of your fucking tidy whities.

Inapprop.

Yeah, let's think about your dad's big floppy dick.

Hey, Ben's dad.

I know you're listening.

Not a listener.

Oh, thank God.

My mom is, though, so she's the one person who can actually picture it vividly.

Hey, hon, you know our son's Star Trek podcast?

Your hog came up on it recently.

Well, listen to this.

I watched this episode like last week.

I might not remember anything that happens in it.

Could be a fun episode then.

You're going to need to talk me through it.

What do you say?

We get into it.

Yeah.

It's season three, episode seven,

The Shipment.

Got a free speech and it's all.

You know, it's a pretty good thing we've got a previously on Star Trek Enterprise recap.

If you don't remember the episode.

Yeah, this felt like, oh, like we're in like modern TV zone where so many things happen per episode.

Didn't it?

From episode to episode that you need that context.

I found it very welcome.

I wish we had these all the time.

The trouble is Star Trek hasn't been serialized up until recently.

Yeah.

Not really a necessity.

We're reminded of Tarquin, the weird being that wanted Hoshi to non-consensually move to his planet.

I never thought we'd think about him again.

I know.

When I pulled this up, the little thumbnail of the episode was him.

And I was like, ah, those fucking idiots at Paramount Plus put a picture from the previous episode.

And I don't think they did.

I think they put a picture from the previously on.

Yeah.

That's the thumbnail for the episode.

Yeah, that guy.

You don't get paid per thumbnail.

I bet.

No one was creating contracts with that kind of carve-out.

Yeah.

Anyways, we find out that he's given them

something of a lead where they're making part of the weapon.

So that's the important info.

Our cold open is another Zindi Council McLaughlin group meeting.

Issue one.

They're at the point where this is so exciting.

They're almost ready to test the weapon.

Yeah.

I love this part of any weapon of mass destruction design.

Like, you'll live for this moment.

Yeah.

I mean, this is the first half of Oppenheimer, you know, just all the excitement, all the buildup.

It's why you even get into weapons making, really.

Days like this.

Yeah.

I mean, there is that one guy in the corner of the room that raises a hand uh didn't we test the weapon technically on earth and kill seven million people

shouldo

yeah it's weird right the erasure of the weapons test over florida

like it never even happened if this works Degra is pretty confident that we're like weeks, not months away from a full-scale launch.

And that's really exciting.

Can you tell me if this is my problem or the show's problem when I ask you,

are we afraid of Degra?

Do we respect Degra?

When he is on screen, do you feel a dun-dun-dun about even seeing him?

I kind of wish for more bad guy vibes from him.

Either in costume or in attitude.

Yeah.

Or he just seems seems very chill as a bad guy.

Yeah.

This might be

Star Trek trying to obfuscate who is supposed to be who

in the 9-11 metaphor of this season.

I've forgotten so much of that.

What exactly is the comparison you're making?

Well, famously, Star Wars is Vietnam and the Empire is a stand-in for the United States and the Rebels

or the Viet Cong, right?

And I think Star Trek Enterprise Zindi Boar is meant to be sort of the writer's room of the Star Trek program on at the time processing the we've been attacked by

a group of people we know barely anything about.

We don't understand what their problem is with us.

They hate our freedoms.

So Earth is the United States and the Zindi are Osama bin Laden's terror organization?

No, not necessarily because the Zindi

did this out of self-defense.

So are the Zindi getting out ahead of 9-11 and were the terrorists?

Ooh, hard to say.

Star Trek Rider's Room, you've tricked us.

We can't specifically identify who the good guys and who the bad guys are because.

Because time travel.

Because time travel and because Zindi are acting the way we might act to defend their people and their homeland.

So the point of this scene is to convey that if this test goes well, they'll be able to use the real thing in a different test some weeks later.

Oh, I thought that they meant that they were going to do the real thing on Earth some weeks later.

I kind of feel like with the erasure of the Florida test, maybe we've got a number of tests coming up, many of which are real, some of them are fake.

Could be.

It's impossible to know.

Over on The Entrepreneur, we're having a hang in the command center talking about this place that we're headed where they are making some of the web.

And it's pretty surprising when they learn that this is a colony of Zindi that is pretty much undefended, not really like worried about the creep up and setting off a military response.

This is a realization that I think banks on a lot of the it's quiet, too quiet work that many movies and TV shows have done over the years you know yeah certainly this can't be all there is here

they're gonna sneak in anyways like they're gonna be discreet they're gonna like position the ship behind a moon so that if anybody is looking around they don't see a huge starship floating in the sky no one checks their moons have you noticed this you can always hide behind a moon you got to put like a camera on the other side of the moon you know you just have to like a camera and one of those like

motion and triggered lights that people have like on their driveway and you like set it off when you walk your dog past at night.

And it is so bright, just astoundingly bright.

Yeah.

You know what they're going to discover is that a lot of people walk their dogs past their moon at night.

It's true.

Then what are you going to do with that knowledge?

Yeah.

So behind this moon, Enterprise is parked, and Archer flies a shuttle pod down to the surface with Reed and Major Hayes.

And it is a fairly rough ride down to the surface.

They find a complex,

or maybe you'd call this an installation.

Facility?

Whatever the goldeneye name for it is.

Yeah, which I think we got wrong one time and

threw Wendy off like looking for a music bed for whatever we were talking about.

Or just the worst.

Anyways.

Yeah, facility.

Or is it complex?

Or is it it installation?

I think I remembered it as facility, and I think it might be complex.

Yeah.

Not be complex, the vitamin, which I take.

And not like the concept of complexity.

No.

Right.

Anyways, yeah.

Arboreal Zindi.

I kept writing planet apes in my notes because they look like they're from planet of the apes.

You damn dirty ape.

I mean, specifically Dr.

Zayas.

Yeah.

Like, that's what this guy looks like utterly.

And you can't tell me that they didn't know that when they were making this creature design.

I think it's homage.

It can't be anything but, right?

Yeah, I mean, this is the opposite of the Mitasaurus Cindy.

Mitasauruses?

This is the Bratasaurus Cindy, right?

Archer radios up and...

Like, the crew aboard the Enterprise are like, great, we'll get like the rest of the Makos together and we will like come in hot and take over this facility.

And he's like, no, no, no, no.

Let's figure out what they're doing here first.

Yeah, let's be quiet about it for the moment.

We can always send them in later, right?

Like, get them ready.

Yeah.

Get a layout.

Yeah.

So useful to have a map for those things.

I love the layout of this base.

Like, it's got base dome the way you see many science fiction bases, but then it's got this like arm

over the top with another circular observation deck looking thing.

Yeah.

I thought it was a very handsome-looking base.

I wanted to go up there because, like, they do some cool stuff with the effects here.

Like, the base looks great.

And then, like, we go into this room that it's like kind of a lab that overlooks a factory floor.

And, like, the look out the window onto the factory floor I thought looked fantastic.

Look at them go.

Yeah.

Just making whatever it is they're making there.

Oh.

They find a radiologic compound,

and then they have to, like, all go hide under a desk because some of these planet apes come in complaining about degra

in order to get on the level of this show you must believe that a base that makes nuclear materials does not also have any sort of security system that involves motion sensors and bright lights even yeah no not on their moon not inside a base like this.

Yeah, because like you can use it for bad stuff, but you can also use it for good stuff.

This stuff has so many uses.

Yeah.

This is a yellow cake bakery right here.

Yeah.

I guess you can say I sexed it up for you.

No extra charge.

Sarah Lee had no idea what they were trying to do with that stuff.

Yeah.

One thing that struck me about these planet apes is they've really gone down a redundancy rabbit hole with regards to keeping their trousers up.

Three belts on these guys.

Three belts on these guys suggests three different rows of belt loops which just sounds like hell to me i'm constantly missing a belt loop constantly checking myself to make sure i hit all of them i can't imagine getting ready for work if you're one of these guys oh man it must be brutal i mean do you think that there are also like three belt three suspender zindis like even more conscientious about making sure that their pants stay up I wonder if that's really the goal of these things because they look thick like weightlifting belts.

Like,

maybe these are the sort of Zindi, the arboreal Plantosaurus Zindi, also big clean and jerk enthusiasts.

They just came from Armin back day.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, you'd have to take the belt off.

Just leave it on.

Yeah.

We might get down and do some sheps midshift.

Degra wants a lot more of whatever they manufacture.

And that, we learned, is called chemo site.

Sure is.

Apply directly to the canister.

Chemocyte.

Apply directly to the canister.

Chemo site.

Available at Walgreens.

If we change the words,

then it's fair use all day long.

Trip beams up a sample of this and is going to like look into what it is and what it can do.

There's still some debate, like, could we just nuke the site from orbit?

Two spatial charges.

That's all it would take.

Fucking A.

Archer doesn't want to do this because if they can figure out who's picking up the chemo site and where they're taking it, that might lead them to the rest of the weapon construction operation.

This is very much like the moment of truth in a police procedural where it's like, all right, well, do we arrest these folks or do we see like how the drug dealing infrastructure actually works as a business?

Let's wait.

Let's wait and see business happen.

We see where the package is, but where's the like, where's the safe house where the re-up is?

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They follow one of these guys home.

He like goes into his house and pops some booze in the fashion of all dudes going home in all TV shows ever.

Have you ever just like walk into your house and the first thing you do is like pour some brown liquor in a glass?

Where's this guy's wife or partner, I wonder, just absolutely kicking him in the junk about like, you're always working too late.

You come home and start drinking immediately like when is when do i get some time with you we have a child a child you're neglecting for all of this work

where does it all lead like is kibo site that important to you more important than your wife and your child yeah evidently not we don't get that kind of backstory with grey lick instead it's just uh the hard drinking of a single man yeah He gets surprised in his house by Archer and Reed and Hayes.

I was very distracted in the scene by how boomy the audio was in his house.

What do you want from me?

Sit down.

It really sounded like a room full of hard surfaces, and they struggled to make the dialogue sound the way it does in the rest of the show.

Hmm.

I did not get that on my end.

Oh.

But good read.

All right.

I love before they get the jump on him in his room.

Like Reed gives Archer the news on this guy and he's like, you know, this is a workaholic who lives alone.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

He's just focused on his work.

He has no friends and that's fine too, right?

We all agree that that's a perfectly valid life choice.

It doesn't make him a creep.

Just because he spends his time drafting and redrafting letters to old girlfriends

doesn't make him a strange man.

He's normal.

We're just normal men.

This is great.

Like,

I think for Reed to be in the room here would be a bad choice on a number of levels because of this.

So, like, that's why Archer, I think, kicks Reed and Hayes out immediately so he can interrogate Graylick on his own.

Let's be honest, Hayes, you don't seem not like that.

Yeah.

Did you catch Graylick's last name?

No.

What's your name?

Graylick.

Duh.

You gotta feel bad for this Indy with names like this, you know?

I mean, yeah, no one wants to take that last name.

Yeah, that's correct.

No wonder he's single.

Yeah.

I prefer to spend my time in the forest alone.

I'm proud of my craft, Captain.

I've practiced it for many years.

Let's hope so.

He gets asked by Archer what the hell chemocyte is, and Graylick is that kind of professional, so adept at obscuring the truth, where he kind of gives him an answer, but it's so obscured by this other vague information about it.

It doesn't really mean much.

He's just a scientist and he's not concerned with what they're even making at this facility.

They're just making it.

Right.

It's like he's a manufacturer.

There are a million applications.

Like, I mean, it's like a cement manufacturer, just because like sometimes cement is used by mobsters to give guys shoes that help them sleep with the fishes.

You know, the guy at the cement factory doesn't think that he has blood on his hands.

And that's sort of what comes out in this conversation.

Like, he doesn't even really know about Earth.

I don't know her.

And Archer's like pretty surprised by this.

You know, he imagined the Zindi society would just be kind of like all on a war footing toward him.

And this guy's like, I don't think about you at all.

Yeah, it's like a social situation where someone's like, I went to Yale.

Like crickets.

Like, okay, cool.

Yeah.

What does that mean, actually?

All I ever wanted.

So in an earlier scene, they beamed up a container out of the lab to Enterprise.

And on Enterprise, Trip and TePal are working on the study of it.

And in a radio call to Archer, they can confirm that it's made of the same stuff as the ship that attacked Earth.

And Tripp wants permission to keep working this problem, going so far as to take apart another thing that they have in their possession, a Zindi rifle.

Yeah.

And Archer's like, sure, man, go for it.

Reed is very impressed with Archer at this point.

Congratulations, sir.

Yeah, kind of a weird moment, right?

This seems like a little bit.

Is he kissing ass for like a promotion or something?

That's the impression that I got.

Like, what is Reed going to get out of congratulating Archer for how far they've come?

Yeah.

Because this moment doesn't exactly seem like something we're celebrating, right?

Like, Archer would rather not make war, but in response to the millions already dead, what else can they do?

I need something to do on this ship, Commander.

Fair enough.

This is the first time I think Archer has had to confront the idea that the Zindi think that they're acting in self-defense.

Yeah.

And, you know, this goes to that muddying of who is who in the metaphor of this season.

That makes it hard to feel totally good about rooting for Archer and the Federation, right?

Yeah.

And I think that that feels

very like Iraq War.

Like, there were lots of people who are like, why are we doing this?

And the idea of like getting there and meeting somebody who didn't have anything to do with it being kind of an unmooring feeling for someone involved with the Iraq War is something I thought about in this episode.

I think it also matters that Graylick is a vegetarian, like as a part of his species, right?

Like, like he is portrayed as kind of a peaceful lab man

who wouldn't even eat a steak, you know?

I don't know why I just got an image in my head of that anti-piracy commercial.

You wouldn't eat a steak.

So the plan at this point, yes, blow up the facility.

But what about Graylick?

We don't know what to do about the Graylick problem yet, but leaving a living witness with knowledge about who they are and what they're up to seems like a bad idea, even if they don't say it out loud.

Bad OPSEC, but it does change the kind of facility destruction that's on the table.

Like, we're not nuking from orbit because there's also like people that live here and work around the facility, and Archer does not want collateral damage.

He is not going to destroy facility and innocence along the way.

But, like, how rock and roll is he?

Hard to say.

One wonders when we're talking about Dark Archer, the way he has been this season.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like this sort of like bumps him out of Dark Archer, though.

Like Greylick being so much not what he expected when he got a Zindi to interrogate.

So this is a much larger conversation that Archer and Graylick are going to have over the course of this episode.

And Archer's going to want a prop for this going forward.

So that's why Trip and TePaul beam a part of the Zindi weapons probe down to him so that he can prove this point with it.

Yeah.

Greylick is like wanting to to get back to work and is confronted with this fragment of the probe that pierced Florida.

And he's like pretty deep in denial about,

you know, this potentially having been something that involved material he manufactured.

He's like never even heard of Earth.

But he's going to scan this thing, I guess.

See if he can satisfy himself.

It's just a yellow cake.

Yeah, it's very sexy.

Just perfectly innocent.

No frosting, even.

Yeah.

So on Enterprise in the Armory, Trip and Dr.

Flox are looking over this Zindi rifle, and Dr.

Flox is like, why am I here?

We're talking about rifles.

He's there because this rifle is full of worms.

And why, when you take a worm out of this rifle, does another worm appear in its place?

Gross.

This worm really grossed me out, too.

Really good, like, goo design on the worms.

Do you have a preferred pasta shape for your cheesy sauced pasta?

Because this really read to me as like the big shell.

You know, like eventually

you reach a size of pasta, like a manicotti size pasta.

Where you're like, after that point, we're stuffing.

We're not trying to like toss in sauce.

That's what I'm saying.

This feels like stuffing worm and not pasta worm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like when it grows back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, Dr.

Flox, we should say, not grossed out by this.

Intrigued, actually.

Yeah.

You see his super long tongue come out and lick his lips.

Legally, it's just a fur jump.

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Friends of DeSoto, we survived Star Trek Las Vegas 2025.

All seven days of it.

And boy, oh boy, do we have thoughts?

So many thoughts that we just had to record a very special bonus episode about our experiences with me and Ben, but also producer Wendy and our social media concigliary Bill.

You'll get an honest review of things, all the gossip, the stuff that worked, the stuff that didn't, and some big takeaways as we plan for next year.

So, if you want to know what STLV was really like, the bonus feed is how you find it.

By the way, this bonus episode, like all of our monthly bonus episodes, are available to everyone who supports the shows at maximumfund.org slash join.

It's easy to do, so go to maximumfund.org/slash join to get our special episode about STLV 2025 and all the great episodes that we put out every month.

You know, we've been doing my brother, my brother, me for 15 years.

And

maybe you stopped listening for a while, maybe you never listened.

And you're probably assuming three white guys talking for 15 years, I know where this has ended up.

But no.

No, you would be wrong.

We're as shocked as you are that we have not fallen into some sort of horrific scandal or just turned into a big crypto thing.

Yeah, you don't even really know how crypto works.

The only NFTs I'm into are naughty, funny things, which is what we talk about on my brother, my brother, and me.

We serve it up every Monday for you if you're listening.

And if not, we just leave it out back and goes rotten.

So check it out on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, we're over 70 episodes into our show.

Let's learn everything.

So let's do a quick progress check.

Have we learned about quantum physics?

Yes, episode 59.

We haven't learned about the history of gossip yet, have we?

Yes, we have.

Same episode, actually.

Have we talked to Tom Scott about his love of roller coasters?

Episode 64.

So how close are we to learning everything?

Bad news.

We still haven't learned everything yet.

Oh, we're ruined.

No, no, no.

It's good news as well.

There is still a lot to learn.

Woo!

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And on Let's Learn Everything, we learn about science and a bit of everything else too.

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Join us every other Thursday on Maximum Fun.

Back on the surface, Graylick has started to be more open about what they do at the facility.

And we learned that Chemocyte can be used for just so many things.

Yeah.

And they were just happy to get the work.

Like, that's kind of the thrust of this moment.

Like, look, we're lab folks, we live a simple life, but I got to tell you, no one hates making a lot of money, right?

And this guy, like, he's proud of his skills as a chemocyte refinery.

He's like, we make some, some of the most pure uncut chemocyte in this sector or whatever.

Like, this guy said he was using it for research, but I guess that means, like, the primate Zindi might be as bad as some of the other kinds of Zindi, the reptilians.

Yeah.

We find out

there is inter-Zindi racism.

Of course there is.

Admirably, to their great credit, the Zindi Legion of Doom have seemingly solved.

Like those guys seem to be working together pretty good.

You know, they don't always agree, but they're not like attacking each other based on their ethnic identification or whatever.

I mean, it's incredible what a common enemy can do.

Yeah.

We also learn that Degra is sort of the ringleader of this group of Zindi.

And this this is something that Archer wasn't super clear on before.

Graylick is permitted to pour himself a drink as they discuss things.

Things are getting pretty casual.

Talking about the destruction of the Zindi homeworld at the hands of the insectoids and reptiloids and how the Zindi birdmen were casualties of that.

Really sad to hear about the Zindi birdmen.

RSVP, all Zindi birdmen everywhere.

But that's what a civil war war does.

It kills all your birds.

What specifically killed all the birds was a bunch of weapons that got buried under tectonic plates and exploded all at once.

It destroyed the planet.

And I guess, explain to me this, Ben.

How could the birds of all the species not flee in time?

I don't know.

It seems like they're uniquely able to flee.

Yeah.

But then if you fly up above the atmosphere,

that's no good anymore.

Yeah.

Birdman's had to die.

Yeah.

And so, like, the Zindi have sort of become the alien trash of the Necrit Expanse.

Not the Necrit Expanse.

Which expanse is this?

The Delphic Expanse?

Precisely.

Yeah.

Yeah, you could say they formed a diaspora, right?

Yeah.

Necrit Expanse was that mappable-ass place.

I said Necrit Expanse.

Fuller than my pants.

Hayes interrupts this scene to tell Archer, we got to talk outside.

And that's because there's been an increase of activity around the compound.

And Tepal and Archer confirmed this by saying there's a ship, and it's inbound.

And wouldn't you know it?

It's one of the ones that attacked them earlier.

And that means Reptozindi have arrived.

We start watching what's going on down at the complex and or facility

using some kind of like technical range finders where we actually get to see Degra.

Like first time Archer and Degra have been on the same planet at the same time.

Got to be nice when the executive class goes to meet labor in this way.

Good for him.

Oh yeah.

And Degra's got like kind of like a bad glue on mustache and some big frames and like a trucker hat trying to blend in.

He's just met many of these laborers, but like the very first thing he asks about is like, what do you think of Degra as a leader?

Pretty neat, huh?

He does a lot of things that make sense, wouldn't you say?

It's cool because, you know, like these business leaders such as Degra are sometimes depicted as being heartless, but when they give $10,000 to a single one of their 180,000 employees, you realize that they're actually really good people.

It does not seem as though Degra is getting along with the gang, though.

No.

They are...

not in agreement on a number of things, it looks like through the binoculars.

Back up in the lab, Flox and Tripp talk about this biomechanical rifle, and the idea comes up of figuring out a way to make the rifle sick so it won't work as a way to prepare for some kind of like boots on the ground Zindi assault that they might have going in the future.

Radioactivity is one idea.

How long did it take for you to realize that this is a rifle that did not shoot worms?

Oh.

Worms like so much ammunition in the part of a rifle where you would presume ammunition would go and be chambered.

Like there was a part of this visually that it took this scene to realize for me.

Like, oh yeah, this is just like the way it works.

It's not the thing it shoots.

The worm is like the power source, right?

That's what I understood it to be.

And that's why exposing it to radiation could be a way that they could turn all these weapons off in a way that make them useless.

right just not omicron radiation and phlox shows that like a bucket full of worms that grew under exposure to omicron radiation restaurant style mac and cheese in this container yeah with fillable pasta fillable ass pasta yeah is what they made it out of it just doesn't make any sense there's like uh like panko sprinkled on top like why did you take the time to do that, Flox.

I know you can because pasta is ostensibly made out of the same stuff regardless of shape.

But like I'd never sit down to a bowl of lasagna noodles with butter and garlic, you know?

That just seems like a nightmare.

Hard to get into your mouth clean, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's like eating a salad that hasn't had the leaves chopped up or torn, you know?

It's just too messy.

Yeah.

The French do that, right?

They like, they like fold up their leaves, their leaves of lettuce.

And the Italians, they just give you a pair of scissors to cut up your lettuce instead of cutting it beforehand.

Just leave them on the table.

It's authentic.

So Greylig explains to Archer

that he's got this meeting with Degra and he's like, I don't want to be involved in this like mass murder scheme that Degra's doing.

Like,

I'll go talk to him.

I'll see if I can get some information about what he's doing.

But this is fucking risky because...

This requires Archer extending trust to a man he assumed would be his enemy, like 20 minutes earlier.

How much time does it take for you to clock that someone is sincere or not?

This is the risk in this scene.

Do you really believe this guy?

Did my story of seven million deaths in Florida radicalize this guy enough?

Or has Florida's reputation preceded it?

And he's like, eh, you know, hard to feel that bad.

A guy who has already demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge about Florida or Earth or humans or anything.

So you're going to have to believe that in a very short amount of time, he really cares now.

It goes to what an asshole Degra must be in just like interpersonal interactions that he's like, yeah, that does sound like some shit Degra would do.

Yeah, it's more about Degra than it is about Greylick, right?

Yeah, yeah, it really is.

So some more planet apes come looking for Grelik.

Oh, no.

I love that they knock on the door.

There's like a couple of seconds where everyone's real still.

They'll leave, right?

They'll leave.

And they do.

Like, these are ape men.

Who knows what sensory capabilities they have?

They probably smell the humans in there if the door got opened, you know?

Yeah, I like that theory.

Except for they didn't notice the humans in the lab earlier.

No.

So that would cut against that theory.

Yeah.

I think it also establishes that these are residential buildings and not

company housing

in a way that would allow employees to just bust open and look through there.

Yeah, it looks like a very personal living space.

Yeah.

It looks more personal as a living space than most of the houses inhabited by most of the real housewives.

on any of the Bravo shows that I watch.

Oh, not a white refrigerate.

Girl, please put your shoes on.

Let's go find you a home, honey.

So anyways, Archer is kind of encouraged to reconsider Graylick's offer of going undercover and talking to Degra.

And meanwhile, Trip and Flox are getting ready to do a test fire of this rifle.

But Tepal is standing there in the high bay that they're in, expressing some concerns.

Like, what if we'd have no idea how powerful this thing is?

It might punch a hole in the hull of the ship.

Trip's like, what are you talking about?

We got this one foot by one foot metal plate in front of it.

What are these little worms going to do?

I like Tepal in this scene being the voice of reason here.

Like,

I am in command of this ship and I am feeling some second thoughts about test firing the weapon here.

I also just love the

image of Fox and Trip as being like two little boys like screwing around with dangerous shit when dad's away.

The scene is totally coated as that with TePaul being the mom.

Yeah.

You know nothing about this device.

Now you boys be safe.

Yeah.

Shoot your eye out.

So at the lab, Degra and his buddy from the reptilian species spend a little time talking shit about their arboreal cousins.

Meanwhile, like Graylick and everybody are like out in the forest and some like Echo Papa 607s come chase them.

Yeah, so they flee Graylick's residence because like after those knocks, those aren't going to be the only knocks that happen on that door.

People are going to be looking for Graylick now.

Yeah, and out in the forest, you're right.

Some security drones find them, and Archer shoots one.

You would think that shooting a drone wouldn't help, right?

Like, the drone is broadcasting back to wherever.

I mean, especially if you can't kill it with the first shot the way Archer does.

Archer can take one of them out.

Reed cannot.

Reed, for all of his target practice, bona fides, can't actually make it happen when it matters, when it's in the field.

It's a practical situation.

Once this other drone escapes, he just sits down on the ground right there in the jungle and starts writing letters to X's.

Yeah, that's it for him.

That's a wrap on read.

Series wrap on read.

I think this is an important scene, and here's why.

We need to know that the reptilian Zindi are smart and they have good technology because there's something about the Arbereal Zindi that feel like less than in that regard.

They're doing a lot of the manual labor.

They're doing the mining and refining and stuff, but they don't necessarily like they're aware of how technologically proficient the reptilian Zindi are, but they don't seem to be on their level.

Yeah.

And it's interesting that there would be like some technologies that are not shared among various factions of the Zindi.

When you see the way Grelik lives in that hut, you're not thinking drone people.

No, it's a lot of like wood carvings and stuff in there.

Like that's not, that's not the kind of person that has an autonomous killing machine at his disposal.

I mean, I have an open mind.

I'm ready to be surprised.

Sure,

it doesn't seem like it.

Like maybe he's undercover as a carving of wood guy.

Certainly now would be the moment that Grelik deployed something like that in response.

That would be fun.

Yeah.

But instead, it's just like, let's go hide in some Star Trek caves because

now they'll definitely be looking for us now that we blew up one of their drones but let the other one get away.

Speaking of things that blow up, Trip Tucker tries to fire the Zindi rifle.

And it's a dud.

Yeah.

Why won't it fire?

Do you think it like it's coded to Zindi physiology or something like that?

I sure thought that too.

Yeah.

And then all of a sudden, like large gauge pasta mac and cheese starts spilling out of the uh of the chamber it's such a mess and it's too hot too like like how is it this hot for this long it will burn the roof of your mouth and it like it doesn't seem to be able to cool down i mean until it does and then it gets too cool there's a there's a range where it's deliciously warm enough that that is like it's vanishingly fast.

You have like three and a half minutes to try and eat as much of this as possible.

And then it's going to be so coagulated, it's basically inedible.

Yeah, in danger of coagulating everyone in this scene, is a rifle that is clearly about to blow up.

So, Trip has to like sprint to the transporter room where the transporter controls are and beam it into space.

And oh no, he hit the button that makes it beam into space the size of the entire ship.

I hit Mbigin Transporter and not just Transporter.

That's a fun setting.

Is that how that huge Spock happened?

My thoughts exactly, Mr.

Spock.

So one might assume, Mr.

Spock.

It should surprise no one that a explosion of this size also does not get the attention of any other starships or the planet below.

No, yeah, that's.

The moon hides all.

This is the fucking perfect hiding place.

Yeah.

Speaking of hiding, Archer is at this cave area,

and Tepal is like urging him to come back to the ship,

but he doesn't want to.

Graylick is like, so like, we're going to nuke the site from orbit now, right?

Like, that seems like kind of what is left on the table, given the fact that we are, like, hiding in a cave from the bad guys at this point.

Yeah, the only benefit to the cave hideout is being obscured from the insect Zindi sensors, but you got to believe that's not going to be a permanent solution to this problem.

It's an interesting moment because Archer realizes that he might actually have an opportunity to make Zindi allies here.

Yeah.

And that's a big part of why he trusts Graylick at this point.

It's a way to stop the weapon from being made that he had never really considered when they went into the expanse.

So the trust is going to start running both ways.

And he's like, all right, Graylick, go talk to Degra and give him the chemocyte and like wish him luck you know like you normally would yeah come up with some story why you were blowing up drones in the forest and then uh

just come up with the thinnest possible excuse why at a really important time in chemocyte production you were just out doing a bug hunt or whatever he'll believe that right yeah He seems like a pretty chill guy that's prepared to, you know, grant trust and

forbearance to people, you know, at the drop of a hat.

Is there any wonder why, as soon as Graylick turns to go home alone, Reed tells Archer that I don't agree with this plan, dude.

And Hayes is like, me too.

I don't agree also.

Yeah.

Archer isn't trying to hear this.

Just offering a tactical assessment, sir.

Noted.

So Graylick is at the facility and he's getting his two henches back to work.

And what's clear is that there is the idea of a final delivery that they're going to prepare.

Yeah.

And that Graylick is in charge of this final delivery sort of means that they're going to pack, they're going to allow something special to be packed in with this last batch of canisters.

Yeah.

This gets beamed to Archer, and it's the canister that they sent to Trip, but it has now been adulterated with some substance that makes it trackable across subspace.

Degra and the reptilian come back to the lab and start talking to Graylick, and they have a lot of predictable questions about what he was up to and what happened to their drones and

why he's been so hard to reach lately.

He takes great umbrage with his downtime being interrupted by drones.

Yeah.

And he makes the case that shooting and destroying them was a totally plausible reaction.

Yeah.

Also, a thing he has to sell them on is why he's re-scanning all the chemo site and checking it for purity.

They're like, there's never been a problem before.

And he's like, he leans on his reputation as a perfectionist who only delivers the finest in chemo site.

Yeah, I mean, his name and his picture is on the box.

When you buy Dr.

Greylick's chemocyte, he's kind of the Papio Daniel of Zindy Chemocyte production.

It's ready in the microwave in three minutes.

Like, fucking.

Like, people depend on this stuff.

So Archer sneaks back into the facility, puts the canister.

He actually goes onto the transport ship, right?

He doesn't go back into the lab.

I love the absurdity of not the beginning of this, but the end of this.

He gets in there and he plants a container.

And on Enterprise, they get a report that Archer is on the shuttle.

And this is a good feeling, right?

Like, the mission's underway.

Sneaky Archer.

Archer, also good at sneaking into facilities, as good as he is at sneaking out of them.

It didn't seem like he was being as quick about this as he could be, because they keep cutting back to like Degra and Graylick.

And like they're like walking over to the ship.

You know, everything is like kind of converging on Archer.

And he's like, all he has to do is open a pelican case, slide this canister in, and get out of there.

Yeah.

Seems like it's taken way too long.

It takes so long that outside the ship, Degra and Graylick are talking, and Graylick is forced to do that thing where he notices a thing over the shoulder.

He doesn't want to create suspicion about what may be happening behind his back.

So he's got to maintain eye contact.

Yeah.

Get caught in the thrall of an over-the-shoulder attention holder.

Exactly.

And so I would say the most intense part of this episode is this moment when Graylick is trying to hold his gaze.

For as long as it takes for Archer to lower himself on an elevator down out of the ship and to run away.

Was it a digital archer running off into the distance?

It sure looked like it.

Yeah, it looked like video game archer.

Yeah, like Unreal Engine 3 Archer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There is a moment in this conversation.

It's not just about distraction, it's about information because Graylick is like, look, man, I know it might be

a breach of protocol or whatever, but like, I've already told you how proud I am of of the stuff that we make here.

I'm just kind of curious, what are you going to use it for?

Yeah.

Don't ask.

Degra tells Graylick about the ruthless alien threat that they're in danger from, and I thought for sure it would be the moment that Graylick switches sides.

Right.

Like, why, why wouldn't he be on Team Zindy at this point?

But also, why wouldn't Archer have talked about that with him?

Yeah.

Yeah, he's not given a lot of information to make the most important decision of his life.

Yeah.

Tell me, Mr.

Greylich, how much have you ever lost on a coin tomorrow?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I just watched Hamon Hamon.

I think it's Penelope Cruz's debut, but it's also the movie that she met Javier Bardem on.

And the whole premise of the movie is that Javier Bardem has a a huge penis.

And there are just so many shots of his dick through his pants or

in underpants.

It's fucking incredible.

Highly recommend the film Hamon Hamon.

Oh, yeah, I'll put it on my list.

I guess so.

So mission accomplished, and Archer and Greylick share a drink.

after

this has all gone down and Graylick is like, didn't want to tell me about the my people being destroyed element of this whole thing?

Like, did I just help you kill all of my people?

Yeah.

What the fuck?

And Archer's like, I promise I didn't.

A pretty good moment of truth.

Massive amounts of trust going both ways here.

Yeah.

Massive amounts of confidence, too.

Graylick is like, I could deal with Degra.

Don't you worry about him.

God, I sure hope so, buddy.

I'm not sure that there's much about this part that I believed.

it was a huge risk and it appears to have all been for naught because no sooner has this transport left orbit than they lose the tracking signal immediately i kind of love this moment like i i like it when things don't work on tv shows like this yeah especially if they're serialized like you can't have every plan be successful no If if they could just find Degra whenever they wanted, like season over.

So

they blew it.

But we learned an interesting thing today, which is that not all Zindi are bad Zindi.

Some are good Zindi.

Yeah, what do you think about that, Archer?

Nearly makes you think.

What do you think about this episode, Ben?

I can't pay.

I liked this episode.

I thought Grey Leg Durr was an interesting guy, and

I think it's hard to write a character that doesn't know about the plot the way he does.

You know,

like they did such a good job of having him be the main character of his own story.

And like this season of Star Trek entered his life all of a sudden.

He's like, what the hell?

Like, and he has to kind of learn about it after the fact in a way that isn't boring and annoying for us, but actually adds to the complexity of the story.

So

yeah, I thought it was a good one.

How about you?

I like a mission within a mission that this episode represents.

Like,

as

ridiculous as I found a couple of its plot points, like the hiding behind a moon, a gun filled with worms.

I think this episode is good because of Graylick

and how interesting he is.

Interesting through the loaf.

You know, like, if we're going to rank this indie in terms of what they look like, probably the worst indie, right?

Like, come on, dude.

Really?

This is like back to season one TNG burlap sack

type stuff happening here, I think.

And I think it's John Cothran that like really makes this character interesting, that really makes them shine.

Yeah, good job by him.

Yeah.

You want to see if there's anything being nailed in the Priority One inbox?

I'm always proud of our FODs who fill out P1 messages.

Starting with this promotional priority one message,

here's how that one goes.

Non-monogamous friends of DeSoto, whether you're just opening up and navigating first contact with relationship agreements, or you're well into the continuing journey of polyamory and facing new challenges.

I help individuals and partners at every stage.

No judgment, no federation bureaucracy, just clear, compassionate counsel to help you navigate love ethically, like a seasoned denobulin.

You aren't alone out there in Anybody Canyon.

Let us explore the final frontier of relationships together.

And this is a message from Breeze Immerman.

You can find them at breezeimmerman.com, B-R-E-E-Z-I-M-M-E-R-M-A-N.com.

Poly and ENM FODs can schedule a free consultation with an experienced open relationship specialist.

You can learn more by going to that website, breezeimmerman.com.

Wow.

We have an FOD friend who recently shared a picture of the spouse of a boyfriend holding up a Greatest Gen beach towel with a look of utter contempt on his face.

And I imagine if you're an FOD in an EM or a polycule kind of situation, and some of the members of your polycule are not FODs, that could be a classic issue that you might want to work through with Breeze Zimmerman.

And you know that Breeze Zimmerman's are friendly, and they don't necessarily need to.

You could just bring it up, like, hey, Breezimmerman.com, this person helps with situations like this.

And they don't know that Breeze Zimmerman advertised here on the show.

The moment someone in the polycule ousts themselves as an FOD, like, frat.

Yeah.

No one prepares you for a moment like that, but Breeze Immerman can.

I've heard of kitchen table poly, but what about glass table poly?

There you go.

Very good.

Very good, Ben.

We got one here from Jordan H, and it's to Ben and Adam, and it goes like this.

After nine years of viewing, I finally bought a P1 when you landed on and torpedoed a square I suggested.

Starship Mine.

Was it a funny idea?

Yes.

Was it a bad idea?

Also yes.

Keep up the awesome potting and I hope to see you live someday at a show in the KY slash OH area.

P.S.

We have cheesecake factories in Lexington, Louisville, and Cincinnati for Boco.

Wow, a target-rich environment.

Ben, this is just breaking news.

We have been invited back to London Podcast Festival.

Is that true?

Yeah,

read your email, dude.

I've been preparing for show all day.

What my theory presupposes is they've asked for Greatest Gen.

Maybe what we deliver is factory seconds

based on a visit we do in London.

Do they have Cheesecake Factory in London?

Dang.

If they do, that's the most hilarious place possible to eat in London.

We got to do it.

Hey, Jordan H., not all of your ideas are bad.

Thanks for being an FOD for so long and for supporting the show with the P1.

When I search Cheesecake Factory London, UK, the ones that come up are the one in Pasadena and the one in Glendale.

We have a special relationship with the Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena and Glendale.

Ben, final priority one message here from Jake or John or whatever.

To Dr.

No Pants.

Hmm.

Here's that message.

You made one mistake, Doc.

You married me and left me alive.

I shall append myself.

Since you already gave me the greatest gift ever, our beautiful daughter, here's the second greatest gift ever, a P1 message on Greatest Gen.

Happy anniversary.

If I got this in on time.

I love you more than bumblebees like playing with wooden balls.

Wow.

Hmm.

That's a lot.

A lot to unpack there.

This message felt scrutable the entire way until it became inscrutable with the whole bees and balls thing.

I like the idea of an anniversary gift from Jake or John or whatever.

Doesn't seem like this couple is particularly close.

Yeah.

It's tremendous.

And if you'd like to leave a tremendous P1 on the program, we encourage you to do so by going to maximumfun.org slash jumbotron.

Hey, Ben.

What's that, Adam?

Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda this episode?

Incredible.

Drunk Shimoda!

I got to give it to Archer.

What in the hell are you doing, tip of the spearing?

The canister on board the ship.

Like, on what planet is that a great call?

Like, I can think of so many better ways to get a canister on board that ship.

For example, sending it with Graylick, who has just made a whole song and dance about how he's testing for purity.

And he could be like, oh, canister 674 didn't pass the test, so I got to go swap it out for this one.

You know, like...

That is a strong-ass point, Ben.

Major Hayes is there.

He's a fucking soldier.

Like,

he's a commando.

This is what those guys do.

Archer's done plenty this episode.

He's a big, big part of the A story.

He doesn't have to do this part of it.

A bad choice.

He should delegate this job.

Yeah, that one's tough to beat, Ben.

It would have been so much more interesting if Graylick had done it and like actually done the job and put the canister on board and then they lost the signal and wondered if Graylick fucked them.

Or if he's okay.

Like putting Graylick in the most possible danger, I think would be great for his character and our impression of him.

And for like Archer's ongoing moral quandary as he like wonders what is too far, you know, a bridge to cross.

This is a great call.

Yeah, I mean, we're always going to care about Archer.

Why not make us feel concerned for someone else?

I love that idea.

Yeah.

Little punch-up.

Yeah.

More than a decade later.

As someone who has maybe overindulged on the booze lately,

I'm going to make mine Graylick.

Always down to drink this episode.

Always wanting to drink and share drinks with others.

That booze seemed pretty thick, right?

It had like some canar-like textural elements to it.

Yeah, we may be looking at a thick Mai Tai

being poured here.

A bottle patch version, perhaps.

Room temperature.

Faith of the fart.

Good Shabbat, Adam.

Let me tell you a little bit about next week's episode as you head to gach.biz slash game.

where you will tell us how we will be covering season three, episode eight, Twilight.

A spatial distortion leaves Archer unable to form any new long-term memories.

Years in the future, he wakes up one morning and is stunned to learn the outcome of the human-Zinty conflict.

What?

Hmm.

Stunned, you say.

Stunned.

Well, I'm ready to be stunned by what happens when I roll this hundred-sided dive in over at gock.biz slash game for the Game of Buttholes Will of the Ranker Quantum Leap, where I am about to tell you if the next episode will be special in any way, or just a regular special episode.

Okay.

You're required to learn as you play.

Roll.

And I've rolled that die.

It has shot our runabout up to the second from the top row.

It's square 90.

Tula!

Did I win?

Hardly.

It's a regular old episode for you and me.

That's what we're going to do the next one.

Wow.

That'll be next week.

Yeah.

Thanks to everyone for listening.

Thanks to everyone who supports at maximumfund.org slash join.

Huge thanks to our producer, Wendy Pretty, our social media director, Rob Adler.

Got to thank the great Bill Tilly making hilarious trading cards that are getting posted on the at Greatest Trek social media accounts.

Throw us a follow on Blue Sky or Instagram or whatever other social media thing you do.

We're probably over there.

Yeah, get hip to some jokes.

Yeah.

Ben's telling on Blue Mastodon.

We got to thank Adam Ragusia, our buddy who made the Diane Warren remix.

And who wrote something really nice about her in the newsletter that dropped.

Yeah,

we have like a monthly newsletter.

Goose just answered a bunch of Rob Adler's questions about the composition of that song in the most recent one.

You should be subscribed to.

It's a really fun newsletter.

Very interesting stuff he wrote about the making of that song.

Very withering take he had about the vocal stylings of you and me.

Very hurtful.

Yeah.

We tried as hard as we could, Goose.

You know, in retrospect, I could have tried harder, personally.

Gotta thank Dark Materia of the original card song fame.

And with that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and an episode of the Greatest Generation Enterprise where we spend a lot of time talking about Richard Krenna but not that Richard Crenna

oh no

oh my hopes were so high

I wonder if this is his son Richard Anthony Crenna is one of the credited

actors of this episode.

We will have an answer to that by the time we record.

We've got to get to the bottom of this.

I think I nailed it, Ben.

Good.

I'm proud of you.

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