Velcro Check! (ENT S3E5)

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 Franica.

I'm Ben Harrison.

Away game for you today, Adam.

I know.

I am in our nation's capital.

Taxation without representation on all the license plates.

Coincidentally, I think you'd love this.

You'd get a kick out of this.

Cop week.

Oh, boy.

In Washington, D.C.

There's some sort of convention where hundreds and hundreds of our nation's police officers have descended upon the city.

Are they lining the hotel hallways with cellophane to keep the blue smudges off of everything?

That's a great callback to our Pittsburgh show where the halls and beds were covered with cellophane to protect from the spray tanner and the oils used there.

Because what cops do is the uniforms are painted on, right?

You know what?

This could be a stripper cop convention.

Right?

I didn't check the Velcro status of these uniforms.

Go around, grab the fronts of some trousers and pull outward, not down.

You just say, Velcro check, they can't fuck with you.

Yeah, pulling outward sends a far different message than pulling down.

No.

Pulling pants down is bullying.

This happened to me in middle school.

You ever get pants in middle school?

Fucking sucks.

My beautiful boy Darone the other day, the boy.

Had a natural pants fall off moment in a way where like a bunch of parents were watching him like run across the playground as they dropped.

and it was so cute and charming and silly that like nobody could help laughing and he's at such a like beautiful innocent stage in his development that there's no embarrassment yet so he just thought it was funny too do you think and i think you're in a position to answer this question almost expertly do you think embarrassment is nature or nurture if it's nurture that kid is fucked

i don't know a ton about kids but what i I know about their clothing is that a lot of it is elastic bands.

Yeah, yeah.

How did Darone's pants fall off, given that?

I'm not totally clear on what happened, because also the diape usually provides like a big hump that that elastic band would need to get over.

And this kid's got a bit of a thang on him, you know, his thing is thanging.

He outran the hump.

But it's also enhanced by diaper.

So when his pants dropped, he revealed diaper, not baby dong and baby butt.

Oh, yeah.

And he's not.

He's not going commando.

Hey, he's Darone, not Officer Brone.

I take it you're in charge here.

Team Leader Brone, 4th Morris Defense Contingent.

I gotta get a pump.

That's it.

Get it.

Wouldn't the world be different if the chance of pants...

falling off happened to adults more often?

I think we'd be a little bit more forgiving as a society,

I don't think we give enough credit to the inventor of the belt and suspenders for really changing the scene out there on these streets.

Yeah.

Like I had to block a bunch of people on social media the other day because I did a post that was like, pretty soon it's going to be back to HBO Go and Obama's going to be president again.

And all these people were like, that war criminal?

I hope you're happy with wishing for that.

And I was like, I did not wish for anything.

I just made a joke about it being 2008 again

about time being a boomerang was this on the social media site that you said was good that I should join this sounds bad it's one of the rare posts I've had like find its way into the gaze of the professional scold community and I blocked a lot of these people but I also got blocked by one where I was like hey maybe consider adopting a lifestyle where you don't go around scolding people who whose joke you didn't understand in the first place.

I think it's clear that this example demonstrates that it's not about the social media site specifically.

It's about how you tend to your garden there and make it a less shitty place for yourself.

I think that's all it's ever going to require for the rest of our lives.

My filters are better for that moment.

Hell yeah.

Hey, you remember when I told you, like, back in the early Twitter days, I had a list of like 50 words that just never come through?

Yeah.

Can you do that in these new social media sites?

You can do that.

And you can also, what Blue Sky has is like they've got their own moderation thing, but there's also a second layer, which is like community created moderation.

So somebody can be like, I made a list of...

300 assholes that you can just click this button and you'll never hear from them.

Oh, like they kind of sell it as a patch.

Yeah.

Like I have one installed on mine that is just don't show me screenshots of other social media websites.

And so that never comes across my feet.

Like I never see somebody screenshotting a truth social post.

And I don't ever have to worry about that coming up.

About that.

Yeah.

It's nice.

Sounds like you're thickening up your bubble nicely, as you got to do.

I've put the solophane all over my social media to prevent the blue stains from getting on everything.

what about the bronzer you got to allow the bronzer I'm keeping the bronzer the bronzer is yeah it's it's a special like material science kind of cellophane that allows bronze but prevents blue well I'm fitting in great here I have I have a suitcase full of untucket shirts and Oakley brand sunglasses I'm going from place to place totally unchecked it's wonderful you're using the phrase to wit a lot and uh

throwing a lot of extra words in as you, you know, like the suspect would appreciate a martini with a splash of the olive juice to wit

over here right now.

I'm going to be just over on the other end of the bar adjudicating the menu.

It was determined by the subject that

not sufficient number of tequila and sodas had been delivered at that time and therefore

felt threatened by the situation.

You can speak to us normally.

Okay.

No, thank you, sir.

I got to tell you, Ben, as weird as it can sometimes be on this trip to D.C., we have so many FODs out here.

Our very own Windy Pretty lives out here.

Got to spend some quality time with her and a few other FODs.

It's been a really short trip.

The only reason I'm here is

my wife booked a business trip here and then changed jobs.

So the business trip went away and I got kind of stuck holding the plane tickets.

Like,

I don't know.

I don't have many reasons to come to D.C.

Why don't I just do it?

Yeah.

God, and let me tell you, brother, negotiating that with a wife, like the maybe I'll go anyway-ness of it,

fraught.

That was a trip negotiation that somehow worked in my favor.

I'll drink to that, bud.

And I'll drink to zombie falcons as well.

Let's see if they can put some cellophane up on the walls of the ship to prevent the green smudges this episode.

Absolutely, Ben.

It's Enterprise Season 3, Episode 5.

Its title is Impulse.

Gotta free speech and guitar.

Very hot, cold open.

Yeah.

As Tepal is being brought to Six Bay in the arms of her captain.

But she'll kill that motherfucker.

This is a real throwback to the ER style procedural that was so popular for a time, which I think is having a resurgence now.

Everyone's telling me to watch the pit, Ben.

Everybody says, watch the pit.

I know you got feelings about people telling you you got to watch things.

And I'm starting to feel a little bit Benjamin R.

Harrison-y about people recommending the pit.

I'm like, I know about the pit.

Who doesn't know about the pit?

Everybody knows about the pit.

We've all seen a bus in the last six months.

Like,

I'm sure it's great, and I don't want it to be overhyped.

Like, at this point, if I watch it, it will inevitably disappoint because, you know, too many people have recommended it.

Everyone's rooting for Noah Wiley.

Yes.

It's going to be great.

Everyone loves it.

It's doing fine without us for the moment.

We stand a medical king.

One thing about those shows that you don't often get is the patient trying to kill the doctors and that is clearly what TePaul is trying to do with her thrashing and screaming.

She is positively writhing as they attempt to administer a hypo and Ben.

Sometimes the show kind of struggles with Tepal's writhing.

It's coded as fairly sexual a lot of times.

Would you classify this as sexual writhing?

that she's doing?

I didn't get a horny note off of it.

It felt scary and

learning.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's which is like, I think that the cat suit that they always put her in

is hard to get around, but like people go to the ER in cat suits, you know?

Yeah, I mean, you get to Paul laying down in the cat suit, sweaty and writhing.

I mean, often it goes a certain way on this show.

In this episode, fairly terrifying, up to and including the scream.

Made me think of the last time I screamed just as loud as I could.

Like, that's probably a roller coaster, right?

I just don't get many opportunities to do that.

And kind of a scream queen is what Jolene is.

Yeah, it would almost be worth being in this level of medical distress to go to the ER and really let one go, scream-wise, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Really great scream.

Really effective.

Right on into the theme.

And after the theme, we're picking up right where we left off.

Tepal is a little more coherent in her paranoia and her fear.

And she is seeing Dr.

Flox as the enemy and as someone who's tried to kill her.

The hypo spray eventually gets into the neck and calms her down, but Flox is describing the damage as being more severe than expected.

And I was just thinking, man, she is lucky that, I mean, they're all lucky that the solution to whatever is causing the screaming isn't one of Flox's frontier medicine leech applications or similar, you know, like if there was a wriggling beastie also involved in this situation, what would they have done?

I mean, it's very much not in her head if that's the case.

If he's making with like two lobster style

leeches to attach to her.

How useful is the imaging chamber for a moment like this?

This is effectively a straitjacket.

Yeah.

You know, you put Tipal onto the table, you chamber her like she's a torpedo, and you let her thrash around in the chamber.

Yeah, she'll calm down in there eventually.

She can't hurt anything in there besides herself.

One day earlier, we have a scene of Tripp and the captain working late at night on some stuff, and they're just kind of like idly chit-chatting as they computer together.

And Tripp relates to the captain that he was talking to the legendary chef of the NX01

about the morale issue that is plaguing the crew.

Like, the crew just doesn't seem right to chef.

Tripp thinks that the captain should know about this problem, and he floats the idea of, like, you know, we haven't done a movie night since we entered the expanse.

Archer is initially against this.

He's like, no way.

Movies are for closers only.

You kill some Zindis, then you get a movie, basically.

Did you detect what could have been a little bit of the chef being like, huh, I'm scraping a lot of plates into the trash.

Can't be my cooking.

Morale must be low.

It's definitely not me.

Chef's the best in Starfleet.

I went to the steam tray and people were taking mac and cheese right out of the middle and not getting the corner pieces.

Yeah.

Something's wrong.

Something's up.

I had some real feelings about this scene because there was a moment in my corporate life where I made a terrible mistake.

And maybe this would be educational for anyone else out there with an office job.

But morale in my department was extremely low for a time.

And there were all sorts of reasons for this.

But when an executive came through kind of after hours, I was working late one night.

This dude rolls up and shoots the shit.

See how I'm doing.

I made the mistake of telling the truth.

I made the mistake of saying, yeah, like, like we're getting stuff done.

Things are going fine or anything, but like morale has been a little low.

It's a little weird around here.

And his reaction was not favorable to this.

Wow.

I made a terrible mistake by saying that.

He was fairly confrontational about it and said that I was naive for believing that to be be the case

and that I shouldn't really be concerned about matters like morale when it is about getting the fucking work done.

And you thought to yourself, it is kind of late.

Like, this is, it's just him and me here.

And you reached out and grabbed the front of his pants and pulled out and yelled, Velcro check.

Yeah, that was really the problem that sent me to HR was the Velcro check.

It wasn't the admission of low morale.

Maybe, maybe he's planning on turning morale around personally.

Yeah, that was tough.

I learned a valuable lesson that day, Ben.

Yeah.

So, okay, movie night can come back.

We'll watch a comedy.

I was hoping it would be dirty work or something.

You know, when they say a classic comedy, yeah, you want them to work in a Paul Blart mall cop or, you know, something that would be...

delightful to find out is considered a classic comedy in the future.

Especially because, just to give a little glimpse of the end scene of this episode, there's no pies to the face,

there's no slipping on banana peels in the footage we see.

There doesn't seem to be much comedy in the film clip that we get at all.

Mary a Yakety Sax.

Yeah.

And this wasn't true at the time, but Rebecca Romaine is canonical Star Trek, she's in dirty work.

Yeah.

Yeah, as the bearded lady.

I'll be in my trailer, honey.

If you want it,

come and get it.

Enter non-maniac Tepaul, who

finds out that they've been doing some work that she is also a party to.

It's a group project.

They've been working on it without her, and she is very annoyed about this.

I would have helped you do that.

Archer splits, and Tripp again tries to trick Tepaul into having to come to movie night.

Did this feel conspicuous to you?

The way that, like, when a group of people have an understanding that there may be a crush between folks in the group,

there's a lot of like, let's leave them alone.

Like,

let's not interfere in whatever this is.

Like, there's a moment where, like, Archer's doing some work and then, for no reason at all, leaves the work to go be on the other side of the room.

I don't feel like the writer's room have made their minds up about which of the male leads of this cast they want to have a crush on TePaul and which they want to write toward with that yet.

Like it seems to bounce around a little bit.

But yeah, like Archer leaves in a way of like, okay, well,

I'll be organizing my sock drawer.

You two kids have fun.

They get just a moment together alone before Hoshi blows in a call.

Hey, we're picking up Vulcan distress out there.

And on the bridge, they're able to recognize the ship that sent the call.

This is a Vulcan ship that had gone into the expanse nine months ago.

And that is a lot of time to turn inside out in my mind.

It is.

If we change the words,

then it's fair use all day long.

We get an establishing shot of this asteroid field that is fucked up.

It is

so kinetic.

The rocks are banging into each other.

It seems really fucking dangerous.

And then we cut to a very unusual for Star Trek, like very far away top-down shot of the ship approaching this asteroid field.

Yeah, it looks like that war table that you see in movies sometimes where the ships are in the ocean and you're moving them around with crap sticks.

The shuffleboard wand, yeah.

Yeah, I love that shot quite a bit.

The reason they've pulled up on this asteroid field is the Vulcan ship with the distressed call is inside.

And wouldn't you know it?

Kind of a fortunate situation.

All of these little asteroids are full of the trillium ore that they could use to make their insulation.

Yeah.

So they got to wake up Mr.

Reed to get a shuttle trip together so that they can go in there because too dangerous to bring the entire ship into this field.

And damn, this is fucking stressful.

Like it is like multiple people actively working on navigating as all of these rocks fly around them.

Like if you've ever rented a car in the Midwest during storm season,

like, this is the terrible feeling of the hail starting to come down on your rental car.

Like, this shuttle will never be the same after this mission.

And, you know, Tepal offering to drive is not helping, okay?

Maybe on the way back.

We're both on the rental agreement, all right, TePaul.

I happen to draw the shorts drop being in the seat.

We're not pulling over right now.

You've got to believe that if you ever rented a car with a Vulcan and they were the driver, it is speed limit in the left lane the entire time, absolute madness

in attention to all driving rules and regulations.

10 and 2.

Yeah, like letter, not spirit of law in all ways.

They've never heard of making up time on the road.

That's just not going to happen.

I was driving in New Jersey recently, and I don't know if this is a change with the New Jersey turnpike, because I remember it used to be that occasionally I would drive to New Jersey from New York and

miss one little thing on the GPS and I'd be on the express side of the turnpike and you could you could get fucked for like 10 miles.

You know, you'd go, you'd be like, there's no way to get out of this and I am so far past where I was trying to get off.

But what they have seemed to have done is made it a truck side and a cars side now.

And I got on the truck side.

There's trucks plus cars.

There's like a little like parenthetical plus cars.

Yeah.

I barely used a sip of gas all all the way to Pennsylvania because I was just like drafting behind huge big rigs the entire time.

It was amazing.

Like it was like one of those rental cars where they're like return it as close to empty as possible.

And I was like, I get a day of driving.

I don't want to put anything in this tank.

I don't have to.

Sure, sure.

It's fucking amazing.

It's weird to find yourself in the wrong place and trapped there in a car.

Like there have been times I've accidentally driven into like the metro station part of an airport rental car return.

Like, that fucking sucks so bad.

It's so embarrassing to be a car where the buses are.

Yeah, and the guy in the yellow vest is like, what are you doing?

And you're like,

it's confusing.

I've never been here.

There's no reversing out of that situation.

The only way out is through.

Yeah, severe tire damage if you reverse.

Yeah.

That's sort of a metaphor for the whole expanse, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So Archer is asking TePaula what she knows about the Salea, the Vulcan ship that they are on the trail of.

And she's like, I actually used to work there.

Captain Voris, best boss I ever had.

Present company excluded.

I don't know what I make of this moment.

Are you ever irritated by

it's not an intentional withholding of information, but like you're working on a thing.

And like, Tepal could just say.

that she knows all about this ship because she used to work on it and she knows all the crew and like she has experiences and so forth.

She could have offered that before they got on the shuttle.

shuttle yes like and it could have helped them prepare for what they're about to do and instead you have to ask her and then all of a sudden this volume of of backstory comes out no one reacts in that way that's a little bit pissed about like needing to extract the information rather than it being given right this feels like real uh

Ambassador Saval shit.

You didn't ask, yeah.

Yeah.

Which I guess maybe is like them writing the Vulcans with a consistency.

like you didn't ask, and therefore we didn't offer the information.

Yeah, I get that.

But like, I would have loved Reed going, Wait, so this ship is why the other ship with the Event Horizon Vulcans went into the expanse in the first place, and you never thought to tell us about that?

You mean I don't have to share every thought I've ever had with an ex

I should wait until my exes ask and then write them the weird letter.

Meanwhile, aboard The Entrepreneur, Tripp and Travis are working on beaming rocks aboard

because of this ore that they might be able to get out of the asteroid field.

I like Tripp and Travis as a work couple on this show.

I think they're a good match.

I don't like Trip and Reed.

I don't like Reed and anyone, I think.

But I like these two together.

They're fun.

You're like, why did they include the licorice jelly bean?

It messes up every combination of jelly beans.

Yeah, precisely.

And it helps that I think that this project is kind of silly too.

Like the beaming of asteroids onto the transporter pad and like the cataloging and studying of them in order to figure out, you know, which ones are going to be most dense with ore.

Yeah.

But this ore is fucked up and it kind of throws off the transporter and

we get a like an a encrustification of the interior of the transporter when they attempt to beam a slightly larger rock aboard and it and it just kind of like splits into pieces and goes everywhere.

I didn't quite get the significance of this moment until later.

Like removing the transporter as a device, as an option for anything to come, I think was very smart here.

And it was subtle.

It didn't feel like foreshadowing at all.

Yeah.

But Mayweather is like, oh man, bummer, maybe we should go land on one of the big rocks and do the mining ourselves.

I feel like whenever Trip is involved, I'm feeling a silliness that maybe isn't baked into the scene.

Like, if I were working this shit job, I'd be like, oh, transporter's broken.

You want to hit the mess hall, Travis?

Why don't we take five and think about what's going to happen next?

Yeah.

We finally catch up with the Salaya.

It is not in great shape.

A lot of the skin of the ship has been knocked away by asteroid impacts and the skeleton is exposed.

But they get multiple biosigns aboard.

And they try hailing.

Nobody picks up the phone over there.

So it's decided that they're going to dock with the remaining workable docking ring that the Salaya has.

and go aboard.

And on board the ship, they find a condition that is very un-Vulcan ship-like.

There's a bunch of crud all around.

There's fallen girders.

The lights are flickering.

I just felt like having your docking port be a hole in the floor seemed also un-Vulcan-like.

Like, that's not logical.

Because

ramp is far easier to navigate than ladder under any circumstance.

Generally speaking, ramp is easier.

Yeah.

Hey, here's a question about production.

Are sparks dangerous in this context?

To actors?

Because why aren't they used more?

They look amazing.

They look.

Especially in this interior ship scene.

This is a Livingston, this episode, and this is so atmospheric.

This guy has been directing Star Trek from the TNG era, and I feel like

has so much range in terms of...

directoral style.

This is like a great haunted house episode with some really spooky effects, and just like the atmosphere and the vibes, and the shot compositions are so unique and different and like unconventional for Star Trek in so many ways.

And it's like, it's amazing that

such a Star Trek veteran is behind some of these choices.

It's not like they brought in an outside director with a lot of horror credits to do this.

Yeah, Livingston's got all the gears.

Like he's got every tool in the kit.

It's really working here this episode.

No, they're not gonna

They find an area where the Vulcans were trying to smear

this ore on a door and make a shelter for themselves.

Is this an oar door?

It's an ore door.

And if that went into a undesirable neighborhood in Middle-earth, you would call that a Mordor ore door.

Absolutely.

But the biosigns that they're picking up are not in there in the partially insulated part of the ship.

They're somewhere else.

It means that they did not succeed in protecting themselves from the tralium.

With the trillium, I should say.

It isn't long before Tepal opens a door and reveals a couple of hard pipe-hitting Vulcans.

God damn it.

And they've got to start shooting.

I had hard pipe hitting Vulcans in my notes, too.

I just for the record.

You don't bring a pipe to a phaser fight is what you learn real fast here, and a bunch of shots are licked.

It is really kinetic and scary and intense.

And when they've got these Vulcans stunned, they start scanning bodies and they're like looking at the synaptic pathways, going like, woof, that's not going to bang out and be repairable with Bondo.

That is bad news.

What begins here continues for the rest of their time on the ship.

The hard pipe hitting Vulcans are a horde, a swarm even, and they just keep coming.

There are so many extras in this episode.

It is like one of the most low-key impressive things about this episode is how many extras they paid.

Yeah.

Because, you know, they talk about eventually like the size of the crew that they are potentially up against.

There's a lot of guys on this ship.

For there being so many guys on the ship, there's a moment where it's clear that Reed hasn't run into anyone.

And like Archer blows in a call to him, and he's like, nope, I haven't seen any.

Oh!

Like the moment he's asked the question, the Vulcans appear and they have to shoot them.

You would hope that Reed and Amako receiving the news that keep your head on a swivel, there are hostiles afoot would be sufficient warning for them to not get surprised by the hostiles showing up, but it is not.

This has has got a real, could you defeat a hundred duck-sized horses kind of problem here, because there are so many Vulcans and so many pipes, and it's just read in the Mako shooting.

It eventually devolves into close combat, and there's some close-range smashing and choking and shooting.

And eventually they get the upper hand before the Desputter Club is reunited.

But it feels like a dozen or more Vulcans have been fought off at this point, and Archer has to come rescue Reed against the last one.

And the Mako guy is like low-key, like turning the knob on his gun to plus it up to the kill setting.

And TePaula is like, what are you doing?

We are on a rescue mission.

The Mako guy's like, because I want to live.

You know, I'm sure that this probably isn't a popular idea in the hotel you're staying in right now, but this is why you don't send police on a mental health call.

Like you get your city to fund the special van with a social worker and a mental health professional and an EMT so that the worst guy in your high school isn't the one trying to negotiate somebody's mental health crisis.

Ben, I think you've misunderstood the scene because the shuttle pod is the van.

Everyone in Starfleet is that.

Yeah, except for this Mako.

It didn't work.

Yeah.

It didn't work, and that's why they're shooting.

And this entire scene turns the episode into that arcade game with the air guns, like House of the Dead style.

It really feels House of the Dead from here on.

Yeah.

They're trying to get back to their shuttle now, and they meet a...

like slightly less crazed pair of Vulcans that are over there trying to get into the shuttle and are just like, finally, like some people that aren't like immediately trying to attack us.

Perfect diplomacy opportunity for me, Captain Archer, noted diplomat.

Doesn't it feel crazy that it's more threatening to get these Vulcans standing completely still in front of the exit to the ship here?

Like, oh, it makes my skin crawl.

They smash the button that closes the bulkhead and locks the away team out of the airlock.

And, oh boy a ton more Vulcans start swarming them and they've got a retreat up a hatch there's a like archer as Lex in Jurassic Park almost getting dragged back down

I really like that there's so many moments of retreat here it's not just them going forward figuring out a way to continue like they're having to sawtooth their way to their objective in a way that feels real and this set is so cool the fact that there are like different different levels to it and stuff.

Like, I mean, I know that they're probably just crawling up into a crawl space that's full of two by fours or whatever, but like there's so many times where they're coming up through the floor or going up through the ceiling or coming down out of the ceiling in this episode.

It's a really great set.

It felt to me a lot like the terraforming station in Aliens.

Like there's a lot of hatches and crawling and escaping.

And

yeah, I thought this was just really effectively done.

Except for the Vulcans mostly don't come at night.

They mostly come all the time.

Yeah.

Mostly.

So I'm coming day and night.

I mean, it's terrific, right?

Yeah, they got to get up seven decks to get communications back by going to the bridge.

And they're like, shit, like, there's over 147 Vulcans on board this thing.

So this is pretty scary.

How much ammo do you got?

Yeah.

And the Mako got injured by one of the attacks.

So they decide to go to Six Bay first, which is a mere two decks up, and they start heading that way, but it starts to become clear that TePaul is not just angry that that Mako set his gun to kill for a minute.

She's like being influenced by whatever has turned these Vulcans into violent zombies.

Do you think one of the problems with what happened here is that they underestimated the issue on the Vulcan ship because they don't seem to be resourced correctly.

I mean, clearly, they're not resourced correctly for the problem at hand.

Like, why not bring more Makos?

Why not bring the single Mako they've got, but outfit him with all of the kit, like grenades and shit.

Like mechanized armor and

shoulder-mounted Gatling gun and stuff.

I think this is just a lack of imagination on what the expanse can do to people because I think up until now it's just like turning you inside out is the problem and I don't think anyone has even come close to imagining that it could drive you crazy even though they saw video evidence of this yeah I think that the question of whether the crazy is permanent is still open and so like if like it could be awesome for them if they can help these Vulcans come back and then they can have like an ally ship in there with them potentially if you saw a video of Vulcans tearing each other's eyeballs out as like the last known video transmission from Inside the Expanse, and then you have an opportunity to board a different Vulcan ship inside the Expanse, that at least has to be discussed, right?

Right.

We should bring a lot of ways to stun, you know?

Like, let's bring goggles.

Yeah.

So we cut over to the B story where Mayweather and Trip have taken the other shuttle pod out to land on one of the big asteroids.

There's some discussion of whether this landing is going to go okay.

It does not.

It's like one of those commercial airplane landings that like hits the bump stops on the shock.

Like,

okay.

Any landing you can walk away from.

Yeah.

Hope you won't write that landing up in your log.

Are you kidding?

I'm going to recommend they give you a medal.

Always awkward when you've like had a little interaction with the pilot on the way onto the plane and then you see them again on the way off.

You're like,

you got to always thank the pilot on the way out.

Yeah, yeah, you got to.

I mean, let's just be honest.

Everybody at Starfleet Academy thought it was a little bit weird when Travis Mayweather said he didn't really need to learn how to land shuttles.

Do you think there's a no-tipping policy for pilots?

Oh, like, I know coming into Washington, D.C., we orbited for like 20 minutes.

Weather was really bad.

And when we finally got down, like, people have feelings about DCA since the accident that happened here a while back.

And, like, he got us in.

It was was a good landing like

wouldn't it feel nice to just give that guy a 20 you know like

and would they accept it if if you were to hand your pilot a tip yeah i mean if we're talking about like an a350 or a 67 or something like this is this is the captain is stands to make a pretty good chunk of change here I mean, famously, flight attendants don't get paid when the plane is on the ground.

They're all working for free.

I think tipping them is probably a great idea if they're allowed to accept them.

It seems nice.

I mean, like, the least you can do is like not taking stuff off the cart as they're pushing it through.

Like, they can hand it to you, you know.

Be a fucking human being to the flight attendants.

Yeah.

Legally, it's just a fart joke.

You will never take the greatest shit alive.

Man would rather die.

They make it to six bay.

Even that is crazy.

They got to stun a guy in there.

But they do some first aid on the mako.

And Tepaul does a little bit of science on maybe the doctor who they stunned in there.

He's not the doctor.

He's the chief engineer.

She knew this guy.

Yeah.

Her version of getting through to him is very untapal-like with the volume of her voice.

Yeah.

Tell me what happened.

Tell me!

Desperation starts to seep through as she

attempts to get him to explain what the fuck is going on, what happened to them.

And man, I thought Jolene Blaylock ate and left no cremes in this scene.

Like she,

this is the moment where I think she goes from being entirely in control to somewhat not in control.

And the way she shades that in over the course of the scene is so good.

I think there's something very familiar about the idea of a person confronting a possible future.

Like anyone who has an aging relative that's suffering from an ailment that could be passed down to you has felt this way a time or two.

Like part of my discomfort about folks with Alzheimer's or dementia or whatever is that like that shit runs in my family and the prospect of it is terrifying to me.

So like there's this moment in this scene where it's a version of that that will happen to TePaul today.

Right.

Like

that's what she's looking at.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the decision is made.

Like we got to get the fuck out of here and we need to Paul to hold it together long enough to describe to us how to get through this ship.

Do you feel like she's held it together, Ben?

It's touch and go.

So they start Jeffries tubing it back to engineering where they will maybe be able to get the like

I guess get back to the shuttle via engineering or something like that.

Hey, Ben.

Yeah.

If you're Jeffrey's tubing it, does that mean you're in a Jeffrey's tube jacking off on a video call?

Yeah.

Yeah, you're showing off your Jeffrey's tube steak.

Yeah.

One, I didn't know it was still on.

Yeah.

Whenever we record these shows, I just have the one tab open.

Oh, yeah.

I don't want to make that kind of mistake.

Yeah.

I guess I probably should close my notes.

That's a good note.

That's a good note by you.

So yeah, they make it to a hallway that looks a bit like a narrow street in Paris after a riot.

A lot of burned out obstructions in there.

That is so specific.

The Mako is like, I think maybe just trying to calm TePaul down a little bit.

And he's like, hey, I'm really sorry about that whole setting my phaser to kill thing earlier.

That was my bad like you're right we this is a rescue mission I didn't really think that through it's a hell of a way to translate I'm sorry I tried to kill all of your friends and co-workers in the last scene

good job by this Mako guy he's like yeah like it's just weird to me that these guys are all so ragey I thought Vulcans didn't have that and she's like nope we just suppress it a common misconception these guys have reverted to the murderous and violent Vulcan past that that's why their brows have grown so heavy.

They're basically Cro-Mag Vulcans.

Yeah.

What did you make of the cutting back and forth here?

Because like we get this scene, we get Archer and Reed going on kicking more and more Vulcan ass as they go further into the ship.

I was like a little unclear on like, did they get split up or like, are they too teaming it?

Because it seems like so much of the fighting is falling to Archer and Reed, where like they've got a guy whose job is fighting and he's just having a chat.

The division of this labor, I thought, was interesting in that way.

I mean, it definitely feels like a military operation where like they're meant to clear the room for the others to come into, but it feels like the Mako should be one of the room clearers.

No?

Is he still pretty hurt?

Or did he get patched up?

I think that's the idea.

I think this is insane, but I think a fully healthy Reed might be more of an asset than an injured Mako in a situation like this.

Certainly seems that way.

It's a lot less less bloodlusty when we cut over to Mayweather and Trip Tucker.

Like, that's.

I felt a little jostled by the cutting back and forth here.

Just two dudes doing manual labor, wiping the sweat off their brow, you know, shooting the breeze while they're digging up these rocks for mining.

Uh-oh.

Anomalous banger gets dropped, and Hoshi blows in a call like right after it happens.

This is like an earthquake in LA, and then your parents call like after it hits the news.

Like, did you feel that?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You clearly have CNN on.

When do you not?

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Unfortunately, this banger has kicked the asteroid they're on on a different course and it's heading for a more dangerous place, a collision course with a much larger asteroid.

And so they run back to the shuttle pod and they do one of those like emergency short runway takeoffs.

before they get splattered by this oncoming giant asteroid and sparks are flying, thrusters are going down, and they they just have just enough power to make it home.

It was such an interesting moment in the episode because up until this point, every time we cut to the B story, I was like, this is one of those Star Trek episodes that has like a 10 out of 10 intense A story and a totally sleepy B story.

And suddenly the B story feels so desperate and crazy.

Drip is yelling into the radio that they're going to be making a bumpy landing back in the docking bay.

And it's like, all right, it's on, man.

You mentioned it earlier, like how great this scene of asteroid kinetic energy is just in the wide shot.

But when these two asteroids collide and explode, I wonder if you're an effects person, if two rocks smashing together is more difficult to create than a ship explosion.

I mean, you get both of those things in this episode, and both of those things.

look fucking amazing.

They look like as good as the show has ever done.

Yeah, I mean, I wonder if that's just just something that can be simulated in the physics engine of the CG program.

Like you can just drag and drop a rock explode effect onto something that you've done.

Or if it has to be done a little bit more by hand than that.

I don't know.

I really wonder.

Great work, whatever the case.

It looks good.

So Archer and the gang make it to this control room, and they're trying to access a transceiver

to, I guess, radio back to the entrepreneur.

Transceiver is damaged, and Tepal is really starting to lose her grip on coherency, but there's a backup transmitter and maybe they can use that.

And we cut back to Trip, who's working on fixing up the shuttle.

Like we get, we're in the shuttle bay and the shuttle is fucked up when we cut to it.

And Trip is there assessing the damage with Mayweather when Archer's radio for help comes through.

It's great timing episode-wise because Archer's like, I need a rescue ASAP and Trip is like,

we actually took the other shuttle pod out to do a little bit of mining and

did not go great for the shuttle.

Was it always ever understood that there are two operational shuttle pods on Enterprise?

Because

I have to admit, I was a little surprised that this was the only one available for a possible pickup.

It changes the math on missions going forward, in my mind.

Like, why would you ever send two out on two different missions, especially when you've lost contact with your captain, you know, over on that other ship?

Yeah.

And why do they have so many shuttle pod doors, but only two shuttle pods?

They are going to have to replace the doors on all of these shuttles when they return.

Archer's also going to send the bio scans of this Vulcan that they scanned in Six Bay for Flox to take a look at, see if Flox can come up with anything to help all these guys.

I like how they have this conversation in front of Tepal.

It feels like it's done with some intentionality to try to make her feel better.

Like, yes, the top line goal is to flee the ship and get off.

Tipal is falling apart.

She knows she's falling apart.

She's fearful about what that means for her.

But like in having this conversation, we're like trying to give her a little comfort that like yes also we're trying to figure out your deal too yeah it's good faith

to believe

i can do

carry

there's a scene where they're trying to get this other computer system working and Reed really pulls with Ben Harrison here where Tapala's like, you got all those computer chips in the right order over on your side?

And he's like, yeah, absolutely.

Definitely sure that that is what's going on here.

And she like pushes the button and a arc of warf lightning rockets her across the room.

And she's like, Really, Reed?

You couldn't double check the fucking math on that?

It's funny you would assign yourself to the Reed figure in this situation because I thought you were more of a TePaul here, given like

what you turn into when having a conversation with a customer service professional.

Like, it's pointless.

It is very upsetting when they're unable to help in certain situations and I thought I thought maybe you were more of a TePaul I think I'm the Reed of this scenario I think you contain Miriam I boy if I have TePaula and Reed in me I don't I I'm uh I'm in trouble It seems like this accelerates TePaul's symptoms, though, right?

Like, getting shocked.

I don't think really.

This is like when Bruce Banner gets slapped in the face and turns into the Hulk.

Like, that's what happens to TePaul here.

She puts this all on Reed.

She thinks he did it on purpose, and this has all been a conspiracy to fuck with her, you know, from the moment that Mako set his weapon to kill.

And now she thinks Archer and Trip were like undermining her work on like the schedule or whatever they were working on late night when she walked in in that earlier scene.

She is raging.

And now everybody's guns are out.

And TePaul's is the only one that's set to kill.

Hypocrite much, TePaul?

Yeah, as a negotiator, Archer should not point that out.

I've never really thought about it this way until I saw this scene.

How much worse paranoid is than mad

if you're confronted by a person who's going through some things.

Paranoid seems so much more dangerous than mad.

Mad can be reasoned with.

Paranoia really can't be.

No, no.

It sucks.

And it's like, yeah, like the moment you try to advocate against the idea that the paranoid person has in their head, they are liable to throw you in with the thing they're concerned about.

Yeah.

And then you're even further from helping them.

This is why the first page of negotiating with a person in crisis is always like, if I hear you correctly, and then you repeat

whatever fucking crazy thing they just told you.

You try to soften that up into something actionable and then you pitch it right back at them.

They hear their own words paraphrased back, and they're like, This guy.

Are you making fun of me?

Are you trying to pull my pants down?

Yeah.

Archer tries to argue the logic with TePaul, and it's not going well.

But a knock on the door lets him get the drop on her and get that set-to-kill phaser out of her hand.

What it turns out is that the Trellium we hear from Phox, the Trellium is is a neurotoxin for Vulcans, and that is why they're all going bonko.

And the damage for these Vulcans aboard the Salaya is irreversible.

It's been too long that they've been exposed.

Who could have predicted huffing insulation

would have consequences for folks who are near it?

And Archer is like, oh man, TePaul, bad news.

All of these people that you're so dead set on safing, irreversible harm has been done to their cerebrums.

And

that does not calm her down.

Yeah, being told they're fucking dead anyway is not a comfort to Tipal.

No.

So at this point, the Vulcans shut down comms and start pumping poison gas into the room.

And yet are also banging on the doors, which is like, you know, like let the gas do its work, Vulcans.

You don't need to bang down the door if the gas is coming in.

Did you get a sense that there were Lenny zombie Vulcans and also

who's the other guy?

George zombie Vulcans involved?

Yeah, there are zombie Vulcans that have a glove full of lotion on one hand.

Because, like, some seem to be the banging type, others seem to be the hitting buttons and switches kind of intelligence.

And I don't think one could do the other in my mind.

Yeah.

But they're working together.

Yeah, they are.

Yeah.

And that's dangerous.

They escape, and Archer suggests that Reed overload the engines of the ship so that they can escape.

And

Tepal is like really, really mad at them, but like there's a moment where they're like, you got to come with us.

And she's like,

all right, I will not stay on the ship that's been set to self-destruct.

It's ass, gas, or evacuate

for Tepal here.

Yeah.

And the gas kind of helps her make her decision, right?

Yeah.

It's,

I mean, like an indicator that she is not all gone at this point.

So they get back to the shuttle and we see like an exterior that they're like little explosions starting to erupt in the skin of this ship.

How great is this shot?

So cool.

Yeah.

At this point, Archer is like physically carrying a writhing and fighting to Paul.

But eventually she stops fighting him, and they get to this spot where they're like across a chasm in the ship from the entrance to the docking ring, and they have to make a balance beam to get across it.

I love this.

As these Vulcans are like swarming in.

How narrow do you perceive this beam to be?

It is like...

It's a smaller width than a shoe, it looks like.

It's flat, fortunately.

Yeah, yeah.

carrying a writhing person across this is the scary thing about it for sure.

Archer is an over-the-shoulder science officer holder trying to maintain balance while crossing this thing.

I thought he was going over, I thought he would have to throw her to the other side and then like do that thing where he's hanging by both arms.

I love the moment when he decides to just shoot her.

Yeah, touch me, and I'll kill you.

It's like, I mean, like, at this point, what the fuck else choice do you have?

You have to stun her and just attempt it, you know?

So Reed and the Mako are holding off the oncoming horde while Archer and TePaul make it across, and then the Mako goes next, and then Reed is the last one across.

And Archer and the Mako wedge open the door to the airlock with some metal shards.

Yeah.

They got to do that thing where they wiggle underneath and make it to the other side.

It's one of many, many scenes in this episode where it felt like Reed was the last one out of a room that was really dangerous to be in, which, you know, say what you want about Reed.

I thought he had a good episode heroism-wise.

I think it kind of pays off his totally insane thoughts a few episodes ago about, like, I should really be lead in security matters.

Over the Mako.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, he gets to be that here.

So they can't release the docking clamps once they get aboard the shuttle.

I don't know why this matters sometimes and doesn't matter other times, but this time it really matters that they can't release the docking clamps.

We get a different version of this, though.

They don't just rip themselves off

the way we've seen portrayed before.

No, shuttle pod 2 comes and cuts it away with a phaser.

This is fun.

We cut to the wide shot on the Salea.

RSVP, bat ship.

And

we get back to the entrepreneur trip and now I guess we're kind of like post the scene where Archer delivered Tepal to Six Bay and Trip is like yeah so like we got enough of the Trellium that we're gonna be able to make a little bit of expanse armor for the hull

we learn that Tepal is healing and she's

gonna be fine but she's got a couple days before she's gonna be entirely in control of her emotions again

and Archer goes in to give this news to her.

She's like very upset about the death of all of these Vulcans and Archer's like, you know, like

there wasn't anything that anyone could have done for them.

And Phlox gets in there and tries to tries to reassure her that this was like the humane choice.

And she's like, humane, if you could only hear yourself.

Boy, the very name is racist.

It's in this moment that TePaul's like, you know, it would also be humane, dropping me off on the nearest M-class because it's clear I can't live and work on a ship that's covered in Trellium insulation and Archer's like no I can't do that I got to keep you here and potentially turn you crazy that's gonna be my decision this is the moment when we find out that they do not have hospital gowns on Enterprise because DePaul gets up and reveals full naked back This show loves her back.

It really does.

I mean, we stand her back.

Like, he's not leaving her behind.

They're going to figure this out.

We cut to movie night, which is not exactly a laugh riot, as we mentioned before.

I mean, maybe if we could fucking hear the dialogue movie.

Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up, Dr.

Flox.

You know, he's from a different culture.

He just doesn't understand.

TePaul doing hero work in this scene, trying to get him to be quiet.

I had the thought, is she so willing to confront Flux and trip in this scene because she's still afflicted by the Vulcan virus that has her emotions kind of spiky?

Or is this just a good person enforcing good movie theater etiquette?

It's impossible to say because we don't know how much time has elapsed, but we do get some indication when a tactical alert triggers a full like rubber soul PTSD flashback for Tepal

and she is suddenly back on the Salaya

and things are fucked up and shit, and we get a really awesome, like, double jump scare wake-up back in Six Bay.

Did you think she was back on the Salaya?

I thought this waking nightmare was that Enterprise had been infiltrated by

the hard pipe hitting Vulcans.

I guess I interpreted it as Salaya just because of the lighting and the way they like smoked up the hallways, but maybe it was the Enterprise.

It's got to be fun if you are Livingston to be like, all right, get the weird lenses.

Yeah.

Time to get nightmarish.

Yeah, we're throwing those anamorphics on and we're warping them around.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

That's definitely what it looks like.

Finally, TePaul wakes up and it's clear that this is a recovery that's going to take longer than we were told.

Yeah.

And the note that the episode ends on, quite spooky.

Did you like this episode, Adam?

I can't pay.

Couldn't believe.

Got okay.

Tempting fate.

Absolute tour de four shit for Jolene Blaylock, I thought.

Really special episode for her.

And I think as a character, what I'm starting to realize is just how much more of a sacrifice this mission is for TePaul than anyone else on the crew.

Like she is made to endure the worst of the expanse because of her Vulcan-ness.

And

when she very

realistically and politely asks, maybe she should get off this bus,

to be told no, under no circumstances will she be permitted to leave.

Like,

I don't like the feeling of being trapped there that she is ordered to experience going forward.

And I don't think she'll ever express that.

Why does all this fucked up shit keep happening to me?

Right.

It seems like it will keep happening to her, and that's just going to be the price that she pays for quitting the Vulcan military apparatus and joining the crew of her own volition.

And, like, this is all by choice that she's enduring this.

It's really upping her stock as a character to me.

It may just be that Mission Impossible has been on my mind lately as

the new Mission Impossible movie is on its way, and I've been like dabbling and re-watching some of the later Macquarie Mission Impossibles to remind myself of where the story is at to get ready.

But, like, one character note about Ethan Hunt is that, you know, he's like,

like, a huge overarching theme across these movies is that, like, he won't sacrifice anyone on his team for the greater good or the greater good.

Like, he always saves both.

There's no needs of the many math in Mission Impossible, as far as Ethan Hunt is concerned, because of that.

But he's also not forcing his friends, colleagues, and loved ones into essentially prisons of being friends and colleagues and loved ones of his by doing that.

And when that happens because of external forces that he can't control, he regrets it in a way that Archer does not seem to.

Like when TePaul offers to be let off the ship and left on the next inhabitable planet, it is like for her sanity and also for the safety of the ship that she's offering to do that.

And Archer's saying, no fucking way.

But I won't leave anyone behind.

Not if I can help it.

Has some Ethan Hunt in it, except for essentially he's saying, like, I'm imprisoning you here aboard the ship on the hope that we can find a solution to this impossible mission, you know?

Hearing you describe this makes me realize this was a

hard Archer episode.

Like, you remember that scene where like Archer's back is turned to the camera and he is clearly braining a zombie Vulcan with like a rock

and we don't get to see it like he's up to some stuff yeah he got angry yeah the trouble is I do like it when Archer's angry on this show it's working for me well do you want to see if there's anything in the P1 inbox that's working for you Adam nothing ever makes me angry in there

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel.

Need a supplemental income.

Supplemental income.

Supplemental.

Supplemental income.

Yeah, it's extra.

But the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship.

Ben, we got a promotional priority one message here.

Hmm.

Here's how that goes.

I've been a D ⁇ D DM for nearly 20 years and a Star Trek fan even longer.

Yet somehow, never thought to try the Star Trek TTRPG.

For shame, Zach.

I'm fixing that by starting a Star Trek Adventures group and I need a crew.

All right.

If If you're in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, have Sunday afternoons free and want to make new FOD friends while boldly going where no one has gone before, this is for you.

Come join a Starfleet vessel on a mission to follow ancient proto-Vulcan artifacts to an intergalactic secret.

Oh.

So check this out.

This is like a call to FODs to DM Zach Brager, a scary man in the drunk Shimoda Discord if you're interested.

So I like how this is like, you have to join the Discord to get to Zach Brager.

This isn't like a broadcast to the entire audience.

He's not giving his phone number out in a way.

Like, if you're in the Discord, you have access to Zach Brager, a scary man, and then maybe you'll be recruited into this fun DD game that he's setting up.

I'm psyched about this.

We've met Zach Brager.

Yeah.

And Zach Brager famously sent in peanut butter booze to us with a scary man on the label.

I still drink that

scary booze from time to time.

Yeah.

It's great.

It can provide a great deal of pleasure.

I can't wait for an update about this game.

I hope this goes great for Zach Breaker.

If there's a Zach Breaker type in LA that is running a Star Trek Adventures group, I'd consider that.

Yeah.

I don't know what it's all about.

We just got the books in a recent Code 47, so we could.

Hey, how about we bring the books, you bring the booze?

We'll see what happens.

Yeah.

Something we should give some strong consideration to.

Yeah.

This next P1 from They Who Are Your Person, Grove.

To He Who Is My Person, Chris.

Goes like this.

Chris recently packed a bindle and set off to the D Quad seeking addiction recovery and his authentic self.

You've got strength of the heart.

I can't wait to meet you again after all we will gain in the not sharing.

Keep the bits coming, grisp your whole life and live the hell out of it and come home when it's right.

You're so dear to me.

Hell yeah, Chris.

Way to go.

Getting that help.

What a great message of friendship and comfort here.

Pretty awesome.

Yeah.

A real tough disease and

not,

you know,

not an easy one to deal with.

So we're all super proud of you for going and getting the help you need, Chris.

Strong stuff.

Strength of the heart, indeed.

Indeed.

Final priority one message here, Vandus from Jord.

And it's to Tyler.

Message goes like this.

Happy birthday, Ty.

You got me into the show years ago during Voyager, and it's been endless laughs ever since.

Wow.

Was fun seeing Greatest Gen's live show with you in Salt Lake when they came through.

Let's go again next time.

Whoa.

Thanks for being such a great brother.

How about the proximity of these last two messages?

Amazing.

Could Jordan and Tyler be the people that Zach Brager is looking for?

I think so.

I think they're talking to each other in the very same Priority One segment.

That's wild.

That's wild stuff.

Happy birthday.

Ty,

if you'd like to send a message of love and support or recruit dorks for your dorky game,

which I say advisedly as a...

Dorky gamer, go to maximumfund.org slash jumbotron and set your message up today.

Why not?

Why not?

Why do it?

It supports the shows, obviously.

Hey, Ben.

What's that, Adam?

Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda?

Incredible.

Drunk Shimoda.

I gotta give it to

Paul this episode.

She's just, I mean, Jolie the Blaylock just plays the shit out of this part.

And

yeah, Tour de Force, I think is a great way to put it.

I feel like I try to be funny with these to the extent that I have the ability to be funny, but this time I'm just, it's just a special citation in a great performance.

Yeah, we do those with Shimodo's on occasion when someone just pops off the screen the way Jolene Blaylock sometimes can.

I didn't think this show was broadcast in 3D, but there it is.

There is something about that scene between her and Hawkins, which is the mako that I haven't named the entire episode.

That moment where

it feels a lot like that Starship Troopers, it's just because I'm big and dumb.

Like, I see things through a militaristic lens.

Like, I wasn't thinking about the fact that all these Vulcans are people that you knew when I sought to kill them to save our lives.

That's awkward.

And good on Hawkins for at least trying to articulate some very conflicted feelings there.

I wonder where that's coming from, though.

Is Is that Hawkins trying to comfort TePal in a moment where she is totally freaking out?

Or is that more for Hawkins than her?

We might never know.

Hard to say.

But that scene stuck out to me in a way where I'm going to give Hawkins my drunk schmoda.

All right.

I like it.

Faith of the fart.

Well, why don't you head over to goch.biz slash game,

fire up the game of buttholes, the will of the Riker Quantum Leap, while I tell you about season three, episode six of Star Trek Enterprise, the one we'll be reviewing next week.

It's called Exile.

A powerful telepath makes contact with Hoshi and offers to help Enterprise find the Zindi for a price.

Fucking cold call by a telepathic solicitor.

How fucking awful would spam messages be if they were coming in directly into your brain?

Yeah.

Hey, we're doing telepathy in your area.

And

if you'd like any telepathy services at your home.

You know, it's weird.

All your neighbors are doing the telepathy.

You're the last holdout.

You know what you're left behind, do you?

Yeah.

There's a 20% off for a limited time.

You just got to sign up for the telepathy right here.

It's like, I feel like you're doing it to me right now.

Well, we're only on the square for a limited time, Ben.

Currently, our runabout pulsing softly on square 87.

And at the end of this roll of the 100-sided die, we will figure out in what way we will review the next episode.

Will it be weird or will it be normal?

Let's find out.

Indeed.

You're required to learn as you play.

Roll.

You remember how last time you rolled a one?

I rolled a two.

Whoa.

Tula.

Did I win?

Hardly.

And that jumped us across a special square, the temporal Cold War square specifically.

Oh, thank fuck.

Now we're on the other side of it.

Square 89.

It's a regular old episode.

That's a war I don't want to fight in, man.

Yeah.

How about that?

A one and then a two.

All right.

Yeah.

I like it.

Yeah.

Happy to be on a regular square for regular episode next week.

We got some thank yous to give out.

Of course.

The folks who make this all possible, the friends of DeSoto who support on a monthly basis.

Thank you so much.

We got to thank Wendy Pretty, our our producer and editor, keeping the plate spinning around here, having lunch with Adam yesterday.

The best.

She does so much.

She endures so much.

She endured lunch with me.

It's one of those things where, like,

we like her so much.

We don't want to put upon her other obligations.

When I'm in town, I'm like, maybe she doesn't want to hang out.

Like, like, she does so much for us already.

Like, why, why, like, ask for her free time?

She gave it freely.

She was a great hang.

We enjoyed a Doughboys show last night together with a bunch of other FODs.

Like, she's fucking awesome.

Fun.

Thanks to Wendy.

We also got to thank Bill Tilly.

We just found out Bill Tilly's also going to be at STLV.

You do not want to miss STLV this year because Bill Tilly's going to be there.

Oh, man.

I'm so psyched about this.

Yeah.

You know, slide into those DMs on the social media handles at Greatest Trek if you want to talk to BT about potentially sending something in for an upcoming Code 47.

Speaking of social media, we got to thank Rob Adler for all the work he does over there on the socials and on the mailing list.

Goch.biz slash mail if you want to get signed up for that.

And Adam Magusia, who made our remix

of the parody of Diane Warren's original theme song.

It broke the internet for a time, Ben.

The Reddit actually exploded.

Yeah, no.

Because a bunch of folks were asking, are they going to remix it?

Are they going to?

I hope they will.

I bet they won't.

They're too fucking lazy and dumb.

Yeah, that sounds like the Reddit.

And look at us.

It won't surprise you to learn that the push notifications from Spotify were going crazy the day that episode dropped.

Not a wink of sleep for Benjamin R.

Harrison that night.

Not a wink.

We've got to thank Dark Materia for the original Picard song.

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 that will make you laugh

for a price.

Hey, that sounds like our bonus food.

Oh, yeah, shit.

That's what I meant to say.

Make it so.

Make it so.

Maximum Fun, a worker-owned network of artists-owned shows supported directly by you.