Favorite Episodes of The Next Generation, Season 1

Welcome aboard my fellow explorers of space,

the unknown and places beyond human conception.

I am your captain for this evening. That's right.

I've promoted myself. You're just going to have

to deal with that. It is I, Mike the Birdman,

but I'm not alone as I trek through the stars.

I'm currently hanging out in Starbase 24 because

you can't go anywhere if the warp core is busted.

I'm joined across the multiverse in the Alpha

Quadrant. That's where it is. I'm joined in the

great state of Colorado with Steve Megatron.

And of course, it wouldn't be This Week in Geek

without my compatriot, my co -host, my friend

who kind of reminds me of a Ferengi every now

and again. There's always profit to be made.

And that would be in the great city of Kitchener.

Uh, OK, I'm Alex, but I was trying to figure

out where you're going with that. You're like

never do anything for free and I like it and

of course that is true Never do anything for

never do anything for free when there's profit

to be made And of course, it wouldn't be Future

imperfect this week in geek without our latest

edition our science officer supreme himself from

the great state of Michigan Hi, I'm Aaron Polly

a Alright guys, so once again, we are here for

a future imperfect the show where we talk about

Star Trek sci -fi and all sorts of themes in

between in the great worlds of fiction science

and Beyond so recently since this year has started

you have heard us talk about Star Trek It's mostly

negative, but we've had some good stuff We're

also gonna be talking about in this episode word

talking about Star Trek, The Next Generation,

Season One, and some of our favorite episodes

or episodes that have stuck out to us. Now, not

every one of these episodes is going to be a

classic. They may not necessarily make your top

episode lists, but for some reason or another,

these episodes have stuck out to us. In addition

to that, you've also heard Aaron and his wife

Darlene's new show, Earth vs. Soup, which is

a look back at classic sci -fi movies from the

50s and 60s, be they good, be they crap. It is

amazing. You'll just have to listen because the

word of the day is booger Is it like a reference

to soup to nuts or something? No, no, no It's

it's a it's a reference from MST 3k crow T robot

wrote his own 1950s monster movie and he titled

it earth versus soup okay, and it is utter trash

and everyone is shocked at how bad it is and

It gets made for like $30 in one of the later

seasons And it literally is five seconds long.

And that's it. Yeah, it's. It's an MST3K reference.

Okay. I love it. Alright guys, so we're gonna

kick things into gear and how this evening's

gonna work, like I said, we're gonna talk about

our favorite episodes in Startup Mesh Generation

episodes in their broadcast order. So we're gonna

start off with mine, which I think was the third

or fourth episode of season one, which is the

Naked Now, otherwise known as the episode where

Tasha Yar fucks data episode. Bitch, I'll never

forgive you for making me watch this shit. Which,

okay, it's so weird. Now, going back and watching

this episode again... I was picking up on listening

to little bits of vastly more or less inconsequential

dialogue as to why they're investigating this

starship. So the episode starts out with the

Enterprise is investigating there's this red

hypergiant or red giant star that's about the

collapse into a white dwarf. And there's been

a, uh, some sort of a starship there has been

observing it for a few months, but the stars

on the verge of collapse, but they are, they're

supposed to go there. They meet. They get a call

over the intercom like, Hey enterprise, what's

up? And then they blow themselves in the space

because stupidity. And then obviously the enterprise

goes and they find crew members have frozen themselves

to death because they've turned off the environmental

controls. They've bled all this energy into space.

And it turns out this episode actually has a

connection to something that happened in the

original series, which is something that I missed

the first time around. Oh, you missed that reference,

eh? What was it when she makes the, when Crusher

makes the vaccine? Yeah, because data's going

through the computer. And it turns out there's

some weird anomaly where gravity has affected

how something bonds to oxygen molecules in your

blood. So it impairs your judgment. And the Enterprise

A overcame this in the original series, I guess.

And I'm thinking, huh, I don't seem to remember

that dialogue because the last time I watched

the Naked Now, I want to say I was in high school

or maybe the early 2000s. Um, so it's been a

long time. I actually, I don't even think I've

actually done a full run through of TNG. I got

the blue race for Christmas, um, a long, long

time ago. And I reviewed, uh, individual episodes

when I reviewed them on the show years, years

and years back. But, um, so Going back through

this, it starts to affect different people in

the crew. It starts to affect Jordy first, where

he starts acting a little bit weirdly irrational.

And then it spreads to Wesley, who can somehow

make a tractor beam the size of a laptop. And

ding, ding, ding, we found why I didn't like

the episode. As a kid, I liked the episode. I

remember actually enjoying it as an adult going

back probably 20 years since I had seen it in

its entirety. I went, oh, this is why everybody

hates Wesley. Yeah, because Wesley eventually

barricades himself in engineering by hooking

up his tractor beam machine thing to the warp

core, creates a force field around the room and

one of the chief engineers or assistant chief

engineer, which is a position I didn't know existed.

And I don't think it's ever referenced much again

after this. He pulls out all the isolinear chips

and starts building a house out of them because

why not? It boils down to his arc in this is

not only he's the genius that solves everything,

which I, I know that people get mad about it's

also, uh, Wesley do this. We're, we're telling

you as adults to do this. No, I don't have to

nanana boo boo, but I'm also a genius. Yeah.

And eventually, um, they find out that the star

is starting to collapse at one point, but more

and more people's judgment is starting to get

affected. So it affects, um, it affects crusher

more slowly. It starts to infect, uh, Riker because

he's touched her. Yeah. It's not an airborne

thing, right? It's a, it's a touch based. And

eventually did they say, sorry, is it a pathogen?

Is it a Uh, it's a contaminant. So it's more

like chemical type. Yeah. Um, and then, uh, one

of the highlights of the, the episode, which

is the thing that everybody seems to remember

is Tasha Yar becomes infected since Jordy and

her, uh, had a moment in the observation lounge

where Jordy sort of laments that he can't see

things like other people, like he hasn't seen

depth. He hasn't seen color. He's never truly

seen a rainbow or a sunset or whatever. And he

starts touching Tash's face. Now she's infected.

So she breaks in the counselor Troy's quarter,

starts trying on clothes and Deanna's like, yo,

don't touch my shit. And eventually it leads

to a scene where she wears, I guess, what is

the 24th century's equivalent of lingerie? Yeah,

she's all horned up and ready to go. I don't

know if I would call it lingerie, but it's definitely

a revealing costume. She's wearing a dress she

would go to the club with. Yeah, you know, and

honestly, she doesn't look bad in it. Yeah. I

mean, she's a cute girl. I mean, I've always

thought that. So she says, Mr. Data, are you

fully functional? And obviously he goes into

his... I'm programmed in multiple techniques

and all this crap. Which again doesn't quite

fit with some of the other episodes. Dr. Soong,

you horny bastard. probably the goofiest episode

of the season. It is, although it's weird because

it does reveal some stuff about data. Again,

I didn't catch, um, when that he's hung that,

but they talk about his biological makeup too,

because he's talking about his technical specifications.

And he mentioned part of my biological components

function like blood. part of my biological components

contain pores, which means certain pathogens

and contaminants can affect him just as much

as it could a human. And I'm saying, okay, that's

a clever way to write in plot device here, so

it affects him. Okay, fine. Any of us watching

would go, in our brains, why is he affected?

And they even bring that up, right? And I'm like,

why are you affected? And he's like... That scene,

though, with Tasha, if I can... Of course. This,

it's actually important. And it's not just Tasha

being horny and Dr. Soon being a weird guy for

programming data like this. I don't think that

scene really is as impactful until you watch

Tasha, all of Tasha's episodes, where you realize,

you know, she had a really terrible childhood

where she was sexually assaulted. repeatedly

on her home world. And that she's always been

cold and distant to people because she doesn't,

she's afraid of actually getting a physical connection

to people. And you realize how damaged she is

when the only person she seems to physically

connect with is data. The one person that honestly

couldn't harm her emotionally. She knows there's

no way that he has any ulterior motives. Exactly.

And it means something, but only after you've

seen, like, the environment that she grew up

in and understand her past, why that is actually

a very impactful scene. Maybe I'm putting too

much into it, but... No, they did a lot for a

character that has so few episodes. Like, she's

in fewer... What is she in fewer episodes than

like? Then what a regular season of a show would

have yeah, so And of course they do bring her

back a couple times right or more bring the actress

back to play multiple Versions whatever They've

done more to give her character Background afterwards

because you it's almost like you could feel that

she was becoming Fan favorite and then it wasn't

there an argument over money or something. Let's

watch No, they she didn't want to stand behind

Bacard the entire season and say aye sir She

wanted the character to do more become more But

she couldn't get things figured out in the writers

room if I'm remembering this right, but they

didn't have that was they did have her background

figured out that she had this awful childhood

and Well, cuz they introduced her sister. Yeah

But they had all that figured out in the in in

the beginning. So, I mean, that wasn't like it

was added on later. So it's like they're playing

the long game with her and then it just didn't

work out. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, like I was surprised

how much behind the scenes drama happened with

Star Trek during its first couple of seasons,

because obviously Gates McFadden would leave

at the end of this season and we'd get Dr. Pulaski.

And then poison for poison for the show. We'll

get to that when we do it. We're a few. So it's

going to be harder to find episodes from season

two. I tell you. Yeah. Um, but yeah. So, uh,

eventually, um, Dr. Crusher is able to figure

out the information by looking at the computer

data that was sent to her from data. And she's

able to develop some kind of a treatment plan.

But the problem is the star is going to blow

up. So they got about 15, 20 minutes in Riker.

along with chief engineer whose name I don't

remember. And it's just there for literally a

couple of episodes, maybe because this is before

Geordi is sent to engineering. She's just there

like, well, I can short out the door, but it'll

take me a few hours. And they're like, you got

about 15 minutes. And then Wesley says, well,

data can put all the isolator chips back in.

So they bring him down while he's still screwed

up. He says, well, sir, can you do it in 15 minutes?

Like, Nope, I can do it in about 16 minutes.

So they're like, Oh, damn. And then somehow Wesley's

invention helps save the day because it boosts

the ship's power for like a minute. Yeah. Their

data has that funny line where I believe, isn't

it? Uh, this will take one minute longer or something.

Yes, something like that. And the look on Riker's

face, but Also, yeah, the world and the universe

and everybody is saved by his volcano science

fair project essentially. He's like, why don't

I just take this and make it really big and we'll

do this here. I'm like 13 and I'm going to be

smarter than everybody on the ship. Yeah. I mean,

obviously you see the problematic elements start

to emerge here. And with Wesley Kresscher's weird

talk boy invention of Captain Picard's voice,

which obviously, I mean, the second you saw that

you're like, well, that's going to become trouble

in about 15 minutes or less. Um, so it did feel

like, like that first season, or at least the,

wherever he was in. They tried to shoehorn in

like, we've got to get younger viewers. So we're

going to put a kid in cause every 86 common drama

has some kid who was way too smart for their

own, you know, good. They did better with them

later on. Yeah. Uh, so eventually the star explodes.

They're able to go to high warp and they're able

to go amongst their merry way. Picard makes a

quip on the bridge say, well, this is what happens

when you see a crew give in the temptation, blah,

blah. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know.

Man, it isn't that bad. It was goofier than I

was expecting. It is goofy, but there's a couple

things in this that I absolutely passionately

love. And one of them is what will become a really

deep thing about Tasha Yar and her ability to

connect with people. So I totally get that, yeah.

But the second thing is... Tchaikovsky, which

is the the Oberth class starship that they're

having to go to. Like just going to the Tchaikovsky,

we learn a whole hell of a lot about the Star

Trek universe and what's happened since the movie

era into next gen times, because Oberth is an

SS. That means it's not in Starfleet anymore.

It means it's actually a civilian ship. means

Oberths have been moved to generally civilian

duty. Now that doesn't mean that people on that

Starship aren't in Starfleet uniforms because

it looks like there's like a combined type crew,

but that's really interesting. Like okay, the

other part of it is that its dedication plaque

is endlessly fascinating to me for multiple reasons.

First is it's in Cyrillic. which it's not in

English. It's not an English written dedication

plaque. It's actually all in the Cyrillic alphabet.

That's really cool. And now for now, Aaron, for

our listeners that don't know what that is, what

is Cyrillic? It's it's the Russian. It's basically

if you look at Russian language, the backwards

Rs and all that stuff. Yeah, it's it's a phonetic

language. It's phonetic, though. So if you know

how one letter sounds, you can literally just

kind of read it. And at the very least, you can

read it out loud. You might not know what it

says, but you can speak it. Which, again, is

still, when you think about it, this is 1987,

right? It is 87. But it also... I was going to

say, wouldn't that still... This is still the

height of the Cold War, or nearing the end of

it. It's near the end of the Cold War. So having

that even as a subconscious reference where it's

like, oh, that, you know, it's... It doesn't

matter what language or what nationality it was

from. You know, had Starfleet. It wasn't like,

oh, they were all civilians and they were all

Russians, so they all died. Yeah, but they weren't,

right? And then if you zoom in on the dedication

plaque even more, you realize that it's built

at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the USSR. Oh. So

the Soviet Union survived World War III, guys.

Yeah, according to 1987 logic, yes. Well, yeah,

but it's, you know, in Star Trek 4, remember

that they talk specifically about how Leningrad

is dropping in temperature and all that. So my

going theory was that the Soviet Union survived

World War 3 and is a part of United Earth. But

it's one of those things that just adds into

the world building. And at least you at least

Mike if you're gonna pick a Tasha episode you

didn't pick the one where she gets killed by

a giant shit monster Yeah, although again that

advances plot. I mean, it's weird like a lot

of first season episodes I think they do tiny

bits of world building and you you Remember the

episodes for the big what the fuck moments, but

it's the little things in the background that

always become interesting. And like I said, one

of the things that, like I said, caught my attention

with this other than the data fucks Tasha thing.

was the little bits of science since I've become

much more interested in space exploration in

the last year or two. And I more or less have

been looking at how stars develop and everything

and I'd like because this is really cutting edge

stuff for 1987 for them to be talking about stellar

evolution at that point because Aaron you probably

got it wrong. But they got it wrong. Okay, so

it's a it's a red super giant star. So If it

collapses, it's not collapsing into a red dwarf.

That would go to supernova, right? It's going

to supernova and it's going to collapse into

either a neutron star or a black hole. OK. And

when a star goes over, it doesn't shoot off like

a little chunk like it blows. It blows. And there's

like the whole shockwave thing that will tear

apart anything in the solar system. And plus.

since it's a red supergiant, it will show signs

of when it's going to collapse centuries before

it does. It's not like it's going to be a surprise

when it does collapse. Well, remember, all we

have to do is have Spock put some drop of red

matter in there, and then it would have... no?

It would have been fine. I guess we could have

saved everybody on that Oberth class. It didn't

have to die, right? I'll say one more thing about

this episode. It's from that era when they were

still experimenting a lot with the practical

effects and makeup as well as what they could

do on video with optical effects, it has a very

Twilight Zone 80s feel for the way it looks,

the way the frozen makeup is. It almost looks

like they took the kind of effects they used

to do in the 60s and then just did it in the

80s. Yeah. So it's interesting just to see how

far we've come in terms of our understanding

of spatial stuff. Um, so, cause that's one thing

I like in one of our, uh, off chats, and then

I'll pass this on to, um, Steve's episode. Next

we talked about, like I asked Aaron a lot of

science questions because Aaron. has a background

in astrophysics, so he understands what the fuck

I'm talking about nine times out of 10. And it's

always interesting just to hear what they get

right, what they get wrong, how science has advanced

a lot in the last couple of years and how we

understand how stars work. And it's endlessly

fascinating to me to see Star Trek try and talk

scientific, but not really. So anyway, passing

things on, we're going to go next to Steve, whose

episode was called The Battle, and that involves

the Ferengi and Captain Picard's first command.

Yeah, what I liked about this episode was the

fact that you got you got a little bit of a taste

of the 23rd century type style of things, even

though it what I find funny is there's a little

bit of a contradiction in this episode. They

show Picard in tapestry and he's wearing you

know the old 23rd century garb and then you see

this and he's in this old starship wearing the

uh season one tng uniforms and i'm not sure when

they made the switch um erin erin might know

but it's it was something that i noticed later

on that it was kind of a little bit different

uh or odd Well, the uniforms changed sometime

during Enterprise -C's era because the crew of

Enterprise -C, when we see them in yesterday's

Enterprise, is still wearing movie era uniforms.

I prefer those. I think those are actually the

most, the coolest uniforms. Oh, I do too. But

yeah, so it's actually not that far in the past

that they were still using them. I think it was

like the 2340s when they were still using those

uniforms. So You know, depending on when exactly

what year exactly the battle occurred that he's

flashing back to, it's it's possible that they

were using TNG season one uniforms on that ship.

That's not a big deal. Anyway, so yeah, thank

you for that. But yeah, so we get a rendezvous

with the Ferengi Alliance vessel. And then they

just sat there for three days and Picard's getting

these crazy headaches and you never quite find

out why in the beginning and dr. Crusher's constantly

coming in there giving him something for it and

Picard's just sounding kind of like a whiner

through the whole episode Until you figure out

that it's the Ferengi screwing with him the whole

time so it's it's interesting because you see

the the Ferengi beam over and They I mean, this

is one of the the first instances we get them

again. I Don't think they really showed up all

that much after here in the first time they were

on I want to say they are There what was the

other one the last outpost? Yeah, they were in

it before It was episode five. This is nine and

they were females where girls Yeah It's like,

oh, OK. But yeah, then they're they're referring

to Picard's Battle of Maxia and that they want

to honor him and give him this, you know, the

hero of Maxia, a gift. And then it's so apparently

the uniform thing makes sense if it's nine years

prior. While he commanded the USS Stargazer and.

You get to see the ship and of course Picard's

getting more severe headaches the whole time

And Bach just gives him the ship free of charge,

but you know knowing the Ferengi there's always

a catch And Troy, you know, obviously doesn't

you know, she felt something but Does you know

doesn't really know what it is, which she's always

saying that throughout? all the series. Yeah.

My question is, what was Troy's purpose in the

show if 99 % of the time she just said, I don't

know? Yeah. I watched a clip thing of where she's

like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

And then you get the Ryker maneuver. You get

Data saying, I'm an Android. I'm an Android.

And Worf saying, let's shoot it. Well, at least

with Troy, and I'll say this in defense of the

character, I think there was a reason for her

to be be there i think the character itself is

like a ship's counselor is a really cool idea

yes yes but the idea that they use her well the

idea that she's supposed to be an empath is never

really used well like no maybe the closest time

that they used it well was what maybe nemesis

Oh, no the time where she was like communicating

in her dreams with like the other ship that was

trapped in that weird anomaly. Oh, okay Yeah,

you're right. Okay. Yeah, that was kind of cool.

That was a really cool episode. Anyway, we're

getting we get we're getting off the yes. Yes

So anyways the crew beams over they check out

the stargazer LaForge gets it running data is

over there the cards reminiscing with it calling

it his old friend and Kind of checking it out

finds his old quarters with all this stuff in

it, which doesn't bother to check it really to

realize that there's something that shouldn't

be there. And that brings it back to the Enterprise.

And then you get Bach using the Thoughtmaker

device and screwing with Picard's head. And he

beams over and takes over the ship by himself

with no help and manages to start trying to attack

the Enterprise and trying to do the Picard maneuver.

while he's over there and Riker realizes it and

stops him. And then they figure out what's going

on with first officer to first officer and destroy

the sphere. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, and

it was, you know, they made Picard essentially

have to save himself while he's on that ship.

But it was kind of cool to see somewhat of the

battle on the bridge of what it looked like from

Picard's vantage point when he was at that particular

point in time. Yeah, and it's the closest we

get like early on to them doing like flashback

episodes Mm -hmm, and it was it was quite nice

actually getting to see some of Picard's History,

yeah One of the things that I found out while

doing a little bit of research on this particular

Episode the ship that they talked about the the

constellation class. They were gonna use a different

ship They wanted to use a constellation class.

They wanted to use constitution. Yeah. And I

thought that was really fascinating. And just

the fact that this is one of the few times you

see a radical departure, at least in my opinion,

of what Starfleet technology tends to look like.

I've never seen a ship that has four warp thingies.

What are they called? Yeah. And I thought that

was really interesting. And this ship has been

in service since what? The late 23rd century.

Yeah, it's it's it's in it's in service in like

the 2290s That's when it comes into service and

it's generally a patrol craft. I can only talk

about what I've written about it, but It's it's

meant to be an interceptor like a fast patrol

craft because if you look at it In general the

the four nacelles are going on on the top and

the bottom. They're paired off At the back of

each mounting is a separate impulse drive. So

not only is it actually supposed to be fast and

warp, it's supposed to have amazing sublight

acceleration. In general, you're only going to

use two of those nacelles at any given time,

but that means that you can go to high warp speeds

and switch out which nacelles you're using to

let the other ones cool down. So you can stay

at high speeds. So it's like a Tomcat or something.

It's like a jet. Yeah, and then if you notice

like the side of its saucer is super thick. It's

a thick boy, right? It actually is it's like

a Constitution saucer, but it's actually a wider

and thicker and it actually has three separate

shuttle bays in it. Nice. It is huge. It's one

of the few I guess we've one of the earlier times

we've seen a Starfleet vessel that's Seems like

it's built for war. I'd say it's it's fast response

Like it's interceptor. Yeah, it's more security.

Yes and specialized Yeah, and I actually think

they're they're a really cool ship because yes,

it's obviously kit bashed But it's different

enough that it makes it its own ship I don't

remember actually ever seeing this one before

This is one of the first episodes I remember

seeing. Can I talk about the Picard Maneuver?

Yes. Can I talk about the Picard Maneuver? Okay.

And first of all, Steve, I love this episode.

I think this is a great choice. The Picard Maneuver

is like, everyone seems to love it, but they

have to understand that it would only work in

very, very specific circumstances because it's

about tricking your sensors to believe that you're

in two places at once. because of light speed

lag okay yeah if you have active sensors at all

that doesn't work because your subspace sensors

tell you faster than light where a starship is

so visually your eyeball might see two ships

but your ship's sensors will show one ship going

to warp and coming out in front of you so if

your ship is at all functioning at all it doesn't

work So you basically have to be up against somebody

with maybe superior firepower, but inferior sensor

technology, or hope that somebody is frantic

and angry enough that they're working on reflex.

Yeah, but I mean, even if they were working on

reflex, they'd be working on reflex from what

their sensors were telling them. So the only

way it works is if your sensor technology is

at least more primitive than what Zephyrum Cochrane

used in the Phoenix. Wow. All of your sensors

are out and you're literally eyeballing it. You're

literally having your eyes look out and tell

you what's going on. Sounds like a football maneuver

when they're discussing it. I mean, it's an intro.

It's a really cool idea. Have no doubt like.

If somebody did that to us today on Earth, like,

yeah, of course, that's exactly what would happen.

It would look like there is two ships, but you'd

also see one ship accelerating up to light speed.

And then suddenly it's right in front of you.

So which one should you be firing at? The one

that's right next to you. It's a really cool

idea that I don't think really pans out well

when you think about it, but it looks cool. I

think it sounds more cool. And correct me if

I'm wrong, Aaron. Isn't the Picard maneuver in

the role playing game like specifically written

out? Yes. That's what I thought. It's about it's

basically you're just wanting to get someplace

really fast, faster than light, but not go very

far. It's just a snap warp jump. So it looks

like you're in two places at once. to the eye,

but yeah. Would like the Riker maneuver be leapfrogging

over top of the ship in front of you to get in

front? Barrel rolling with a joystick with the

manual control at home. Yeah, they're rolling

over top of the ship to get in front of it. Riker

maneuver, though the wide berth Riker maneuver.

I don't know, I love this episode and I like

the Picard maneuver, even though it doesn't really

work. In universe. It doesn't seem to really

work either, but you know, that's okay. It's

still a fun episode I also like how it expands

the lore of the Ferengi It kind of explains their

like social structure a little bit more how their

command structure works as they talk about Their

captains and are called captains. They're called

daemons How you're supposed to be loyal to your

captain, but if there's no profit in Being loyal,

you know what they mean? I mean, cause his captain's

ultimately out for revenge and doing in doing

that kind of means there's no profit if you're

dead. So when they take over the ship from the

other Ferengi like, yeah, our captain's a dick

bag. So let's not do that. But, uh, again, yeah,

this was a fantastic episode. I think this is

only the second or third time I've ever seen

it. Um, It was cool. It was just cool to go back

and see different things, like I said, and as

Aaron mentioned, seeing a different ship, knowing

now that it's built for a different kind of mission

profile. I'm looking at it from a very video

game sort of thing, knowing that this thing is

built for interception and patrol missions. That

just kind of gives me all sorts of neat ideas

for other things that I would do with it. Read

what I wrote for it in the Star Trek Adventures

core book. Okay, I Guess unless Steve has anything

we're moving on right now And yeah unless Steve

is that okay, I Think so So my episodes the big

goodbye and I chose this for two main reasons

The first one is it's the first time the holodeck

does something terrible, and no one should ever

use it the way they do. It wasn't the first time

they showed the holodeck, but it's the first

holodeck -focused episode, right? Yeah, it's

the first holodeck -focused episode, and it's

the first time the holodeck screws up and gets

people hurt. And it means that Starfleet shouldn't

be using the holodeck for entertainment, they

should only be using it for training with somebody

on a manual cutoff switch. Anyway, The Big Goodbye

centers around... The A story, which is Picard

trying to relax in the holodeck because of the

B story, which is him having to do a diplomatic

mission to a race of sticklers to detail. And

he has to memorize a speech that is very complex.

Otherwise, these will go nuts on the Federation.

They'll disregard any communications. There's

hints at violence that might occur if Picard

doesn't get this right. So he's told just to

go to the holodeck and relax. So he decides to

open up his Dixon Hill persona. So it's the first

time we really hear about Dixon Hill. Um, this

is a running thing through most of the series

and even into first contact where he kills Borg

being Dixon Hill. Um, it's a really cool episode

where it's him starting to exist in like 1941

and really enjoying the world and not, and seemingly

not really understanding a lot about it, even

though he's read all the books. And then it slowly

pulls in other characters from the ship other

officers, you know, you have the guy that is

a 20th century historian on the ship Which a

lot of people might complain about like why the

hell is a 20th century historian on a Starship

for god's sakes. It makes sense. I can explain

that if people want to know Well, I always thought

Yes, he's 20th century historian, but just having

any historian on a ship would be a good idea.

That's a research ship Yeah, or maybe he's going

to like a different star base a different planet.

He could just be hit hitching a ride Well, remember

a lot of stuff happened in the 20th century that

and ended up in space space seed and Khan being

just one of them So it's very possible that Starfleet

has somebody that actually has training in 20th

century history to be there to deal with any

crazed space probes random super, you know, uber

mensch or things like that I don't know it makes

sense to me or even just yeah like the like any

they could find the the golden discs the voyager

stuff all that there could be a lot of stuff

they come across or just like how many times

did they end up finding what was it in uh it

was it in this season or the next season where

they find the frozen people it's that's the first

season yeah yeah so I mean they like It might

be a good idea. If it's supposed to be the century

where we first started using cryogenics and we

shot people into space, then it's probably a

good idea to have somebody there. Yeah. So it

also gets like Dr. Crusher into a holodeck acting,

you know, as a, well, learning to be a 20th century,

mid 20th century woman. And the looks she gives

of the hollow women in there when she's like

staring at their legs and their cleavage and

trying to outdo them. And then she's just like,

nope. And she buttons her shirt back up. Yep.

And then like Data gets involved and reads all

of the Dixon Hill material. And he's like the

most natural in the whole thing and starts using

slang and trying to explain it. And it's also

the first episode that we have Data and Jordy

talk about Sherlock Holmes. Which is it's just

a brief aside, but oh and and did you catch the

little thing the episode I believe was written

by Tracy Tormey And the Dix and Hale novels in

the universe were written by Tracy Tormey. Yes

and for anybody that might Recognize that name

other than writing for Star Trek sliders Actually

was one of the Create a creator of sliders wrote

a bunch of outer limits Carnaval Odyssey five

If one of the more prolific sci -fi writers of

the 90s and I always thought it was neat that

they put a little nod in there that the novels

written by written by the person that wrote the

episode yeah, and so at some point the The holodeck

starts screwing up. Okay. Yeah, the holodeck

controls get locked and the safety protocols

get broken. So that means, just like in First

Contact, guns can kill on board, well, in the

holodeck, and the 20th century historian gets

his ass shot, and he's bleeding out on the floor

of Dixon Hill's office. And so we understand

now they really are in danger. This isn't really

a game. Now we have to try to figure out our

way out. There is one line that doesn't fit with

the way the holodeck stuff works later on. And

what was it? Their explanation was that if the

holodeck shuts down with them in it, they'll

get vaporized or something. I can, I might be

able to explain that at least as I understand

how it's hollow. And there's like, how would

it vaporize their bodies? Because it's working

with transporters at the same time. So if the

transporter field breaks down, you disappear

because it can't hold your structural integrity.

It would see you no different than the matter

it's creating. See, normally the transporter

tech in there wouldn't do that, right? But if

the holodeck's malfunctioning, who the hell knows?

Because when you go into the holodeck, you can

eat and drink. It's not that it's hologrammatic

stuff that you're eating or drinking. It's replicated.

It's replicating that. If you're interacting

with something, it's replicating it. Now, that's

not the case with, like, people. People are,

like, they're hologrammatic people. But if you

sit down in a chair, it's going to replicate

that chair. Oh, okay. And it's why you can take

props out of the holodeck sometimes. And you

see that in some of the later holodeck episodes

with Data and, like, Sherlock Holmes, or why

a snowball can be thrown out of the holodeck

by Wesley. and impact somebody, and it actually

is snow. Okay, well that actually clears up a

fair bit for me then. Yeah, so I mean, holodecks

screwing up. And a great bad guy in this too,

Lawrence Tierney, classic 1940s actor, from a

lot of those hard -boiled, you know, he played

the heavies in a lot of those films back then.

I think... Younger anybody under the age of what

50 might only really know him from this episode

and from being the main Boss in reservoir dogs

that hires everybody. That's where I know him

from mostly So yeah, the the the villain he's

he ends up believing the holodeck and disintegrating

in the corridor outside because he's now outside

the range of the hollow emitters and that's kind

of a horrific scene to me being that he seemingly

is self -aware yeah and from later episodes we

understand that the the enterprise computer and

computers in general at this time can create

self -aware beings sentient beings. Do you know

who I am? Do you know who I am? You can't do

this to me. And then it vaporizes them. Yeah.

That's actually a little scary and sad. Like,

yeah, he's a villain, but it's seemingly that

he is self -aware at that point. Yeah, that's

something that I actually really liked about

this episode. Just as the episode ends, Picard's

talking to his cop. friend who obviously thinks

he's Dixon Hill. And he asks him, when you leave,

will I still get, get to go home to my wife and

kids? Does this world cease to exist? And he

looks at him. He doesn't know how to answer.

He pauses for a moment and says, I honestly don't

know. And then the scene closes up and I love

the way this was shot. You see the hallway all

lit up. The lights in Dixon Hills office are

off. You see the silhouette of the man against

the window. And then the camera just closes as

the room, uh, the doors closed in the room. It

just cut cuts the black. And then I think the

next shot is the enterprise going across the

screen from left to right. And then it rolls

credits. And I think that poses a really. Interesting

question about holographic characters, about

sentient self -awareness and everything. Because

as Aaron mentioned, the holodeck can create self

-aware characters. I know there's an episode

later where they say Professor Moriarty lives

on inside the enterprise computer, though that

thread is never ever brought up again. Well,

in this case too, it's showing, you were saying

what's scary or, you know, scary, how about how

they... essentially died leaving and all this

I think again as far as creating intelligent

life it shows that even though it's an AI the

strength of character it didn't even go into

self -preservation mode his cop friend didn't

try to escape or no I can't let you leave he

stands there shakes his hand out of respect and

just is reserved to see what happens next Yeah,

but that might be also the character existing

in the framework that it was Yeah created in

this noir setting that he's just kind of dejected

and will live in the existence that he finds

himself in I Mean all the characters in there

and when when Picard first goes into the holodeck

What you end up seeing like remember there's

characters that look at Picard and think he's

wearing pajamas and that he or or like a bellboy

uniform because he lost a bet They don't see

him as a character of Dixon Hill. They see him

as Dixon Hill wearing a starfleet uniform And

this is also one of the higher rated episodes

as far as viewers for that season a little over

10 million Which Star Trek would love to get

now. This is one of the first episodes I remember

seeing in fact how I used to watch Star Trek

way back in the day I had one of those giant

satellite dishes that were in your backyard and

that's when you used to use transponder channels

now My parents had a pirate satellite dish because

you know old people are hip like that I was actually

very surprised how Also remember in Canada in

the 80s and 90s. There were a lot less cable

channels inside satellite channels technically

available to us that were in the States. Now

it's basically parody. Yeah. So I found this

episode specifically on a transponder channel

that was broadcasting it to a Fox affiliate at

three o 'clock in the morning on Sunday mornings

to put it into syndication at some time. Cause

you could see the local commercials also cut

into it with the local kind of promos, you get

this generic sounding voice saying on this week's

Star Trek, the next generation Captain Picard

goes to the 1940s or something like that. And

it was always really interesting to see those

like 15 and 32nd promos, um, as well. But yeah,

this episode stuck with me for years and that

Lawrence Tierney, I knew him from Reservoir Dogs,

where he plays the guy who leads the heist. Um,

and as you mentioned, Alex, he's all wonderful

villain. And as he's disappearing into the, uh,

ether, along with the, uh, Peter Laurie standard,

I'm Cyrus Radblock. I loved it. And I always

love how they never tell you what they're after.

They're always like, do you have the item? And

it's just so 1940s, you know, detective MacGuffin

bullshit. I mean, obviously the big goodbye is

like, it's like, The long goodbye, the big sleep,

it's a mixture of all of that. It won the Emmy

for, uh, it was a costume, I think. And I think

it was either, I don't think it's the only, but

it was the first episode of Star Trek to win

a Peabody Award. So it was, it was at the time

considered, uh, at least by critics, the best

episode of the season. And you can see why, because

it really showed that, yeah, it was in the space,

but they could do some weird stuff. They didn't

have to have every episode be the same story.

The holodeck opened up the means to make it about

anything. And see, I love also that they were

using 1940s slang in the episode, and the characters

didn't understand it just as much as the kids

that were watching it at the time wouldn't understand

it. So them trying to explain the slang to each

other was like explaining it to the audience.

And I thought that was fun. Sorry, yeah, go ahead,

Alex. One more thing I'll say about it is when

this, because remember how the premise of this

starts with Jean -Luc being stressed out. They

say, why don't you go to the holodeck to, you

know, relax. And when he goes and he sees the

cars and everything and he has, he calls a meeting

with his senior staff just to gush about how

much he loves the holodeck. Yeah. And, and, and

about how I drove an automobile. Yeah. Yeah.

And then, and then like warps, like, what the

heck is that? It's a teenager's neck. Yeah. That's

yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a What was the quote?

It's a prime ingredient in teenage mating rituals.

Yeah That's something that I want to notice about

this episode Brent Spiner is a frigging joy in

this his comedic timing in this his inflections

his reactions like that man is a Superstar a

physical comedy and it probably let him be you

know He was probably frustrated with always having

to be the robot right well this lets him you

know, assume another character. Yeah. And then

everyone in the holodeck assumes that, well,

they have to keep telling them that he's from

South America. And they're like, oh, OK, not

really believing it. But here's the one thing

I didn't get in this episode. Out of all the

weirdness that's in this episode, Worf didn't

know what an automobile was. The man grew up

on Earth. Had they explained that yet at this

point in the show? Yeah, I think so. Like, he

was an orphan. He was raised in Belarus. You've

got to think there's at least some Lada's still

running. Yeah, Ray's on Earth, but maybe, yeah,

I was going to say, wait a minute. This isn't

a case of he grew up isolated in like some convent

or something. Yeah, he grew up in the shadow

of Chernobyl and there were there. You know where

he grew up? There's probably working Volkswagen

bugs Like I said old Soviet Lada's that are probably

about but his father showed him how to fix one

Out at the Dacha, yeah, and it just worked so

yeah, I They could have had a different I guess

Like who would better I guess they wanted work

because he looked the most alien But I guess

Troy probably would have been a better one to

ask Yeah, like what the hell's an automobile

like her saying what the hell's an automobile?

Yeah, because she's not from earth like she would

she's like the only one I guess in that group

that isn't But yeah, I liked it it's a fun and

I think I've seen this episode a lot of times

because this is one of the ones that in Canada

on syndicated TV, but also on space, the sci

fi channel, it's aired. I, I don't doubt this

particular episode has aired 500 times on the

channel in the last 30 years. It was like every,

every month, at least that once or twice a month,

that episode aired. I know. Okay. So I was just

thinking about what you, what you said. Beverly

technically isn't from earth. Technically Beverly

crusher. Does it probably know what she she probably

know what a car was though? No, she would does

anyone know offhand where she was born? I I mean

I do that but it's because I'm like the master

of was she born in the space station No, she

was born on the moon. Oh Okay Okay. Yeah, I think

it's Copernicus City. I think That's off the

top of my well if she grew up there I mean she'd

have to have her head in the sand but You might

not have a car on the moon. Right. Or that there's

like a bubble over the Apollo landing sites where

you can still see like, yeah, yes, of course.

But yeah, so I guess I think that's probably

it. Unless we have anything else to add. No,

no, I'm sorry for babbling about it. No, no,

no, it's fantastic. Yeah. I was just going to

say like, I don't think there's much else except

that this is what, when you said this episode,

my first thought was elementary to your data.

And then I realized that this sort of wasn't

that one and that this sets it up. Uh, because

it's in this episode when he's talking about

the different sluice and he starts downloading

basically the whole history of, of murder mysteries.

And it's like, it sets up what was to come. Yeah.

And then Rita and Jordy talk about Sherlock Holmes.

Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, I'm sure we'll end

up talking about. many more Holodeck episodes.

And then I guess that was episode what? Was it

13, 14, 12, something like that? 17, I think.

That was 12. 12, okay. Okay, and then we jump

forward to episode 25. Yeah, there's plenty of

good episodes, but you jump to 25, which is mine.

I pick Conspiracy because it's the only episode

that I regularly watch a few times a year from

season one. Wow. And I it's just it's it's been

the one that I think it's because as a kid it

left such an impression on me I watched it again

mid 90s. It was already in syndication And I

was just amazed that as a kid they didn't censor

half of the stuff that that happens in this But

I believe it's a pseudo Continuation of a previous

episode. What was the episode where they meet

with the Admiral? Oh, it's the it's when they're

being investigated for age. It is something or

other. Let me just pull it up here, because it's

two of the characters are recurring from that

episode. It's coming of age, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Where they were being checked out

and vetted for something. And it was. Yeah, because

this is part one of the alien neuro parasite

infiltration episodes. Technically. Yeah. So.

What happens in this, they are en route to, was

it Datalix six, five, something in the solar

system. And we see what might be one of the first

times, I think it's the first time we've ever

seen Captain Picard sleeping and what the sleeping

quarters are like for the captain. And he gets

a call saying that there is a priority message,

captain's eyes only. and he has to go to his

terminal and goes through a few phases of security

before accepting the call. And who shows up on

the screen? His old college friend, Walker, who's

another captain. I forget, is it the Horatio?

USS Horatio, yeah. Yes. And he's... Enter creepy

music playing a little bit saying he doesn't

want to talk on this channel even though they

argue back and forth about it's supposedly a

secure channel saying something's odd come meet

me on this planet and I want you to come down

alone. Don't tell anybody so Picard is a little

hesitant, but you know he trusts his friend.

It's one of his oldest friends. It was it was

him Crusher and and Picard that were basically

inseparable in college, right? So they were chums.

And he goes to the planet, beams down, walks

up, sees Walker, and sees two other captains.

One is, I'm drawing off blankets off my head,

I'm gonna pull it up because I remember thinking,

I was surprised that we never saw them again,

because I thought they were decent actors. The

one guy's from The Hills Have Eyes. Mike you

probably don't cuz you're the horror guy, right?

Yeah, the guy that played the Bolian, right?

Yep. Yep So they go down to the planet he meets

let me see the fucking pull it up here quickly

Seve or rev or some shit like that it is yeah

regardless Let me pull it up here because it's

easier memory alpha I thought I had it memorized

in my head, but I watched it last week again,

and it's coming into me bits and pieces. But

essentially, Walker tells him that there is something

going wrong at Starfleet. They don't know quite

what's going on, but that there's been weird

commands going out, shuffling of people around,

people on their own ships have been acting odd,

people are forgetting personal memories. and

they administer a sort of test to Picard trying

to trick him into falling up of what some important

pieces of their history are, and of course, it

just makes Picard angry, and then they realize

he is who he is, and he says, go back to your

ship, don't trust anybody, and I'll be in touch,

we're gonna figure out what's going on. He goes

back to the ship, and he's not. He's not convinced,

but he knows Walker. He's like, Walker wouldn't

do this. He's not paranoid for the sake of being

paranoid. Something has to be up. And he talks

to Data because he figures, again, this is another

case of Data doesn't have any ulterior motives.

Data would not likely be compromised. So I have

a job that's basically for you that only you

can do. And he asks him to go through all of

Starfleet Command's orders for the last six months

because that's... as far back as Walker believed

that something was off. What a task that would

be. Well, again, for anybody who's not a robot.

Android. So it is a task that's specifically

designed that only he can do. So we leave him

to do his work and they continue on with their

mission. They say they're going to be a little

late. They'll make up some excuse or whatever.

He doesn't want to discuss it with anybody because

he doesn't know necessarily. What to believe

because just in using that communication channel

and just discussing that there could be some

sort of subversion happening within Starfleet

in itself is Could be seen as an act of treason

Like they themselves look like they could be

conspiring against the people that they think

are in a conspiracy so they have to be quiet

till they have proof and They receive a note

that there's an anomaly And coming out of work

there, they realized that the Horatio has been

destroyed. Not several hours after they had just

met. And he's still being secretive, not telling

Crusher that, yes, they went with Walker. In

this meantime, I think he's counseling with Troy,

talks to her because she has to maintain silence.

As they're sort of bringing he's bringing Ryker

in on it data comes in and explains that hey,

there's a There are some weird weird movements

people are being shuffled around personnel or

moving around Yes, there have been some deaths

that of people that seemed to have just been

reported as they died and no real investigation

as to what happened or it's like viewed as natural

causes or no follow -up and there seem to be

people moving around and it looks to be that

there's a coup taking place silently. They're

moving people that are like sleeper cells into

key positions. Was it Starbase 12? I think was

shut down for a week with no explanation as to

why all the staff had to leave. And when they

came back, it was different people in charge.

And again, no reason given as to why they did

it. There was no strategic meaning for it. And

that's when they decide, they're like, we're

not sure what we're going to do. He reinforms

or informs all his senior staff what's going

on. Something seems odd. And they're like, somebody

says, it's not like we can just go up to Starfleet

and ask what's going on. And he's like, yes,

we can. So they warp to Earth. They find it weird

that there's no response when they're hailing

Earth. They get to Earth. They get and one of

the admirals messages them and it just seems

kind of odd. They invite them down to the planet

That's where they meet up with who they build

the Admiral. What's his name here? Quinn Admiral

Quinn who was from the previous episode who they

believe they can trust and he's he's talking

and acting a little odd not a hundred percent

He seems a little almost too energetic for what

he was usually like and Picard pulls Riker aside

and and just says It looks like him, sounds like

him, but I don't care what anybody says, it's

not him. That is not the Admiral. Keep an eye

on him. And then we see, yada, yada, yada, the

Admiral attacks, was it Geordi, I believe, first?

Geordi and Worf. Geordi and Worf, and Riker,

and he's got super strength, and then they end

up finding... Weird gil on the back of his neck

and I might be going slightly out of order but

what ends up being is this whole episode is a

parasitic alien that looks at first it looks

an awful lot like the one from was it graphic

on and But then it ends up looking like some

sort of purple purple bubblegum thing, but a

parasitic race has taken over key people in Starfleet

and they're looking to basically take over the

entire galaxy by taking over people in key military

positions and political positions. And through

some subterfuge and fakeness where Riker pretends

to be one of them, they end up having a shootout

and finding the mother creature. to be inside

of, I forget his name, but he was the other character

from that last episode that was in. And he says

they seek peaceful coexistence as his neck throbs

with some crazy body horror effects. Yeah, it

was Lieutenant Commander Remick. Remick, that's

right. So they blast him with their phasers.

And I double checked it three or four times.

And it's clearly Riker that shoots him in the

face because of the angle he's holding the phaser

and where it's positioned when it goes. Picard

is shooting him with a body mask, basically a

standard way you shoot somebody. And Riker's

like, no, you get it in the face. Shoots him

in the face. shows his head exploding almost

like, uh, it reminded me of Raiders of the Lost

Ark when they see the Ark of the Covenant and

the Nazi melts and then his head explodes. And

then his abdomen melts apart like something out

of a Cronenberg movie and the mother creatures

inside going, horrible sounds. They vaporize

it and it blows up. And we're like, I'm like,

how did this not get a mature rating in like

1987, 88 for television? They somehow got away

with it. They would not have done that later

on. But it's cool to me because of that that

stayed in my head. And they realized that it

had sent a beacon out into space and that they

didn't know where it was going. It was from some

unexplored part of the galaxy. And we'll have

to see what happens. And then it ends with the

sound of like almost like the beeping, like a

beacon going beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. And

then it goes, it fades to black and that's the

end. And weren't there Believe there were plans

to follow up on the story thread, but they never

did and weren't their fans start took online

I was gonna say what their fan theories that

it was like the Borg they were contacting or

something Well that that wouldn't have been it

but there's there's theories that it's related

to the trill symbiont. Oh So like an evil evil

trill. Yeah, basically they're Watching this

and then being a fan of other things. This is

basically the ghoul from Stargate Yeah, it is.

And honestly, it's the first episode of Next

Gen that I firmly believe doesn't really fit

in. None of it really makes sense of why it happened.

It's my favorite episode of the first season.

When I say the best, I mean the best as in I

find it hilarious. That's fair, because it's

just so over the top wacky that this could have

happened. All of Starfleet Command eating worms.

Yeah, like, yeah. And you're you're beaming through

places and none of the computers are flagging

the fact that there's this giant goddamn parasite

in each one of you. Well, it wasn't the argument

that they weren't beaming. Wasn't it that they

were? Well, I guess they beamed up, but wasn't

the idea that they were moving ships and moving

personnel. So who knows if that meant it was

beaming or if that meant it was whatever. But

I found it funny when I looked up the ranks of

the three admirals. None of them are like the

head of Starfleet. None of them are like it would

be odd. Like the way they showed up at Earth,

the flagship for the entire Federation shows

up. And it's a rear admiral. And I think two

people that are ranked one lower than him. It's

not, like you would think somebody from the,

I don't know, the political government would

have shown up. Yeah, the federation would have

actually shown up. Yeah, you think the federation

would have shown up. And then you think that

they would, Jean -Luc Picard would have had somebody,

I don't know, like literally the head of Starfleet

would have contacted and said, why are you here?

Yeah. And it's also an episode that I... End

up raising my eyebrow at because it's It's an

old episode and it's it's one of the very few

old old Trek episodes that confuses Starfleet

and the Federation. Yeah Because these things

are infiltrating Starfleet Okay, but you're not

infiltrating the Federation. So why are you thinking

you're taking over? Yeah, like it would have

been one thing if when they showed up at Earth

if it was a couple admirals and if, let's say,

the Vulcan had not been an admiral, if the Vulcan

had been a representative from Vulcan or somebody

who was part of the Federation Council, like

the political arm. It would have been interesting

if it was a couple admirals and then an ambassador

or something. But again, as a kid, I was always

a big fan again, not just conspiracy stuff, but

the idea of at that point, Starfleet had always

been shown as being infallible and nothing could

ever go wrong with them. They're basically the

perfect vision of the future. And this is not

like everybody is evil and horrible, but the

idea that something insidious could be eating

away at them was interesting to me. Sure. No,

I get that. I also thought it was well done,

the whole Picard being torn between his duty

as an officer and then his loyalty to his friend.

And that's honestly all I have to say about it,

except for the fact that I just can't believe

that they showed how graphic it was at the time.

Yeah, because that's a special effect you would

only really see in a 1980s horror movie. I mean,

you see the effect of the guy's head exploding,

then you see his skin melt off his face, his

eyeballs very clearly visible, and then Boom.

And then his chest cage or his rib cage hollowed

out with blood and gore and everything else in

this creature writhing in the middle. And then

it gets vaporized and then it lingers for a little

too long on the body in the chair. And you just

see stuff dripping with goo. The only thing taking

away from it is that at that point, they went

from having the high quality and like puppet

prop of the of the or the claymationy type thing

they had for the the parasite to having these

little purple bubble gum things that they just

stuck on them like velcro and i'm like that's

that sort of takes away a little bit from from

the really goriness of it but again i am surprised

that it aired on regular tv i just read about

that that the bbc actually cut footage from that

episode to air properly, and it's that scene.

And then Space, Canada's science fiction network,

proceeds this episode with a viewer discretion

warning, the only next generation episode to

receive this. So it did get that here. Okay,

so it wasn't censored at least, but it did get

the, that's the PG -13 warning. Yeah, and then,

but you know, here in America, melting people's

faces off. That's, you know, Saturday morning

cartoon stuff. But show a boob and oh no. Holy

crap. But yeah, so that's that's all I gotta

say I don't know if you guys have any other memories

other than it's the one episode that stuck out

Like I saw it I think when I was five or six

and it freaked me out. So that's why I remember

it so well Yeah, no, I think that pretty much

I think we've said all we possibly can and we've

been going on for quite some time. So, um, I

guess as, as we begin to kind of wrap things

up, uh, season one of TNG definitely got some

hits, definitely got some misses, not as bad

as I remember more world building than I remember

and little bits of character development, though

I would argue maybe a little bit too far, uh,

too few and far between, but the series doesn't

eventually pick up its momentum after the second

season. Which seems to be the case for most?

Series of Star Trek they have a much stronger

third season though discovery definitely being

an outlier so we will be hopefully sharing more

positive memories of Star Trek kind of going

forward coming up here on the show in the next

little bit we're gonna be having another episode

of Earth versus soup, which is our future imperfect

sub show with Aaron and his wife Darlene talking

about 50s and 60s classic sci -fi movies be they

be good or crap. They are going to discuss it

as best they can in a 30 minute format. We will

also be doing more talk on the show. One of the

things we're going to be talking about in the

near future, as you may have heard in the news

recently, the Mars Perseverance Rover has landed

on the red planet after a seven month journey

here from Earth. And the next time we can get

to Mars in a relatively short time window is

I think four years from now when the when the

orbits change again. So we're going to talk about

the Viking probes, the Mariner, Spirit and Opportunity,

and maybe some of the movies like The Martian

and just how Mars has been portrayed in the media,

but also some of the missions as well. It'll

be an interesting discussion. You have to be

careful because you might wake up the ghosts.

That's true. And, you know, John Carpenter can

cut off my head. So it's going to be interesting.

We don't want we don't want the Picard version

of Mars where it's on fire, though. Yeah, no.

Yeah. Mars is almost always either on fire or

in like Babylon 5. There's there's like horrible,

horrible like mining conditions where everybody

has an uprising. Mars is never happy. No, very,

very, very few things. The only thing I could

think possibly is there is an anime called Armitage

the third and Mars is kind of this weird cyberpunk

society where androids are outlawed. It's weird.

You use the word cyberpunk and that doesn't mean

happy. Yeah, exactly. So we will have a lot to

talk about that. And then coming up later on

in the year, we're just going to talk about more

Star Trek. We maybe talk about Stargate. Um,

I'm currently working on an an interview to try

and get the people from the Voyager documentary.

I've sent them an email the other day. That's

the same team behind from what we left behind,

which is the Deep Space Nine one. they ended

up writing a better season arc for another season

of that show than... Well, that was just the

first episode. First episode, sorry, yes. They

do a first episode in like 20 minutes that is

better than anything that Trek's written since

like 2005. So that'll be what's coming up here

on the show. So once again, we do thank your

feedback. If you want to get ahold of us, you

can email the tweak side of things by going to

feedback at this week in geek dot net. That is

our email address. You can find our socials pretty

much on the website of your or if you're getting

this from the geek cast radio network. Steve,

how would people get ahold of you? They get ahold

of me feedback at geek cast radio dot com or

at SCP 21 on Twitter. All right, guys. So once

again, thank you for joining us as we begin to

take this thing out of space doc, as we explore

our own five year mission into what the hell's

out there. Uh, I've been your captain on this

void. So please, uh, return your trace. They're

upright and locked position. I know it's a spaceship

and not an airplane, whatever. Uh, so for this

week in geek, we have begin, uh, leaving in the

city or the state of Colorado. Steve Megatron.

Going to Michigan. Aaron Paulier. And of course,

Kitchener. Alex. I've been Mike the Birdman saying

live long and prosper.