Hey, Joe. Hi.
So, we are about to watch season one, episode 23 of Star Trek the
Next Generation, including the animated series.
This is the 127th episode of Star Trek.
So we're about 18th of the way through the history of the program
as it is today.
This episode airs 2 days before my 19th birthday on the 25th of
April 1988 and a big thing happens here, I think, because this
episode is one of the most memorable episodes of Star Trek the
Next Generation, but it doesn't do that by being good, really, in
any way.
It's a gift in every sense on a word.
It's a gift to untitled Star Trek project because we're finally
getting to do series one again.
It's a gift to you because it's just been your birthday and you've
got a Star Trek episode the same week.
It's a gift to the franchise because Tasha Yar's finally dead and
it gave us Armus as well.
One of the greatest villains ever to appear in Star Trek.
So, Armas has gone on to have a continued association with the
program and...
Or, you tell me, four.
Please, detail all of them.
I'm going to.
So in series one, episode 8 of Lower Decks, Lieutenant Billips, who
is obviously the chief engineer of the Cerritos, is suffering from
nitrogen intoxication, and he yells out, Tasha, no, the garbage
bag is behind you.
So.
Say that.
Later that year, according to memory alpha, Mariner, in the very
final episode of Lower Deck series one, threatens to feed Boimler
to an armus.
Yes, in series two, episode 6 of Lower Decks, that episode ends
with the Cerritos crew prank calling, which is pretty great.
Nathan sent me screenshots of that earlier, somehow in animation
they've just managed to make that planet look convincing.
Or perhaps even just identical.
And Mariner says that he looks like a big bag of crap, which is
true.
Does it cut away from him going, He does yell out.
He does yell out stuff.
And boiler says that we're touching your staff.
And he goes, my staff, what are you doing?
And the, you know, the voice is done by the guy who plays
Lieutenant Shacks, Fred, Tedashora, who, um, yeah, who plays
normally they go to.
Yeah, but bring back the original actors, you know.
Except that he's not with us anymore.
Yeah, yeah.
Also understandable.
Yeah, yeah.
And then in all in, which we watched just a few weeks ago, an
episode of Discovery Series 4, has Mazzaro, who was the colourful
owner of the casino, who had that sort of very weird turn of
phrase, warns everyone not to act like an armus as well.
And we didn't comment on it at the time.
You know, Nathan, I love watching Armistly Oil Slick almost as
much as a Cardassian likes cake.
Exactly right.
Let's get us out of the way, right?
It's literally the single best and worst Star Trek creation ever
armours.
The closest we're ever going to get to a B movie creation is
essentially a sentient oil slick that genuinely does look like a
man has got a load of garbage bags over him. waving his arms about
in a distressing fashion.
They can sort of slick his way across the unconvincing planetary
landscape that's been created this week in series one that just
happens to be a skin of evil, which is so weird.
What is that?
Skin evil. explain it in the episode, don't they?
So basically all the evil impulses of this race of people. sort of
discarded into this, well, puddle of goo.
Yeah.
And so we're on this planet, and we have talked a little bit about
this.
The last time we did Next Generation Series one, we were on
location for the Edo Planet, which was another classic.
Yes, another classic.
And so here we're on the series one planet set, which they do go
back to a little bit from time to time, but they very rarely shoot
it like this where you have the kind of, you know, the back wall
of the studio is lit and it's meant to be the sky and it's really
really, really quite crap.
And I've complained before about Star Trek, the next generation's
kind of, well, in fact, the 90s Star Trek franchises kind of
daytime soap opera production values.
And that's really evident here.
Like there's no way that this set is in any way acceptable, I
think.
But we just watched a TOS episode last week, which was...
We complained about the set there.
No, no, no, no.
Yeah, no, no way, but it was on an artificial set, but it had a
set piece at the end where we were looking through the gaseous
clouds point of view and there was handheld how camera work going
on. and it was a little bit visually dynamic, compared to this
which is all basically shot in long shot.
How is 60s television?
And I know, I know techniques have come on.
But how is the work of the director?
How does that feel more dated here than it did then?
Yeah, it's funny because I remember really, really strongly at the
time because this is my 1st Star Trek, Star Trek, the Next
Generation, and I only ever watched TOS later and, you know, in
bits and pieces, and as the listener might know, I haven't even
seen all of it, I don't think.
And so I was really defensive.
I thought that this was a much better made TV show than...
I mean, I feel like the model shots or the Enterprise...
Yeah.
And make us feel, because there's so much better than the shots of
the Enterprise in the 60s.
Yeah.
And remember too, that we hadn't had the kind of remastered
version and some of the episodes of Star Trek, the original series
were in a pretty bad state.
I seem to remember watching some very, very sort of crummy
transfers and stuff.
And so, so, you know what?
I feel like, I feel like the earlier generation versions of season
one and 2 of the next generation, you know when it's a bit fuzzier
um, actually might do the more favours than cleaning them up in HD
because you can see everything, you know?
And we've complained before about, you know, seeing the peeling
makeup and things like that, things that you couldn't see before
that there is nowhere to hide in HD, unfortunately.
And so on this set, you know, you see the back wall very clearly.
There's a grease on it.
It's a grease on the back wall.
But I mean, to be fair, you still get that in Star Trek, Strange
New Worlds, where you can see the effects wall and you know where
the practical set ends and the effects wall starts.
When it goes on a pump, though, and say there's a bit more detail
in Strange New Wells to distract you from that.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's visually more interesting.
Do you know what I mean?
Like they're creating this incredibly boring looking planet and
they're doing a shitty job of it.
So they're aiming low and they're kind of not really clearing the
bar.
At least in lower decks, they're aiming high. trying to create
some visual interest and they generally do that very well indeed, I
think.
So, you know.
I circle off background so almost for a 2nd please, because I just
love him so much.
You and I are Doctor Who fans, right?
So we're used to shitty B movie aliens turning up.
But we don't do this too much in Star Trek, you know?
Star Trek.
It's usually trying to be a bit more philosophical and a bit more
highbrow than this.
Whereas I love the fact that they just go for it in this.
And he's, and he's a total bastard as well.
Yeah, so this one's a monster rather than an alien.
Like, you know, Doctor Who has monsters.
But Star Trek is aliens.
You know, it has Americans with latex on their face pretending to
be different races and stuff, but they're basically people.
I saw a review of this on Lyra, because I thought I'd go see what
people thought of this, and obviously no one likes this at all.
And I think this is part of the reason why is that we can't take
this seriously because it does have a monster in it and he's just
terrible.
Somebody that had a tagline.
I think it was screen read or something like that.
It was the most irredeemably bad episode of Star Trek ever.
I don't think that's true.
This is much better of a manhold.
This is easily better.
This is blissful.
And in fact, I've got a quote here from Jonathan Brakes, if you
will allow me, where he says, I think we took greater chances then
than we do now.
And he's quoted us saying that somewhere later in the run.
I think it's sort of around series five.
We had Patrick sitting and talking to a black oil slick.
And what was wrong with that?
It was absurd.
Marvellous.
I mean, it's true.
Yeah, we've said this before.
We've said that Berman comes in and he raises the floor and he
probably makes them hit the ceiling a little bit more often
because one and 2 are pretty rough going.
But it's much less adventurous and much more timid, I think.
And I think there is one aspect of this that I think actually
works really quite well.
I think I know what it is as well.
Well, the unexpected nature of Tasha's death.
Yeah, I think just how throwaway it is.
And there's a problem with the show that means that this death
can't matter in the way that the show and the episode wants it
to.
And if you think about it, we've had 20 episodes of Strange New
Worlds, and we would be, like, think how devastated we were when
Hammer dies at the end of series one after only maybe a handful of
episode seven.
Do you know what I mean?
Like it, just because the effect that it had on Ahura was so, so
incredibly strong, you know, they built up that relationship, all
of that sort of stuff because that show is about the relationships
between the characters.
If you ever watch the previously on Star Trek Strange New Worlds
it's all about what the characters are interacting with.
There's nothing about space anomalies or aliens or anything like
that.
It's all about interplay between the characters.
Here, there's none of that and there hasn't been, none of them
have found their feet in the rolls yet.
So all of the emotion around her death is absolutely unearned and
completely forced.
And so they make an attempt to make it matter at the end.
So they give her a senseless death in act one.
They try and make it matter at the end, but it absolutely just
face plants because there's nothing there.
Who the fuck records a 10 minute eulogy for their own funeral.
I mean, if it had been a few weeks later, Dr. Pulaski would have
been there and none of it would have made it.
What do you do?
Redo it every time there's a new crew member coming in.
Well, yeah, like there's only how many people on the ship?
You know, like she, she knows who's going to be there. because
there are only, you know, 8 other people or whatever on the entire
ship.
It is a bit crazy.
That is the most unintentionally funny 5 minutes of Star Trek
we've watched yet.
I cannot wait till we get there.
But it's so, soap, isn't it?
With that dreadful synth music, overdone melodrama, the appalling
dialogue.
And Denise Crosby is delivering it, unfortunately.
So on every level, it fails to move me.
Well, but it's worse than so because soap opera is about
relationships between the characters.
And when you kill a character off.
The fun of that is watching all of the other characters interact
and how they react to that.
Look at what happens later on when they take Terry Farrell out of
DS9.
It completely changes the status quo and all the relationships on
that station because that is a character show.
Next week, we just have another adventure and Tasha's not there.
Yeah, yeah.
And we get a mention of what, once, twice a year, maybe, or if
we're lucky.
Yeah.
And I think there are some good mentions of it.
Like I think that the way that data is, you know, data has sex
with her in episode 2 of this season and and his relationship with
her and even her kind of, there is a sort of acknowledgement of
that, this episode, just in the way that she speaks to him, they're
playing it, you know, that way, I think, or I'm reading it into it
but certainly it works, if you're aware of that.
Remember in Measure of a Man, there's something about that, and
doesn't he have a little hologram?
Data has a little crystal that has a hologram of Tasha delivering
that speech.
They are cute moments, but it's unearned because there's no
relationship here.
No, that's right.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's, I think now it's misremembered as being something more
vital than it actually was.
Oh, yeah, yeah. which is just a gag in the naked now and this
moment here, you know.
So by all accounts, there were some issues with how to write
Tashiar out in this episode.
So Memory Alpha tells us, at the time this episode was written
several rumours have been servicing that Roddenberry's lawyer
Leonard Mayach, it's a strange name, was rewriting a majority of
the season's script, an illegal act in terms of the writer's guild
policies.
According to one source, he was responsible for the dismal manner
of Yar's demise.
I wanted to be sure that Roddenberry's story idea was enforced and
that Yar's death happens as a matter of course during a dangerous
mission, despite the differing views held by various writers
involved in the story.
In the end, there was a considerable controversy amongst the
show's staff regarding this death.
Some felt it was cynically manipulative, while others felt that
swift death made sense to avoid sentimentality.
They did not avoid sentimentality at all.
No, I think that in fact, that's the best aspect of it.
That they kill her in act one and that it's absolutely clear that
she's dead.
And I think that that kind of raises the stakes a bit, but it
doesn't really matter.
We could have had the episode without it.
But I think that's well done.
I think that it really wrong foots the audience, the episode
doesn't end up really being about that as such.
And, you know, like, like, imagine if they tried to make the
episode about that.
Like, like the show can barely manage to get this death right when
it's just incidental kind of at the beginning.
If the whole thing had been this sort of gloopy, incredible kind
of thing.
And and let's remember that we get to do it right later, that the
show, once the show gets good, it brings her back and redoes her
death and allows her to die in order to save the timeline.
They do.
And that was our very 1st episode of Untitled.
We covered it really well there, but they can't let it go, can
they?
No?
So it turns out at some point had sex with a wrong... they ruin
it.
And in a great, one of the greatest soap opera twist ever.
Although we play enough Romulan is dismal.
The twist itself is wonderful.
It is pretty great.
Yeah, yeah. one of my 1st memories of it is actually hearing that
that was the cliffhanger with before I'd seen it and thinking, holy
crap, what is what's going on here?
Getting off a regular, it's just something we don't get to do very
often in Star Trek because most people, you know, are there for
the entire course.
I do think it's done, the same thing happens when Dax dies.
It's done in a very quick scene.
It's a villain literally tossing her aside.
Yeah, but it just has the consequences that sort of thing needs
you know, in terms of plot and in terms of character.
Whereas here, it's literally throwaway, isn't it?
She's just frozen.
I feel as if I said to you, I feel as if Broadenbury, you know
she's like, Gene, I've had enough.
I'm not doing this.
He's like, right, fine.
Just have the villain wave his wrist and she's gone.
Although I actually think that all of the stuff that she does in
the lead up to this episode, and I don't, I didn't see this in
memory alpha, but I have a strong memory at the time of her saying
if they had written more scenes like the one between her and Worf
in the cold open, she would have stayed, because I think that
scene is great, and maybe one of her best scenes in her run on the
show.
And a lot of those scenes come up for all the regulars for the
remaining 6 years.
So maybe she should have just sort of waited a little bit.
Although she still would have been the same problem with what she
was complaining about, which is you get an episode twice a year
you know, and you can do other work where you're the focus all the
time and fair enough, but on an ensemble show.
The trouble with Tasha Yar as a character is, one, I just don't
think the backstory works, this whole coming from this terrible
planet with rape gangs, that's just icky and they should never
have gotten that.
They certainly never should have done a flashback to that in an
earlier episode.
Who, they just write her in the most over the top way any
character has ever been written for, they're beaten hide and queue
where she's putting Hugh's penalty box, and she's like, what am I
doing?
Crying.
And Picard's like, I've created a new rule.
It is okay to fry in the penalty box and it's just agonisingly
terrible.
And I think Denise has scenes like that in series one.
Everyone has agonisingly terrible scenes.
No, no one as well.
As melodramatic as Tachio, no. everyone has their moments, but
poor Tasha.
When she's cuddling that kitty cat in one episode, just say no
drug scene in that episode. miserable.
You know, justice.
There was a few moments of justice that we you know, we were
lamenting.
So really, it does feel like putting a sick dog down.
Well, I'm not quite as negative about her as that.
Because I think that on that basis, you would have killed off
Deanna, who I think, like, I think that...
Justifiably in my book.
Oh, no, I think she has a terrible episode this week and it's down
to the writing and to the conception of the character, I think.
Although it does mean that sort of in all future conversation, now
I've got to start saying things to you like, you know, Nathan, I
can censor pain and anguish.
I feel real pity for you.
Although, we'll get there, the bit where she does show empathy and
he punishes her for it. by dragging Riker into the oil slick.
I thought that was...
I'll tell you what, I'm going to be mercilessly cruel and
sarcastic about this episode because it is fairly appalling
television every way you can measure it.
I also have one of the best times watching Star Trek.
It's really fun.
In Asia for UTSB watching this.
So I think it is brilliantly watchable for all the wrong reasons.
Yeah.
All right.
I think we should go in.
I don't know I'm not sure I've had this much fun with no
generation since sub Rosy, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, for the same reason I think.
I'm sort of like at the same point in the 1st of last season.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
All right.
I'll count it in.
Five, four, three, two, one, and we're off.
And our spectacular model shop.
Perfectly convinced this is going to be a very polished
production.
It's the same one that they show at the beginning of every single
episode.
So back in the day, you know, they used to go to Pacifica and they
would pick people up from conferences and stuff.
I actually thought that that made the ship seem a little bit
exciting and kind of created a world for them that they belonged
in.
It's interesting because I do actually pick up Councillor Troy in
this, but in later seasons, when they want to write Marina Sotis
out, there's a number of episodes where it doesn't appear. and
they just go, she's at this conference.
That's why she's not here this week.
Well, I thought that they did that a bit in series one because
they're a bit iffy about whether they were going to keep her on.
I could be wrong about that.
So this...
Okay, why they came to that conclusion.
So this is the scene that I was talking about.
This is a scene that I was talking about before, which is the
scene where, so she, look at that smile. but she's still eye
rolling and doing that wee half smile.
She can't play any of it naturalistically.
No, no, but this is Star Trek.
No one needs to play it naturalistically.
What she's doing, though, is showing a bit of vulnerability.
Like, I thought that that was really quite sweet that she shows a
little bit of vulnerability, which I thought was really cool.
You not think she showed vulnerability when she was crying in the
penalty box?
Yeah, yeah, but this was kind of nice.
And it was a little bit of sort of, it was banter that puts
Voyager flight deck banter in the shade.
No, but then we cut to Picard going, it'll be very nice to see
Kowsla Troy again, won't it, break out?
He's like, oh, 70 will, sir, yes.
Oh, no, just no tall iPad.
I know we always bring this up, but the way they lean back in
these chairs and see.
That's going to do your back, I'm telling you.
Yeah, yeah.
Those chairs.
Well they don't last, do they?
Like they they do end up being able to sit up right?
Have you noticed as well?
They actually have got the lights quite dim there because there's
shadows everywhere.
Have you noticed?
Normally it's that sort of flat mat lighting that we get on the
bridge.
Well, I think that series one and series 2 look visible, like why
the fuck are people wearing these overalls in series one as well?
Do you notice how the fella says his whole name every time he
comes on the com?
Yeah, so this is Leland T. Lynch, and I don't quite know what's
going on here, I have to say.
Because he says his name a bunch of times.
And of course, we don't have a regular chief engineer on the
show.
They've decided they're not going to make that a regular role.
And then they just they do.
Well, because what happens is they've got warfood doesn't seem to
do anything but just hang around on the bridge saying things.
And you've got Geordie who's sort of sitting in a chair and you
kind of think, well, now that we've got rid of one of the regulars
we're clearly making wharf, giving that horrible shot, that shot.
Look at that, where we're looking down on the entire bridge and we
see...
So much dead space in it.
Yeah, for the cameras to roll up and down.
Like, that's why it's there.
You shouldn't expose that to everybody, though.
That's right.
So, you know what I mean?
They rationalise it.
So they they go, screw this stuff with just make Geordie, the
chief engineer.
He does great techno babble.
He'll be perfect.
I mean, when it becomes a phenomenon, they could have just had
like some fabulous guest, famous celebrity playing the engineer
every week if they kept this up.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, you know, like a little bit like Strangely World
Steed series, too.
Hello, this is Judy Denshi.
Impulse power, of course. would be great.
No, imagine the people you could get in, though.
Come on.
Yeah, tell you.
I think that, you know, Walker Boone is the name of the accent who
plays Leland T. Lynch, which is just his name. can't say the whole
name, can you?
It's as good a name as Leland D. Lynch actually.
Hello, Joe Michael Ford here, reporting podcasting duty.
Tell me your middle name now.
I don't have one.
It's a funny thing but I just don't have one at all.
It's enough on its own.
Yeah, I've got plenty going on there.
But is he?
I'm going to count how many times he says it. 4 times.
Yeah.
Do you think he's like just trying to get noticed and it's kind of
like, well, maybe he can be the chief engineer.
We need a white guy for some reason, to be a guy.
Like, you feel like that's a character.
Lower tech should pick up on. somebody should just go, do you
think you're somebody?
Yeah, yeah.
Although we've got, we've got Lieutenant Billips, who is a pretty
great chief engineer, I have to say, as chief engineers go.
We talked a bit off camera about the incidental music in this
episode.
He said it's Ron Jones, who I think is probably the best musician
Star Trek ever had in terms of sort of driving an atmosphere and a
bit of drama into the show.
Yeah.
Sorry, away from the original series where the music's just
fabulous, obviously.
Oh, yeah. and Kersman Trak, where the music's good as well.
But in 90s track, he's really strong.
And here, I think, he does create a sense of it, sort of
foreboding and a sense of strangeness already.
Even the standard stuff. 1st go down onto that dreadful planet set
right?
And the camera just pans across before they beam in.
There's a weird music playing.
Like, why is why is Riker sitting like that?
He behind it.
Like, look at that.
Why does he seem like that?
What's happening there?
Because he's an old man and he's very relaxed.
Jonathan has a bad back, I think, right?
I don't think that's the reason why I'm honest.
It's strange.
But like every so often you see a shot and you go, they would
never, ever shoot it like that in series three.
Like it's it's very strange.
There are some...
No one looks comfortable in their uniforms either.
This is the only uniforms, isn't it?
And everybody said...
It was so tight that you just couldn't get a decent pose in it.
Maybe that's why he's sitting like that.
Jonathan like that.
And look at like look at Denise.
Like, why is she leaning on the wall thing?
Charles Nathan.
Come on, let her.
Yeah, she's getting some good leaning in before she...
Joseph L. Stanland.
Did he go on to do anything exciting?
No, I don't know. didn't look it up.
See that, the lighting there.
Look at the lighting there.
The way that the, the, the ceiling is lit, all of that stuff is
completely different from how the show would end up looking.
Don't have a house style yet, do they?
No.
And I actually think quite exciting.
Well, I actually think that it's better lit or more interestingly
lit in one and two.
Obviously much worse made in all sorts of ways, but I do think
that that flat studio key lighting is very boring.
Weirdly more entertaining, though, than not gameplay, sir.
Like, what came next?
It was worthy.
What's this shot?
Why is he sitting like that?
That's baffling.
Well, they've given them these relaxing leather chairs.
Look at that.
Why is Picard set like that?
And it is quite a tense situation.
You think they'd all be sort of alert, wouldn't you?
Look, watch this.
That's the camera pans around the set now.
Sure, I'll quite like the shuttle crash.
Yeah, I think the shuttle is good.
I mean, it's clearly like far bigger inside than that models.
We know that the oil sticks our problem because we don't normally
have one on the set, you know?
Although I do think it was a bit disingenuous for you earlier to
suggest you went, it's the set from series one as if they only had
one.
Well, they do.
I mean, they basically do.
There's a planet hell set, which is where they tend to shoot alien
planets on.
That's where they've got that big wall that they all climb up with
the rain coming down.
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And what ends up happening?
I mean, look at this.
You can see where the, you know, the planet is painted. like, you
know, like just built up against the back wall of the studio.
I quite like these CGI effects of the slick. moving about.
I mean, it's shit, but it, you know, props to them.
They having a go.
And that was on the original episode.
That wasn't.
Yes.
No, no, no, I remember.
It's so...
There wasn't TV really like this in...
That's exactly it.
So we'd had Battlestar Galactica.
Remember after Star Wars in the late 70s, but that's nearly 10
years ago, and that was not that great.
I just think it's so fun.
He's such an asshole.
What he's got to do is let him across, but he just keeps getting
in their way everywhere.
They try and go around.
Yeah, I mean, this thing too, they just aren't sure what they're
doing yet, aren't they?
And so it's kind of like maintain an open frequency.
It's just like, well, why don't you always do that?
You've got an away team.
No one else is fucking doing anything up here.
Just leave the phone on.
Like we said, just this sort of weird monster story.
I think they could have done with a bit more of this later.
Mind you, then I complained about every time they did it in the
series 7, so maybe I should just shut up.
I kind of like, I mean, you know, Beverly has something that Gates
can understand.
I'd like this too.
So the actual pit, so they, they build a pit that's big enough for
the actor playing the body of Armus. and, and, to go in.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, and it's deep.
And that thing where you see the surface of it moving.
There's something under their moving, kind of, it's metamucil, I
think, is what they say.
It's a bit weird because the consistency of it now.
And the consistency of it later when there's a person in there is
very different.
Yeah, but I think this...
A bubble is coming up.
I like the bubbles.
And I also like the way that the light reflects off armours.
I think is really striking.
Like this show is not terrible.
No, this is him coming up very slowly out of the oil.
The trouble is, is when he's out and it's got his flappy arm.
There are some shots from the side as well where he's sort of
halfway out of the thing, which just looks absolutely shit.
Like, it... interesting you should say to a thing.
It does look at me.
A B movie. called the thing.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's a silhouette of it.
That's the trouble.
It's the silhouette of it and he keeps shooting it against that
flat backdrop of the planet backdrop and the whole thing just
looks cheap and unconvincing.
Michael's makeup is so bad too in series one, isn't it?
Like, they, like that.
Like it's dripping off it, which is pretty good.
But it's done in reverse.
Did you notice?
All the oil was sucking back onto it.
So that looks quite good.
And then unfortunately now it's just a man lolloping about.
But I do think that the light off it.
Do you remember the monster of the Sheliac?
It's like an intransigent alien in a series 2 episode that just
prevents them from going somewhere for no reason that I can't
remember what it is, and it's sort of shot in negative space in
this sort of black set, and it looks like it's wearing a big puffy
black 1980s ball gown.
I feel like I should remember that but I don't.
See, he's a bit like the Sheliac anyway.
Underneath it, there's a great shot.
If everyone go, look on memory alpha.
Oh, no, wait, Tasha's about to die.
Hold baffle.
So what I like about it is just how she's doing her job in a
professional, no nonsense way.
That, like that final line of hers.
Like her last line, we won't hurt you, but we have to help them.
Like, that's good.
I think that's good.
I don't think anyone ever foresaw that they were going to die on
this dreadful planet though.
The stunt isn't great though, is it?
She sort of just, yeah, I thought it was better than, you might
have expected.
There's a much worse sort of stunt work in this episode.
What I love is everyone looks so appalled when she goes, she's
dead.
Because like Beverly brings people back to life from the dead all
the time.
Yeah, just get some cord routine, Beverly.
We talked about that last week.
She's out.
She didn't order her supply.
So.
But we have that whole sequence in Sick Bay, and I think
everyone's there going, even Riker goes half-heartedly.
Yeah, you did it.
He just got...
Yeah, I know.
Like, and there's a sense in which everyone's reaction to her
death and to what's going on here is that they know that it's the
beginning of the episode.
It's still act one and so they're not going to kill a regular
unless it's at the end of the episode in a massive grand self
sacrifice.
So no one can quite believe that it's happening.
So we've got some handheld stuff here.
And my memory of this as a kid was that it was incredibly dynamic
and the camera kept moving and all of that.
And now I look at it, it's like really super boring.
I mean, I think for the time for Star Trek.
This is...
I was starting up because it might, yeah.
I love the music in this bit, though.
Yeah, yeah, the music's really good.
I think there's some a little bit of good acting here from Beverly
as well.
There's one bit where she just starts whispering because she keeps
doing it.
She keeps running this thing.
She keeps setting the thing and she says, she says, you know, again
again, but she's whispering for some reason.
No, I like that.
I like that.
But like and they just won't stop doing it.
You know, she's a regular.
She can't die.
We have to keep doing this thing.
I can't take my eyes off that blood splat on her cheek, though.
Yeah, yeah.
What is that?
It's done with the sharpie.
I've been watching watercolour challenge lately and it looks a bit
like the logo to that.
Like, even it just been a bruise that would have been kind of
boring, but what they've gone for is something really just much
stupider than that, I think.
Cartoon blood splap.
Yeah, yeah, it's very bad.
It's something on a skin from the, you know, the, I don't know, but
this.
So he walks over there, she says, She can't do anything more like
this is her deciding that it's done.
And then he just can't believe it.
Like, he just I only cannot believe it. gone and look at how she
touches.
Look how tenderly she touches her forehead.
I like that.
I thought that was sweet, you know, like, you know, and Gates can
play this because it's clear what's going on in this scene.
She's not having to explain anything, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
But then back to the oil slick on the planet.
Look, and it's not that great.
Like, it's still pretty shit.
But like I'm doing what I can here.
I mean, it's certainly better than the scene in the infirmary when
Jadzia dies.
Oh, yeah.
Our baby would have been so beautiful.
I also want to pour one out to poor old Ben Prieto, who?
So Ben, who everyone's forgotten about, and I think it's really
slightly gross.
So he's the black guy who is flying the shuttle and we start on
his face.
He's just kind of lying unconscious with his face on a console.
And when Picard comes in.
Like, it's not until he walks past him and doesn't even notice.
You know, and it's only when Dana mentions him that it's a thing.
Also, I think what's really good is that we don't see Deanna until
Tasha is dead.
Right?
Yeah, that's great.
Well, I actually think the lighting is very nice as well.
It's quite moody.
You know, it's sort of...
Hunt for red October-ish.
So what, what's sort of happening here is this should be a Deanna
episode, and I think, I think that Deanna can't really hold her
own in an episode yet.
I think that writing for her is so bad and the character
conception is bad.
You know, She.
She, she needs to have contempt for him, but because she's such a
good girl, and because the dialogue says pity, like it would be
much better if she just...
Player in the rum, yeah, she could, she could be...
If she had been more brutal and vicious.
And if it had been, because what is it, he reacts to her pity.
He reacts to being reminded of being abandoned.
And so the way that we get out of this situation is by convincing
him.
Not that he's a great terrifying piece of evil, but that he's
pathetic, you know, and a great terrifying piece of evil. piece of
evil.
That was the working title.
No, but you know, he goes on about, oh, I am evil.
I do not just serve evil.
I am evil, you know.
Those the reason those things work for me, though. is just because
he is just so relentlessly.
I'll see with everybody.
When Troy tries to be nice to him.
It's like, I don't want your pity.
And he hurts somebody.
The more nice she is, the more horrible he is.
And that's kind of fun.
But yeah, our poor Marina service.
We are discovered.
I mean, it took us a long time, but we did eventually discover in
Picard cheering one and 3 that she could act.
She needed the material to do it.
She gets drunk in 1st contact and from then on, we discover she
can.
But that is after 7 seasons of the show that she goes in.
She's still great in face of face of the enemy and you know, she's
pretty funny in the loss in bits of the loss.
She's, um, do you know what I mean?
She can be arsy.
We've seen her being...
She's utterly contemptuous for how they wrote her when she talks
in conventional appearances.
She uses that line about, oh, they always made me a good time
girl.
I mean, look at me.
She goes, yeah, yeah.
No, not a good time girl, like a good little girl, a good Greek
girl.
Do you know what I mean?
Who does all the right things and, you know, would never do
anything wrong and doesn't have a sarcastic bone in her body.
And it's Marina, and she's fabulous.
And you just give an ounce of that to the character.
But she had to do all of this work, you know, work her way through
all of this turgid, very characterisation, to come out the other
side, to when the show was a success, to finally bring her own
personality.
But she had to go through all of that to get there. that's crazy.
Well, and then you think about, like, she's, she's really
distressed at the end of this episode, but I don't think I've ever
been more moved by Marina's performance than in Nepenthe when she
talks about how scared she is now that Thad died.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So good.
She's so good.
At the end of this, she's just wailing and blubbing the whole way
through that funeral scene.
It's terrible.
So in fact, that was Marina.
She was so...
Yeah, yeah.
Well, she was like, that could have been my role.
I was almost half of cashier.
It was her or me. was clearly touch and go.
But it's worth pointing out. they didn't want to get rid of Tasha
was all Denise's choice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, I just the show would have been so different, I think, if
she'd have stayed.
Yeah, I think I think it would have been fine.
Oh, no, no, no.
I mean, the same production team would have came in, the same
choice they would have been made, found a way to make the
character work, I think.
But, yeah.
I would have liked to have seen that, though.
Well, we did see it for one episode.
Yeah, yeah.
And she was great in it.
She was wonderful.
Oh, here we go.
More empathy.
You can't hide your emptiness from me.
Almost.
Yeah, then you, like, you talk about how bad Denise is, but look
how bad Marina is here.
Look how bad everyone is.
I'm not making an argument for Marina 30s in this episode.
I mean, I think is heroic.
The fact that she's given it a go.
Yeah, 0 yeah.
And like this is the potential to be super interesting because she
has power over him.
He thinks that he has all the power and he's omnipotent, but she's
a counsellor and that works because he's abandoned and has got all
this abandonment stuff.
And so she actually finds out.
She's the one who finds out what happened to him and what makes
him vulnerable.
And the sad thing is that then Patrick Stewart has to come down
and put that into playing.
Every episode of series one ends with Patrick Stewart coming down
making a speech.
And then we get away and then onto the next place.
The worst one is the drugs one when he goes, you know, you did it
to yourselves, you filthy peasants. lets go.
Leave them in a state of withdrawal.
Which is becomes harmless.
So well handled in lower decks when they go back there.
Poor actor that said, not all this shit.
I think my career comes to this.
So the guy doing the voiceover is just a famous voiceover guy.
I couldn't even find a picture of him.
I think one bat is a good voice performance, and I think he's a
great treatment.
That sort of electron treatment over him.
I'm glad they stopped doing this as well.
So there's a bit here where Geordie gets taunted by the removal of
his visor.
Um, It happens a couple of times, doesn't it?
Well, no, no, it happened in descent.
Yeah, that was horrible too.
That was just unpleasant.
And like they do mention it from time to time, like in the
masterpiece society, that was super interesting, you know, where
they were talking about disability and stuff.
Yeah, well, I mean, we're in a stage here, aren't we?
Where talking about this stuff when viewed now?
Yeah, oh, well, that's right.
Even having a sighted actor like LeVar playing a blind character
is not something that we would do now, hence Hammer, I guess.
Are you okay, Troy?
Unfortunately, now, Dr. Bev is not in her sick bass, so she's
having...
Oh, I love the bit where he goes, I warn you.
It's a great a great performance, I think.
It's just a terrible costume.
I like Deanna's reaction to like Troy's dead and she goes, yeah, I
know.
I thought that was really good.
Oh my god, it looks so bad when it's moving around like that
doesn't it?
There's a photograph on memory Apple where you can see the
hydraulics underneath and how it actually worked.
Yeah.
It's quite impressive as a as a piece of equipment.
Unfortunately, as a monster, it's I'm sure it was worth the
effort.
Oh yeah, here we go.
Yeah.
Yeah, see, this isn't fun to watch, is it?
And and is Reiken, like, it looks like Data's making fun of him.
So data says, um...
Look, yeah, yeah.
He says, look, half a metre to the right, Geordie.
And he moves half a metre to the right and so he'd be found
because it's fucking in front of him.
Like, well done, Geordie.
No one's allowed to get away with, you know, estimating a time to
anything less than a millisecond, but he goes half a metre to the
right and it's in front of him.
I do just know we need more bastards in Star Trek, though, you
know.
People that just do things just to be utterly evil.
But I don't think tormenting the disabled person is that much fun
to watch, I think.
I've got to say, as a piece of television.
Matter of time that we did last for TNG.
Yeah.
That was a better made piece of television.
Oh, yeah.
It was nowhere near as fun as this.
Yeah, yeah.
It was in fact very dull in comparison to this.
I think this shot is quite good too.
And I think she's, do you know what I mean?
Like the way she's moving a hand, the way the light, seeing that
she shot from below, you know, there's debris around her and
stuff.
And I think that she's delivering a thing.
Like, I think there is the potential, if anyone was even trying to
do something interesting.
There's something here, isn't there?
So he...
I even think you could do something with the concept.
Not this.
Yeah.
He's the residue of some godlike beings who've been there, and, you
know, he says something about, you know, they are, people look in
awe at them, you know, like they're Titans, he says, and they've
gone off into the universe, and they've abandoned him, and they've
left him here to suffer.
And in what sense?
Are they good?
Do you know what I mean?
Like what's going on here?
And here I am, you know.
When you when you describe it like that.
I'm seeing a TOS episode.
It's not grandiose B movie idea.
But given a bit of worth, but in a TOS episode, you would have had
um, Spock, Kirk, and McCoy all taking the piss out of it a little
bit as well, you know, and having some fun with it.
This is so serious.
Yeah, which makes it even funnier in a way.
Well, yes exactly.
Oh, I love this bit.
Their music now is going...
That is shot.
We will see it again in several times, I think, probably in
shades.
Say the quote again from Laval Burton.
Frekes.
They never would have got me to do that.
So that's a that's a stunt double.
That's a fucking stunt double.
There's no way that's Frakes.
There's a really bad...
He swears to Goddess.
He swears...
I think I think there's a shot later that's him.
But I don't think they're dragging frakes under the water if
you're under the thing if you're not seeing his face.
Like, there's no way that that's not his double.
The face coming up now.
That's a pop.
But that's really quite scary.
That's a problem.
It doesn't move at all.
It's a prop.
I think it's really good.
Like, I think it's scary. look at that.
Yeah, but it's a prop.
His eyes are open. gonna happen.
So that's a prop.
And it's sort of the sort of gross horror that they just know.
Yeah, that is pretty much later.
It's the sort of thing you were, you know, lauding in Genesis when
we watched that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, like early discovery has it as well.
Actually, Wesley down to that planet.
He could have been dragged into... as well.
I mean, he got stabbed in hide and cue, didn't he?
So, Frakes does regret doing the stunt.
So when we see him come out of the pit, that's definitely him
right?
And because they're scraping the stuff off him and things.
So he's been in the pit.
I don't think they drag him into the pit, that's definitely a body
double.
The face is a prop.
But when he comes out, it's definitely him.
And he says, and this is a quote from memory alpha, I suffered
physically like a fool with Mikey, Michael Westmore, sure, I'll
get him that black fucking metamucil shit.
That was absurd.
I want to be back for season two.
I'll do whatever you want, all right?
So he clearly realises that it was just dumb and it was like the
thing. remember when Marina breaks her cock 6 in PowerPlay and she
says, I'm this big in the screen.
It could have been Michael.
No one would have known.
The things we do for...
Oh, this scene is agonising.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's like, please.
Please don't hurt my Amzabi.
Yes, I would sacrifice myself without hesitation.
All of that stuff.
Like, that's so bad, isn't it?
There's space people.
This is them being space people.
Because Beverly says I want to beat my life, this is, on this
level.
Yeah, yeah.
I would sacrifice my dignity to record another untitled Star Trek
episode.
I do like how it clings onto the shuttle.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Because it feels impressive.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, it's Picard now coming down.
The handheld walking up to the slick, walking up to the pit.
A handheld summing, all right?
At least they had a long shot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the surface of the thing is moving. tin man.
Yeah.
Well, it's a big fan of Wizard of Oz, I think, probably Armus.
That was a great exchange as well.
Why is he doing all this, Mr. Data?
I think it's to alleviate boredom, sir. yeah that's really good.
Again, the contempt that they have for him, and if we'd seen more
of that from Marina, it would have been great.
I mean is Picard empathising with him at the end?
No, no, I think again, it's just this complete refusal to play
along.
I'm just not going to do anything to help you.
I'm not going to play along.
Um, and uh, Astonishingly, we are two-thirds for this episode.
I feel like we've barely started it.
It's flying by.
But look at it.
Like, I love the way the liquid moves.
Like there's something under there. here we go.
That's what I like that.
It's a shot of Picard, and you just see armours coming up in sort
of...
He's out of focus in the foreground. and the light coming off
him.
He's using day as a pop it.
Boy, but go, everybody.
And I like this too.
Like Data just says, well, you know, like, yes, you kill one of
them, but you're pulling the trigger and you're holding the
strings, I would not be responsible.
Like I wouldn't, you know, like you can't make me feel bad about
killing him.
I didn't do it.
You did, you know.
And like even her refusal to react there.
You know, her refusal to kind of panic and give him anything, I
think, is good.
I don't think it's just, you know, her.
They should have forgotten how to do this sort of thing, Nathan.
Like, rubbish TNG in season 5 is just very boring.
Boring.
Dull and worthy.
Rubbish TNG in series one.
It's just...
And occasionally hugely embarrassing.
Oh, well, consistently.
I mismanages to be all of that.
I told you it was a gift, didn't I?
But do you know what I mean?
Like, you've got gates here, not, like, no one is playing along, no
one's being a panicky idiot.
They're just saying, yeah, no, like do your shit.
We're just not interested, you know.
And I think that's pretty good.
Tell me, Tin Man, how does it feel to face your own extinction?
Stupid.
So when they're trying to sort of puzzle him out there, those
lines like that, you...
This line is really weird. interesting, no redeeming qualities.
And so Armas goes, so what do you think?
And he goes, I think you should be destroyed.
And go, wait, what?
Just because he's got a real terrible personality.
Like what's happening here?
Wait, you're always back with a line.
He goes, a moral judgement from a machine.
It's like, really?
Because we're not going to do that.
I mean, it's not like they leave the planet and then just sort of
nuke the surface or anything.
They just kind of leave him there to be prank called by the
Cerrito's crew, you know, 10, 12 years later or whatever.
It should be that they had to beam down one red shirt.
That was a bargain that he was left with one red shirt.
He could just torture for all eternity and then they could go off
volunteering for that.
Well, Admiral Leyland T. Lynch, of course.
That's right.
What's he doing?
He doesn't get an arc.
He could go down there and spend the rest of his life there with
armours.
In fact, when they prank Kolamis in lower decks.
He's there going, I wish I had someone to torture at the very
beginning because he's super poor.
And so this is Jonathan.
That's Jonathan May.
Oh, bless him.
Look at it.
What is that?
Liquorice?
So it's metamucil and printers, Inc.
Oh, no.
He must have been Sharon for weeks.
No, Levar can barely stifle his laughing.
They've decided to axe you in series two.
Sorry.
They are incapable of entertaining me.
So good, isn't it?
Yeah, that's absolute Doctor Who monster shit, isn't it?
Oh, it's great.
Yeah.
Come on, TNG.
Oh, look, and Brent's the only one acting in that shot.
He looks up.
In fact, you know, my other favourite from series one does this
exactly again, conspiracy with the weird aliens that have taken
over Starfleet.
Yeah, yeah.
It's total B movie.
It's good.
I think it's pretty good.
It's also sort of hilariously bad, but... yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
No, awesome.
I love to do that one actually.
When did TNG forget to be bad in a entertaining way?
Yeah, I think that, like, I think that they decided that they'd
been embarrassing, but they threw the baby out with the bath water
and they radically reduced the sort of things that Star Trek could
do.
And I think that, you know, that's one of the reasons I'm so bored
by it, I think.
Like, what we gain is episodes like Dharmok, and, you know, we
wouldn't be without them.
What we lose.
Yeah. is just mad shit like this.
Yeah, look, he just walks straight past Ben, goes and talks to her
and then she goes, Ben is over there and he goes, oh yeah, that's
right.
The black guy.
It's so bad.
It's not on the console.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he survives.
But Deanna, he's not one of the regulars.
Yeah, I know it's so bad.
It's so that's really bad.
Leave her behind.
She don't do much in 7 years.
She does.
She's awesome.
Yeah, and so, and so she, she tells him how to do it, but she
doesn't get to do it herself.
And I think that's a shame because in later Star Trek, like in
later next generation, this would be the Deanna episode where
we're presented with a problem which Deanna can solve and then
she's allowed to save the day.
Well, I wonder if that's where this started.
And then Denise was going.
They were like, well, let's kill her off in this episode, you know
the skin of all evil can take her out.
Yeah.
And then unfortunately, we're we're distracted.
But it was weird. obviously they have just got on with the job
because they have to because there's people to save.
It's unbelievable that she died 20 minutes ago and we haven't
mentioned her since.
No, well, we have.
No, no, no, we have because we had that conversation where Beverly
says, Tasha's dead and she says, I know.
And we did have the scene in the observation lounge deck thing.
It just wouldn't be like that now, would it?
It just wouldn't be like that now.
I think that they might do that.
They might hold off and just let there be an episode and then fall
to pieces at the end.
I think that that's a standard TV trip, isn't it?
When the fellow Duck Culber died in Discovery.
How did they deal with that?
Well, I don't think Hugh even finds out until the next episode.
Like, remember it happens in the middle of just a massive chaotic
thing and there's just so much going on that I don't know.
I'm assuming that has consequences down the line.
Yeah, that's his part.
I think he might.
I think Paul might just be in the corridor with his body for a
good part of the next episode.
It's pretty, yeah.
Yeah, because that's proper.
Do you know what I mean?
It was a dumb idea, and they walked it back, but it's Star Trek.
I'm like, they sort of... formula television.
They can't just go on the next week and oh, well, she's not here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's right.
It's almost an anthology show.
He's almost his backstory now. left by a race of titans behind.
Yeah, yeah.
Titans is a good word too.
He clearly knows about Greek mythology as well.
Bonds of destructiveness.
Yeah, so, I mean, it's got that sort of that weird science fiction
thing where evil and good are substances and so, you know, Doctor
Who does that as well.
Like it's a fairly standard thing, you know, we think of good and
evil as the result of all kinds of, you know, social things, I
think, is how we conceive it more than anything else.
But here it's like as if they're physical substances, like light
and dark.
Anything that starts with Picard going. shall I tell you what evil
really is?
You know we're in for a bit of trouble.
Oh, yeah, yeah. so boring.
I mean, nothing could be as bad as to get the justice right.
When has law been as simple as a rule book?
Now, Beam is up quick.
And look, Armist's energy level has dipped to 2.6.3.
Oh, we're 40 minutes in.
Well, no, but I'm thinking it's just the speech.
It's kind of like, oh my god.
If only they can hang a luncheon on that and say, like, you know, I
can't listen to you anymore.
But I see you.
I't know why they wait so long to transport here.
That shot is so shit.
Like, God, like that side shot.
This shot, the final shot of armistice magnificent.
That's truly great.
It's so melodramatic, isn't it?
But the shot of him from the side just poking out of the thing is
a bit shit.
His hands are literally going crazy though. so bad.
So bad.
Oh, dude, the damage has just been done onto the funeral.
That looks like a butcher shop window, right?
That lawn.
It just looks like a butcher shop window.
And so the 1st thing that I thought is go the fuck outside.
Why haven't they got a sunny sky?
Why are they going for this sort of cloudy look?
Um, I think, you know, we know that the holodeck can create solid
realistic holograms.
Why is her, is her uniform green in your, the print that you're
watching?
Uh, it's uniform is green in that shot.
Green, like those very fake looking home base trees behind them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. and it'll be it'll be blue in a later shot in
the same scene and that was always a weird colour grading thing
that was wrong with early.
You know why?
I have to stop to Marina.
Stop crying already, all right?
Okay, this time, gates, go get in your other uniform, quick. get
in there. yeah Can we quote some of the dialogue here, please?
So, so, but look, we know that they can create solid realistic
holograms, and so they're trying to put her in heaven.
And so she's a ghost and there are clouds behind her.
And that's what that is, right?
Don't you think?
Like, that's her talking to us from... is what it is.
Yeah.
But the thing is, and we said this before the episode even
started.
These characters are not well defined enough for us to give a shit
even after 22, 23 hours of this staff.
Yeah.
You are my family, she said.
We've only been together for 18 episodes. yeah that's right.
Oh, you took a frightened and angry girl and tempered her in the
Starfleet way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so terrible.
I'm going to say the line that she says to Troy, because everyone
needs to hear it.
Oh, it's so bad.
It's so bad.
Isn't like, Jonathan's pretty at this point, I think.
Yeah, no, you're okay, so much love.
Oh god.
Wait for it.
He told me without ever having to say a word.
I realised I could be feminine without losing anything.
Jesus Christ, that's embarrassing.
That's the worst thing in this episode is that.
Yeah, to be taught to be feminine.
There's this incredible fear that because she has short hair and
she's the security officer, that she's going to come across as
being a lesbian, and we know what happened to our friend, is it
Meg Foster, in Cagney and Lacey, who lost her job for the same
reason?
And they said, they're so desperate for her not to be a lesbian.
Do you know what I mean?
That they do this.
Like Beverly, she has learned to strike.
What else is no matter what the personal cost?
Like what?
Well, personal cost comes from striping friends.
No, it just makes no sense because there's nothing to her.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, she can't say, like, you were really funny or you had a sort
of, you know, quick wit and you used to, you know, like, um, you
taught me how to dance, like, but none of the characters have
anything.
I'm and and even she can't even fucking say goodbye to Geordie
without alluding to the fact that he's blind. taught me to look
beyond the moment. things differently.
Look beyond that, like fuck off.
He's the blind character, right?
And he's black.
She should have mentioned that.
I mean, it's so bad.
In the sound of her voice, which is the penultimate episode of
DS96 season.
There's a wake for the woman who dies in that episode, right?
And, and, uh, Brian goes. take a good look around because we might
not all be here forever.
Let's enjoy this moment and it's so much more touching and fucking
restrained than this.
And it's even hanging a lantern on the fact that she's going to
die in the next episode and it's still really moving.
They did learn a lot.
They had to go down a bumpy road together.
Yeah, this is terrible.
I mean, this is just terrible.
I do think that Patrick Stewart very bravely because I did feel
something when he went of one, Natasha.
Yeah, I did too, but I have to say that the thing I was most
affected by was Marina because, you know, you have this weird
parasocial relationship with all of the Star Trek actors. because
you've been following them like I was 19.
Do you know what I mean?
this has been this has been most of my life I've known this show.
And that's why this arena is so distressed.
In the same way, like the DS9 actors moved me because that was
when I hit, well, I was 13 and 20 when it ended.
So I watched that entire run.
So I'm connected, so I speak, I get it.
I get it.
Go on, Patrick.
Oh, he's got such, like, his eyes are green.
I think again, they're blue, really, but there's something weird
about the way the colour gets reproduced.
You remember, we were talking about all of the subtext in tacking
into the wind the other day.
Now here, Beta stops to go, did I miss the point of the funeral?
And he goes, no, no, Mr. Dota.
That's exactly the point of the funeral.
Yeah, yeah.
We have a speech about what funerals are.
That's what data is, to explain to the audience things that they
surely must fucking know.
You know, it's so bad.
So we literally, we had the deaf scene, that we had, they're all
talking about it in the observation lounge.
Yeah.
Then we had the funeral scene and now we've got the, I mean, it's
just a bit much, isn't it?
It's not exactly subtle.
No, no.
But the way that they would do it later, like, I think it's the
only thing that's available to them, that what they can't really
do is just kill her off in act one without doing something at the
end.
Like, they have to hold off and then make the episode about that.
Don't they?
But do you remember when Marvellous Captain Garrett died with the
shrapnel in her head in yesterday's enterprise?
And that was sudden.
I think I felt more about that than I did about this.
Look at that.
Look at that fucking lawn.
It's so bad.
Skin of evil. you did not let me down No, that was great. was
really fun.
I'm so many levels, that was just...
That was very terrible.
So also one of the most inept pieces of television we have watched
so far.
Yeah.
No, I think, you know, like, I think that we've seen worse TV.
I think Manhund is a worse episode than this because it's also
boring and it's not being written in any way, like that you can
sense that there's writers or some writers behind this.
Whereas Manhunt is just padding out the running time.
But weird enough, I do get, I do get a sense that they're having a
bit of fun with this idea as well. the sort of the skin of evil
idea, you know?
That's stupid.
It's great, isn't it?
But it's sort of wholeheartedly dumb.
Yeah, yeah.
I think I think maybe 3 or 4 seasons down the line.
They would go, oh, God, are we really going to do this, all
right?
And it would all be that everyone would be a bit embarrassed by
it.
But here they're like, no, let's just play it.
Let's go for it.
We've got this big monster.
It'll be hilarious.
Which is basically the key to Doctor Who's success in 26 years, you
know?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Dear, dear.
What a shame Shame.
Au revoir Natasha.
I love why, Natasha.
All right, it's the end of the episode, and it's time for us to
find out what we're going to be doing next week.
I have checked the stats on the shows that we've done, and the
most neglected show according to our statistics. is the animated
series where we've done 2 out of 22 episodes.
So just over 9% of the available episodes.
There is a reason for that.
There is a reason for it.
But we have to do it.
It's part of the thing.
So it's time to eat our vegetables and watch an episode of the
animates.
Da, da, da, da.
Oh, so terrible.
I was watching Lower Decks and there was a character.
In fact, I was watching The Spy Humungous, which is where they
prank call, but in the lead up to that, there is an alien that is
taken from a animated series episode.
I think we've said before, that lower decks kind of regards the
animated series as it's esteemed for bear and he's absolutely
happy to steal stuff from it, which I think is glorious.
Distinguishable in quality in my mind.
That's right.
But it canonises it in a way that even Gene was reluctant to do.
And I'm afraid it is canon.
It was on telly and people watched it.
And so it's legit.
DC Fontana considers it the full season of the original series
okay?
God bless her.
And so she says that is true.
I do hope you select the magics of Megas 2. sounds amazing.
Does it?
Yeah, Jammer only gives it one star as well.
So it's going to be incredible.
What if we got to be good?
If you press the button, it's that one.
Okay, here goes.
Your random Star Trek, the animated series episode is the counter
clock incident.
Oh, that doesn't sound as exciting.
Episode 6.
Season two.
That's the last episode.
Oh, it's the finale of the original series on TV.
Do you have a synopsis or something?
I do happen to have a synopsis right here.
Yes, an alien ship pulls the enterprise into a supernova
transporting the ship to an alternative universe where time runs
backwards.
Oh, no.
3.5 stars out of 4 from Gemma.
And he's quite, he's quite harsh on the anime series.
Well, he's not.
He's not.
He's constantly giving these episodes much higher scores than he
gives episodes of discovery.
He's crazy.
What do you think?
I mean, one of his paragraph starts.
First things first, you have to set aside everything you know
about science, even trick science, to accept anything that happens
in the counterclock incident. happy to do that.
I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen the Red Dwarf episode
backwards, which runs to the... similar sort of premise.
I can't imagine it's going to be quite as fun as the scene where
the woman uneats a chocolate eclair in the cafe.
Yeah, no, I don't think it is either.
What do you think?
But, and what, and considering it is the last episode as well
quite fun.
Well, like there's really basically no basis on which to prefer
one of these episodes over the other.
We have literally no idea.
So we may as well let the randomiser choose.
So that's what we've done.
All right.
So the counterclock incident.
Let's do it All right.
You've been listening to entitled Star Trek project with Joe Ford
and Nathan Bottomley, where online at untitled Star Trek project
com, where you can find subscription links and links to our social
media accounts.
Our podcast artwork is by Kayla Ciceran and the theme was composed
by Cameron Lamb.
This episode was recorded on the 12th of March 2024 and released
on the 22nd of March.
We'll see you next time for Star Trek, the animated series, The
Counter Clock Incident.
So, we had the, we had graffiti on our fence.
And the fences like brick.
And it was sort of dark blue because the house outside is blue and
there was dirt.
You could see the dirt streaks on it.
So we had it painted and Calvin chose the colour and in order to
not be able to see the dirt streaks.
He chose fucking dirt colour.
Does it look attractive?
It's so horrible.
It's so bad And like the rest of the house is like blue.
You paint over dirt.
That just gets rid of dirt.
No, then more dirt comes when the more dirt comes.
He wants it not to be visible against the beach.
Just make it look dirty.
It's plump for dirt colour.
So the whole fucking thing looks like dirt.
Like it's sort of sort of like olive, like a really like the
fucking place is blue.
If he'd made it just gray, it would have been fine, but it's sort
of greenish.
It was really sunny today and it looked really gross.
I'm finding a simple solution.
I mean, he's done the work, but in terms of finding, something
that is aesthetically pleasing.
It's so ugly.
It's so bad.
He's got no idea.
Oh, I love your stories about Kathy.
Oh my god.
Like we didn't have to pay for it.
Do you know what I mean?
Like it was insurance because there was graffiti and stuff.
Like we had to pay excess or whatever.
They call it deductible in America.
Like, you have to pay a bit and then, you know, it's the rest of
it.
Yeah.
Anyway, so that's the thing.
And they pushed over our fountain.
We have a fountain in the front yard, and someone just kind of
pushed it over and it smashed.
So that disgruntled students.
No, I don't know.
No, they don't know where I live and they love me.
I'm nice to them I'm not horrible to them.
They've got nothing to be disgruntled about.
Somebody that was stung by one of the bees perhaps.
Yeah, it could be that.
Anyway, it has happened before.
Like, it's the 2nd time that someone's just pushed it over.
People abused or whatever.
Nobody, nobody graffities around here.
They figure it looks bad enough as he is.
They don't want to make us feel even worse.