Hey, Joe. Hi.
So, we are for our sins in series one of Star Trek, the Next
Generation, but I think it turns out this week that we've actually
hit on a winner.
I mean, above average, we should probably say, because the show
still clearly isn't fully formed yet, and this is the 1st time we
ever get to learn anything about wharf, and we're what?
19 episodes into the series.
And I still think there are the issues that you could point at, a
lot of things, some very mannered performances from the regulars.
And let's say a slightly slimmer plot than we would have later on
in Star Trek, the Next Generation.
But in terms of its execution, I was quite impressed with this and
in terms of it not having moments where I wanted to crawl under
the floor and die, as I do with a lot of season one episodes, that
didn't happen once.
So I'm calling it a pleasant surprise.
Yeah, I think that's fair enough.
So this is Heart of Glory, and it's series one, episode 20 of Star
Trek, the Next Generation.
The teleplay is by Maurice Hurley, who comes to us from the
equaliser, I think, and goes on to do things like Baywatch and
stuff.
He's like a proper TV guy, not a popular man with the TNG cast
though.
Right.
The man that took away the precious Gates McFadden from the rest
of the regulars.
I mean, Marina Service must have been looking over her shoulder.
First Denise Crosby, Ben Gates moved out.
Oh, they eliminated women in the future.
Yeah, yeah.
And then it's directed by Rob Bowman, who goes on to have a sort
of pretty serious career doing genre TV and stuff as well.
He's the director they selected to do the 1st X-File movie when
the X-Files was at its height.
Right, you know?
So he's somebody that goes on to deliver the goods and then some
in terms of genre television.
And I can see here as well.
I can see here, I don't think he's delivering anything as
sophisticated as he would later, but there's some really
interesting choices in this that we'll talk about later, the
action sequence at the end in engineering, the shooting of the
damaged ship at the beginning and looking through Geordie's
visor.
It's like we said, with skin of evil, although this is much better
than skin of evil.
That there is a, let's just try it about season one that when you
like you said, when there's a house style, they're like, no, no, we
won't do that.
We know we can do this, you know?
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's a whole heap of things that will never happen
again.
And there are some things that seem like kind of dead ends or
something like that, sort of cul-de-sacs, but generally speaking
it doesn't embarrass anyone too much.
And it's pretty enjoyable.
I was pleasantly surprised.
I've got a couple of quotes, not from memory alpha for once, but
I've been on to Wikipedia, so, you know, take this veracity with a
grain of salt, but um, about Maurice Hurley and about Rob Bowman.
So writer and executive producer.
Hurley thought the heart of glory was the closest experience he'd
had on the show to directly place his philosophy into the script.
He later credited fellow executive producer Rick Berman, so he's
doing a bit of work here with helping to write the script for
heart glory, saying, when I had a problem, I could go in and we
could sit there, close the door, yell and scream, I'd pace, he'd
make suggestions.
The 2 of us made stories work in that room that had to be shot
within a couple of days.
We were under enormous time pressure and we were working hand in
glove.
We had a wonderful time.
And on that show especially, meaning Heart of Glory.
Right, okay.
I think they're super proud of what they did here.
And just a little bit of context to what Rob Bowman was thinking
when directing this episode, 1st one he did.
Um, no, is that a lie?
I think he did data law as well.
He did where no one has gone before.
The battle, too short a season, data law, and then Heart of
Glory.
Three of those, some of the 3 best we've had so far, right?
The battle.
Yeah, I think the battle is very good.
Where no one has gone before, which we really like.
So the director, Rob Bowman, made bold decisions in designing the
confrontation sequence.
The scripted version showed the fight between wharf and chorus
taking place entirely on the 1st deck of the engineering section
but instead, Rob Byron thought, well, that's very boring.
I'm not doing that.
He had them fight on the upper deck using camera angles never
before seen on the show, filmed vertical sequences in that part of
the set.
He also altered the script so that Conell needs to be hit by 3
phaser blasts to make that more dramatic, and he used a steady cam
for the 1st time in the show to film the scenes on the freighter
to give a rough effect to the footage.
So he's he is really thinking, how can we make this a bit more
visually interesting than what we normally do?
Man, oh man.
I mean, I think he goes by the end of season three.
And I think you can tell as well.
Yeah, his last story, his last episode, his brothers in season
four.
Which is that's a very technically complex story too, isn't it?
Three Brent Spiners in there, having to do all that as well.
Crazy work.
Yeah, I mean, I think you can sort of tell, come midseries 4 and
onwards, the house starlers here and they have stopped
experimenting like that.
It's a shame, you know?
It a shame.
I feel like we should have had a few more Rob Bowmans and a few
less Les Landows in the director's pool.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I think that's fair.
And that is always what's fun about going back and seeing series
one and two, is seeing things that Star Trek never attempts again
or stops doing.
The bad thing about going back to series one or 2 is you have to
watch episodes like Up the Long Ladder, the Royale.
Oh, yeah, and Manhunt.
But yeah, fortunately...
We've sort of pulled back the string and the arrows hit gold for
once.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, what do you think?
Do you think we should go in?
Let's do it.
The 1st Klingon episode.
Yes, yeah, yeah. that's kind of exciting Was it really clear on
episodes in TOS?
Like, obviously they were the bad guys in that.
Yeah, so, I mean, there's essentially what, three Klingon episodes
with the 3 main guys.
Do you know what I mean?
Like the 3 Klingons who end up coming back on Deep Space Nine.
So there are Klingon episodes, but the Klingon episodes have them
as adversaries to the enterprise, and the episodes are not really
bad examining being a Klingon and what it means to be a Klingon.
And that is what happens.
And certainly here, that's the focus, and that's something that
stays with the Klingon episodes.
The interesting thing is this is the 1st Klingon episode, but it's
not anything that they go on to do, but it's not a 1000000 miles
away from some of the themes that they end up addressing later.
There's no part of this, though. you know, like while the time you
get to redemption and things like that, they're doing these
they're trying to stage these big sort of Shakespearean dramas in
space, revenge tragedies and things like this.
This is just, oh, the Klingons have turned up.
And let's examine Warf a tiny bit.
There's still not that much of that going on here.
And let's just do some exciting stuff with them.
Yeah, I think there is another thing too, which is that it does
examine what has happened to the Klingons in between original Trek
and Star Trek, the Next Generation.
Um, and that's interesting, I think.
As ever, I shall await your reading on that with baited breath.
All right, let's go in.
Oh, can of in?
Five, four, three, two, one.
And we're off.
Ah, that shot.
Who would have known that it would start with that shot?
I sounded sarcastic then, didn't I?
But I was being entirely serious, by the way.
I think sarcasm is just my default setting.
I think that this is curiously lacking in urgency this scene in
season one.
Really?
Yeah, it's really flat, isn't it?
They're all like something, they're all reacting as if something
really major and interesting is happening.
And Riker's going, should we separate a sorcerer?
And it's kind of like, wait, what?
What's going on?
We've already spent the pocket for that, the one time we can do
that.
Sorry. right.
But sir, are you sure?
We could reuse the footage.
No, no, no.
Come on now.
I wish everyone would sit up a bit, though.
Those bloody chairs.
Oh, those terrible chairs.
Yeah, well they get rid of them.
I think it's so the camera.
So they're not blocking the view of the other people.
Just looking at them lying back.
Yeah.
Possibly Romulan.
Now we get a couple of mentions of Romulans in this because we are
obviously awaiting the big Romulan return at the end of the
season.
Yeah, which is only a handful of episodes away.
No, we've got to go through delight such as skin of evil yet
though, before we get there.
And conspiracy.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. pretty good.
Yeah, so I don't really know what's happening.
So with the neutral zone, obviously, and we're going to Yellow
Alert for some reason, and then there's this vessel that we're
sort of super interested in, and they're like the Talarians.
So they're like the Tamarians, but just before them in the phone
book.
That's right. very sort of lame model there.
You know, every time they say, I hate doing that.
Every time they say like go to yellow alert, that red dwarf joke
always just pops into my head.
You mean it does it does mean changing the bulb.
They would never do it on this show, though, would they?
You see someone in the background screwing in the yellow button.
Well, they don't even turn yellow lights on.
I don't even know what yellow alert is.
They all just sort of stand around there.
At least, you know, on discovery when they go black alert.
All of the lights get really suddenly incredibly dramatic.
How many days they shoot the episodes over at this point?
I'm going to guess at least a week.
This is one of the good days for Michael Dawn's makeup because
they've managed to make it look as if, you know, the forehead
ridges are actually blended into his face.
But there are some scenes later on in this where you can see the
line crinkling up from the headpiece.
Oh, do you think it might be the end of the day where it's all
starting to sag?
Quickly, it's slipping.
Can we get this shot in, please?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And again, like, it's really funny to think of this as Michael
because it's not at all what he lands on and what he ends up being
like, is it?
You think about last time we saw a big wharf episode when we did
tacking into the wind.
And how relaxed he was, you know?
and how sophisticated that performance was compared to this. where
he just sort of, he sort of says every line like this, doesn't
he?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he doesn't get very interesting lines.
I do like the we think this is a trap and we're going in any way
like that's kind of interesting.
And before, like, we do have this sort of strange B plot that is
out of the way really quickly.
It doesn't sort of interleave between the, you know, B and A
plot.
We't go back and forth between 2 plots.
We basically land on this one Klingon plot.
But before that, we get this away team thing where data, Riker and
Geordie go on board the battress.
I think that's just kidding time and until the Klingons come along
because it doesn't really go anywhere.
But I think what it's doing, and I think what this show wants to
do a bit is give us some sense of what it's like on the enterprise
or what it's like to do a mission.
And so it's still establishing the premise at this stage rather
than just going in and telling the story.
And so that's why I like all this procedural stuff, I think, is
kind of worth doing because it's sort of interesting.
You know, they're kind of likely.
But that is the blueprint later on, isn't it?
We go through so many steamy ships by the end of series 7.
Yeah, steamy ships. know what I mean.
No, I know exactly what you mean.
I was naked now, all right?
Yeah, yeah.
In fact, sad for marina service, you know, she's at home right now
flicking through the script going, well, when am I going to
appear?
Where am I on?
What about Will?
What about Will Waheaton?
He's not in this at all either.
He gave such a stellar turn in conspiracy last week. you know, all
those scenes on Starfleet Command.
He needed a rest.
They needed a little rest.
Well, in fact, there are a few episodes in series one that
Marina's not in.
I think that like, you know, and that stops being a thing
contractually, they kind of have to have them just about.
God, they have to do some new model work, though.
Well, that's new model work for, I think, the high definition
versions.
And then the old box standard enterprise shot just gets matted
in.
Yeah, yeah.
I think there's another reason why they're doing this at the
beginning of the episode, though, and that is they've just had a
cool idea.
Let's look from Geordie La Force's visor.
We haven't done that.
Why haven't we done that?
Let's get a funky psychedelic effect that we can do.
And I love it.
I think it's really great.
I don't know why we don't do this more often.
So eventually, I think what ends up happening with all of these
characters may be with the exception of data is that they have
high concept, single paragraph premises, you know, in the show
Bible, and then we stop relying on those and haven't seen every
Star Trek, doesn't it?
And it's just the charm of the actor's performance, and we just
know, Well, you know, it's, it's Levar.
I mean...
As exemplified last week with Jonathan Frakes in disaster.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. where it's just sort of Jonathan being chill, you
know, and being like Jonathan and he's sort of rather wonderful.
And so here we're exploring that premise, which becomes a, which
is a big thing in series one, much more than later on where we
kind of don't mention it all that often.
Remember how it's kind of slightly surprising to hear them even
mention it in the masterpiece society, where we have that
conversation about Geordie having a disability.
Well, yeah, this looks great, doesn't it?
you know, it's touch and go.
Remember the end of Skin of Evil where she was going old?
Geordie, you see through the eyes of a poet.
Oh, God.
Please stop.
Did you see there who was got a story credit?
DC Fontana?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dorothy Fontana.
A couple of times in series one and two.
And she does write a couple of scripts, usually the worst ones
with Armonis.
I think she might have had a hand in well when the bowel breaks
and code of honour.
And she does a couple in the 1st season of DS9 as well.
She writes the teleplay for the Dak's courtroom episode, which is
pretty good.
Oh wow, okay.
Because sometimes I think, you know, sometimes people have a
limited lifespan is kind of TV writers, you know, that doesn't
tend to spend decades because they don't keep up in a way.
Yeah, see, there's a weird parallel here, isn't there?
Because at some point here, Picard says of Geordie, I never really
understood him or I, you know, now I understand him a lot better
having seen through his eyes.
And like all this dialect where Geordie says, oh, doesn't everyone
say that when they see data?
He's got an aura.
Yeah, he's an Android.
They have auras, don't they?
And, you know, like all of that sort of stuff.
But then later on he's talking to...
That's clearly not data they're shooting, by the way.
No, I don't know what the fuck that is.
Yeah, yeah, that's his stubble.
But later on, he's saying to Riker. after he sees the Klingon
death ceremony that Wharf participates in, he says it's like it
was a man I'd never seen before or someone that I didn't know at
all.
And so, and so we're discovering something about Geordie here and
we, this episode, more than having a plot.
It has a plot, but it's not like, it's sort of slightly the hunted
I was getting the hunted vibes from series very slightly.
Yeah, very slightly.
That's a better episode, I think.
But, um, But it's about telling us about war, uh, wharf giving us
a chance to learn about war.
I love the line, the where he said, well, no, what I do is I focus
in on something and I disregard the rest of the information. man
what an exhausting way to see. that really does explain well what
he goes through in order to see things.
I'm looking at the SteadyCam work they're doing now in this pretty
decent set.
It's a large set that they're walking around.
And it's so overlit though, isn't it?
It's really overlaying.
I love the lighting coming up through the floor, though.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And in a minute, there's so much dry ice.
They're all in silhouette.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, when they get to the core, the warp core, and you can barely
see it.
I mean, Nathan, I only need to point you to collective and those
yellow ball sets to remind her of how bad things get later on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Try pouring down, is it?
Frank's just going, excuse me.
I'm not a fucking Android, you know.
No, it's great.
And in a minute, it is it.
They are shot from behind, completely in silhouette.
And I sent you a picture of it.
I thought that was a very moody shot.
What do you think of the phasers?
Oh, I love the big phases now.
Oh, no, the tiny, little, tiny wee phases.
Look at the small ones.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that's, yeah, look, the little tiny...
I do have the big...
They do later, the big Dustbusters.
But they also have tiny mini ones that you can just hold with your
thumb.
Aren't they adorable?
I want one.
Yeah, whatever.
That's the same job, I don't know why they need the lower ones.
Well, it probably sort of kill you quite so solidly as the other
one.
Oh, no, the phaser rifles that you hate.
You know, usually like the forcible ones.
But it means you can sort of get, you know, look very dramatic
holding it, you know, looking through the sides.
They have no weight to them.
That's why the Voyager ones are better.
The Voyage ones are like big fuck off guns, you know.
I don't think we've wasted our lives, you know, when on a Tuesday
morning straight evening, we're discussing the various signs of
phases over the years in Star Trek.
I think we might have.
This is episode 111.
I mean, we've had longer conversations about carpet, all right?
It's true, that's true.
What's even more astonishing if people listen to this shit.
Very entertaining.
So, like, we, what are we, a quarter of the way in and we haven't
even seen the Klingon.
See, look now.
How overlit that shot is.
That's terrible.
Look at that.
Look at that. that is good.
Like spectres.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. like close encounters or something.
It is very...
At this point, we've got no hint.
Or clue, have we, that it's going to be Klingons?
It's a surprise when we go into the room.
Yeah.
Yeah, has Klingons been mentioned?
I can't even remember because I know that, yeah, because Klingon
weapons have been used to fire on the thing and they do discover
that the battress has been fired on by Klingons, but they think
it's the Ferengi with Klingon weapons.
Oh, that's the story that Corus goes with, I think.
I just think that does look like a dangerous, you know, unstable
ship.
I like it a lot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Even just the fact that they're sweating puts them in an
environment, you know, like so often they just sort of stroll
through these things barely affected by them, but they are
sweating.
I think there's something in the performance in later seasons
where you can sort of sense, oh, we've done this.
All right, let's just let's just get through the ship, you know?
Yeah, but I think that's, I do think that that's this.
You remember like early enterprise where they're clearly trying to
go back to the idea that we can just have a story about an away
mission, you know, that is very, you know, thin and and basic and
we and procedural.
And so here we're doing, like, we're about to meet them and we...
Do you remember the big goodbye, you know?
3rd of the episode is.
The whole episode was about this fabulous new technology, the
holodeck. yeah My god, says Picard.
It felt so real, you know, like no one's ever been on it before.
Now, I think that room looks great.
All right.
So this is Vaughan Armstrong. as Coris.
He does a lot, doesn't he?
He does.
Now, I think that his performance is very 60s Klingon.
It's very kind of, he's doing a sort of Michael Ansara voice.
What do you mean?
Yes, yeah.
Yeah, I think he's absolutely playing it that way.
And so that's not where we land with the Klingons where they're a
little bit more growly and stuff.
He's a slightly posher Klingon, isn't he?
And his mate is super posh.
Like, whatever his face. called Mel or something.
You're right, you know.
Look at the lighting here in this room.
Now, this gets great.
This is going to come out of alien or something like that.
This is like movie nighting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, just that black water.
They're not quite there, are they?
Although, the line's way better than, I'll keep saying it, what we
get later on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Even this framing is quite good.
So this guy is chorus in Heart of Glory, which is this episode.
Um, he is in Deep Stace 9's past prologue as a prologue as a
Cardassian.
He is, I think he's a Romulan in Eye of the Needle.
Oh, he's wonderful in that episode.
Yeah, the one who's talking with Janebo through the wormhole.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He is another Cardassian, I think, in when it rains, and the dogs
of war.
He does 2 parts there.
He's 2 of 9 in Voyages survival instinct.
He's a Vedian in Fury.
He's the Videan captain in Fury.
He is a hirogen in flesh and blood.
He's not shy of latex then, is he?
He likes the latex.
He's another Klingon in, um, in Endgame, in Voyager's Endgame.
He's a Klingon captain in Enterprises sleeping dogs.
He is a credassin in a night in Sick Bay where we've seen him.
So we've seen him.
We've seen him in a...
There are those weird rituals.
Yeah, and he's Captain Forrest.
I mean, Admiral Forrest in Enterprise, a recurring character in
Enterprise, who gets killed, remember, in that 1st episode of the
Vulcan...
Vulcan Embassy gets bombed?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's got the sort of face of somebody that's having deep
thoughts.
He's sort of fat, his brow is always furrowed slightly, and he
looks a little bit angry.
In a sort of, he's got a sort of, you know, like he's not super
you know, but he, I think he's pretty good looking guy.
He's distinctive enough that in all those different makeups you
can tell it's him.
Yeah, yeah, he's not too distinctive though, I think.
Well, and obviously he can just act.
So that's why they keep asking him back.
I think he's good in this Like, I think he is really properly.
I think there's a space for some 60s performances in TNG, you
know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We have a lot fun when we're watching TOS.
Exactly.
Usually a lot more fun than we do when we're watching TNG.
Exactly.
Okay, so now, so I like the reaction shot of wharf as well when
they say it's the Klingons. like suddenly wharfs in the episode
you know?
Yeah, yeah.
This is interesting as well. isn't it?
So, notice what they say where they say, are you the only Klingon
in Starfleet?
And he says, as far as I know, as if they're trying to hedge their
bets.
They don't want to definitely say that in case they want to do a
story where there's another Klingon in Starfleet.
So they haven't properly bedded down what his deal is.
You see Maurice Hurley there.
He's got a cigar in his mouth and Rob Bowman's just like, not Rob
Bowman.
Sorry, um, who am I thinking of?
Uh, Herbert Wright, D.C. Fontana.
I said the quote at the beginning of the episode.
Oh, Burman.
Oh, but Berman.
Yeah, he's like, Berman?
Yeah.
The only Klingon in Starfleet?
No, no, no. leave it ambiguous.
All right, we might come back to it later.
Do you know, there is one thing this episode does extremely well
because there are lots of tense moments, like that spaceship
explosing, just them, them running through the smoky ship with a
Klingon in his arms.
Oh, they're gonna beam out on time.
They're fighting engineering.
They are all perfect clips for shades of grey at the end of series
two.
And I think that's where I remember most of these bits from
because I watched Shakes are great over and over again when it 1st
came on.
Yeah, because I wanted to, I couldn't remember all the scenes.
I was trying to figure out where all the bits had come from, you
know?
Scenes from conspiracy, skin of evil.
My God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. you know, did you did you know it was just
then?
Where he said, yes, the Ferengi attacked us.
We're still doing that, Ferengi being a threat thing, aren't we, in
season one?
Yeah, they're scary.
Yeah, that's right.
Even though we've seen the last outpost.
Oh gosh. when we get to that one.
Awful.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
They do.
I don't know when they land with the Frankiest comedy.
Is it Menage a Trois?
Is that the 1st one where they're properly?
holiday, maybe?
No, it might be the price, actually.
You're the one we did.
The wormhole one.
Yep.
Yeah.
Well, they said they're not, they're not really working as the big
big bad, you know?
No, but what's interesting here, I think, is like the decision to
make the Klingons our allies.
Like, Star Trek, the Next Generation happens before Star Trek six
the undiscovered country.
Yeah, because you've got Worf's great-grandfather or whatever is
in that.
And it actually examines some similar themes to this episode, I
think.
But on the human side, doesn't it?
There's a, there's humans like Cartwright and the person played by
Renee or over Jean-Oir who gets cut from the, uh, from the whole
film.
And they want to continue fighting the Klingons.
They don't want peace with the Klingons.
I always wonder with the TOS movies.
They can't quite get out of their head that the Klingons aren't
the bad guys.
So there's always a suggestion in those movies that the Klingons
are up to no good.
Whereas this rejects that completely.
Well, it does in a way, doesn't it?
But it, like, and one of the things too, is this is season one and
they don't know what they're going to do going forward, do they?
Are they going to do sequels to episodes that they've done
before?
Like, are we going to have a Klingon episode every year?
Probably we are.
What are we going to do in that?
Like, are we introducing themes that we're going to, like, it
seems to become a little bit more kind of, like, conscious and
planned when, I kind of say, Ron Moore, you do this.
You know, this can be your thing.
I think pillows did a lot of that.
Pillar came in and went, right.
What are our strengths of our writers?
What can we do?
Character focus and all that stuff that we've talked about
before?
Right now, I don't think they even know they've got a 2nd year, you
know?
So all everything they're doing at the moment is they're just sort
of throwing stuff in the air and saying, well, let's see if it
works.
So what we do is a story about what's happened to the Klingons
because I think what they've done is they want this show to be
about the Federation, and even though, you know, the Federation, Oh
there we go, the very 1st Klingon death ritual.
Yeah, me too.
It was sort of scary because it was so loud.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They kind of tone it down a bit.
It's not quite as impressive in tacking into the weird.
I think it would have worked.
He doesn't have a power on.
It would have woken up just for a 2nd and gone, oh, baby, would
have been so beautiful.
That's when that's when the death scream really hits.
Yeah, but that's really good, isn't it?
Because the idea that they're warning the dead.
They're warning the people in the afterlife that a Klingon is on
their way.
We were there a few weeks ago, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
Yep.
So, so the one thing that they've decided to do is what they did
in series 2 of, um, of the original Star Trek, whereas they put a
Russian on board.
So at this is anticipating the Cold War will end.
Russians and Americans will be allies, and so we have a Russian on
board the ship.
And all of the rivalry, all of the Cold War rivalry is, all that
sort of cute stuff where Chekhov says, ah, you know, so-and-so
invented television or vodka rals or whatever.
And, and, you know, like that's, that's cute.
And that rivalry is sort of defanged.
It doesn't get up in Star Trek.
But yeah, it's cute.
But we do that again in Star Trek the Next Generation.
And we put a Klingon on board the ship, you know.
And we make them allies, like explicitly allies.
I think that's the one thing that truly separates this from TOS
because the rest of it is basically a rerun of TOS down to the
terrible sets.
I think having a visual market like that, a Klingon in the
publicity pictures with the crew. says we're doing something
different.
And so when I was a kid and I was watching this, and remember, I
watched Star Trek the Next Generation kind of before it ended, so
I didn't know how it ended.
And I always kind of assumed that maybe the Romulans, like it
would end with a similar thing, that one of our adversaries would
become allies with us, because that seemed to be what the show was
sort of setting up.
And remember that, um, that the shock of yesterday's enterprise is
it's a version of the show, where they decided not to do that
where they decided not to have a Klingon on board, where they
decided to continue making the Klingon to our enemies, and that's
wrong.
I mean, it's wrong, but it was a bit more interesting.
One of the best episodes we did, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this, this, you cannot relent or repent or confess or abstain.
So you've got, um, Chorus almost seducing wharf, yeah?
Like trying to explain to him what it is that he feel. and stuff.
And and what's, I think what's interesting here is that he thinks
that he has to teach wharf what it is to be a Klingon.
Yeah, um, and that's what he's doing here.
He's teaching him.
This is why you feel what you feel.
This is how you, you know, you are, you can't change, you know, all
of this stuff.
Um, you know, he even says, you know, when you were a child, you
would go out, you know, at night by yourself because no one
understood what what it was like to be a Klingon.
Um, and he's right, you know, like he says all these things and
those things end up being true.
But it is all changed a bit, isn't it?
The human parents.
Well, that's here.
That's here.
Like, he tells that story.
That's the story that he tells.
He says that he has a foster brother on goal who we may meet later
in, is it called Homeward?
But they haven't determined about his father, yeah, have they?
Although that, no, that's packaged as a surprise, isn't it, later
on?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So we get Kidama here.
We get the Rajenko's, but they're not mentioned by name.
We get that he has a foster brother, that they're farmers on the
planet Gold.
All of that stuff is mentioned.
It was an act of kindness.
He was a Starfleet officer who, uh, who, um, you know, brought me
up when I was the only survivor of Kidamar.
Rick Berman's right in this scene.
And he goes, you've got that synopsis about Wolf, right?
Let's get it all in.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we've got to get it all in.
We'll get it all in.
And that's fine.
That is fine and that is productive.
It goes places.
It leads to things.
In a scene where 2 characters are trying to understand each other
as well.
So it kind of works, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But what's super interesting?
It's not like Tashi going, oh, I was running from the rape gangs
and just declaring her backstory in a dreadfully melodramatic
way.
So what happens is, of course, that that's bookended by another
speech where Worf tells Chorus what it is to be a Klingon at the
end.
And I think that's really properly called all along.
Worf had a better idea of what it meant to be a Klingon.
Can I ask, then, if, uh, the idea here is to have us at peace with
the Klingons and they really sort of lean into this.
Why then do they backtrack on that with Way of the Warrior?
Do you reckon?
Um, Well, because this show, you know, is about the Federation
flagship going from place to place, solving space problems, doing
diplomatic things, helping, you know, like generally it's not a
show about war or conflict that is a show about, you know, the
Federation.
Um, making connections in a way.
Um, and then Deep Space 9 does the most shocking thing.
It can imagine, which is reversing that, don't you think?
Like, I think it's like this is the big thing that happens between
TOS and TNG and we're going to reverse it.
That's how serious things are.
And of course, it gives war for thing to do when he arrives on the
show.
So it's it's no coincidence that that happens when war for
rhymes.
I ask you so that I can tell you.
Because I know they're behind the scenes.
Well, no, no.
The thing is, since they wanted a ratings boost and they wanted
Michael Dawn on the show.
And so they completely changed the direction their arcs were going
into to give a reason for him to be on there as a Klingon expert
because suddenly we're at all the Klingons.
But then they realise, my God, that is a great tagline for series
4, episode one of DS9, and you know, we're at war with the
Klingons.
Big, you know, special effects battle sequences and all of this.
So, I think it was a savvy move.
At that point, I mean, because by the end of TNG, these Klingon
episodes get very dreary indeed.
Yeah I agree.
So see how they shoot the screen?
Like they haven't quite landed on the idea.
Yeah.
Yeah, because when you shoot the screen on the angle now, the
person on the screen is on the angle as well, as if it's sort of
three-dimensional and they're looking out.
You know, it's flat, but, you know, you could have 2 actors facing
one another.
That was how they eventually land on shooting the screen.
Um, and I think that's better.
You know, when people do sort of one-man dramatic pieces in a
theatre, you know, and they've just got black drapes around them, a
spotlight above and then a little bit of dry ass, that's exactly
how that Klingon was shot then on the viewscreen, you know, like
he was in the stage play.
But it's how chorus, like when we saw the 3 Klingons on the, you
know, they were before a black background as well.
When he sits down, he goes, is my a dramatic spotlight?
Yeah, good.
Right.
Okay.
I'm on the screen.
They don't want to build a set.
They don't want to build a Klingon bridge set.
No, they're just fucking drama queens, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe that's it.
How dramatic do I look?
All right.
So there are a lot of men.
Oh boy.
I'm Tasha y'all.
Yeah, yeah, yeah You remember when I said to you in Skin of Evil
that this loathsome character was the worst thing about series one
of TNG, and then you went on to list all the other characters as
well. and saying they're all equally to blame.
I feel this scene does sort of exemplify just how bad it is.
And it's not Denise Crosby's fault.
We saw in yesterday's Enterprise.
She absolutely can deliver good work.
Yeah, yeah.
When they give her good things to do, but they just make her so
over the top.
She reacts so medramatically to everything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, this little girl comes out.
She's like, go back.
And then the Klingon picks her up.
I'm not entirely sure why, if I'm honest, but her 1st reaction is
threatening her.
I don't think he is.
Well, he's not holding her in a especially threatening way, is
he?
Well, I don't know what the script wants, but this happens
immediately after the reveal that they're wanted Kleon criminals
and renegades, um, and that they've, you know, killed everyone.
Look at that woman's hair.
Look at the mother's hair.
I've got off lightly in the hairdressing department.
She's so, period.
It's wonderful.
She just looks so fabulously late 80s.
The 1st reaction is to call the bridge and go, we've got a hostage
situation here, captain, just after he picks her up.
Yeah, yeah, but they've come to arrest them.
I know, put them in...
Hostage drama 101.
You know, do not exacerbate the situation. is exactly what she's
doing.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, she goes, I thought we might have had a problem for a moment
and Wolf goes, oh.
He's me in this scene.
Well, that's kind of interesting, isn't it?
Because he's sort of underplaying it.
There's nothing very much here.
But people do start to be a bit weirdly racist about him, and I
don't, like, around him, and I'm not sure whether that's
intentional, and certainly you get that with Tasha there, and I do
wonder that Pecan's reaction to the death scream is a bit like
that too.
It's not, they're not sophisticated enough to make it subtle.
Oh, it's all a bit in your face.
It's actually done better in season 7 of DS9 Chimaera.
Do you remember when that other changing comes onto the one of the
100s?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he's behaving in appalling ways.
And suddenly everybody's aware, oh, actually Odo isn't like us, but
it's all done subtly with body language and things like that, you
know.
They're just better writers.
That's that's the difference.
They're better right.
Well, they've got better over the years too, doing Star Trek on
television, I think.
So we don't have the brig yet.
No, where do we put people then, in their quarters?
No, so it's called security, but it's not the bridge set, and it
just seems to, it's not the brig set, and it just seems to give
onto a corridor, you know, just like a nondescript corridor.
And so when they escape, there's, you know, they just head off
into an enterprise corridor.
The brig said, I don't think it's shown until the hunted.
Oh, as late as that, season three.
I think so.
Have we gone past a bit yet where Tashia is standing at the
console going, sir, shall I go and help them out or shall I stay
here at my console?
No, I think that's a bit later.
I don't think I...
Should I do security?
Am I doing security or am I doing tactical?
I'm the only person that can look at these blobs on this console
or can these 3 people behind me doing nothing, do that instead?
I don't know why they can't pick them up on the ship and transport
them now.
Can they transport them from inside the thing?
Do you know what?
They're so stiff.
Look at frakes and look at uh, Patrick Stewart.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, just, I mean, that is one thing that improves later on, is
they're just more relaxed in those uniforms in those sets.
I think I like this bit, though, because, you know, like he's
already been expressing reservations, but God's been expressing
reservations about, oh yeah, look at that makeup there.
Like you can see...
No, there's some clothes.
There's some close-ups where you can really see it slipping down
but the line.
Yeah, yeah.
But, you know, like, and Picard just says, yes, you can speak.
And it, like this is more than he said, isn't it, in any of the
kind of 19 previous episodes?
Yes, he just sort of stands there, cops all going, in a few
episodes.
Yeah, yeah.
Or being wrong.
But I don't think they really know what to do with him for quite
some time.
You know, we've had this great idea of having to Klingon on the
ship.
But, you know, if we've got an action scene, we'll throw him in
that until we figure him out.
There is that wonderful thing.
Remember that scene in Data Law, where he's in the lift with Law
who beats the shit out of him?
Oh, really?
It's unforgettable.
Oh wow, I say it's unforgettable.
You've forgotten about it. can't remember it.
Come on now, you've been talking too long. need a bit of action.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like this conversation though, and I do like this guy.
Like the, the Klingon on the, on, so that shot is taken from, um
uh, one of the films, I think, the motion picture.
What, the ship?
Yeah.
I love the design of the Klingon ships.
And later on, when obviously CGI gets to that standard and you've
got them swooping into the atmosphere, it's a planet, I think.
It's a really dynamic design for an action sequence.
Do you remember that bit where they swoop in in sacrifice of
angels and save the day?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So this ropey fucking blaster that they're assembling.
It's like a parody of a Bond movie, isn't it?
You know, where it's very, it's very wobbly.
The pencilled a scar case that it's just everything has got on
him.
It's a very wobbly prop.
Look, even as he takes it in his hands, it's sort of bending.
It's got stained glass in the middle.
I don't know what that is.
It is very strange, isn't it?
belt buckles, right?
Now, look, now we're moving.
We've got some action going.
Yeah, now we get some action, which is great.
And we get these glorious scenes in engineering, which I just...
But look at the way that you get.
Remember the phaser, like on their back, like it goes through
them?
And then you see...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Can you hear us?
I'll be getting phaser into him.
Yeah, awesome.
But look at the back, you know, and just all of the, like, just
the circles and stuff, you know, like, it's a fun effect.
It looks really great.
The beam has got some girth to it, if you'll pardon the
expression.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And when they hit people, huge sparks fly out of their check.
You know?
It's like a, it's something physical, isn't it?
Yeah.
It's so late.
We watched descent. and they're having phaser fights with a Borg
and it was so boring.
No, yeah.
Hiding behind consoles coming out, shooting, no beams.
Going back. tedious.
There'll be a short delay, Captain.
Well, send him over in a minute.
We just got to round them up.
They're on the rum.
I don't know why they can't, we haven't kind of decided that we
can do site to site transport.
You know, we kind of need the transporter room, although, you know
transport them to the transporter room and then transport them to
the ship, but they might work that out.
That's more for them, Maurice Holey, if I'm honest.
Oh, look at that.
She's wearing those skirts, look, that lady.
Two of them are, the 2 of them, and they, yeah, so, so.
So you said that Rob Bowman moves the action up to the top floor
of, because they've got this big set that has these floors and the
glass floors and stuff, but the script is still saying that he's
training his weapon on the dilithium crystal chamber, which is, of
course, the round thing on ground level.
Uh, but they haven't really established any of that yet.
And clearly Rob Bowman doesn't care.
So he, you know, because it's more important to get some sort of
dynamic shot.
I think they do this again the following year in the schizoid man
don't they?
Where they use these levels of the...
You never get a shot, though, like him falling down and cracking
into that glass.
Yeah, that is pretty great. so dramatic.
That's the sort of thing where in later years they go, well, we
can't really do that to the set.
We need it again next week.
At the moment, they don't know how many episodes I got left, really
you know, like just smash them up.
And I think you see some blood as well, some blood on the glass.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which is great.
That's a really unusual shot of the Enterprise there from...
Yeah, yeah, it is, isn't it?
sort of below the range.
Tasha, yeah, come along now.
Odo would have had them rounded up by now.
She's decided that they're just going to stand there and wait till
he gets bored.
Like, you know what I mean?
He'll just get bored.
I'd love a scene of him just shouting out, I'm not coming down, you
know.
Oh, thank you for spelling us out.
Yeah, obviously, we've got to shoot the dilation chamber.
Thank you.
That would destroy the Enterprise, as you know, Bob.
Yes, he knows.
I know.
Every time you say, as you know, Bob.
I laugh.
It's because they do it a lot in 90s.
They do.
It is a thing.
Oh, this is nice.
I do like, you know, this is what we've been leading up to.
Wharf this final confrontation. trying to convince him to do the
right thing.
Yeah, yeah, but the thing is, you know, that this is someone who
can't live with the new thing where they're allies, where they're
friends and allies, and he needs there to be war, and they go back
and they, you know, that's what they do with Kirk, don't they?
in Star Trek six.
You know, it still feels that way.
The warriors of Kling.
Kling, yeah.
I don't say Kling very often, do they?
No.
I looked it up on memory, Alpha, and memory, Alpha, obviously, rec
concert is another way of saying Kono, Kronos, you know, but Kling
I think, is pretty great.
Well, it's like the guy in trials and tribulation, so he calls the
Klingon language Klingon E, you know.
It's just no one ever calls it that.
What are we talking about?
I like the fact that you have, you know, a glorious job educating
the youth of today, you know, in dead languages and wonderful
sophisticated things going on in your life.
But there's still time to go on memory alpha to find out how many
references of the word cling you can find.
Kling, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're a very multifacety person, you know.
See, yeah, I think this is good.
There's a great performance from Vaughan Armstrong.
He is really killing it here.
But I think bringing it upstairs was a good move.
Yeah, oh, yeah.
If they were just downstairs on those boring carpets.
You know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, just even the flashing warp core and stuff.
I mean, they could have just changed it to the warp core, fire at
the warp core.
But the money shot is full, isn't it?
And you just wouldn't have that, I was.
Yeah.
But this is the speech, isn't it, where Worf says that the real
challenge is where a warrior must overcome.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
And it's sort of cheesy, but it is him stating his philosophy.
We're getting a little bit of what he thinks about and what it
means to him to be a Klingon.
You know, that it is internal.
And that the duty on a loyalty thing is a thing that will come up
later, isn't it?
Like that's a warrior.
It's nothing.
But isn't that where we land where we finally go with the Klingon
stories?
They we discover that the Klingons have forgotten duty honour and
loyalty and that's summed up in tacking into the wind.
Exactly.
But also the same speech at the end of, um, since, uh, not since
the father at the end of, Well, you know, like at the end of
what's a phase at the end of. so fucking refreshing that someone
calls it out, you know?
Oh, look at that.
That is great.
Yes.
Woo hoo.
He lands with a crack.
There's glass flying.
There's blood spray.
Yeah, the glassy lands on cracks. do that later on.
No, no.
It's really good, isn't it?
To quote the red dwarf joke again.
It would be like, are you sure, director?
It does mean rebuilding the set?
Yeah.
But, and this too.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, because what he's done is he has given Chorus the
opportunity to die in battle, you know, like he doesn't have to go
off.
He doesn't have to leave in a world where he's an ally to the
federation.
He gets to die honourably.
But the funny thing is like, no, that is so shit.
Rob Bowman, wake up yourself.
The one with the successive, you know, the camera.
Get moving further and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting
until he's just in the distance.
Just like, you cheesy.
This is drama.
What the hell?
But, you know, he kills someone in sins of the father and he gets
chewed out.
He gets in trouble, but here it's just like, oh, yeah, he killed
that guy.
It's fine, you know, like whatever. fine line, though, isn't it?
I wanted to talk about that.
I wasn't quite sure where.
So I'm glad you're given this opening. of like him being a Klingon
on the ship and being allowed to behave like a Klingon.
And scenes of the Picard basically go and swim. you know what?
There's only so far you be a Klingon on this ship and you need to
start behaving more like a human.
And we do have a few scenes like that as well.
And I don't think they really land anywhere with it.
No, but here they have a, they've decided that's not going to be a
thing, but, you know, it is telling that just a few years later
he's being told off for behaving like exactly like this.
He goes on the ship and kill someone.
As ever, I prefer the DS9 approach.
When Wolf decides to stab his brother because he wants to commit
suicide in Sons of Mogue.
Cisco just goes, get him in the fucking brig, all right?
Psychopath.
I love this line.
I laughed out loud at this line.
Everyone's looking at him after he says, I would like to...
Look at that, yeah.
Oh boy, it's nearly over his eyes there.
I know, but this is the end of the day.
Yeah.
So that, but that's a funny line.
You know, he says, oh, yes, you know, I would very much like
Captain to, you know, after my tour of duty on the Enterprise is
over.
I would very much like to serve on the Klingon ship and then
they're both just looking at him as he walks off and he goes, I
was just trying to be polite, which I just think is so funny.
It's all about being Klingon.
I mean, I just think it was a bit laboured.
I always feel like TNG comedy is a bit laboured.
Yeah, yeah, but I don't think that that's not a comedy.
That's not a doodle, doo, doo, doo, sort of end of episode comedy
thing, like we would have had. not as bad as that little girl in
disaster at the end.
No, you're right.
That's adorable.
Although, I mean, we have gone to the lengths in series one. of
having a joke and people literally going, thank God we didn't do
that.
But no, but I thought I thought that was a properly funny thing
because it was thematically consistent with what was going on in
the episode and it was playing with, you know, his wharf Klingon.
Is he, you know, how human is he?
that kind of thing.
I was just trying to be polite.
It's a very weird thing for Cleon to say.
It's great.
And that episode is sort of revving the engine of that, isn't it?
Where is Wharf with the Klingon people?
It's not really got anything huge to say about it, but then we
would go on to have a, well, in fact, what was nice about that
episode wasn't really the episode itself, about how it gave us a
chance to talk about how this stuff runs and runs and the various
ways they explore it.
And clearly there's there's legs here.
Like, you know, they, there are what, 20, 30 Klingon episodes
between now and the end of Enterprise?
That's a season.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, the funny thing is, though, I think that
that next year, the Kleon episode focusses on Riker.
Brilliant for it, though.
It is, it's one of the best episodes of that terrible season.
The only character that could possibly serve on a Klingon ship.
Oh man, William Riker.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They should have gotten a bit where he shoves the Klingon into the
wall.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's great.
It's a really, really good episode, but it does sound like, you
know, they're kind of going, all right, we've done the episode
about wharf interacting with other Klingons.
Let's do something else, and then Ron Moore hits early on the
thing that, like, just becomes deep size 9's normal motors
operanda, doesn't it?
Where you have alien characters and we have the Ferengi episode
the Changeling episode, the, you know, the trill episode, basically
every year where their high concept gets played with and examined
and stuff.
And so more starts that, but not really until series 3.
It's no surprise they ran with these Klingon episodes, though.
Like look at the 1st 3 there.
Heart of Glory, Matt of Honour, and the Emissary.
And that's 3 of the highlights of the 1st 2 years.
There's something here.
There's some magic here.
What, the unfortunate thing is, is then they start painting out
that civilisation in agonising detail at times.
And you get something like the 2nd half of birthright, you know
where Worf goes looking for his dad.
And oh, it's just so boring.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, there are diminishing returns.
It doesn't last too long.
I think maybe even redemption's pushing it a bit.
But there's a lot of other stuff going on in redemption as well
isn't there?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, particularly in part two, where only half of it is about the
Klingon thing.
It's so interesting to go back as well and see early Michael Dorm
especially after we've seen the wonderful things he does elsewhere
you know.
You remember the fabulous line he had about drinking the tea in
the house, the survivors, which it's only like 2 seasons away.
But so they very quickly learn.
Actually, this man can do more than grunt and hold a phaser.
Yeah, which is nice. and say cheesy dialogue.
I mean, you know, the speech about the fight being internal and
stuff like that is barely wrote.
Do you know what I mean?
It's not that exciting and he's doing okay with it.
But like no one at this point in the show is kind of covering
themselves in glory, not even Patrick Stewart, really, you know
it's still all a bit rough and a bit embryonic, I think.
Well, what's interesting about Dawn is he starts off as this
character they do not know what to do with.
And he ultimately becomes, oh, we're going to bring this character
across to save another show.
He's so been taken to the heart of everybody. you know, and that's
him doing all the work.
I don't know, Ryan's part of it is probably.
If he wasn't as charismatic and as funny as he is, as well.
Then they certainly wouldn't have chosen him for that.
And then what happens is, you know, everyone goes, oh, DS9 sold
out, wharf's going over there.
And it was like gangbusters because suddenly he's another outcast
like they're all outcasts on DS9.
And, you know, spends a whole season going, well, I don't want to
be here, this miserable place.
You know, I'm going to live on the defiant.
And then eventually settles in, has a wonderful romance with Jazia
lots of interesting things going on with his character.
And then to just a piece, the resistance, the cherry on the Sunday
to top it all off, that moment where he turned up again in series
3 of Picard, you know?
And I was punching a gun.
Yes, is...
And they did that whole thing about him dying.
I was like, 0 no.
What are they doing?
Of course it was fake.
It's worth mentioning that he is the actor who has done more Star
Trek than anyone else.
You wouldn't be able to tell that at this point, would you?
No, but he would be.
But there you go.
Yeah.
So hurrah for wharf.
Exactly.
All right, it's the end of the episode, and it is my turn to pick
and I have decided to do what I think I've done before fairly
recently.
You're about to do what I think you're about to do.
You've actually done it quite a few times fairly recently.
It's always been you choosing Enterprise, if you're about to
choose Enterprise.
I really want to choose it.
You are obsessed, man.
Do you not remember what bees on the voyages?
Yeah, I thought it was all right.
Well, I hope for your choice.
You get something truly ghastly.
Okay.
All right.
I'm sure to.
That's going to happen.
I'm sorry, in his favour. that's right Okay, here goes.
Your random Star Trek episode is Terra Nova season one, episode
six.
Oh, I don't know a thing about that.
Do you want to do Season one?
No.
And it means it just means new earth, right?
I don't know.
I think that's supposed to be the only, and I'd say this with some
weight, the only episode that, uh, not Mayweather.
What's his name?
The pilot.
Oh, yeah, yeah. don't even know his name.
This is a problem.
Is that his name?
Travis, I think that's the only episode that's about him.
Oh, okay. the entire run.
It's very so embarrassing.
All right.
We've rolled this before, and I think maybe we do it.
It's Carbon Creek.
Oh, yeah, interesting choice.
From a Klingon episode to a Vulcan episode.
What do you think?
I watched Carbon Creek about 2 years ago.
I had never seen it before, and I think on my blog, I gave it 4
stars out of 5, and I remember it just being very light, but just
really enjoyable.
And Jolene Blaylock gets to do interesting things because it's set
in the past, I think.
Yeah, yeah.
Like in the 20th century or something or the like in the like it's
contemporary, isn't it?
Yeah, it's not like a, this is gonna wow you, but it was, you know
remarkably competent for an episode of Enterprise.
Yeah, I think I want to do something worse.
You want something worse than competent.
Actually, this is kind of interesting.
This could be good.
And again, it's one part of one of the series 4 3 parties.
We are avoiding early enterprise, though, you know, a lot at the
moment.
Yeah, but this is season four, episode five, cold station 12.
Oh, it's the best of the 3 as well.
Yeah, yeah.
I think I think you should push it again.
Because I think I think we should do something really terrible.
Oh really?
That's a very good episode.
Yeah, and that's a that's actually a good three-parter.
I really like it, but we can always roll it again.
Do you remember the style of that free power, the very 1st shot of
that CGI Klingon tog going...
No.
Okay, so this is series season one, episode 9 civilisation.
Well, I don't know a thing about it.
I mean, do we dare go in blind on something?
See, I've, I've pulled up Jamma's reviews and he's, he gives it
2.5 stars, which means it's as good as BAM.
And he describes it like this.
Members of the Enterprise crew go undercover to explore the world
of a pre-warp society and Archer is drawn into an investigation
involving an illness among their people.
It just sounds like...
Have ever seen anything like that before?
No joke.
What a revelation.
Unbelievable.
A disease, you say, my God.
I push it again.
Come on, let's do that, okay.
That's absurd.
Okay, whatever you do now, I'll be this one.
Probably season three, which we haven't done properly, have we?
Have we?
Not really.
Not any of the good ones anyway.
We did one with Rick Worthy as a sort of ape guy, didn't we?
Did we do that?
That's a thing that happens.
I think I think you watched that one, but we did.
I may have watched that one.
Right.
So season three, episode 12, Chosen Realm.
Can you please check Jamara again, please?
I thought you knew these.
Chosen realm.
It's not ringing any bells.
A group of religious extremists hijacks the enterprise with the
intention of using it to destroy their enemies in a century long
holy war.
A group of religious extremists, you say.
My God.
Sounds great.
I love about enterprises is how they pushed away from everything
all the other 90s trek shows did and did entirely original
things.
No, they didn't.
That's just a thing that everyone always does.
I'm beginning to have 2nd thoughts about this whole idea.
How long can we eat this out for?
I kind of do want to do a series 3.
I want to do something arkey, you know?
But like heaps of them aren't that arky.
Do you know what I mean?
Like there's all sorts of strange.
Like, it would be interesting to see how they do just a standard
dumb Star Trek plot against the background of the arc and how the
arc effects, what's going on.
And we've we've only ever done one series 3 episodes, and that was
some proving ground, which was a bit arky because that that has
Shran, and it has the Zindi, you know, testing weapon and all of
that sort of thing.
So we have done that.
I don't know why, you know, we've enterprise.
Everything just goes in one ear and out the other.
I'll just forget everything. and super forgettable.
But I think we'll go with that, but I've forgotten what it's
called already.
Show me some realm.
Chosen round.
Perfect.
You chose it 3 minutes ago. absolutely unforgettable.
Well, you've chosen the realm that we're entering and on your own
head, be it.
Okay.
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 7th of May 2024 and released on
the 24th of May.
We'll see you next time for Star Trek Enterprise, Chosen Realm.
Fuck, I don't know.
There just comes a point where you can't keep pressing the button
anymore.
I mean, do you know what I mean?
Like, at some point we have to do those shitty nondescript ones.
I just need to remember that asshole.
Do you know?
Oh, have I put whisper sink, whisper, speak into the thing?
I'm just sort of thinking, because we're, there's a Star Trek
coming out every week now, and so we're now falling back behind
right?
Um, Because, uh, where are we on titled Star Trek Project?
Where are my stats?
Here we go.
Oh no, I don't want stats.
I want coverage.
Um, yeah, because there's new, like there's new discovery coming
out every week.
And so we are still at 12.77% or something roughly like that.
Enterprise is the one with our worst amount of coverage, which is
oh, TNG as well, which is why we keep coming back to it.
Um, But, you know, we, you know, I don't know, how many episodes
of Star Trek are they doing this year?
Probably only 20.
Yeah, just the two.
Discovery and Stranger New Wells.
No, no, no, discovering lower decks.
I don't think I think Stranger Worlds is in production.
I don't know that it will make it out this year though.
I mean, 20 episodes, there's more than 8 that we're getting for
Doctor Who.
Yeah, but we used to get so many.
Do you know what I mean?
Back in the heyday, where it was Picard and Lower Decks and
Discovery and...
I wonder what the top, the, the year was with the most amount of
trek coming out.
Yeah, that'd be interesting.
I mean, to be fair, at one point you had, um, you know, a movie.
And 48 episodes of 2 shows.
Yeah, 52 or whatever.
Yeah.
Paramount must have been busy then.
I wonder what happens.
Like, are we getting like discoveries ending, low decks is
ending?
The card is ended.
These have gone on.
Yeah, I wonder if it's just winding down for a bit.
But I think one, I think maybe just strange new worlds will
Klingon.
Yeah.
Well, this is series three.
I mean, it could run for five.
And maybe that will pass the battle to something else and it will
just be a single... don't know.
I don't know.
They've obviously made a choice for some reason to end all of
these.
Oh, what about what about prodigy?
When's that coming?
Because that'll be 20 episodes.
Is it the last 20?
At the moment.
Oh, apparently, yeah.
Well, remember they Paramount Plus didn't pick up Prodigy and it
got sold on Netflix and it's definitely coming on Netflix, but
then all 20 episodes were released on a French streaming service
in French.
And so, like, and then I haven't heard anything more since.
But I mean, it is coming to Netflix at some point.
And I did think it was beautiful.
Like, I loved...
Even the sort of slighter ones are exciting to look at.
How are we on prodigy?
We're quite ahead, actually.
Not as ahead as we are on Strange Street Worlds, and...
Well, we had to do it.
Um, yeah, well, even more ahead than Deep Season High.
But yeah, Prodigy might be one to do for a while.