Gambit

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 This is a Film Stories Original Podcast.

spk_0 Welcome to Make It So, a Star Trek Legacy Podcast here on the Film Stories Podcast Network.

spk_0 I'm your host, Jeff Owen.

spk_0 Here's continue our journey through Star Trek's late 24th century.

spk_0 Now on this episode we're talking about one of Star Trek, the next generation's more

spk_0 and more appreciated two-parters.

spk_0 And joining me to talk about this episode is Lifelong Star Trek fan and TikTok content

spk_0 creator from Germany.

spk_0 You might know him as the guy you say, stop it to people who have trouble buying water in

spk_0 Europe.

spk_0 Mike Marzett.

spk_0 Thank you for joining me today, Mike.

spk_0 How are you doing?

spk_0 It's my pleasure.

spk_0 Thanks for having me.

spk_0 I'm doing well in yourself.

spk_0 I'm doing well.

spk_0 It's really warm day here in Britain and apparently it's the same for you over there in

spk_0 Germany.

spk_0 Hi.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 It's pretty warm.

spk_0 It's nice to have a bit of consistency and weather after spending two weeks in Scotland

spk_0 where things can change literally at the drop of a dime.

spk_0 I've forgotten you've just been to Scotland as well.

spk_0 Yep.

spk_0 How did you find Scotland out of interest?

spk_0 Well, wasn't my first time there.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 But the first time I went was two years ago from my 50th birthday and I was only in Edinburgh

spk_0 and Glasgow.

spk_0 And this time it was a road trip around the whole country.

spk_0 And it is without a doubt one of the most beautiful countries on earth filled with

spk_0 some of the most amazing human beings that populate this earth.

spk_0 The scenery is unbelievable.

spk_0 But the weather, if you don't know how to prepare for where you're going, everything that

spk_0 you wear or bring will be disrespected by that place.

spk_0

spk_0 You got to bring, if you bring an umbrella, it has to be one that's slotted or a golf

spk_0 umbrella.

spk_0 Your regular umbrella will be inverted by the wind.

spk_0 The wind does not care about you or your feelings.

spk_0 But it's just fantastic.

spk_0 The one lane roads with the passing places that takes some getting used to when you're

spk_0 driving through the Highlands and in the Nat, like the Caringorams National Park.

spk_0 But yeah, it was a fantastic trip and I can't wait to go back.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Well, that's it.

spk_0 I mean, from an American's point of view, I know your roads are considerably wider than

spk_0 some of the two lane roads that we've got here in the UK.

spk_0 What are the back roads like in Germany?

spk_0 Back roads is probably the wrong term.

spk_0 No, well, they're basically the same or very similar to what they are in the States.

spk_0 And the UK as well.

spk_0 I mean, because here you have just your regular inside town roads or streets and then you

spk_0 get out of town and you have what they call Lahnstrasse, which are a little bit bigger,

spk_0 but they run between towns or villages.

spk_0 And then you have Bundesstraße, which are bigger.

spk_0 And they're denoted by a yellow sign.

spk_0 They're called B-highways by the English speakers.

spk_0 And they're either two lane or four lane and the speed limits can be anywhere from 100

spk_0 to 120 or even unlimited, depending on where you are.

spk_0 And then there's an auto bomb, which is basically the same as a motorway up in the UK.

spk_0 The B-highways are like carriageways.

spk_0 OK.

spk_0 So that's basically how it goes.

spk_0 It's pretty much the same, but there's not a lot of one lane stuff unless you're literally driving through farmland.

spk_0 That's fair enough.

spk_0 I've been over to Germany a couple of times.

spk_0 I went over for a college trip back in the 90s.

spk_0 I think it was.

spk_0 And then about 10 years ago, me and my dad went to see the German Grand Prix and stayed in Hesseheim.

spk_0 I think the name of the town was.

spk_0 And we just went from there back and forth to Hockenheim, but it was a coach tour.

spk_0 So neither me or my dad did any driving.

spk_0 So you went to the Hockenheim Ring?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 That's not far from where I live.

spk_0 That's relatively close to here.

spk_0 It's not that far.

spk_0

spk_0 OK, well, Hesse I shouldn't be too far because I think it was about half hour drive on some of the main roads first.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 The Hockenheim Ring is about a little over an hour from where I live.

spk_0 It's right at the road.

spk_0 And obviously the more famous Nurburg Ring is further away.

spk_0 And I haven't had the opportunity to visit either place to see people try to drive around the thing.

spk_0 But at some point, I'll get there.

spk_0 Go around the Norwich life as well.

spk_0 I've only done it virtually on video games, but I'd love to do it for real.

spk_0 I don't think I'd take my own card.

spk_0 It's smart.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Anyway, we're not here to talk about much more history and as much as I could.

spk_0 Today we're talking about the season 7, 2 part, a gambit.

spk_0 But before we dive in, I'm sorry to say, as usual, I need guests have to undergo the Starfleet Academy entry exam.

spk_0 Oh, all right.

spk_0 OK, so first question.

spk_0 I promised they're quite easy.

spk_0 OK.

spk_0 How did you first find Star Trek?

spk_0 My father introduced me to Star Trek.

spk_0 He was a fan.

spk_0 My dad's a boomer, obviously.

spk_0 The first bit of Star Trek I watched was some reruns of the original series,

spk_0 because that's all that was available back then.

spk_0 And then after Star Wars came out in 77, the motion picture came out shortly thereafter.

spk_0 And my dad took me to see it even though I was only 8 years old.

spk_0 I thought it was weird.

spk_0 At first, the movie.

spk_0 I loved the TV show.

spk_0 I just thought that the movie was a complete departure from the TV show.

spk_0 As I got older and got to watch more and more of the original series,

spk_0 and then eventually next gen, you know, things started to come together for me.

spk_0 As I got older, I was able to appreciate a lot more of it than I could as a kid.

spk_0 I apologize for the barking.

spk_0 That's my dog.

spk_0 Some somebody's walking by and she's being a jerk.

spk_0 I didn't hear her.

spk_0 So, oh, okay, good.

spk_0 That's wonderful.

spk_0 It means my soundproofing is kind of working because I can hear her.

spk_0 Apologies for that.

spk_0 But yeah, that was my first intro to Star Trek.

spk_0 No problem.

spk_0 Okay, so what's your favorite series then?

spk_0 And your favorite episodes?

spk_0 Oh, man, that's a tough one.

spk_0 All time.

spk_0 I

spk_0 My favorite show is ironically, they're separate.

spk_0 My favorite series is next gen, because it really it brought

spk_0 I was I was happy as a fan of the, you know,

spk_0 the existing episode to Star Trek from the 60s that were there,

spk_0 that people that didn't already know about it or had never experienced it

spk_0 would finally get to experience Star Trek in some form other than the movies that had

spk_0 been in existence already.

spk_0 So TNG enabled me to, you know, bring Star Trek to other people that didn't know about it.

spk_0 But my favorite episode is for the uniform from DS9.

spk_0 That was Cisco going after Michael Eddington.

spk_0 And that whole thing between the two of the those two guys and how

spk_0 how powerful of an actor Avery Brooks is is what made me want to cosplay as him.

spk_0 He's the only cosplay I've ever done.

spk_0 Shave my head and and put on, you know, first contact and slash, you know, season five and beyond

spk_0 DS9 uniform and walked around FedCon with a baseball.

spk_0 And everybody just loved it.

spk_0 People were calling me this Cisco, which I just thought was cool.

spk_0 So that that was one of my favorite episodes because Avery Brooks other than

spk_0 far beyond the stars, that was to me that was some of his best acting was in that episode because

spk_0 he was personally betrayed by Eddington and he wasn't going to let him get away.

spk_0 And he wound up poisoning a planet to get him.

spk_0 Yeah, well, finally enough two episodes ago.

spk_0 I spoke to Carlos Miranda and Lee Hatches and about the marquee story.

spk_0 Well, the Michael Eddington storyline.

spk_0 So we watched all three of those episodes and yeah, I can't disagree.

spk_0 That's some of Avery Brooks's best work in those three episodes, particularly for the uniform.

spk_0 And I know you've posted videos of yourself as Cisco as well on your TikTok and you do a great job.

spk_0 I'll be honest, I might you look fantastic.

spk_0 Thanks. I appreciate that.

spk_0 And I've met him. He's every, you know, he doesn't do, you know, cons anymore, but

spk_0 I met him at a convention in Portland, Oregon, you know, 12 or so years ago.

spk_0 And he's just one of the most chill guys I've ever met.

spk_0 Just, you know, the way he just, his voice is musical.

spk_0 When he speaks, it just has a natural ebb and flow to it.

spk_0 And I, you know, I, you know, just walked up to him to get his autograph.

spk_0 I didn't get a picture with him.

spk_0 But I just said, thanks for everything, you know, for your portrayal of Hawk in that show and,

spk_0 and for, you know, being, you know, the emissary and everything.

spk_0 And he said, I thank you, young man.

spk_0 And he was just so cool.

spk_0 And, you know, I told him I sent a note to my dad because my dad's a huge fan of his.

spk_0 And I said, yeah, I got to talk to Avery Brooks.

spk_0 And he said, what was he like?

spk_0 I said, cool.

spk_0 And that's just who he is.

spk_0 He's a little eccentric, but he is very cool.

spk_0 It was such a positive representation.

spk_0 I thought of a, of an African American male and his son.

spk_0 And there was, it was such a positive representation.

spk_0 I thought, and I was trying to think of other TV shows around the time

spk_0 that did that that had this amazing representation.

spk_0 The only show that really, I hate to say it because of the lead actor is such a horrible human being.

spk_0 I think I know you know this.

spk_0 It's the Cosby show.

spk_0 I mean, because it was the first one to portray a black family as being successful with a doctor for a dad

spk_0 and an attorney, a partner for mom and, you know, kids doing kids stuff,

spk_0 you know, dealing with conversations about drugs and alcohol and the rigors of becoming

spk_0 parents going through pregnancy and college decisions and all that.

spk_0 It was, the Cosby show was groundbreaking.

spk_0 And it saved the genre of sitcoms because sitcoms were dead when the Cosby show debuted in the early 80s.

spk_0 And because of the Cosby show shows like cheers and frasier and many, many other,

spk_0 many, many other popular sitcoms on TV got to exist because writers were just not writing funny stuff.

spk_0 The only comedy on TV was basically SNL.

spk_0 So that was it.

spk_0 So that was, you know, like you said, Cisco not only was, was he a good portrayal of a father and

spk_0 as an African American and well, he wasn't considered an African American on the show.

spk_0 He was just a human.

spk_0 But he was also an excellent single parent, you know, being with a widow and raising a child

spk_0 and having responsibilities as a post commander.

spk_0 I can't imagine what that would feel like.

spk_0 So every really played that role, that role was meant for him.

spk_0 Nobody else could have played that part.

spk_0 Yeah, I agree.

spk_0 The only other thing I've just realized possibly maybe the Fresh Prince of LA,

spk_0 but I think the, there was a little later though, you know, that came, that came a little later.

spk_0 That was, it, Fresh Prince definitely came out after the Cosby, Cosby show was in its later

spk_0 seasons when Fresh Prince debuted and Malcolm Jamal Warner arrested his soul, did a guest appearance

spk_0 on the Fresh Prince and actually named dropped the Cosby show on it, which was hilarious.

spk_0 He said it was so good to see family spending time together.

spk_0 I always thought stuff like that only happened on the Cosby show and the craft, the audience just

spk_0 erupted and laughed because it was hilarious.

spk_0 So he played Hillary's boyfriend.

spk_0 Right. I got to meet Joseph Marcel at a comic card if it was go plays my namesake,

spk_0 Jeffrey the Butler of course.

spk_0 And he was such a nice guy as well.

spk_0 Good.

spk_0 So yeah, that's awesome.

spk_0 That's awesome.

spk_0 Anyway, back to Star Trek.

spk_0 What is your favorite movie?

spk_0 Movie?

spk_0 As there are only three sets of movies, I'll give you one from each.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 My favorite original series or TOS movie is Rath the Con hands down.

spk_0 Of course.

spk_0 Ricardo Montenegon was the penultimate bad guy.

spk_0 Check off did check off stuff and he got hurt and screamed.

spk_0 Paul Winfield was great as Captain Terrell.

spk_0 Very under underappreciated actor who came back in TNG in the Darmock.

spk_0 Shatner and Nimoy and Kelly were just brilliant as that triangle on the bridge.

spk_0 Fast forward to the TNG movies.

spk_0 First contact wins just easily.

spk_0 Setting it in the, you know, setting that that movie when they did.

spk_0 Right before humanity makes first contact with Vulcans after World War III.

spk_0 And having Alfred Woodard play the role that she played was just brilliant.

spk_0 And Frank's is without a doubt one of the best directors of all time.

spk_0 He, I don't think he he is.

spk_0 Appreciated for the work that he does.

spk_0 Not just as a Star Trek director, but as a director in general.

spk_0 And then for the the Kelvin Universe movies.

spk_0 The first one just the 2009 Star Trek movie.

spk_0 I was working for the company that was the company that was the parent company for Carphone

spk_0 Warehouse in in the UK.

spk_0 Best Buy in the United States.

spk_0 And we got because of our relationship with Intel, we got to see the movie, we got to screen

spk_0 the movie the day before it came out to the general public.

spk_0 I drove two hours to watch that movie and I did not want it to end.

spk_0 It was so good.

spk_0 And I thought that Chris, Chris Pine and Zach Quinto were really great as Carc and Spock,

spk_0 but Carl Urban as Linnermokoi.

spk_0 Apparently, and I know this has been said before, but apparently Linnermoi was moved to tears

spk_0 when he saw him portray De Forrest Kelly.

spk_0 And he did it so well that that Linnermoi actually tears running down his face because it was

spk_0 so good. So and that is a guy that I would really like to say hi to his car,

spk_0 Urban because he's just he's brilliant from, you know, playing one of the horse, horse guys.

spk_0 I apologize for insulting Lord of the Rings fans, but the writers of Rohan, right?

spk_0 In there and his role in the boys, which is really, really good.

spk_0 Doom, which was a terrible movie, but I really liked him in it.

spk_0 And now he's playing Johnny Cage and Mortal Kombat, which I just think is just insane.

spk_0 I know that. I did not know that.

spk_0 He's playing Johnny Cage and Mortal Kombat too. And I cannot wait to see him.

spk_0 Go to YouTube and just Google the trailer for Mortal Kombat too.

spk_0 It's a Red Band trailer. So there's, you know, there's some language in it, but it looks like it's

spk_0 going to be it's going to be pretty good. Yeah.

spk_0 I'll add two more to Carl Urban's resume there. I really liked him in the Thor movies as well.

spk_0 And also Judge Dredd. His, oh God, he was great. Yeah.

spk_0 Comic book accurate as Judge Dredd. He was still on his cool, but that movie was very

spk_0 campy. And his, Urban's Dred, you know, with Lena Headey as a bad guy.

spk_0 And that movie was very gritty and very, very believable.

spk_0 And Urban was just great. He was his greatest Dredd. And I was really angry when they decided

spk_0 that they weren't going to make anymore. I just like, yeah, that really needs to keep going.

spk_0 Box, box office, balm, unfortunately. Yeah.

spk_0 Same with Doom. I enjoyed Doom. I loved the whole first person shooter that thing they did

spk_0 have. We thought it was great. Yeah. But yeah, to be honest, that brings us really onto the next

spk_0 question I had, which is about favorite characters. So it sounds like we got Cisco and we've got

spk_0 McCoy. Yeah. Who else have we got? I'm a big fan of Picard. I'm a big fan of Breiker.

spk_0 Because, and this also goes to my opinions about Jonathan Frakes as generally as a human being

spk_0 and his ability to act. People call, you know, talk about, you know, his, the, the Reikerman

spk_0 Uber race steps over the chair or his leaning against the console. I, I call him the man of

spk_0 many expressions because he has one of the most expressive faces. He, he does the devil

spk_0 make care thing better than anybody. Like the, there was an episode of, oh, it was the first time

spk_0 we saw Barkley on TNG. Picard called Barkley, broccoli on the bridge, you know, in front of everybody.

spk_0 And Reiker, he's, you know, good. I look forward to your report, Mr. Brachley. And then everybody

spk_0 just looks at Picard and Picard is frozen. And Reiker, he turns around and he does one of these.

spk_0 And then Barkley says, if you'll excuse me and he walks off the bridge and Reiker, his face just,

spk_0 it was so bad, but it was so good. And he does that, you know, when he was trying to talk to Picard

spk_0 about going to Riza, you know, he's talking about how the women are and he's talking about, you know,

spk_0 lying around on the beach and all this. And that, they're in a turbo lift. And Reiker's just, you

spk_0 know, just trying to sell it in his face. He's got this gleam in his eye. And that's, that's just

spk_0 who freaks is as a person, you know, when I was at, when I was at FedCon, he, during one of his talks,

spk_0 someone asked him, they were told it was going to be the last question for him before they shut it

spk_0 down. And he said, okay, so he gets stands up from the chair on stage and starts walking down the

spk_0 stairs. And then he goes out into the crowd to talk to the guy face to face while he's asking him

spk_0 the question. And I'm, I'm right behind him. And I kind of maneuver my way around to the other

spk_0 side of him. And I have my camera and I'm just firing photos of him talking to this guy. And I

spk_0 have a really good picture of him shaking hands with the, with the guy at the end of their

spk_0 conversation. And he kind of put his arm around him. And then he went back up to the stage,

spk_0 wave goodbye. And he did the Riker maneuver thing a couple of times on stage. And he facetime

spk_0 Brent Spiner while he was up there. He's just, that's just who he is. He, he literally is

spk_0 Riker. Riker is, is funny. And you know, he's got a great sense of humor. He, he knows how to get

spk_0 things done. And at the same time, he really doesn't get a crap. So he's just, Frank's is just a good guy.

spk_0 And getting to meet him, this is actually the picture of me and him together right here above my

spk_0 finger. The first time I met him, I, I think he thought I was going to kill him.

spk_0 Because he, every time he had booked an appearance, he had to cancel. And he has a,

spk_0 yeah, reputation for, you know, for missing cons and people affectionately call him no show

spk_0 freaks. So, like you, freaks, I, like, freaks. Right. So I, when I saw him walking between the,

spk_0 the restroom, or, you know, the, the toilets and the, and the autograph area, I said, Jonathan

spk_0 Freaks, I've been waiting a long time for this moment. He's like, oh, really? I was like,

spk_0 no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm just glad you're here. And he's like, oh, okay. So,

spk_0 and, and that was that. So yeah, he's, he's one of my, he's just one of my favorite people.

spk_0 Tony Newsome, I, I adore. Just because she literally is Mariner.

spk_0 Jack Quaid also, he's, you know, another one of the boys cast and he's, he's fantastic.

spk_0 Um, I haven't met a single person, every single person I've met from Star Trek personally has been

spk_0 wonderful. But I think my best overall experience would have to be with Terry, Terry Farrell.

spk_0 Oh, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in love with that woman. She, she kind of, first, I met her in 2016 during

spk_0 the 50th anniversary con and you were at that con in Birmingham. Yes, I was. I was there as well.

spk_0 That was my first one. Yeah. And she, um, I got, I got a picture with her. And she kind of,

spk_0 she kind of grabbed, grabbed, we took a regular photo and then she kind of flipped me around

spk_0 and our faces are like this far apart. And she's got her hand on my chest. And I was like,

spk_0 what, what's happening? And then when I went to go get an autograph, she, she literally said something

spk_0 that, that just, I turned it into a person that was completely incoherent. She called me handsome.

spk_0 And I just, I was unable, I was unable to speak at that point. Ironically, she met, um,

spk_0 she met Adam Neemaway at that convention. And that's when they started dating. I know they

spk_0 divorced, but, um, I feel like if I had like asked her for coffee, I don't know what would have

spk_0 happened after that. I mean, oh, I could have shot. I could have, unfortunately, I wasn't married

spk_0 at the time. So, oh, well, there was nothing. There was nothing I could do. Yeah. It was still fun.

spk_0 I just, I, I've met her a couple of times since then. And I've been able to keep it together. And,

spk_0 and she's, she's just a wonderful human being too. Yeah. Yeah. I got the chance to meet Terry that

spk_0 weekend as well. Um, Nicole DeBoe was there too. And the photograph I had taken was with both of them.

spk_0 So there's me in between both taxes. And I've shown people that photograph and they go, you lucky,

spk_0 lucky man. And it's like, well, I paid for that. So I'm not that lucky.

spk_0 That's it. Yeah. That's what I keep having to tell people is like, this is not luck. You know,

spk_0 we spend money for this stuff. But it's not, it's not about the money. It's, it's about,

spk_0 it's about the experience and, and it's about the memories. And then having, having these photos,

spk_0 excuse me, with these, with these wonderful human beings and being able to talk about how,

spk_0 how they happened and our interactions with them, that makes the money irrelevant. There's a lot of

spk_0 money on this wall. I mean, a lot. Yeah. That's why I don't buy autographs from autographs,

spk_0 sellers, because there's no point in having an autograph if you haven't had the meeting. To me,

spk_0 it's all about the meeting. Exactly.

spk_0 Let's get on to Gambit then. Okay. Quick rundown of the stats of the episode first of all.

spk_0 Gambit Part 1 story about Christopher Hatton and Marron Shankar,

spk_0 teleplay by Narron Shankar, directed by Peter Loritzon, Part 2,

spk_0 story by Narron Shankar, teleplay by Ronald E. Moore, directed by Alexander Singer.

spk_0 The IMDbsonopsis, while investigating the apparent death of Captain Picard, Reiker is

spk_0 abducted by a group of intergalactic archaeological thieves. Wow, that was harder to say than I

spk_0 thought it was going to be. Only to find that Picard has apparently joined their ranks.

spk_0 Guest cast Richard Lynch as artist Baran Robin Curtis, I wonder where I've heard that name before,

spk_0 as T'laera, Caitlin Brown, as Vickor Cameron Thor, best name in the cast, I think, as Narek.

spk_0 Oh yeah. Alan Alchild, I hope I've said his name right as Yarranak, Bruce Gray is Chicoate.

spk_0 Wait. Admiral. Yeah. James Worthy as Corral Sabrina LeBuff as Guisty. Guisty.

spk_0 First aid in the US on the 9th and 16th of October 1993 in the UK on the 31st of January and

spk_0 7th of February 96. And in Germany for our guest, the 28th and 29th of June 1994.

spk_0 Yeah, it took three years to get the episode over here, believe it or not. That's insane.

spk_0 But it should be noted that Sabrina LeBuff, the the ops officer, the Incin was Sandra on the

spk_0 Cosby show. I did not know what her last, her character's last name was because it was never

spk_0 set on screen. No, she was just referred to as Incin. That was it. I'd still looked that up on

spk_0 memory alpha to find it as well. Yeah. I was wondering if she was related to Shia LeBuff as well.

spk_0 And I couldn't find any connections at all. Huh. I can't believe it never occurred to me until

spk_0 right now. Thank you for bringing that up. Now I had something, I had something to research.

spk_0 Anyway, Mike, what are your general thoughts of Gambit as a two-parter?

spk_0 First of all, since the seven season was a little uneven,

spk_0 and I think, you know, they, the writers and the cast knew that this was going to be the last ride

spk_0 for the show. This was definitely one of the better arcs in that last season.

spk_0 The fact that I think it was pretty obvious that they, you know, they weren't going to kill

spk_0 Picard, you know, because TV shows back then didn't kill main characters unless they left,

spk_0 you know, Tashi-Yars proof of that. But the fact that they had him doing archaeology,

spk_0 something that we absolutely knew was his passion. And Riker being the, you know, the emotional

spk_0 son that Picard never had, at least that we knew of at that point, you know, kind of going off

spk_0 the rails a little bit and, you know, being determined to figure out what happened.

spk_0 It was, I liked the episode in general, especially going towards the end where, you know, we know how,

spk_0 how things eventually ended up on the mercenary ship and, you know, him hearing eye-capped in,

spk_0 from one of the crew and he kind of had that little chuckle on his face. I thought it was a well,

spk_0 a well-written episode. It was a very well-acted episode. I love that they brought Rob and Curtis

spk_0 back for it. One of my favorite scenes in the first part was between Riker and the Euridian

spk_0 where he threatened to give him to the Klingons. And, you know, if you're lucky, you only spend the

spk_0 next five years in prison instead of the next 20, throws him up against the wall. And that's

spk_0 kind of Riker's brand when he's trying to get information out of somebody. He's not afraid to

spk_0 jack somebody up. It's almost Captain Archer like of him to not be afraid to put his hands on someone

spk_0 and say, yeah, you have info I need and I'm going to get it one way or another. And if I have to

spk_0 give you the Galron personally, I'll do it. That, I like that. That's one of the things, another

spk_0 one of the things I like about Riker, but I did like the episode for the most part. Yeah.

spk_0 Yeah. And Riker can honestly say that he knows Galron as well through

spk_0 so he's not one of these random, staff-ly crew members. I said, oh yeah, I know Galron.

spk_0 You don't know. Galron. Riker knows Galron. Yeah.

spk_0 I know. He's Galron. Yep.

spk_0 Well, Picard, he's name-dropped that, you know, he dropped more than once. I was his

spk_0 during the, you know, when they thought Spock had defected, you know, I've been sending him

spk_0 messages for three days and he got some junior adjutant calling him up. You tell Galron to send

spk_0 me his ship telling my said that or, you know, somebody else will get my appreciation, my gratitude,

spk_0 bitch. So that's I put things. So yeah, Riker was like that, you know, when dealing with that,

spk_0 you're ready. And he told, he said as much to happen, you know, to Admiral Chikote. He said,

spk_0 I'm not the most objective, but I'm definitely the most determined. I'm not going to rest until I find

spk_0 out who killed the captain. And then Chikote looked at him and was like, all right,

spk_0 enterprise on detached duty. Go do what you got to do. And we knew it was going to get, it was going

spk_0 to get done eventually. And another one of my favorite aspects of the show was the conflict between

spk_0 data and warf. You know, data is acting captain and warf was acting first officer. And

spk_0 warf was like, no, we got to go do something and data was like, no, we don't.

spk_0 And then one of the one of the greatest guest appearances of all time was by James Worthy

spk_0 as the big cling on guy at the end in the shuttle. And I was as a kid was a huge Lakers fan. And

spk_0 James Worthy played basketball for the Lakers back in the day. And when you, you know, I've got

spk_0 a picture with Michael Dorn. If Dorn is looking up at somebody, he's big. James Worthy is a large man.

spk_0 And Michael Dorn and I are the same height. Yeah, no, I did. I'm a couple of notes. I mean,

spk_0 basketballs were not really my area of expertise. But yeah, I knew it was an NBA hall of

spk_0 Famer. I knew it was an LA Lakers player. One of the tallest people ever to play in Star Trek.

spk_0 I thought I'd made a note on his height, actually. Um, six foot nine. I want to say.

spk_0 Yes, he's two, he's over two meters tall. Yeah. Um, and you know, even Freaks is tall.

spk_0 Yeah, I mean, he'd be looking up at him. Yeah, Freaks and I are about the same. He's just a tiny

spk_0 bit taller than me. Um, so my picture with, uh, I can't, I can't find it. But it's up there.

spk_0 My picture with him, his, his hair is a little higher than my head. So he's, he's got me literally

spk_0 by some hairs. But James Worthy, I'd be like this because that is, like I say, he is a large dude.

spk_0 And to have him play a Klingon was perfect. I mean, he's perfect. Got to play a Klingon,

spk_0 you know, just because of how imposing he is as a human being. And he only had like a couple of lines

spk_0 in, in the whole thing. Korov. Yeah. That was a funny moment as well when he just says Korov.

spk_0 Is it, uh, presumed that's your name. Um, and then he just, did he just hung up on him?

spk_0 He's, yeah. Yeah. Uh, great for us. I was going to come on to talk about that as well.

spk_0 Because I thought if anybody's going to know about basketball, I'm going to talk to an American

spk_0 about it. Well, I don't, I don't know where everything I know some stuff.

spk_0 Right. Um, yeah. I mean, I'm with you. Um, on everything, it's been fascinating to see

spk_0 Riker and Command again, Dator and Command again. And you mentioned the, the conflict there

spk_0 between Dator and Woff. And that had me as well. Because this data and Jordy basically talking

spk_0 about the next step. And they say, oh, yeah, we'll do this. And Woff just goes finally and storms

spk_0 back to the things. And that throw was completely data and Jordy because they look at each other

spk_0 and go, what? Yeah. My only problem there was, Woff was a little bit in my opinion. I think he

spk_0 was a bit too easily. Oh, no, it was my fault. Command or Captain. Um, and I'm thinking, would

spk_0 you have been like that as a Klingon? Surely you've been, no, I still think I'm right. But obviously

spk_0 90s TV. Well, not not only 90s TV, but night. Well, yeah, it's 90s TV 90s writing and, um,

spk_0 some people insisting on not, you know, angering too many folks because everybody, anybody who

spk_0 have been watching next Jan, you know, religiously up to that point would appreciate war for who he

spk_0 is. You know, he's every time, I mean, there's, there's compilation videos on YouTube of him being

spk_0 shot down by the captain by, by Picard, uh, saying, recommend we raise shields and in the captain,

spk_0 not yet, Mr. Wolf. He's captain. I recommend we go to Red Alert. Not yet, Mr. Wolf. Well, Captain,

spk_0 I suggest we limit their access to the ship. Well, there are guests, Mr. Wolf. I don't think we

spk_0 need to treat them as prisoners like, why the fuck am I even here? I'm sorry. If you're just going

spk_0 to ignore everything I say, then maybe I should just go beyond a Klingon ship, you know, but they're,

spk_0 you know, they're trying to make him into, you know, a Starfleet officer that happens to be a Klingon.

spk_0 He's Starfleet first and then Klingon second. Well, you can, you may be able to take him out of the

spk_0 Klingon Empire, but you can't necessarily take the Klingon out of a Klingon. He's, he's going to Klingon.

spk_0 So him being frustrated with data at that point in the show was understandable with him being who he

spk_0 is, not just as a, as an officer, but as literally as a soldier. Even though Starfleet is not a

spk_0 military organization, as Picard has stated more than once, like when they were having to play war

spk_0 games with, uh, what was it, the, um, the halfway, uh, then that battle simulation way back in the

spk_0 second season, they still have military aspects, you know, dealing with the Borg and dealing with,

spk_0 you know, other, you know, species that are antagonistic, you still need to have a backbone to be

spk_0 able to get stuff done and wharf. He's that guy. He's gonna, he's gonna do whatever it takes to

spk_0 get stuff done. And as loyal as he is to Captain Picard, Captain Picard's getting ready to go to

spk_0 Ryza on vacation, Captain, uh, would feel better if I could assign a security officer to you.

spk_0 No, I'm on vacation. What? I'm on vacation, dude. I don't need some dude standing over me.

spk_0 He's like, I sir. And he, he says, yes, sir, and calls on about his business, but that's just who he is.

spk_0 So him being that way was unsurprising to me at all. Data on the other hand, you know, his

spk_0 character had grown so much up to that point, you know, at the beginning data was more comic relief

spk_0 than anything else, you know, like him in the second ever episode or the first ever episode,

spk_0 he's trying to whistle in the holodeck. And then uh, Riker tells him a joke and he says, ah,

spk_0 intriguing. And then in the second episode, he gets, you know, he's affected by the same thing

spk_0 that got everybody else drunk. And you know, him and, you know, him and Tyra should go off and do

spk_0 stuff. But data went from that to being, you know, a person who was given command of a ship when

spk_0 they were trying to, trying to catch the Romulan block, you know, the Romulan cowboy during the

spk_0 Klingon war, Civil War. And then finding them and then getting into, you know, literally getting

spk_0 an argument with his first officer on the ship that he's in command of, you know, and he threatens

spk_0 to relieve him of duty. And then he almost did the same thing to Worf. So, you know, he went from

spk_0 walking calculator to officer. Yeah. And that, that is, that is, that only happens because of a

spk_0 combination of certain things like having the right actor to play the role and having writers that

spk_0 know how to make a character evolve over time. And all of that stuff came together to get data to

spk_0 where he was, you know, going into that, that last season where he could be trusted as, you know,

spk_0 literally third and command of the enterprise to take over the ship and actually be able to

spk_0 conduct an investigation in a way that they can actually figure out where those guys were going.

spk_0 Which he did with the help from Jordy, of course. Yeah. I mean, Jordy and Tate, the the

spk_0 sub Romance of the ages for Star Trek, anyway. Yeah. That's one of my, one of my photo ops up here

spk_0 is with those two guys. It's literally with both of them. It was at a destination trek in 2014

spk_0 and Frankfurt. And they were, they were both this wonderful. Yeah. I've met Brent to have met

spk_0 LeVar yet. Brent could easily have been a stand-up comedian. I mean, he's, he's one of the funniest

spk_0 guys I've ever met. He's and can sing too. I've seen him sing in concert. He's, he's just a

spk_0 brilliant former and artist, a legit artist. And LeVar, nicest guy and one of the nicest guys in

spk_0 the world. Just just a wonderful human being and a champion for reading and for books and

spk_0 learning. And you just, you couldn't ask for a better spokesperson for, you know, for literacy

spk_0 than him. So, you know, it's, I'm lucky. You know, I, I was a little detour, but I consider myself

spk_0 lucky that I got to grow up in the US because I don't know that I would have been exposed to some of

spk_0 the stuff that I've been exposed to as a kid growing up in the US if I had grown up anywhere else.

spk_0 You know, like reading Rainbow Sesame Street. Sesame Street actually exists in Germany. I found

spk_0 that out. It used to be on British TV years ago as well. I can't remember the last time I've seen

spk_0 that on the schedules anymore. Yeah, but, but LeVar, man, just just a, just a fantastic example of humanity.

spk_0 If, if there was a person out of everybody that's up on this wall that I would want to represent

spk_0 me as a human being, it would be him. That's just how good of a person he is. Yeah, I mean,

spk_0 as I said, I've never met him. And I know we're reading Rainbow. I've never had the chance to watch

spk_0 it because it's something that never came over to the UK, unfortunately. Yeah, we had our own Rainbow

spk_0 program. I don't know if you've ever seen the British TV program called Rainbow, which had a

spk_0 talking pink hippo, a talking what a presume was a zipper, a handbag called Zippy, a bear called

spk_0 Bungle. Bungle Bear School. Yeah, the human was called Jeffrey as well. And it was 10 minutes,

spk_0 pretty much every day. It'd be songs and dances. It wasn't about books, so it was just

spk_0 preschool learning. Yeah. So Zippy, you said sounds like badgy.

spk_0 About as annoying to be fair. Oh, God. Okay, great.

spk_0 Because this was the final season of TNG, they broke one of Roddenbury's long stand in taboos

spk_0 with this story because he said there didn't be no such thing as space pirates, although I'm kind

spk_0 of sure that's what the Orion's were. But yeah. But let's talk about that crew because we've got

spk_0 Robin Curtis. We've got Caitlin Brown. We've got this fantastic performance here from these

spk_0 from this team. What do you think of his team force to be loyal due to the implants? What do you

spk_0 think of the cast? That it was a good cast. The the gal who played Vecor. Caitlin Brown? Yeah, she was,

spk_0 she really put a lot of energy into her character. It was with some slightly over the top

spk_0 mouth acting. Like when they first brought Riker on board, she was like, get rid of him now.

spk_0 And I was like, damn, yes, she really wants to show us gone, dude.

spk_0 But the I apologize for not having I don't have any notes on on screen for names. Varic,

spk_0 I guess his name was. Narik, apologies. The the guy who was a brand told to get the engines working.

spk_0 He he kind of reminds me of a little troll. He just he's like, I'm just trying to do my job and I

spk_0 don't want people messing with me while I'm trying to do my job. I'm trying to keep the ship from

spk_0 flying apart and brand my boss is telling me I need I need 11 hours to fix the engines,

spk_0 but he tells me I have five. That's that's almost curcune. You know, and not in a good way,

spk_0 especially when you got something in your neck that can make you feel a bunch of pain. So,

spk_0 I kind of felt bad for him a little bit. It's like, dude, I said it's going to take 11 hours. I'm

spk_0 doing it in five, even though it's going to take 10. I'm not I'm not doing that, you know,

spk_0 multiplication of, you know, by a factor of two in order to, you know, get whatever. I'm telling you,

spk_0 it's going to take, you know, 11 hours to fix the engines. Please leave me alone so I can do the work,

spk_0 unless you want the ship to blow up your jerk. And then Robin Curtis, who we had known as

spk_0 Savick, you know, to come on and play a full, a full blown Romulan, I thought was I thought was

spk_0 pretty cool. And I've been, you know, I kind of had a crush on her, you know, for, you know,

spk_0 since, you know, Star Trek Star Trek 3. And then to see her play, you know, play a Romulan was,

spk_0 was pretty cool because she, she was very cold and calculating, which is exactly what, what a Romulan

spk_0 is. And, um, uh, Baron, him, the actor that played Baron, uh, that was just his natural speaking voice.

spk_0 I mean, he just talked that way. He wasn't pretending or acting with that boy. That was, that's his

spk_0 actual voice, because I'd seen interviews of him, uh, for other stuff that he'd done. And he just,

spk_0 that's, that's just how he talks. And I was like, man, that, that's either a curse or it's really

spk_0 cool. And that character, you know, just, because it just seemed to me that all he cared about was

spk_0 getting paid. And he just, he just wanted to get paid. And, um, because every time somebody would

spk_0 say, get rid of Riker, he would say, well, it could be rewarding. It could be profitable.

spk_0 It could be good for us. You know, he was, he was good for what he was. He was, you know,

spk_0 everybody knew that he wasn't going to last very long, because eventually, you know, the same

spk_0 thing that he said had happened with his predecessor, what happened to him, you know, so Riker asked

spk_0 him, he said, what happened to him? Well, he, he wasn't able to enforce the rules with me.

spk_0 And well, it's gonna happen to you too, buddy. And he literally, you know, killed himself with

spk_0 his own gadget. So, um, that's, that's a horrible way to die. But he was, he was, uh, as a taskmaster,

spk_0 I suppose he was okay. But if you're, if your motivations are purely just about, you know,

spk_0 profit, uh, I mean, he was almost foreign, and in that aspect, uh, but he was a bit more brutal

spk_0 than the foreign, he are. And that, you know, he would torture his own, his own crew to, to get

spk_0 what he wanted, and it ultimately wound up killing him. Yeah, very true. Um, I mean, uh, I was going

spk_0 to go back to the whole thing about Robin Curtis as well, because, you know, the, what I found quite

spk_0 interesting about, uh, T'Lera was that they sort of flipped what the original idea for Savick was,

spk_0 because apparently the original thing was Savick when she was in Star Trek 2 with Kirsty Alley.

spk_0 She was meant to have been half-hormone. Yeah. And now we see Robin Curtis play in another character

spk_0 who is meant to be Romulan, but is actually Vulcan. And I thought that was a great way of flipping

spk_0 that expectation around. Yeah. Because I believe Valerus was originally meant to have been Savick in

spk_0 one of the first drafts of the show in Star Trek 6. Yep. I think you're right. Yep. So, yeah,

spk_0 seeing Robin Curtis coming forward and doing this, no, I'm a Romulan. I'll wait no, I'm not,

spk_0 I'm a Vulcan, but I still have these emotions. Right. Now, I thought it was a great way of flipping

spk_0 Robin Curtis's previous performance on his head. Yeah, she did a great job because her performance

spk_0 as Savick was just, I mean, Kirsty Alley was fantastic as Savick. It was a bummer that it didn't

spk_0 work out for her to come back. But Robin Curtis's portrayal of Savick in three where she had

spk_0 significantly more screen time than because of the story with her and David and Baby Spock

spk_0 growing up on Genesis and then having to deal with all the stuff that came along with that.

spk_0 Plus having to deal with that Jackass Captain Esteban, she really did a good job as Savick. And then

spk_0 when I saw her play till I was like, wow, yeah, she is nothing like that. That was, that was an

spk_0 unbelievable just, you know, one total 180. And it just proves that Robin Curtis knows how to act.

spk_0 And obviously TNG has some, has some pretty good writers. They did screw up a few stories, but

spk_0 but this, I think this was, this was definitely a good one. And they absolutely had the best person

spk_0 play that role in Robin Curtis because she's infinitely believable as a person pretending to be

spk_0 a Romulan who is actually posing as a member of Vulcan security. Vulcan intelligence operative, yeah.

spk_0 As we found out at the end. So what was it going to say? Like, oh, yeah, Caitlin Brown or Julie

spk_0 Caitlin Brown. I don't know if you watched Babylon 5 at all. I did not. You did not. All right. She's

spk_0 probably more famous for being Natoth in the first season of Babylon 5. And we've also seen her in

spk_0 Deep Space 9 as well because she played Tiger Jada in the episode The Passinger and the first season.

spk_0 Oh, that's deep. That's going back. It's been a while since I watched it in the first season.

spk_0 Of DS 9. Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, that's a good episode as well. That's the one where

spk_0 Bashir becomes evil because he's taken over by. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, I got to go back and rewatch

spk_0 all all the first season. The pilot all the way. I just need to rewatch all of DS 9. Yeah, I need

spk_0 to as well. DS 9 is my favorite show. And yeah, anytime I get to rewatch DS 9 is always a good time.

spk_0 So what do you think about this whole episode as a two-parts? Should it have been, could it have

spk_0 been done in one episode? Should have been a movie length episode? How do you think it fits this

spk_0 format? They could have done it in one in one four-act episode that they could have taken out.

spk_0 Like some of the stuff in the middle, the extended searching of the planet that they were on,

spk_0 some of the in-between stuff like when they went to go attack the federation outpost

spk_0 to get the to get whatever artifacts they were after. I think they could have done it, but I think

spk_0 that the way that it played out as it did, the way that it played out as it actually did,

spk_0 ultimately wound up working well because of the even as a two-parter, it had good flow.

spk_0 It didn't feel like it was stretched out too far and it definitely didn't feel like it was

spk_0 brushed in any way. It had good pacing from the beginning with Picard already gone to

spk_0 Riker being told to go find out who did it and him getting captured and then

spk_0 data taken over and then Picard and Riker on the mercenary ship trying to figure out how to

spk_0 take over from there and then ultimately them winding up with that psionic resonator and

spk_0 T'lara not being able to do anything with it because Picard told everybody to just be cool.

spk_0 It worked. Could it have been shorter? I think so. I think they wrote it as a two-parter

spk_0 possibly because they were running out of ideas. They may not have had an idea for an episode for

spk_0 where the second one would have been and they just said, okay, let's just make this into a two-parter

spk_0 instead of having it be a single episode, we'll just stretch it out into a double and that'll save

spk_0 us some whatever. It's all speculation. I don't know. Probably why they gave the job to Ronald

spk_0 E. Moore for the second part then because if somebody's going to turn that into a story,

spk_0 it's going to be Ronald E. Moore. I'm with you as well. Having said that, I don't think there's any

spk_0 sort of, you say it goes along at a fair pace, I was doing a rewatch of it last night just to get

spk_0 some notes together and it got to the end of the first part and I'm thinking, oh wow, are we there

spk_0 already? So yeah, it does move at a fairly good lick, the second part. I thought was probably a

spk_0 little more drawn out. That last act of the second part, I thought was probably a bit drawn out,

spk_0 but other than that, yeah, I think it works as a two-parter personally. But if there's such a thing

spk_0 as something that could have been done between a one-part and a two-parter, modern-day streaming,

spk_0 they would have just added another 20 minutes on the episode and we'd have been fine.

spk_0 Right, yeah, but I agree with you. Basically, roundabout when Brandeis, I think they probably could

spk_0 have gotten to the end a little quicker. From roundabout, roundabout that point, a few minutes

spk_0 on either side of that, they could have done a little bit more stuff, but or a little less.

spk_0 Them getting on the enterprise, getting the piece from the Klingon,

spk_0 Riker shooting everybody, but I think the very last scene where data takes Riker to the

spk_0 Brig was hilarious. Well, since I'm dead, I'm going to go to bed and you can take him to the Brig.

spk_0 Do you think data actually believed in there? Because I was wondering if data was sort of

spk_0 half-playing along. You know what, going back to what I said a little while ago,

spk_0 where data evolved as a character, I think that data being who he was at that point in his

spk_0 existence could very well have walked Riker all the way to the Brig, to the door,

spk_0 turned a force field off, put him in the cell and said, no, I'm just kidding.

spk_0 I'm just playing. It's like he would have been sweating bullets at that point.

spk_0 Because memory alpha says that data ticks the order at face value, but it's like, I was thinking,

spk_0 no, he's just playing along and he's winding Riker up.

spk_0 Yeah, we know that data as he exists at the end of Picard,

spk_0 because he has a sense of humor would have absolutely have done that.

spk_0 I wouldn't put it past prime data from doing that too, because he definitely

spk_0 learned some stuff about humanity and some practical jokes and stuff. I mean, obviously,

spk_0 at the beginning of generations where he pushed Crusher off the ship into the water,

spk_0 that was obviously not cool, but I think he would have even a mess with Riker,

spk_0 just a little bit.

spk_0 I still think when he pushed Crusher into the water in generations, it was funny.

spk_0 Oh, I was hilarious.

spk_0 Yeah, I don't care what you already said on that one. It was funny.

spk_0 No, that was funny. And Riker saying, you know, remove the plank and then Picard saying,

spk_0 number one, that's retract plank, not remove plank. Oh, sorry.

spk_0 That was hilarious. That whole first scene was great. It kind of went down hill after that,

spk_0 but that whole first opening scene on when Wurf got his promotion. That was hilarious.

spk_0 That was great. I imagine them doing that for every single, I can't imagine them doing that

spk_0 for every single promotion, because that's just too much to do something like that all the time,

spk_0 but apparently Riker said, he'll never make it. No one ever has. So I want to know who the other

spk_0 crew members were that got promoted that way. Yeah, some expendable ends and you imagine

spk_0 going through that process at a single time. Yeah, exactly. One of my takeaways,

spk_0 one of the things that I really liked about this particular episode, though, was that the fact

spk_0 that Picard named himself Galen, which is a really nice throwback to the episode where Professor

spk_0 Galen, his, you know, his archeology professor came on the enterprise and then ultimately got killed by

spk_0 the, was the Euridians or somebody who wanted to kill on him. I think it was Euridians,

spk_0 boarded a ship and killed him and then stole the, oh, it was that episode where they were trying

spk_0 to find all those, you know, the pieces of the thing and everybody, you know, Klingons, Cardassians

spk_0 and Romulans and Federation are all going after the whole thing. That was the chase. Yeah.

spk_0 Yeah, the chase. The fact that they brought that name back, I just thought that that was cool.

spk_0 That was a nice little callback. And they've done a few callbacks on that show before.

spk_0 You know, they talked about some, you know, technological stuff that they used in one episode.

spk_0 They wound up using it in another episode. And there's one of the things I liked about TNG

spk_0 is that they did stuff like this because TOS was literally every single episode was just

spk_0 by itself. They every, almost every episode stood on an island alone and there was no,

spk_0 there was like no reference to anything else that, that, that happened before seemingly.

spk_0 Um, you know, when, Kirk's brother was killed by those, uh, those little, uh, transparent,

spk_0 single-celled organisms, uh, we never heard another word about him ever again after that.

spk_0 Nor his nephew. No. Nor his sister-in-law. We never heard anything. It's like those people never

spk_0 existed. You know, it, it was, I was just like, how could you just, just, just write him off like

spk_0 that. TNG at least, you know, did callbacks. DS9 didn't have a choice because it was, it was a

spk_0 literal saga, especially when the Dominion war started. Because you had to know what was going on

spk_0 in order to be able to keep up. That's why I referred to DS9 as, you know, affectionately not,

spk_0 not as an insult, but affectionately as a, as a soap opera on a space station, uh, between

spk_0 everything that was going on on the station with the Dominion, the Gamma Quadrant, the Bedurans,

spk_0 um, the Klingons, the Cardass. I mean, it was just a lot of stuff. So TNG, them doing callbacks like

spk_0 that. I just thought that was cool. And then Voyager did it too, you know, and it was the same thing

spk_0 when Enterprise started. They had to do callbacks because they were, they were going out, you know,

spk_0 into space, basically, for the first time ever, you know, on their own. So they had to do callbacks.

spk_0 I just thought that that was cool that they started it then. At least a little bit.

spk_0 Yeah. I mean, just thinking back to TOS. Early episodes and next year was the same because I

spk_0 don't think they started to do anything like that until Warf's Discommodation. And that was when

spk_0 they started referring back to things. Yeah. But the original series, I mean, the city on the edge

spk_0 of forever, you have Kirk going through that absolute trauma. Next episode, he's absolutely fine.

spk_0 Yep. Well, we can assume that that Spock did one of his mind melds and he just touched his head

spk_0 and said, for, you know, forget. And that was it. It wasn't not just that one, but the episode

spk_0 where the Indian tribe on the planetoid, you know, Kirk lost his memory. But then he got it back.

spk_0 But he never talked about it ever again. The game seems to try skilling. That's something I would

spk_0 never forget, you know, being snatched off my ship and beamed, you know, half a quadruing away to

spk_0 compete as a gladiator for a bunch of brains and boxes. I'd be talking about that all day

spk_0 in the officers mess. You remember when we had, you know, we had to fight and

spk_0 with those brains were betting quite loose, whatever the hell those are. And you know,

spk_0 we're in check off and we, you know, we had, you know, I had a girl and he had a very thick woman

spk_0 and whoever had that guy and all that stuff. I mean, you think that everybody would need

spk_0 therapy after something like that. Yeah, I've turned to tomorrow as well. Where they basically

spk_0 lose their bodies to balls of lights. Exactly. Yeah, there was a lot of stuff. It's like

spk_0 every single one of the member, the crew of the 1701 should none of those people should have

spk_0 been allowed to return to space. I mean, they should have, they all should have been grounded

spk_0 and just been like, you know what? No, no, no, we need another crew on that ship because there's

spk_0 too much crap has happened to those guys and they're, they're fucked up. So we got to find somebody

spk_0 else. They're in therapy for the rest of their lives. And they didn't have counselors on ships back

spk_0 then. So, you know, the, the idea of having a psychologist on board didn't come out until

spk_0 the 24th century. I'd be like, the rigors of space flight, you need somebody with some psychological

spk_0 background to keep people in touch with their humanity. Otherwise, they will lose their minds.

spk_0 You know, how could they not have a counselor on board that ship? Bones was the closest state

spk_0 to a counselor and all he said was drink some Jack Daniels and call me in the morning.

spk_0 Hmm. You imagine Kirk sitting down with a counselor though. No, if it was a female each,

spk_0 we know what we're going to try, you know. But, but it's, I mean, it's interesting that over time,

spk_0 coming up until, you know, to the present day that we can look back on a show that came out 60

spk_0 years, almost 60 years ago. And, and we look at it through a very modern lens. And we can say one

spk_0 that that that show was very much ahead of its time. Two, Gene Roddenberry was a visionary.

spk_0 Three that they had the perfect cast in place. And four despite the show's shortcomings, they did

spk_0 a lot in a very short period of time. So much so that the series, even though they had a break

spk_0 from being on TV of 11 years, I'm sorry, 20, 21 years from 66 until, or whatever the show ended

spk_0 until 1987, whatever it was. It was a pretty good chunk of time that the show still thrived in

spk_0 syndication. VHS sales, DVD sales when DVDs came out. I had every episode of the original series

spk_0 and and every episode of TNG and DS9 Envoyager on on DVD as well. It, it's a phenomenon that

spk_0 that has stood the test of time and the fans are truly responsible for a lot of what has happened

spk_0 happening like strange new worlds. The fans are very much responsible for SNW

spk_0 because they wanted it. The fans were responsible for the third series, the original series as well.

spk_0 Third series, the original series. Yeah, Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King said, told

spk_0 Michelle Nichols, you can't quit the show. You have to keep going. She wanted to quit. And he said,

spk_0 you cannot quit. You, you know, you're sitting up there with everybody else. And you are basically

spk_0 all we have on that ship. So we need you there. So please stay. And she did. And you know, everybody

spk_0 when they see her, whenever they saw her up until the day she died, you know, it was just UHURA.

spk_0 And and then for Zoe, I was about to pick up the metal and mannel and take it over. I thought she

spk_0 did a fantastic job too. Yeah. Oh, the NASA and and the young lady who's playing who are now

spk_0 in Strangely Worlds. I cannot remember her name. I really good. She is so good. I adore her.

spk_0 She's just so infinitely believable. And having more backstory into where she came from, I know

spk_0 this is not about gambit, but you know, where she came from, the fact that she lost her family

spk_0 and was lost as a person and the federation or starfleet saved her. That's awesome. And that

spk_0 she was she was open and able to talk about that was someone that she didn't really know very well.

spk_0 So that's just that star trekking and nutshell. From me, from then back in 66 all the way up until

spk_0 2025, it touches a lot of people in a lot of different ways. But the general gist of it is that there

spk_0 is a better way for humanity to go. And as an as an optimist that is tempered with a fair amount

spk_0 of realism, I don't think it's impossible for humanity to get there. I just I would like to see it

spk_0 in my lifetime. I'm just not sure that I will. But I can I can hope for it. Well, as I've seen a lot of

spk_0 content on on TikTok, then, Mike, I know you're pretty much the same side of the political spectrum as

spk_0 me. And you know, I'm completely with you on that star trek is something that I think that we can

spk_0 all aspire to and hope that happens at some point in the future. But as it happens at the moment,

spk_0 I think we're heading towards the mirror universe. Well, yeah, we definitely are probably on the same

spk_0 side. And I can say without any doubts that Nigel Farage can just go, I really wish he would just go

spk_0 away just yeah, he wouldn't be both. Okay, that having been said. Yes, let's get back to star

spk_0 trash. Yes, sir. I wanted to talk to you about Patrick Stewart's performance in these two

spk_0 episodes because he gets a chance to really chew the scenery. He gets a chance to backhand riker

spk_0 and kick him in the back at one point as well. What do you think of this Picard? They were

spk_0 they were they were necessary happenings, you know, because the man can literally not afford to

spk_0 have his cover blown or or he's as good as dead. And so is Riker at that point. You know, I mean

spk_0 every episode has multiple what I call advert looks. It's the the pause before the commercial break.

spk_0 You know, and then the music swells and the camera zooms in close on the actor. And that moment in

spk_0 the first episode after riker was captured when Picard tells Boren that they need to kill riker

spk_0 and riker turns you know, he hears Picard's voice and he turns around. Yeah, it's a really good

spk_0 acting on riker on on Franks as part. But Patrick Stewart kind of getting to be a little bit of a

spk_0 dick was kind of nice because you you never really see him act that way. But the fact that he was

spk_0 able to fool all these people except for Tullara of course towards in. But he fooled Boren into

spk_0 thinking he was an artifact smuggler and everybody else on the crew thought that he was really a

spk_0 smuggler. And like you said, he he jumps up and back hands riker in the face and then kicks him

spk_0 in the ribs on his way out. And I just I thought it was I thought it was pretty cool. And then

spk_0 and then riker got to do it right back to him later. And and that was I think that was probably

spk_0 one of the most satisfying experiences for riker as a character to punch Picard across the face.

spk_0 I don't know how that feel. And and all Picard can do is just lay there and kind of

spk_0 and he goes off to check some you know readings on the pieces and stuff. But yeah,

spk_0 the I really I mean the closest thing we got to a mirror universe episode was yesterday's enterprise

spk_0 and it wasn't it wasn't even it was just starfleet was more militaristic because of the war

spk_0 between them and the klingons. They weren't evil. They were just trying to survive. That was almost

spk_0 a little bit kind of like a bit of mirror universe behavior from from Picard to be a little bit

spk_0 sassier, you know, and and having the kind of he has to he still has his his principles and his

spk_0 beliefs and he's protecting people on that outpost. He's trying to keep them from getting killed

spk_0 by a ship that could easily blow them off the face of that planet. But he also has a role that he

spk_0 has to play and he did it well. You know, it's nobody, you know, anybody's fan of Jean-Luc Picard

spk_0 doesn't expect him to, you know, backhand somebody and you know, give him the pimp hand so to speak

spk_0 and then give him a kick in a kick in a side or whatever. Nobody expected him to be acting that

spk_0 way. But he he was believable. We knew he wasn't that way, but he was believable. I might have bought

spk_0 a bowels on this. The only thing that bothered me a little was did Baran have no way of checking

spk_0 who the captain of the Enterprise was because you know, he's come out and said, oh, this is the

spk_0 first officer of the USS Enterprise. He's one of the most insubordinate men and staffly. He's head

spk_0 into words multiple court marshals. And I would have thought at one point he would have gone,

spk_0 well, let's just have a look to see the crew of the Enterprise are. Who's this Captain Picard guy

spk_0 that I've got a picture of that looks remarkably lucky. That's a good point. But the other thing as

spk_0 well is from Picard's point of view, he boards the Enterprise as part of this landing party at one

spk_0 point. He's guaranteeing that none of those people are going to turn around and go, Captain,

spk_0 you're alive. Everybody just plays dumb. That was not believable. That was not believable.

spk_0 Yeah, because at all, because data says nothing, crushes says nothing, war says nothing,

spk_0 try says nothing. Not just and it wasn't just Picard. Riker was with him. Yeah,

spk_0 but they they thought both of those guys were toast and they both show up and nobody says

spk_0 anything. That's why would you? Okay, everything's fine. All right. Yeah. And you know, Riker,

spk_0 where is that cling on? That was like the only signal he gave them every time. I mean, as far as

spk_0 they were concerned, both of them were dead and for both of them to show up and nobody to react

spk_0 any other way other than how they did, that was your absolutely right. That was completely

spk_0 unbelievable. And yeah, now they think they could have found another way to do that. They would have

spk_0 needed to have gone into an uninhabited partnership, I think. Like one of the one of the Nacell tubes

spk_0 or something. I don't know. Yeah, the last note I've got is about the the clip hanger that we

spk_0 get in the middle. It's not exactly Mr. Warfire. Is it? No, yeah, Picard having a no, it was that was

spk_0 pretty weak, honestly, but it was it was a mid-season two-parter and they were they were a

spk_0 week apart. So it wasn't like people had to wait, you know, months. Like you said, Mr. Warfire,

spk_0 there wasn't that, you know, it wasn't, you know, war if leaving the enterprise to go fight with the

spk_0 clingons and y'all are showing up as as Cila. It was none of that. It was just okay, we're going to

spk_0 fire at the enterprise and in next week we'll see how the enterprise did not get damaged and just

spk_0 pretended to be damaged and had a power failure and they shut the inertial dampers off so that the

spk_0 ship would y'all a little bit and then they fly off. That's that's all it was. Yeah, and it was

spk_0 it was not not much of a cliffhanger. It was more of it was more of it was less of a cliffhanger and

spk_0 more of thinking there's a stare in front of you when there actually isn't and you kind of

spk_0 yeah, that was based that's basically what that was. You were not dangling from anything. You

spk_0 just kind of tripped a little bit and then it was like, okay, here we go. We can keep walking now.

spk_0 Well, guess you got to wait a wait seven days to see how this one turns out.

spk_0 Yeah, seven days is supposed to, you know, four three or four months or two years if you're talking

spk_0 about strange new worlds. Oh dear God. Oh, God, I was so mad. There was a lot of clenching going on

spk_0 in that period of time. What were you were you in the States during the best of both worlds

spk_0 two parts of out of interest? Yes, I was. I've only lived in Germany for the last decade. Okay.

spk_0 So yeah, from 2015, I moved here in June of 2015. So I was in the US for for all of Star Trek

spk_0 until Discovery. Okay. Discovery is the first show I watched here as it as it aired. So I was there

spk_0 for, you know, TOS TNG DS9 Voyager and Enterprise. Right. And all of the all of the films, I believe,

spk_0 I watched in the States. So I can't remember when Beyond came out 2016. I was here for Beyond. Okay.

spk_0 So, so yeah, Beyond was the first Star Trek movie I ever watched outside the US.

spk_0 Because then for a period of time, wasn't Star Trek. It may very well still be known as,

spk_0 but isn't it known as Rumship Enterprise? Yes. The original series is Homeship Enterprise.

spk_0 Here, the original series. Literally Starship Enterprise. Next generation is, I believe is called

spk_0 Star Trek. Well, it's just Star Trek Nation narration here, at least on Netflix.

spk_0 Because Star Trek is actually available on Netflix here in Germany, unlike in the States. You

spk_0 can't watch, I don't think you can watch any Star Trek content anywhere except on Paramount Plus

spk_0 in the US. Apart from Prodigy, which is on Netflix. Yeah, because they, yeah, they snatched, they saved

spk_0 it from, you know, and then, gosh, I hate television. It's so bad. Yeah, everything, I believe

spk_0 everything other than the original series maintained its original US American name.

spk_0 Yeah, my app, my Netflix app is in English, so it shows Star Trek. But I know it's called

spk_0 Homeship Enterprise. It could be next to Genohazion for next generation. I don't know.

spk_0 Tiefgaum Neun. I don't know if that's how they call DS9. I don't know.

spk_0 Could be. I don't know. I was going to say, did we get to Rumship Voyager?

spk_0 I don't know. That's actually an interesting question. Let's find out what Star Trek Voyager

spk_0 called in Germany. Homeship Voyager. Hey, that was a good guess.

spk_0 It makes sense. It actually, it absolutely makes sense. I didn't hear the AI.

spk_0 Did not. I have my phone is in a perpetual state of silence. Okay.

spk_0 As a gen, as a member of Gen X, I don't want to hear anything coming from my phone,

spk_0 out loud ever. I used to care about ringtones and stuff back when I had a Motorola Razor,

spk_0 the first Motorola Razor now, because I would convert feeding songs and stuff into MP3s and then

spk_0 zap them over to my phone and use them as ringtones instead of buying them from the carrier.

spk_0 And now people are talking about ringtones and stuff and I was like, why? Why would you need?

spk_0 Nobody's calling me. If somebody calls me, something's wrong.

spk_0 It's not a time out of ten if my phone rings, it's a scam. I don't get phone calls from people.

spk_0 People don't call me. They text me. They send me WhatsApp's. I don't know. I don't want to talk to people.

spk_0 I'm starting into my dad. Everything is loud and people suck.

spk_0 And I have my next door neighbor is an oxygen area and I just think that she's the coolest person

spk_0 in the world because she doesn't make any noise. So, what concerns and stuff happen, I don't want to

spk_0 hear it. I just go away from people and this is my, you could call this kind of my fortresses

spk_0 solitude, so to speak, my basement area. Yeah. Safe space. Yes. This is why I watch all my,

spk_0 you know, I have a 65 inch TV over here and a halfway decent sound bar and, you know,

spk_0 pretty much a pretty extensive library of stuff that I know that I like. So, if I need to decompress

spk_0 from people, this is where I go. I don't blame you. Is there any other comments that you've got

spk_0 about Gambit? Gambit was a decent episode in what, again, like I said before, was kind of a,

spk_0 an up and down last season of TNG, but it had a lot of good aspects in it. There was

spk_0 emotion at the beginning between Riker and Troy where she was basically calling Riker out for

spk_0 being a selfish little punk. And then her, I mean, she literally yelled at him about how everybody

spk_0 was in pain and everybody was hurting. You don't have the monopoly on grief and loss. And then he

spk_0 told her to shut up and then it was like immediately, Deanna, I'm sorry.

spk_0 That was, that was cool. And then there was some humor like the interactions between

spk_0 data and Beverly and Colatha Klingon or Korai, whatever's name was. Yeah, the James Worthy.

spk_0 That was hilarious. The health and safety inspection.

spk_0 Data porn him out some bloodline. He took it and poured it out on the carpet and

spk_0 you know, I'll drink not with that enemy. The humor between Riker and Riker on the mercenary ship

spk_0 was pretty good. The climax wasn't much of a climax. It was actually a bit of a letdown.

spk_0 When she kills Vecor and the other guy, she kills those two with that resonator.

spk_0 And then she tries to kill Picard, which doesn't work. And then he tells everybody to do to keep

spk_0 from getting killed. And I was just like, ending was a little weak. And then they salvage the ending

spk_0 with a little more humor where they had to, you know, Riker is on his way to the brigh because

spk_0 data is not letting go of his arm. You know, because we all know data if he wanted to, he could snap

spk_0 his arm. Oh yeah. So it was it was it was an up and down episode and up and down season,

spk_0 but it was generally good, in my opinion. That's basically how I can, that's basically how I can

spk_0 sum it up. Yeah, I'm with you. It did feel more of an anticlimax than a climax of the episode.

spk_0 Okay, so where do you think this stands among Star Trek's greatest two-parters?

spk_0 Well, let's see, the number one is the best of both worlds period for TNG anyway.

spk_0 Redemption was was was was up there too. I think it's closer to the bottom, honestly, because most

spk_0 of most of the two partners were, I mean, unification was so good with, you know, with Leonard Nimoy

spk_0 and Mark Leonard, you know, reprising their roles of the most the two most famous Vulcan's ever.

spk_0 And then I'm trying to remember what the, oh, the one where they went back to, back to Mark Twain.

spk_0 Times arrow. Times arrow. That was that was pretty good. That was a season season ending cliffhanger.

spk_0 The episode with Warf and the the two-parter with Warf and the the Klingon colony that was

spk_0 overseeing by the Romulan, Barthrite. I didn't care for that episode very much.

spk_0 No, I'm just saying on that one. I just it just didn't I just didn't care for it. I would put

spk_0 I would put this one above that one, but below the rest because season one didn't have a two-part

spk_0 three, four, five, six, and six did. And then obviously all good things, you know, as a series finale

spk_0 was just really, really good. I don't think they could have ended the series any better than that

spk_0 to be perfectly honest. That was a good way to end the show. But I would put this one either at

spk_0 the kind of towards the bottom or in the middle, more towards the bottom. I think I'd be putting it

spk_0 towards the bottom as well. Barthrite, I'm not a big fan of. The first part is kind of saved by

spk_0 Bashir coming over and interacting with with they, I quite like that. Yeah, it's not one of the best.

spk_0 So, you know, it's not a terrible two-parter. By all means, it's enjoyable. It's a lot of fun.

spk_0 But for a two-parter, it's also did I also did appreciate that they had James Cromwell play the

spk_0 already in that episode. Yes. Barthrite. That was because that was his second time in TNG

spk_0 because he played the administrator of some colony that was trying to get federation membership.

spk_0 The masterpiece society? No, no, no, no, no, it wasn't the masterpiece society. It was the one with the

spk_0 ones where they had the soldier, Rogadaynare, the soldiers that had been programmed.

spk_0 Oh, the high ground. The high ground. Yeah, he was the head of that society and

spk_0 Picard basically told him to go screw himself at the end of that episode. That was his great.

spk_0 Yeah, this was definitely a middling effort. They had some good stuff in it, but as an overall episode,

spk_0 it was very mid. Just kind of a meh type thing. It's nowhere near, you know,

spk_0 best of both or redemption because the whole Klingon Civil War thing was so good with

spk_0 Gauron and the Doros sisters. I named it Kat. I named it Kat I used to have after Larsa.

spk_0 They were both girls. I had one girl and one boy. I couldn't name the boy Beethoven's.

spk_0 I gave him, I called him Jonathan after Kat Marcher.

spk_0 But yeah, definitely just overall is me. So that's kind of where I am on that one.

spk_0 We kind of mischained a command in some of next generations.

spk_0 Great. The next episode was so good. Yeah.

spk_0 I'm a huge fan of Ronnie Cox. Huge fan of Ronnie Cox from mainly from not so much as the bad guy

spk_0 in Robocop or the bad guy in Total Recall, the good guy in the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies.

spk_0 And Lieutenant Bogomill. Seeing him play that role, the way that he did as a get it done type

spk_0 captain, you know, Deanna, take off that freaking whore, whatever that outfit is that you have on

spk_0 a wear a uniform, you're, you're a Starfleet officer on a starship put on the uniform and get

spk_0 that fish out of the ready room. I mean, that was, that was awesome, especially considering that

spk_0 Patrick Stewart didn't want the fish in there to begin with. He said, he, why would he have a pet,

spk_0 you know, Picard shouldn't have a pet. But him butting heads with Riker the way that he did.

spk_0 I thought it was brutal. That was a really well written two-parter. And having David Warner be the

spk_0 bad guy, he's like the penultimate bad guy. I got to say hi to him at the 50th anniversary convention

spk_0 before he passed away. And I asked him, I was like, how cool was it for you to be just one of the most

spk_0 hated people, you know, hated characters, every character you seem to play was just people just

spk_0 hated them. No matter who it was, the, the, the, uh, valet for, um, uh, for, uh,

spk_0 Kalan and Hockley, in Titanic, uh, you literally played evil in time bandits. You play, you played

spk_0 both the master control program and Sark in Tron. You suck so much. How cool was that? He was like,

spk_0 I loved every single role I ever played. I loved them all. And I was like, I couldn't ask for

spk_0 a better answer. He was just so chill. I really liked him. I just wish I had been able to get a

spk_0 picture with him and get his autograph before he passed away. But him playing the torturing

spk_0 Kardashian in that, in that episode, and he did it with such a level of cruellness.

spk_0 Uh, so much a, a, an almost disgusting attention to detail, you know, lying to

spk_0 Picard to make him believe that Worf was dead and that they were going to interrogate

spk_0 Crusher to get information out of her and to get him to, to volunteer to stay put. That was

spk_0 cold. They wrote, they wrote him so well. And David Warner was just the guy for that role.

spk_0 So yeah, I, I, um, there are definitely some really, really good two-parters. Um,

spk_0 this, this one ain't it? Yeah, absolutely. No. I did ask the podcast, the skilled community about

spk_0 the episode, but because it was kind of last minute, I did it last night. I only had one comment

spk_0 back, unfortunately, but it was from the network boss AJ Black. Um, and he says, I think it's an

spk_0 interesting way into exploring further Picard's archaeological side. They could have just tried to

spk_0 repeat the chase, but to their credit, they made it much more of a boy's own pirate story.

spk_0 I think they spent way too much time with the whole Picard is dead gambit, closing the title.

spk_0 Feels a bit pointless given we know he's alive. I think it probably could have been one episode.

spk_0 It's enjoyable though. So I, I can't, I can't argue with any of what he's in.

spk_0 Yeah, I can't, I can't argue with any of that. He's absolutely right.

spk_0 Excuse me. There are, I have some friends, some on, uh, TikTok mostly,

spk_0 that are very vocal with their opinions about, about certain episodes. And some of them are not

spk_0 afraid to go against the grain with regards to, um, some of the stuff that has come out, especially

spk_0 the third season of Picard. And they've been, they've been real critical about the third season of

spk_0 Picard. And I can, I absolutely appreciate where they're coming from. And I've looked at their,

spk_0 their arguments and taken them to heart. I just don't agree. Um, but that's one of the cool things

spk_0 about the people that I choose to associate with. We can agree to disagree on stuff. And it doesn't

spk_0 nobody's feelings get hurt. And then we don't, we don't end up having shouting matches on,

spk_0 on TikTok about, you know, what one person feels about how this particular character was treated

spk_0 or how another person feels about this story or whatever we, but we talk and we talk spiritedly

spk_0 about, about, um, the franchise as a whole. And no one is afraid to voice their opinion.

spk_0 They're not, there's not going to be any hate from any of the people that I hang around with

spk_0 because we just don't tolerate that kind of behavior. Uh, toxic fandoms are one of the worst things.

spk_0 Um, whether regardless of what it is, if it's Star Trek or Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or,

spk_0 uh, you know, Marvel or DC. And every time I say, I see somebody say, this isn't Star Trek,

spk_0 I, I want to scream because Star Trek is a lot of things. Exclusionary is not one of them. It is,

spk_0 it is an all inclusive thing. And to say that one particular franchise isn't Star Trek. I just

spk_0 think is, is, is not cool to say. There have been some very bad myths. There's been some bad

spk_0 missteps, um, especially like the, the early part of TNG, one of the worst episodes ever put out

spk_0 was code of, code of honor. Oh, I cannot watch that episode. It pisses me off so much. And the cast,

spk_0 you know, Frank's was like, yeah, I don't know what he literally said. I don't know what the hell we

spk_0 were doing. That, that should not have, that should not have gone on, on the air. That should not have

spk_0 been made. And, um, and then the, the, the, um, the end of enterprise when they did the

spk_0 holodeck thing with Riker and Troy, uh, during the Pegasus, during the Pegasus episode. I don't

spk_0 know if it was, I think it was Ronald Deemore. He, he legit apologized to all of the cast of

spk_0 enterprise for that episode. He said, this should have been about you, not about them. I think it

spk_0 was a bit, uh, Brandon Braga. Brandon Braga, that you're right. You're right. It was Brandon

spk_0 Braga who said that he's, he's like, this should not have been, because I saw that, I saw that

spk_0 back and forth that they had. And he, he was just, I think he really meant that.

spk_0 It's easy to say that 20 years after the fact, yeah. You know, I've spoken about these

spk_0 the voyages on the podcast before. If it wasn't on this podcast, it might have been my previous

spk_0 podcast that was on. I, I don't hate these are the voyages. I hate the fact that it was the finale

spk_0 of enterprise. I think if that had been like episode 10 of season four, it would have been a great

spk_0 episode. Yeah. But, but as the season finale, sorry, the series finale. Absolutely not.

spk_0 Agreed. That, that is an episode where one, they could have had that episode play out exactly

spk_0 as it did without trip getting killed. He could have done exactly what he did and then flock saved

spk_0 his life. You know, you know, he just doesn't die. He recovers. They go ahead and sign the charter

spk_0 and everything. And then the simulation ends. And that, again, that would have, like you said,

spk_0 that would have made for a great episode after the, um, terrifying thing had been wrapped up.

spk_0 And, and then they had like a proper series finale after that. Yeah. That would have, that would

spk_0 have been fine. I think fans would have appreciated that episode more as kind of a stand-alone thing

spk_0 just kind of by itself. So after all the augment stuff is over and after, uh, you know,

spk_0 Terra Prime is, is all that Terra Prime stuff is done. Then you do that and then you wrap the show

spk_0 up the right way with those guys literally going and doing whatever needs to be done with regards to

spk_0 the actual birth of the federation in 2161. And then, and then let the show in there on a high note.

spk_0 Not that. That was that was that, that angered so many people. They, you know, that's, that's

spk_0 something that they'll never be forgiven for. You know, no matter how many times he apologizes. That was,

spk_0 that was really, really bad. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, we've talked about original series.

spk_0 It's sort of an enterprise. It's talked about DS9 voyage. Strangely worlds, lower decks,

spk_0 briefly. I think it's safe to say you're a Star Trek fan. Like so, um, I thank you again for coming

spk_0 on today. Man, it's my pleasure. I will, I will talk Star Trek with anyone at any time for any

spk_0 length of time. It is, it's, it's such a huge part of who I am as an individual. Um,

spk_0 I guess I saw a video real quick. I saw a video on TikTok earlier today where someone asked

spk_0 the question, what is your favorite piece of Star Trek memorabilia? And my answer was my original

spk_0 series, Companel. And the, the cool thing is that you can't, I don't know that you can even buy

spk_0 these anymore because I got mine from, um, uh, I can't remember the website, but the website that I

spk_0 bought it from doesn't exist anymore. And I've looked for them online and I cannot find them.

spk_0 And every time I had shown it to people, they're like, oh my god, I need to get one and they can't.

spk_0 So it's kind of a collector's item. And this is it right here. Oh, wow. I don't, the,

spk_0 the battery operated and it has motion sensors on both sides. I don't have any batteries in it right

spk_0 now, but it makes the, um, the, when you push this white button, it makes the, uh, shh sound,

spk_0 uh, on the, you know, from the original series and it has the red alert claxon from the original

spk_0 series and it has the door opening and closing sound effect on it too. That's why the motion

spk_0 sensors are there. So when you walk past it, you're here. So it's, it's pretty slick. I just need

spk_0 to put some batteries in it. But this, this is, this was the first piece of memorabilia I ever

spk_0 purchased. And I've, I've had it for like 14 years and it still works. So I just need to hang it up.

spk_0 I've, um, I don't have anything as cool as that. I'll be honest. I've got a, I've got a CD which I

spk_0 used to do hospital radio years ago. And I remember ringing up a number of record companies

spk_0 when generations came out, um, spoke to one and they were doing a publicity single for make it

spk_0 so, which was a dance remix of the next generation theme as a four track CD single. Um, I remember

spk_0 getting a copy of that and I still have it as, uh, as my own copy. Um, I've looked online since

spk_0 and people let me sell it for like 75 pounds and upwards. Um, so it's, it's worth a little bit of

spk_0 money. But, um, yeah, I don't think I'm going to be selling that anytime soon. No, no, no, hang on

spk_0 to that. Um, have you, you've heard the, the Picard song, right? The, the techno kind of EDM.

spk_0 It's on, it's on you to look it up if you haven't heard it. I think I know which one you mean, as long as

spk_0 this not the, uh, there was a video that every sort of pops up and someone says, oh, you've got to see

spk_0 this and someone says, yeah, but you know, he's incredibly homophobic and transphobic and, uh,

spk_0 no, it's, this is, it's, it's, it's just, um, uh, EDM behind clips of, uh, rhythmized, uh,

spk_0 Picard saying, oh, doc material. Huh? Doc material, isn't it? I don't know what it's,

spk_0 what it's, it's just called the Picard song. I'm going to say it's, it's got, it's just got a cute

spk_0 little, uh, little music track behind it and he, he's a captain Jean Luc, yes, yes,

spk_0 and surprise. That's, that's, that's dark material. Dark material, that's who that is. Oh,

spk_0 yeah. I love that little, I love that track. It's, it's cool. My ex-wife found it before I did and

spk_0 she sent it to me one day and I was like, I had it playing on repeat at work. People walk

spk_0 about my office. What, what is that? It's the Picard song, man. Do you ever hear the dance mix

spk_0 of the DS9 theme? No. It wasn't that, it wasn't the one that they put on season four, uh,

spk_0 afterwards, but it's a deep space nine with a, with a backbeat to it. It's, uh, it's crazy.

spk_0 The, the, that theme song, that's, it's a beautiful theme song. I can't imagine that as a dance thing.

spk_0 I definitely would come that up after we're done. Yeah, I, I'm going to try and find it because

spk_0 I haven't heard it myself in years. Uh, I can either then cover you, just see if it's easy. Yeah,

spk_0 DM it to me, man. I know. Uh, I'll, if I find it, I'll put it in the show notes for the episode

spk_0 as well. So if you're listening, you can, you can enjoy it as well. I'll put the link in for the

spk_0 dark material song as well. Um, where can people find you online? Mike? Uh, I can be found on

spk_0 Instagram under, um, uh, M, M, A R Z E T T, one nine seven three. I can be found on TikTok

spk_0 as Mike underscore in I N underscore Germany. And that's, no, and I can also be found on, uh,

spk_0 threads, same account as, uh, Instagram. And I can also be found on blue sky, also as M, M A R Z E T T.

spk_0 I'm going to be following you on there as well, then Mike, because I don't think I've got you on

spk_0 Instagram, more than rare, uh, or blue sky. So I'll, uh, check you or follow since we finish recording.

spk_0 I don't post on, on blue sky hardly, I can't remember the last time I opened a app. Uh, I do,

spk_0 most of my posting is exclusive to, uh, to TikTok. Uh, I'm trying to, I have a YouTube channel,

spk_0 but I don't, I don't post enough there. I just need to remember to just after I make a TikTok to

spk_0 just upload it, because it automatically, the video saves to my phone automatically. I just need

spk_0 to upload it to, to my YouTube channel. And sometimes my videos do well. Sometimes they don't,

spk_0 you know, it's, it's, uh, it's a mixed bag. But I never thought in, after starting my,

spk_0 my TikTok account back in, uh, 2021 was when I posted my first video, uh, that I would end up with,

spk_0 I'm just short of 100,000 followers. I don't, I don't understand why, why people are paying

spk_0 attention to anything that I say. But I'm, I'm grateful to everyone that does. Um, you know,

spk_0 every time I have a video, go viral, or whether it's about scones, or the midgies up in, up in

spk_0 Scotland, and, or, you know, Americans behaving the way that Americans tend to behave when they

spk_0 go on vacation and, you know, finding ways to, to not be a jerk when you travel abroad.

spk_0 Uh, to talking about my own personal experiences, living, you know, having lived in Germany for 10

spk_0 years, and comparing them to the, my first 42 years of life in the US, people want to know. And

spk_0 if they keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them. And people keep tagging me in videos made

spk_0 by others, uh, hoping that I'll say something about whatever it is that they're doing, whether

spk_0 it's positive or negative, I'm going to keep doing that stuff too. Because as long as there's a

spk_0 demand for what I do, I'm going to supply it. Well, I for one folly a TikTok channel, and I'm a big

spk_0 fan of what you do. And, uh, to be honest, that people you tend to pee off of the right sort of

spk_0 people in, uh, in all honesty, but the people that you should be pee in, I'll think in my opinion.

spk_0 Well, you know, it's not all that. It, you know, you know, yesterday I posted a video of young

spk_0 lady, an American asked questions about credit in Germany. She had no clue about, you know, because

spk_0 American, the American credit system is a little different than the German one. And she had

spk_0 questions about, you know, credit cards and, and points and stuff like that. And so I made a video

spk_0 explaining the, the basics of it, because I don't know everything. I don't pretend to know everything.

spk_0 But I just told her a little bit about what I did to establish credit here in Germany.

spk_0 And she commented back to me, uh, this morning that she really appreciated me taking the time to

spk_0 say something to her about it that, and that I tagged her in the video. That I honestly, at the end

spk_0 of the day, no matter what I say to someone, whether it's encouraging or critical, I'm ultimately

spk_0 trying to help people, um, do a bit better, you know, complaining about a lack of ice water and a

spk_0 restaurant is not good behavior for, you know, for America, especially when you, all you have to do

spk_0 to get it is ask. So that's, that's why I'm constantly telling people to stop it. You said the line

spk_0 bots. I'm just going to say it one point say the line. But it's like, it's like that episode of a

spk_0 family guy where Stewie captured all of the TNG actors. Yeah. He went to that convention,

spk_0 to start the convention and co-hog and Patrick Stewart said, following your dreams, I'd make it so,

spk_0 and he and Stewie goes, oh my god, he said the thing he said on TV.

spk_0 It's so good. So yeah, I totally get it. But yeah, I say, I've said, I've said, stop it to,

spk_0 I've said, said it to people to their faces, you know, like in person. And they were like, whoa,

spk_0 okay, you really do say that. Yes, I do. Don't do that.

spk_0 So what you see on TikTok is basically who I am. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't mask.

spk_0 Not when it comes to stuff like that. Common sense is something that I'm a proponent of. So

spk_0 that's just how I am when I talk about stuff on on my TikTok. So, you know, if people want to know,

spk_0 I might tell them. Great stuff. I want to get you back on at some point, Mike. Thanks, man.

spk_0 I'm looking forward to it. It's good talking to you too, man. Yeah. I can be found on Blue Sky at

spk_0 NCC174 and the one I also host two other podcasts on the network, eight bit back issues, which

spk_0 is about retro gaming magazines and the podcast about Disney movies, three circles, which only

spk_0 launched last month. We are part of the Film Stories podcast network. Please subscribe to make it so

spk_0 and give us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

spk_0 And if you like what we do, we'd appreciate a five star review. So for now, please set a course

spk_0 and engage.

Gambit

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