Mental Overalls (ENT S2E23)

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 wants the sun.

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 Pranica.

I'm Ben Harrison.

Do you know right, man?

No.

No fucking way.

All right, play the drop.

What's wrong with Ben this time?

Do you want to talk about it?

I don't know if this is what's doing it, but I made my wife and I some of that

go-chujang pasta that

I think it's like a New York Times recipe, maybe.

Yeah.

You see people on social media post about it all the time.

Hey, are you on New York Times Food Reddit?

No.

Speaking of that, holy shit, like that community,

that community is crazy.

And I read about that dish on New York Times Food Reddit.

That's how I know it.

Okay.

Because there are, every once in a while, there are recipes that just catch fire there and become the recipe of the week.

And this is that.

This is, yeah, I think it went really, really viral.

I was very late to it, I think, because I got it like fourthhand through, you know, scrolling on social media and seeing somebody making it there was a beans recipe like a month ago that was was like marry me beans and and everyone was making this beans recipe for like three weeks yeah i did too it was really good i i mean i i don't know if what i wound up like looking up on the internet was anything close to the original but i just searched go to jang pasta recipe and made the first one that came up and part of this is me i was like looking at the proportions in the recipe and i was like these proportions proportions are dumb and weird.

Like, but I guess they know what they're doing.

This is a recipe.

And part of it was that there was just like a vast amount of sauce relative to the amount of pasta that I cooked.

You know, it was like eight ounces of pasta, one and a half cups of heavy cream.

Like, what?

And I should have been like, okay, this is wrong.

As someone who has enjoyed a pasta meal with you from time to time, I know your preferences with the ratio.

Yeah.

And this isn't that.

Listen, I don't want my pasta dish to look like Chuck Schumer's replies on social media.

Perfect.

Perfectly done.

But I also.

I don't have any glasses to put on and then look over the top of disapprovingly as my only defense for fucked up things happening.

I made this because I was like, I think I have a little Gochu Jang left in the cabinet.

Sure.

And I went and got my Gochu Jang.

That stuff lasts forever, right?

Apparently not.

What had once been a brick-red, unctuous substance had gone jet black.

And

I was like, well, this could just be oxidation

and not actually.

Oh, no, Ben.

I don't know.

I tasted and it tasted good.

It tasted really good.

It tasted good.

Was there bulging from the lid and the sides?

No, nothing like that.

I don't even think it necessarily is the pasta because wifey ate it and she's fine.

Oh, there it is, yeah.

So, I don't know, not your fault, I don't know.

I just never sleep anymore.

I remember you did nothing wrong, I remember what sleeping is like, and I think that it's good for my body just based on how my body is doing now in this new phase where I don't.

I

remember you when Darone, or like around the time of Darone's arrival,

soldiering through.

I did.

Aboard.

I feel like you're far more affected this time around.

It's more, man, because it's like you get up a bunch overnight and then also you have to like argue with a toddler who's like, I don't want to go to school.

I want to become a garbage truck.

And, you know.

And kids are so fucking stupid that way.

Like, you can't.

You got to go to school.

Where you learn how to be a garbage truck.

People teach you these things.

Yeah.

You learn how to learn to be a garbage truck.

Yeah.

So,

I don't know.

It's maybe all of the things, you know, piling up on one another.

There is something deeply felt about

making a disappointing dish.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, like, I remember with remarkable accuracy the times that that happens way more than the ones that are good.

You know, the thing with people who are addicted to gambling is that they're actually addicted to losing, not addicted to winning.

Oh, yeah, I've heard that.

There's like the serotonin cycle of loss that is actually the thing that they're like caught up in.

Dirty, dirty loser gamblers is what you're describing.

I feel like that's me in the kitchen lately.

Damn.

Oh, so

this is not an isolated incident.

There are Merriam fuck-ups.

Yeah.

Yeah, like, oh, wow, that chicken is...

It's like salt with a side of chicken.

Hmm.

I mean, that's because your systems are compromised, Ben.

Like once you start attacking the sleep center of a Star Trek podcast co-host, all the other systems start failing around them.

It's so fucked up because you look in that, you pull the panel away and it used to be like nice blue, calm colors, no crazy wires leading to different things.

Now, all green.

I pull off your panels, Ben, and I'm seeing bad wiring.

Bad wiring?

All over the place.

Like, how are the borgs gassing themselves up convincing themselves i mean it's like fucking it's fucking like white supremacists like these guys look at themselves and think this is the best race are you fucking nuts like the borgs think that they're the nearest thing to perfection that the galaxy has to offer look at your messy ass fucking starships So I know you're sleep deprived.

I'm going to try to like make sense of what you just said.

You're describing your own situation as having joined white supremacy?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, I get it.

Well, there's your problem.

I mean, it seems like the only people that are winning anymore.

No, I mean, I just, I can't with these Borgs.

As is so often the case, I am not laughing at you.

Laughter is my reaction to an uncomfortable situation.

And when I see my friends being uncomfortable, I'm like, I just can't help but laugh.

It fucking sucks.

Yeah, gotta roast me.

And what better for you?

Hey, hey, let's start with one thing.

Let's tell the family we're recording two episodes today, but instead we just record one and you hit that fucking couch in the studio behind you.

You get some medicinal rest.

I'm getting on the text.

Hell yeah.

All right, that text is sent.

Going long today.

Sorry.

Oh, man.

Adam was really, really in a mood, and it took us a long time to get into a recording frame of mind.

Hey, man, anytime you need to blame me, do it.

And that's presuming you aren't doing it already.

Don't worry.

I do.

I do.

That's happening.

Great.

I didn't need permission.

Perfect.

Or forgiveness, for that matter.

Absolutely.

And neither do the Borgs, Adam.

Let's get into season two, episode 23 of Star Trek Enterprise, an episode many people did not think was possible.

Could you have a Borgs episode pre-TNG in the timeline?

We're about to find out on Enterprise Season 2, episode 23,

Regeneration.

It's a very cold open, Ben.

Oh, so frigid.

It's an ice planet.

It's...

Going to be revealed as a Borgs planet.

We are in Earth's Arctic Circle and an

unfamiliar ship flies through here.

I liked that this ship was unfamiliar and then it was revealed to be a human ship.

Like, we know this premise, right?

Like there are aliens under the ice caps, the canonical alien versus predator.

Yeah, I think X-Files did that too, right?

X-Files did this.

Yeah.

Fight the Future.

Not the other one.

I liked Fight the Future a lot.

I saw that in an empty movie theater, which should suggest how that movie did in theaters, which I recall as not being very well.

Oh, really?

I had the impression that it was kind of a hit.

Maybe I saw it late, or maybe I saw it at 11 in the morning, as I am want to do sometimes.

Because

a lot of people don't realize there is a second theatrically released X-Files feature film.

I'm just now learning of this.

Yeah.

I was like walking down the street in New York one day and saw X-Files movie on the marquee of a movie theater and was like, oh, cool.

I love that Fight the Future movie where they find the aliens under the ice cap.

I'll go watch that and project it on the big screen again.

And then I was like, what is this?

What is this movie?

Where did this come from?

That's like watching David Lynch's A Straight Story and expecting a David Lynch movie.

Like, what?

They're just talking to each other and nothing crazy or weird happens?

Huh?

Nobody's letting the espresso fall out of their mouth using gravity alone.

That was a highly recognized considered one of the finest espresso in the world.

What is going on here?

I love that moment.

So what these Earth researchers find in the Arctic is a pretty massive debris field.

Like we get a territorial shot showing that

kind of a ton of

mess has been discovered in this icy environment.

And we get the classic wiping snow snow away from there's so much wiping in this scene it's great did you interpret this as a cryopod that we just didn't see the machinery of or was this a borgs that was like frozen into sea ice kind of a thing the second one yeah yeah i definitely saw it as like some folks who are frozen from exposure out in the arctic get it block style and others just get it get it powder style right this is a borgs that you would see doing the summit run on Everest just next to a big pile of shit that somebody also didn't collect and take down the mountain.

I think you're in the perfect mindset to answer this question, Ben.

Were you to freeze to death from exposure, would you prefer powder or ice block as how your remains are found?

I like ice block.

I think ice block feels a lot of fun, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah, there's something about it.

It feels sturdy.

Yeah.

Like something happens in the scene where like a researcher like steps on one accidentally.

That's never going to happen if you're in an ice block.

I think that this may be,

this may be a fever dream and a fake memory, but I feel like they had the ice block from Demolition Man in the Planet Hollywood in San Francisco.

That's right.

And it was like suspended over the dining room.

So you could get a table right under Stallone's nude frozen birdie.

God, what a dream.

At that angle?

Absolutely.

So, yeah, Borgsicle is our dun, dun, dun to theme.

Yeah.

And when we come back, these researchers are scanning these guys and they're like, they're humanoids.

But that's kind of all they know at this point, right?

Like, let's get these birdies out of the ice so we can figure out a little more about them.

We set up base camps, though.

Like, they radio back to the ship and they're like, this is definitely a find.

Like, we need to start putting tents up and exploring the shit out of this and a researcher wanders off to scan some other thing and she trips over the feet of an unencased borgs a powder borgs whoopsie

ben i think one of the things about this episode i really like is that they get that familiar tone that we got an aliens film that aliens films does so well like the optimism of scientists and explorers finding something new the excitement about that in the face of what we know as an audience, which is like, you should not be excited about this.

You should be very scared.

And that tension, that tension goes on for a long time.

Yeah, I think that the Prometheus films captured that pretty well, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That,

oh man, gee whiz.

So we get like the Borg autopsy scene.

Now they've set up tents and a couple of guys are like, man, can you believe this?

They like just chopped their own arm off and replaced it with this other arm.

That's wild.

What do you think that arm does?

I don't know.

Looks like it's got a little hole cutter at the end.

Maybe he's for cutting holes.

Yeah, this is the Borgs that when they got a can of beans on the ship, they bring this guy around.

He could probably operate it like it was his own flesh and blood.

Gotta have one of those.

Ben, these scientists read us a little simple, right?

And I'll tell you why.

Hmm.

It's the overalls, isn't it?

You think that these are Lenny scientists?

It doesn't matter how smart you are.

You look kind of dumb wearing overalls.

Yeah.

I'm just going to say it.

Either that or like you're like really into trains, like really into trains.

Look, the carve-out for this is an overall profession that requires that as a uniform or whatever.

Like, hey, stay out of my fucking mentions if you're a locomotive pilot or a

or a butcher, okay?

I respect your profession.

I don't think you're simple, but like when you're a scientist, I feel like these people work in a morgue.

Like you see overalls and morgues.

Maybe that's what this is.

I guess so, yeah.

It's a morgue.

They do the autopsy.

They discover that the cadavers that they've recovered are two members of different species.

And we learned that this debris has been here for a long time.

If you found a uh, if you found a body and you took them into a morgue and you had to like analyze, you know, the manner in which they were dressed when they were found,

and maybe one of the ladies was just dressed in underwear, would you say it was a bra cadaver?

That That was a magical joke, Adam.

Thanks.

That's what we do best.

Yeah.

The prestige.

Something starts spinning on that severed arm.

Uh-oh.

That's creepy.

One of the Lennys like holds a can

by it.

Like the magnet grabs the rim, which is great.

It's like, oh, shit.

Yeah.

Oh, it's working.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey,

when you open cans, do you open with the blade going down, or do you do the alt, which is you cut around the side with the can opener?

Oh, yeah, I always do it around the side because going down, it makes the lid hard to get out.

And you like reach your finger down in there and it, it's sharp.

I can't get used to your way.

I've, my way is harder.

I continue doing it.

Man.

But don't you make the whole can sharp by taking out the edge?

No, because it's a finer cut and you can put the lid back on.

And

it doesn't click on, but it will stay there pretty nicely.

Under what circumstance would you ever want to put a lid back on a can?

Like if you get, if you're making a Chipotle mayonnaise and you don't need all of the Chipotles in that can for that,

you could put the lid back on in that context.

But that's the only one I can think of.

You're not buying a little can of Chipotle?

I mean,

they only sell it in what, like a four-ounce can, but like, I'm never making like a gallon of Chipotle Mayo, you know?

I don't know, man.

Based on your marin, kind of seems like your proportions are a little off.

I knew that the proportions were bad ahead of time.

I don't listen to the voice inside my head that says something is wrong here.

Don't you know that?

After almost 10 years of collaboration, haven't you seen that process in effect multiple times?

It's like you're walking around your life wearing overalls, Ben.

I am.

Mental overalls.

I'm a Lenny in the kitchen, I will admit it.

You're uh, you're a lenny in the kitchen, but uh, but a Benny in the bedroom.

Yeah, that's why I got this one glove on

full of lotion.

So cut to later and the two overall scientists are looking through a microscope and they are observing all the tiny work that the nanoprobes do in doing their business to repair damaged stuff.

And they are really impressed by these little guys.

They love it.

I love the debate.

Like,

that's, I mean, if it's like rebuilding itself, maybe we should consider throwing these guys back on ice.

And it's like a debate.

Like,

let's see what happens

what if they're bad like they look bad but we're supposed to be enlightened humans like we're we're in a post-war human society we don't want to like judge these guys based on how creepy they look they had this exact conversation in alien yeah like i think one of the things this episode does is get close to an homage to those situations but i'm not feeling totally ripped off in their choices here.

No, you know?

Yeah.

I like that these feel like natural choices that a couple of Lennies make when confronting a situation they're unfamiliar with.

Yeah, they're just looking forward to finishing this set of autopsies and then going on to live off the fat of the land.

Right.

Right.

So the one who suggested moving the bodies is overruled

because the overruler says, why don't we just see what happens?

And that's the scientific theory of a Lenny right there.

Because we'll see what happens is often the last thing a person says before they die, a stupid death.

So we're back outside scanning.

We learned that this was a sphere, this ship, and they find a warp signature amidst their scan.

So there's stuff that's not totally knocked out about this debris field.

They made more than just the black box out of black box.

Right.

Yeah, which suggests an advanced intelligence.

These aliens might wear two sets of overalls.

They got a pair of pants under their overalls that's being held up with suspenders.

We cut back to the lab where

you just can't work alone in a horror movie, Ben.

We're back in here.

This guy gets served coffee from a random.

He's like, oh, working alone, huh?

In a horror movie?

I'll leave you to it.

Yeah, seems like a good choice.

Enjoy it.

And the fact that these bodies are connected to heart rate monitors is great.

I love the choice because it gives you a two to the sequence, right?

Like, we started on the coffee, we're floating around, we're seeing the bodies, and then boop.

Uh-oh.

We just know those flat lines are going to come to life eventually.

Yeah.

And come to life they do.

We're outside with the scientists looking into the warp warp signature when we hear screams and they run back to the tent and they find the tent absent that Borg's cadaver and their alien autopsist

huddled on the floor, partly assimilated.

Do you think there are ever any

alien odd bottoms?

You're suggesting that there's kind of like

a dominance binary in the way aliens relate to each other.

Well, sometimes when you're performing an autopsy, you like to have the body on top of you during.

This lab has been absolutely tossed.

And in a very short amount of time, that's what's so funny is like we cut to that exterior and we hear the scream.

And I love seeing a phaser beam shoot out of a building.

That's big fun.

We get into the building and everything has been thrown around.

And they find one of the overalls guys down for the count.

When they roll him over, we see he's been fapped by assimilation tubules and the nanoprobes are going right to work on him.

Did you say he's been fapped by assimilation tubules?

FAP!

Oh, don't you remember that being the thing?

Like whenever they get you?

I thought it was Thwip, and FAP is a different thing that involves the tubules wrapping around your Johnson and moving up and down rhythmically.

Is it Thwap?

Thwap.

thwip thwap flap fap

fap

yeah you're right that's something else

so they're kind of uh horrified by this refractory dude and they turn around and we get the i love it when the borgs pegs the camera with their laser eye beam it's great

Word makes it back to San Francisco, sunny San Francisco.

Science fiction show, clearly.

Yeah.

Sexual icon, Admiral Forrest learns about the team that was sent to the Arctic to do this research.

And

he

is going to personally go attend the mission that looks into what happened to them.

That's the seriousness with which they treat this.

Like, sexual icon Admiral Forrest seems a little high up to be doing this one personally, but he goes.

I know, but also, like, sexual icon Admiral Forrest is learning about this three days later.

Like, they're like, we lost touch with the team three days ago.

And he's like, we got to get up there right now.

Like,

as if he knows?

As if he's the Carter Burke of the mission.

Yeah.

So I had this thought in my head all through this mission with him and with TePaul.

Yeah, what are they holding back?

Are you high up enough to have been read in on the situation?

Yeah.

Were the Vulcans aware in first contact?

There is no way that the Vulcans don't know way more about the Borgs.

Even absent first contact.

Right?

Yeah.

I don't know, man.

There are so few Vulcans in their entire society that wear overalls.

Like, almost none of them.

There's just one guy down in those like colon archives polishing crystals.

Yeah.

You know?

Because that is a job

that requires an overall.

It's valid work to be wearing an overall in.

It's valid work.

It's proud work.

And look, if you're considering going to college, like maybe learn a trade, like culinar polishing.

Right.

Like, the trades are having such a hard time finding skilled practitioners these days.

I know.

I know.

You don't need to go into all that debt.

Fuck that.

You know, that's why this old house started their Generation Next program.

And that's why the Vulcans started their Generation Next program.

So when the shuttle lands, sexual icon Admiral Forrest and a couple of Randos disembark and they come out weapons hot.

What they find

is

no one's there.

There's no sign of the research team.

There's no sign of the crash debris either.

And

what happened to these guys?

Yeah.

There's nothing to shoot at.

Tents are full of snow.

Yeah.

There are not even any borgs under that powder.

No.

No.

No, they do that thing where they don't pick up their feet when they walk.

They're kicking the snow around.

There's nothing under there.

Yeah.

This is like every time I've lost a pair of sunglasses in one foot of water at the beach, just trying to walk around in the surf, see if my toes can't turn them up.

The day after my wedding, when my wedding band fell off my finger and I stood in the ocean

kicking my feet as hard as I could,

trying desperately to find a thing I knew I wouldn't.

Yeah.

You are one of three dudes that I know that that happened to.

You don't believe it can happen to you until it happens to you.

Yeah.

You actually inspired me to get my band shrunken with that story because mine was, you know, like if I was like giving the dog a bath, it would like come off in the tub.

What it should inspire you to do is never wear your wedding band into the ocean.

I don't.

I really don't.

You're smarter than that, that's for sure.

Yeah.

I was basically, my, my swim trunks were overalls the day after my wedding

with how cavalier I was wearing a ring

as not being ever a ringsman in my entire life.

Like, yeah, jewelry doesn't fall off fingers.

That's insane.

Were you like wading around in the water, seeing if you could find it?

And your your new wife yelled at you from a beach chair, said, what are you looking for?

The fat of the water?

Pretty tough moment, Ben.

Yeah, yeah.

There used all day long.

So we're on Enterprise now.

It's a McLaughlin group.

Issue one.

Archer.

is briefing the crew about the fact that this piece of shit transport that took that team of scientists up to the Arctic left Earth at warp 3.9.

It's impossible.

Those transports can't exceed 1.4.

I think it's safe to assume these aliens reconfigured the engines.

I love the photos that he shows in this meeting are like screen grabs of the earlier scenes, like from the Mayweather collection.

So great.

I was going to say, like the way that they kind of animate and like new ones will pop in from from the perimeter it kind of reminded me of when your phone like puts together a little a little photo montage set to music for you like

uh remember march 8th when when we were up in the arctic those were the days huh This is this is one of those photo collections where you click on a Borg's face and you're like, I don't want to see this person

again.

They've been ordered to find this ship because it just so happens that the trajectory at which it was departing Earth will take them not that far from where the Enterprise is now.

So they got to go look for them.

That's their mission today.

Pretty convenient.

I think you could argue, if you were Sexual Icon Admiral Forrest, that there is no ship.

closer to this transport than Enterprise because Enterprise is the only ship out there as far as it is.

Yeah, I was really wondering if they were going to try to make the case that Enterprise had to come back to Earth for this one.

Yeah, I was wondering that too.

After all of the hay that they've made about how far they are from Earth.

Yeah.

I'm glad that they didn't take it in that direction.

Anyways, Reed and Flox get together to talk about the tactical threat that the Borgs represent.

And Reed's like, I just don't know.

Like a can opener.

Doesn't, I mean, it doesn't even grapple.

Like, how could we consider that as a threat?

Could it be that the can is opened in such a way that creates a sharp edge from the lid?

And that sharp-edged lid is the weapon that they used.

Their enemies are coaxed to reach their finger in to fish the lid out so that they can get at their beans and they lacerate their fingers and bleed out.

Dr.

Flux feels this is far-fetched as a theory.

But, I mean, the question remains, this was a heavily armed research team, and they got badly beaten by these unfrozen Borgsmen.

Yeah.

They talk a little bit about the, like, body horror of it all.

Like, would you accept a synthetic organ if your heart was failing or something?

Would you be powder or block?

Right.

If you were frozen, that comes up here.

Would you be left binar or right binar?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Reed takes out his MAGA hat, and he's he's like, I think I'd be right by now.

Just then, they get a distress call and it's from a Tarkalian freighter.

And on the bridge, we learn

Enterprise is an hour away from being on site.

That is a long-ass hour.

Really is.

When you've got a distress call out there.

And when they arrive...

The freighter is still getting cut up by this transport.

They're really taking their time with this one.

Yeah,

they're just getting ready to do that thing where they pull

a core sample out to reveal that there are, in fact, toilets on Tarkalian transports.

If I were giving a performance review to the Borgs generally,

I would say sense of urgency is like maybe needing improvement across the board.

They really do move at their own pace, don't they?

And always have.

Yeah, but they're convinced that they're approaching perfection as far as all of the other alien species are concerned.

Yeah.

The Borgs that are the best.

Hmm.

There is something comforting about seeing this green beam, isn't there?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's nice.

I like that.

This ship is not beefed up.

So Reed licks a couple of shots and knocks out their webs, and the transport warps away.

And Archer decides that whoever survived that attack probably needs their assistance more urgently than they to chase these Borgs.

So they bring those guys into Six Bay.

And these guys are also in their refractory period.

They got fapped.

They did.

And they are positively filled with nanoprobes.

Dr.

Flox.

Usually when you're fapped, like everything comes out, but these guys got filled up.

Yeah, they redirected it inward.

Flox can look at the chart.

Like, these Tarkelians are getting transformed from the the inside.

And he's not going to be able to remove these nanopropes because they multiply too fast.

Yeah.

And Tepaul says the thing that Ripley says an alien, which is, why don't we shove these bodies somewhere safe so we don't expose the crew?

But Dr.

Flux doesn't believe they're in any danger.

And Dr.

Flux.

What are you thinking?

Man, your stock was so high.

Oh, man.

This was devastating.

Like, you already saw the photo montage set to, you know, I'm walking on sunshine of the research team and what happened to them.

You saw the guy that got faffed and what he looked like after that.

Yeah.

Like, we're not going to assume that these guys are a potential threat, really?

Did he put on an invisible set of overalls that we can't see in this scene?

Because that's the only explanation for this bit of business, Doctor.

To have like Archer's judgment be way better than Phlox's in this scene was unmooring, let's just just say.

Yeah, I hated this moment.

Bad moment.

Later, we're in the clarinet rental room with Archer, and TePaul gives him the news that they got no sign of this transport on sensors.

And

Archer's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool and everything.

But I've been in here reading the old speeches of Zephyr Cochran.

And you'll never believe what that crazy guy talked about at some graduation ceremony.

He started doing a recap podcast of the star trek first contact movie and he got drunk and stuff

like

to paul's like yeah that was kind of his deal back then he was uh

he hit the sauce pretty hard let's just say yeah cochran was famous for his imaginative stories so this scene for sure made me wonder to what extent to paul knew the truth for sure And I loved how subtle this episode was with that, like letting you, letting you just kind of simmer in that.

Yeah.

The feeling, though, at the end of this scene is, what if he was right?

Yeah.

What if a rambling old man that went off teleprompter and

started just free associating, you know, actually said a lot of things that are really true.

That like oobie-doobie is his music as they play him up

to the mic.

He's like,

You're about to go out into the world, into the businesses that will soon pay you money.

The estate of Roy Orbison is like, please stop letting him play that song.

I want to encourage all of you to not just chase money,

but also

women.

And also, I gotta tell you about these fucking robots that I ran into that one time.

Oh, those guys are crazy.

Can you imagine like just being Aunt Sheila, like there to see your nephew graduate and be like, what is this guy talking about?

Aunt Sheila never goes into the city.

Like city scare Aunt Sheila.

I don't even know why the scientists make them.

She starts hearing out Zephram Cochran.

She's like, I'm never leaving my house again.

Flox is trying to keep these Tarkalions

from getting too much worse, but the treatments aren't working.

And one of them wakes up and is very disoriented and thinks that Phlox is the one that's done this to him, whatever this is.

And there's a little struggle.

Like, they put an armed guard in Six Bay, but

the armed guard does not have the eye of the tiger, man.

You see this everywhere.

Police procedural show.

Like, this witness is in the hospital, and we got to make sure that they're safe.

Yeah, let's put the dumbest guy in the force in a chair right outside his door and let that guy make judgment calls about like which Jason Statham-looking people we let into the room.

This is not a good scene for that security guy.

And these assimilated Tarkalions go hog wild in Six Bay.

People are getting thrown around.

Dr.

Flop, Dr.

Flop gets flaxed.

Oh, poor guy.

They make a nice linen bed sheet out of his flax.

Yeah, he starts pooping like a champ.

Oh, man.

And these Tarkalians are up and out through a ladder.

They make quick work of this scene.

Faith of the fart.

We concern ourselves around here with optimistic views of the future.

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ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire.

If you're enjoying Greatest Generation and Greatest Trek, but you haven't dipped into our other hit program, Wholesome, you're only getting part of what we do.

That's because on Wholesome, me and Ben and Adam Ragusia talk about all kinds of things that make us happy.

With each episode being hosted by one of us where we share what we're enjoying at the moment and have a conversation about all the little ways it makes our lives better.

With topics about movies, neighbors, ice cream, mid-TV.

It's a weekly dose of good vibes every Wednesday and you can get it at patreon.com slash wholesome underscore pod.

So listen to wholesome.

Maybe it'll inspire you to share something that you think is wholesome with your friends.

Every Wednesday at patreon.com slash wholesome underscore pod.

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!

I'm Dr.

Ella Hubber.

I'm regular Tom Lum.

I'm Caroline Roper, and on Let's Learn Everything, we learn about science and a bit of everything else too.

And although we haven't learned learned everything yet, I've got a pretty good feeling about this next episode.

Join us every other Thursday on Maximum Fun.

And you will never take the greatest gym alive.

Ben would rather die.

A time later, Dr.

Flax wakes up.

Archer is the one that wakes him and he self-scans.

I love this moment.

Like, Flax holds the thing up to himself and he's like, oh no.

I've been infected with the nanoprobes.

One of the aliens injected me some sort of tubules.

And Reed confirms that those two assimilated Tarkalians are free on the ship.

And Dr.

Flox is very specific about this warning: do not let them touch you.

Prepare to tear them apart with whatever Tommy guns you can find.

It's time to distribute the Tommy gun.

And Archer's like, Cool, okay, then.

I'm going to go back to work.

Radio if you need anything.

The casualness with which an infected Dr.

Flox is left behind to just do whatever.

I did not understand this, Ben.

Archer back to being the overalls wearer.

Flox back to being Flox.

Yeah, Archer tore the overalls right off of him and is wearing them for himself.

Reed has started a hard target search.

Every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, hen house, outhouse, or doghouse in that area.

We catch up with these like sort of half-assimilated Tarkalions who are

tearing around in the guts of the ship.

They're in the access tunnels and Jeffrey's tubes, pulling open panels.

The half-ness of them is the reason for the speed, right?

I was also struck by

they're like fast zombies in a zombie film.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, they got their eyes on the prize.

Not having his eyes on the prize is Archer, who is just having a little casual sit-down with Trip where they like look at the scans that they got of the transport when they encountered it tearing open the Tarkalian ship.

Fortunately, they do have some ideas about where it might have some vulnerabilities to torpedoes.

And that's really exciting to think that there is a ship out there that is vulnerable to their torpedoes.

Seems a little far-fetched to me.

I mean, it would appear as though we have the option of torpedoes or grapplers once it comes down to it yeah they never really discuss the the grappler opportunities yeah no

they're just ours to have in our minds just then TePaul tells Archer that they've picked up the transport on sensors and so they steer the ship to intercept and speaking of interceptions Reed and a random security team are moving through the tunnels and the ladders that we just saw the Borgs move through.

And they notice that some of the Starfleet computer terminals are looking a little hacked by the Borgs.

And then when they see the Tarkalian Borgs at work, we see why.

They're elbow deep in these wires and

they're making their modifications.

And what I love about this scene is we see the nodules, the tubules, do this.

Yeah.

They're fapping the computers.

They're fapping them right off, and you get to see the computers change shape and reconfigure yeah and they shoot one of them once and uh quickly she adapts and is able to shield herself from subsequent shots can you understand

why this borgs adapts after one shot and yet all of the borgs on the transport like later on in the episode reed and archer are able to get off a dozen shots.

I think that's because Reed like souped up like a couple of phasers.

They can't adapt to that?

I don't know.

I mean, these are primitive Borgs.

They're overalls Borgs.

These are Lenny Borgs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they resort to physical combat to fight these guys.

And Reed very heroically saves one of his red shirts from getting fapped.

And they drop out of warp to stop these guys.

And they realize that this is like a compartment that they can vent into space.

And so Reed and his team like go shut the door behind them and they and they open this section to hard vacuum.

Like these two Borgs live the dream, Adam.

Yeah, they really do.

They get Steve Zond

right out into space.

And what do you make of the tone of this moment?

Because

when we're on the bridge with Archer having given this order,

The tone is mega sad.

Archer's like, oh, that's the hardest decision I've ever had to make.

Lordy, I could have let those two Borgs run around and destroy my ship for hours, and I really wanted to.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not sure they nailed it, but it is interesting because, like, this is Archer, the like guy that's always trying to, like, walk up to aliens and shake their hands.

And this is classic Archer.

He doesn't know what Borgs are.

Like, nobody has ever met a Borgs before.

He goes against his instincts here.

Yeah.

like, like, murder feels really intense, even if they were doing something like actively hostile to him.

So, yeah, he feels really bad about it.

But, yeah, like, from the standpoint of anyone who's watched a bunch of Star Trek before, like, it is so hard to get with him on that.

It's like, no, man, you fucking, you squashed the roach that was about to turn your kitchen into a nightmare.

Like, good choice.

How much of the ship do you allow to be destroyed before you're right with this decision, Archer?

I don't get it.

But there's so little about Archer, I get.

Yeah.

So Hoshi brings some takeaway containers down to Flox with food for both the good doctor and all his little critters.

And what I love about this scene is she came with a pistol and is prepared to sit there and hang out with him at gunpoint.

If you come near me, I'm supposed to shoot you.

I love the tone of this a lot because

she doesn't hide it, and Dr.

Flox doesn't avoid the topic.

He's actually,

I don't know if this counts as a bit, but he's like, hey, try to use the stun setting if it comes down to it, all right?

Yeah.

Like, like, in kind of a wry moment.

But then, like, the tone of things turn really serious because he's like, look, I might not be able to control the monster inside me.

And when we cut over to Hoshi feeding the animals in this scene,

I mean, my film paper is that, like, Dr.

Flox looks at this and he's like, will I too be feasting shortly

on folks that were at one time my friends?

I don't know.

Man.

Pretty dark.

I like the film paper.

Yeah.

Elsewhere, Reed and Trip Tucker are studying all the changes the Borgs have made to the panels, and they're wondering why they'd attempt to destroy a ship that they were on themselves.

Yeah.

That's weird, right?

Like, there's this sense of self-sacrifice that the Borgs have that neither Reed nor Tripp could possibly understand at this point.

Yeah.

There's not even any sexual opportunities.

It's like, how do you make fapping a panel totally devoid of sex?

Doesn't make any sense.

Reed, no one knows more about flapping than you do.

Maybe you you can put me into the minds of these Borgs.

They have some grudging admiration for how advanced the Borg tech seems to be.

Yeah.

You know, that's interesting.

But yeah, like they're, they're kind of perplexed about what these guys even want.

What do you think about eating during emergency situations?

I love going from this moment to the mess hall where TePaul's gotta eat.

Yeah.

Who doesn't?

TePaul's sitting there with all of the ice cream from the ship's freezer.

Yeah.

Explains it was melting.

That's great.

Yeah.

Archer rolls in for something for himself, and he does that.

Is this seat taken to TePaul?

She forest gumps him.

She's like, no, he gets it.

I love TePaul in this scene.

And this is another moment that I think confirms our suspicion about her knowing a little bit more about the Borgs than she's letting on.

She's like, you know, your strategy of rescue versus blow them out of the stars, I have some issues with that.

And that's because TePaula's Ripley and she is smart.

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

Fucking hey.

Like, just based on what Flox said, like, there's no getting them back from what has happened to them.

There is not an expression of this transport ship's dollar value at any point.

No.

No, that must be on their mind.

They can bill me.

What's on my mind is how Dr.

Flox is doing.

And he blows in a call to Archer telling him to come to Six Bay.

And when he arrives, Dr.

Flox is not looking so good.

He's looking pretty wan, I would say.

He is incredibly wan.

And when Archer asks him if he's gotten any closer to a cure, Dr.

Flox is like, yeah, I mean, I've been doing a lot of experiments and one thing sounds pretty promising.

Unfortunately, it's the most painful option I have.

So I'd rather save that for the end.

But also, if it comes down to it, I've got a assigned Jack Kevorkian hypo spray to give you.

I'd like you to be the one that does it.

It's just going to turn out the lights in seconds.

I won't feel a thing.

I really thought that this was going to happen right here.

Like Flox was going to climb into the tube and

do this, and Archer was going to have to stand there watching with the Kevorkian hypo in his hand.

I like like this moment.

Yeah.

For Dr.

Flox, I mean, like, especially on the heels of the previous scene, which was totally insane.

Yeah.

Speaking of insane, Reed and a little buddy of his are spending some time beefing up the hand phasers.

And

they increase the modulation or something to a point where they can really kick.

And it kind of feels analogous to when they souped up the phasers on the ship itself.

Like, man, like it was capable of so much more than you thought.

Shame you didn't think of that ahead of time.

But they're going to start modifying weapons to get ready for their next encounter, which comes really quickly.

We are on to the transport, and it has started to look a little different.

It's a lot nubbier, a lot more green lights on the outside of it.

It's gone through some changes.

Yeah.

And it's noticed some things

growing.

It's feeling some urges that it has never felt before.

The tendency to fap has gotten quite a bit higher.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

This is one transport that does not want to go to the front of the class to answer this hail.

Yeah.

And at this point, like they are really pushing their engines as hard as they can.

And there was a moment where Archer was like, target their EPS something, and then suddenly they're they're dropping out of warp.

And I couldn't tell if he had said that, and they hadn't actually fired, and if Borgs dropped out of warp voluntarily, or if they like knocked out the warp drive on this ship, yeah, yeah, hard to know.

It was like

it was weirdly vague, but anyways, what's not vague is the Borgs boilerplate message that Enterprise gets hailed with.

This is Cathol will be assimilated.

Resistance is gifted.

And this is after they get that transmission that kind of fucks with their systems.

Yeah, all of that Borgified stuff under the panels in Enterprise turns on and starts going nuts, which makes it really hard to be in a firefight because it compromises their ability to use their weapons.

Archer's like, do we have grapplers?

And Reed is like, the fuck would we use them for?

Also,

would you classify that as a weapon or more of a tool?

I mean, because a tool can be a weapon in the wrong hands.

And Archer's like, this is what I love about Star Trek.

It's all about the big questions.

And Big Star Fleet Nerd is an accurate description.

They go over into the back and have a whole McLaughlin group where they debate it.

Issue 2.

Oh, yeah.

Bangers are raining on them at this point.

So many systems...

are failing.

It is looking pretty bleak on Enterprise.

And Archer looks around and he's like, do we still have power to the transporter?

Like, that's not a critical system.

The Borgs would not give a shit about that.

On this ship, it is not a critical system.

Yeah.

It is an afterthought.

So they're going to go transport over there, Reed and Archer.

Meanwhile, Phlox gets into the radiation chamber.

I love how long we stay in this scene.

Like he hops up onto the bed, slides in, and then we're in with him for a moment.

Yeah.

It does not look pleasant.

No, it looks bad.

The transporter works.

Nobody turns into cat food.

And the phasers work.

And this raid on the transport is off to a pretty good start, you know?

Hey, hey, guys.

Great job so far.

Great job so far.

Good good choices being made.

They're finding some familiar stuff on this ship, though.

They're finding the alcoves.

They're finding borgs that look familiar to anyone who knows what a borgs looks like.

They're finding familiar researchers from the Arctic base.

Yeah.

They don't find a drawer with babies in it, which makes sense, right?

Like the researchers probably didn't bring that many babies up to the Arctic with them.

But they definitely fucked.

Yeah.

Like on the transport.

I think they probably built the nursery, but there's no babies in it.

It's just like

it's awaiting babies.

They're nesting.

Yeah.

They're hanging some like tattered leather and cables in a room that they're getting ready.

This is what's so uncomfortable about socializing with the Borgs at this point.

Like, you're just out to dinner, like, having a good time as adults.

And they turn to you and like hold each other's hand.

And they're like, we just wanted to tell you that we're trying.

Like, why do I need to know that?

Yeah, go fap each other in private.

Yeah, it's fine for you to keep that to yourself.

The Borgs are now boarding the enterprise also presumably with transporters boy the tone really shifts when we find out they've been boarded huh yeah we're cutting around a ton here trip is getting barked at to get webs back online we gotta have webs he's the key reed and archer are getting closer to the part of the ship that they're trying to get to At a certain point, all of the red shirts aboard Enterprise that are trying to repel the invaders find that their phasers have stopped working.

But some hand-to-hand combat that Reed tries on the ship is very effective, which I can't believe.

I think this might be the first time we've ever seen this in Trek, just trying to unplug stuff on a Borgs.

I thought in this scene, when Reed was in the grasp, I was like, our long nightmare is about to end, man.

We might be seeing the end of Reed here.

And I was so ready for it.

But then Archer does a Raiden-style spear into the drone.

Did you see how this shot was blocked?

No.

So like out of frame, Archer like jump kicks off of the wall into the drone and takes the drone off of Reed.

Yeah.

But like pulling hoses off of a drone, I think is like the obvious first thing you would do in a hand-to-hand situation.

I don't think we've ever seen it before.

It's like the self-defense equivalent of the eye poke or something.

Right.

You just grab for stuff.

Yeah.

That's like going for the nuts on a Borgs.

Captain, I sort of consider my hands as grapplers.

And so I now understand fully what you meant about weapon systems and grapplers perhaps being on that list.

Because what are hands if not the bodies grapplers?

It's fucking deep, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So,

yeah, they start setting up the bombs on the Borg ship.

They beam out,

and uh, Reed has his little remote control trigger.

Am I wearing overalls, or did you know the entire time the plan was to plant a bomb over there?

Were we aware of the plan before they beamed over?

No, I don't think we knew what the plan was, but

yeah, but they had a bunch of bombs.

This bomb enables them to knock out a number of systems on the Borg ship, and they get Weps back.

It's up to you, WePs.

It's up to you.

The invading Borgs beam away and they're like, okay, well,

they're not going anywhere and their weapons are down.

Like now we can finally get some answers from these guys and maybe de-assimilate them.

And suddenly this transport starts to recover and Enterprise is forced to just unload on them.

Like, Archer gives the order.

Target their warp core.

Hit them with everything we've got.

And so you see phasers, you see torpedoes, you see grapplers just flying at this thing.

And this is like the rare big kill in the NX01's history.

Yeah, this one's going to be painted on the side of the canopy of the ship.

Yeah.

The tone of this kill feels different than Borg's blown out into space, though.

There seems to be some triumph to this.

The feeling is still mixed.

Yeah.

But...

Archer was hoping that they could get a better resolution than this, but his hand was sort of.

There's some passion to Archer's order here when he gives it to fire.

He's enthusiastic about this in a way he wasn't before.

Like he's

on the number line between Riker giving the order to fire at the Borgs and Jakote giving the order to fire at the Borgs.

Where would you put Archer in this moment?

I mean, outside of that scale,

because they both do a wonderful job at saying the word fire.

Yeah, but they say a wonderful job, but Riker is sad to do it because that's Captain Picard over there, you know.

Okay, I understand the scale a little bit better now.

I think it's, it's pretty middled, I gotta say, I think Kate does a good job.

Right in the middle of those two.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well done.

So he's going to go report what happened back to

sexual icon Admiral Forrest.

And we catch up with the ship a a little bit later where Archer is captains logging about how the ship is being fixed up, as is their physician.

And he and Topaligo talk to Flox about his recovery.

He's a little wobbly.

He's like, he's doing light duty in Six Bay.

And he's like, yeah, like there was this part of having that done to me where I started to

think I was

like connected telepathically to the aliens or something.

What did you make of how he was dismissed for this?

And a kind of like, whatever, man,

hand wave?

Like, you were pretty fucked up, Dr.

Flox, is kind of the react.

I mean, that was coming from TePaul.

And if TePaul like knows about the Borgs, maybe that's her kind of trying to do some operational security stuff.

Seems like it.

But Archer does a little math on what Flox is able to tell them about this telepathic experience he had and tells to Paul that the Borgs are going to know where to find Earth because a subspace signal got out.

It's going to take 200 years before it gets to them.

But that is how we kind of close the loop on this

as a

first contact adjunct story.

Adam, what did you think?

Did you like this one?

It made me sad that in the future we don't have the ability that we have now to like erase a voicemail after it's been recorded.

Like they should have been able to hit pound and re-record the message to maybe say something like, hey, don't come here.

There's nothing of value.

Instead, a subspace message just goes and goes.

There's no stopping it.

Can't claw that one back.

Once that horse is out of the barn,

I'll say this.

I expected to hate this episode as Borgs is bullshit.

You know, like, you can't shoehorn a Borg story into an Enterprise episode.

But the magic trick is, it does make logical sense.

It works.

Yeah.

And it works pretty well.

And the danger feels very,

very threatening and scary.

In the way that, like, if like if you were to to send the borgs back to pioneer days or whatever like they're so overmatched on the enterprise i like the way in which the past people defend themselves from this threat in a way that that is like blowing them out of an airlock yes like destroying something before it has a chance to destroy you yes like they kind of luck into a couple of options that save their own lives yeah in a way that doesn't feel like deus ex machina you know like it seemed in keeping with their choices and their values and their abilities that didn't make it feel cheap to live through a Borg experience the way that I would have presumed that they did.

Yeah.

What about you?

What if one of the Borgs that they found in the Arctic was like the Neil McDonough Borg?

Yeah.

You know, like a recognizable guy from first contact was one of them.

They're like, whoa, one of them's human and one of them's not.

Yeah.

You know, that would have been cool.

That would be fun.

A lot of ways they could have gone.

Neil McDonough, get the powder or the ice, you think?

I feel like he'd be the one in the ice, you know?

Yeah, I think so, too.

That's the cooler option.

Yeah,

I think this really threads the needle nicely and

closes the loop on the time paradox shit of first contact really elegantly.

Yeah.

Time travel.

It's a ton of fun.

I think that the real

knock against it is when Flox is like, hey,

these these guys might be cool.

Let's just wait and see.

Like,

I want to forget that moment.

Writing Flox's Archer, not great, but otherwise, a really fun episode.

And, like, I think the Star Trek has a pretty mixed history going full action movie.

And this was a pretty good one.

Yeah, I think so, too.

Let's see if there's anything action-packed in the Priority One Message inbox, Ben.

Let's do

it.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel.

Need a supplemental income.

Supplemental.

Supplemental.

Yeah, it's extra.

The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship.

And we'll begin with a promotional message.

Here's how that goes.

Four years ago, in the depths of COVID, I virtually

sniffed the face of BJ

via the fuck Bokai Brigade.

Okay.

And what's going on here seems pretty pervy-y, doesn't it?

Today we are still blissfully polyamorous together.

In honor of my beloved's birthday, I invite all ethically non-monogamous FODs to join us at Friends of Denabula on Facebook.

Fun for the whole polycule.

Happy birthday, BJ.

We won the call.

Right on.

So this message is from Nicole, a notorious fod

and just look at how nicole has celebrated bj

and their special love i love it that's tremendous i love friends of denobula as being the code for this very uh very friend of de soto sort of code i like it love it yeah the idea of like some members of a polycule being friends of de soto and others not feels very unstable to me inherently but we know of polycules for which this is true.

So, yeah, I like that, you know, the ethical non-monogamy out crowd are out there making it work.

Yeah, hell yeah.

Next P1 here is from Isaac, aka Jorgen, and it's to Chris aka Rusk.

Goes like this: Thanks for introducing me to this podcast.

I miss playing DD with you and the guys.

Love Jorgen.

Chris Brenner, drop.

I'm Chris Brenner.

Brenner Information Systems.

You know, interface, operations, net access, channel 90.

Chris Brenner.

Man.

It seems as though Jorgen has been excommunicated from the D ⁇ D group.

I'm wondering if you could shed any light on, and maybe perhaps break it to Jorgen.

What's happened here?

Yeah, exactly.

Frusk and the rest of the guys have been getting together playing without you, Isaac.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, and you say this as someone that this has happened to personally.

So, like, I feel like it's good coming from you.

Yeah, it's, you know, it happens to all groups.

It's normal.

Yeah.

I wouldn't read too much into it.

You just blew your saving roll on rejoining the group, Jorgan.

You get what you get.

But the dice don't lie.

Jorgen, start a new group.

That's what I'll say.

Unless Froxica's into it, you know?

Maybe they just fell out of touch.

Yeah, maybe they moved apart.

That'll happen.

Anyway, final message here from Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, Tactical Officer Enterprise NX01, and it is to Adam Pranica.

Okay.

Here's that message.

Ah, yes, another masterful analysis from our esteemed host.

I'd be impressed if I weren't riddled with more holes than a phase pistol target.

But do carry on.

Your grasp of tactical matters is about as firm as pineapple pudding.

A bit wobbly, easily prodded, and frankly, better off left to those who actually know what they're doing.

I love this.

I love a P1 written in the voice of a character.

Yeah, wow.

Throwing it back in our faces.

Damn.

I need something to do with this shit, Commander.

Fair enough.

Well put, Malcolm Reed.

I think we all learned a lot today.

Yeah.

I hope to read more messages from actual characters on the show

in the time ahead.

That was a lot of fun.

That was tremendous.

Well, if you'd like to send a message, especially if you're a character on Star Trek Enterprise, go to maximumfun.org slash jumbotron and set yours up today.

Hey, Ben.

What's that, Adam?

Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda?

Incredible.

Drunk Shimoda.

Yeah, I'm going to go with Flox for the let's be cool about this situation attitude.

Like,

I know you're a chill, like, live-and-let-live

doctor guy who wants to do no harm, Flox, but yikes.

Bad call there.

Yeah.

Yep.

One thing I wanted to mention that I didn't get to during the show, I think I'll make my Shimoda, is that the lady researcher,

do you know that's John Billingsley's wife?

No way.

I thought that was a neat detail.

And like there's production photographs of Billingsley and her, like, like she's all done up as the Borgs and like he's not dressed as Flox.

Like I think it's got to be so neat to work on Star Trek and then have

people you know like that

on your show becoming a part of it.

What a thing.

That's cool.

I thought that was neat.

And I enjoyed her character.

Like Rooney was so interesting.

It was so clear that, like, all of the researchers had different specialties.

And hers was just, like, what ships are made out of.

I was surprised and delighted to see her pop back up on the Borgsis transport ship later.

Like, I thought we might have seen the end of her earlier, but there she was.

Pretty neat.

Good times.

Faith of the fart.

Well, let's talk about what we got coming up on the next episode.

of Star Trek Enterprise and also how we will be watching the next episode of Star Trek Enterprise.

What do you say?

I'd love to, Penn.

This one's called First Flight.

It's season two, episode 24 of Enterprise.

Archer tells to Paul the story of when he and a rival named A.G.

Robinson were in competition for breaking the Warp 2 barrier.

Whoa, Warp 2?

Slow down, guys.

Wow.

This is going to be

Keith Carradine that he's up against.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah.

Fun.

I wonder if he's related to David.

Has to be, right?

I guess we'll puzzle that one out next week.

Ben, but first, we got to puzzle out how we're going to record that episode.

For that, we'll go to the game of buttholes,

Rule of the Riker Quantum Leap,

where our runabout is presently on square 63,

which is why this is a regular old episode.

But after this, 100 sighted die,

it could go anywhere.

Really could.

You're required to learn as you play.

Roll

ready?

Yeah.

Oh, Ben.

Hmm.

I have hit something.

Okay.

I've hit Starship Mine,

which is the square where we build a spaceship model while recording.

A terrible square.

This is gonna make a terrible show.

Why would we do this?

Okay.

You want to veto it, Adam?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I want to veto this.

I want to veto it because it would make a bad show for friends at DeSoto.

It's your prerogative to veto.

I might counter veto, but,

you know, of course, if we do veto, that means we have to watch an episode of Quantum Leap.

Are you prepared to bite that bullet?

I think I am.

It's been a while

since we've gone back to that show.

I think my body's ready.

All right.

Well, I'm not going to counter-veto if you want to.

All right, Ben.

Well, there it is.

I have vetoed Starship Mine, which means a regular old episode is ahead.

Will I regret it?

That remains to be seen.

Check the bonus feed

where our recording of a Quantum Leap episode will live once that's done.

Yeah.

All right.

Interesting development on today's episode.

Adam,

a lot of fun talking about this episode of Star Trek with you.

Gotta express our appreciation for the legion of friends of DeSoto who support this show at maximumfund.org slash join.

Got to express our appreciation for Wendy Pretty, our producer, who makes this sound great every week.

Our thanks to Rob Adler, our social media director, along with Bill Tilley.

They run the At Greatest Trek social media accounts together.

And if you'd like to send something in for a future Code 47,

slide into the DMs on one of those accounts, and Bill Tilly will screen it and maybe give you the address.

Please sign up for our mailing list, also.

It's a lot of fun.

Rob puts a ton of work into it every week, and

Bill and Adam and Wendy and I are always writing stuff for it.

It's a great thing to follow.

You're going to love it.

Yeah, we were just talking about fun stuff for the newsletter this morning.

It's great.

Gach.biz/slash mail for that.

And

our great gratitude to the goose, Adam Ragusia, who made our parody of Diane Warren's theme song.

He's also the co-host of Wholesome, a show that we release once a week over at patreon.com/slash wholesome underscore pod.

It's a really good show when Adam or Adam are in charge, and sometimes I also contribute a topic.

You'd be great at selling cars, man.

You'd be on the lot and you'd be like, hey, one out of every three cars is going to explode.

Yeah.

We don't know which.

I think that the ones that explode are at least interesting listens, you know, if not good.

With that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise, another episode of The Greatest Generation Enterprise.

Where, wait, are they building models while they're talking about this?

Because they seem distracted.

Get some sleep, Ben.

Clock is ticking.

Captain, you're not the car to the U.S.

Five.

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