Meridian

Hey, Joe. Hi. So, we're back aboard Deep Space 9 this week for a another episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation. It's season three, episode eight. It's directed by Jonathan Frakes. Bless him. Um, and it's called Meridian. Early days for Jonathan Friends, directs in Star Trek. Now, I mean, he's still doing it now, isn't he? He certainly did last year. He did the 2nd last episode of Discovery earlier this year. Do you feel like watching that recently and then watching this? Do you feel as if there's techniques may have become a little bit more sophisticated over time? Yeah. There certainly whirls the camera around like an absolute bastard these days. Oh, no wonder I love this more then. Nice, nice, sedate pictures of a nice park. You know, people wandering around. I'm not sure the camera moved once in this, if I'm honest. So this is a this is a romance. And I am a big fan of romance as a genre, but one of the things that I think we've discovered from Untitled Star Trek project is that when the women in the show have a romance, it's always terrible and it's always with an absolute creep and it's really kind of embarrassing for everyone. And that's less true when the men have a romance. Well, when the men are the romance. It tends to be strong women. And when the women have a romance, it tends to be strong men. And that power imbalance is just a bit dodgy. Whereas I don't think he is a very strong man in this. In fact, he's just very wet. Well, so I think the problem is this, right? In 45 minutes, I think you can do a romance and I am going to make a rare reference to Doctor Who because this year Doctor Who did a 45 minute romance with the doctor. It's something that it's done before, and I thought that the romance worked as a romance and that you discovered things about the people and that it centred on the 2 people and their relationship. This is a show about a space anomaly, and a romance happens in order to give it some kind of weight or something. But the romance never has time to land because we're all busy with the space anomaly. And so it's unclear what the 2 of them see in each other and why this is suddenly such a big thing. Do you know what I mean? Why they're prepared to kind of make life altering plans on the basis of someone that they've met a day or 2 ago. And so that's the other thing. You know, the scale of the romance is so great and they never get the chance to sell it and it's not really what the episode's interested in. And so the whole thing doesn't really work. So Terry Farrell or memory alpha makes a comparison between this and rejoined. And actually, it has quite a bit in common with what you just said there. That is also about a space of anomaly. They're creating artificial wormholes. And there's a load of tender babble in that episode like there is in this, but that episode is not concerned with the artificial wormholes at all. It's just an excuse to get the 2 characters together to brilliant actresses who have great chemistry and history together as characters. Yes. And then let that play out. Whereas you're right, in fact, in between the scenes where they're off to a park eating berries out of a lake and all of this. They're just looking at pads going, what, the telemetry of brickadoon. Sorry, Meridian. Yes, it does seem to be stabilising. Yes. Oh, by the way, what? lovely spots you have. Anyway, back to the techno babble. And it's more interested in the concept than it is in the romance. And so it fails as romance. No, and the concept isn't that interesting either in itself. We were just talking before we started recording about blink of an eye, which is a Voyager episode, which is something a bit similar in its high concept, but it actually tells the story of a civilisation developing over a period of time. Like it has something to say about people and it's not just talking about space anomalies. I mean, I'm not entirely sure how, but I think there is a way that you could make this work as a concept, this idea of a planet that sort of zaps back into existence every 100 years. Is that right? 60 years it disappears. Yeah. 60 years. 60 years. So and the idea of a community then coming together, picking up where they left off. And if you could sort of do something with the characters on the planet and they're interacting with you and what that means to them. But what instead what happens is, is every 60 years, the community comes together and they all go, oh, how lovely. We're all here again. Well, we'll be gone, but I'll see you in 60 years. you know, that's so boring. And there's a kind of last minute mantlepiece, masterpiece society thing happening. Yeah, yeah. Where he can't go off with like the guy whose name is Daryl, for God's sake. Darrell. Darrell. Darrell. Daryl. Daryl. So, Daryl and and Jetsy, like he can't go off with Jansia because there's a lady that he should be having a relationship with or something on the planet because there's very few people left on the planet. And that's that's the other thing. There's some sort of crisis. They disappear for 60 years, but they're appearing for just a few days at a time, and it used to be longer and there used to be time to bang and have children and build buildings and all of that sort of thing. But now, because it's sped up, they're only here for a few more days and then they sort of disappear. And so there's some crisis. You could tell a human story about feelings within that premise. If you wanted to, but they just choose not to. But you've got to make it kind of relatable. Like, I don't know, how do you feel about, you know, becoming incorporeal for 60 years, like, is that a good thing, a bad thing? I don't know. Am I scared? Am I boring? visit England once every couple of years, okay? All right. So there's only the possibility for us. Fuck every 5 years. Okay. I don't know how you would do this. No, I don't know how you would do that. But within all of that. I didn't hate this. I think mostly because I think these characters are getting slightly well worn now, as in they're comfortable playing the characters. So the interactions, even though I've been buy it for a second. The bit where Cisco goes to her course and goes, well, I guess you're leaving us forever to go to that Brigadoon planet and all of that. But the chemistry between the characters is so great. I've said you before about hanging out with these characters. It does hold, and may I say, oh, no, you're going to fire me on this. I really enjoyed the B plot. So the B plot is about collecting celebrity deep fake porn of not a visitor. No, I mean, it shouldn't exist. It is deeply problematic of what Jeffrey Coombes is asking Corp to do. All of it is deep. But I thought there were some witty moments. There's a lovely people where he's trying to do the whole scanner of Kira on the promenade. And that scene, as written, but said by those actors, is so funny. Oh, and that's one where I noticed Jonathan Frakes directing as well because there's lots of stuff where you're getting to see into the camera so the characters are looking at the camera stuff. And that's actually quite fun. Look, it's just a toy bit. It goes, what's it? They want to, they want to know what it feels like, major, to be on the bridge with you, fighting Jem'Hadar ships, and then Odo goes naked, I presume. That's some funny stuff. Look, I think it's really funny. It's Jeffrey Combs again in a, you know, rocking the bow mask scale. This is his birth appearance. Oh, it really? That's... In fact, there's a wonderful special feature on the series 5 D Space 9 where he sort of lists out all the people that he played and at the end he goes, and Tarah in Meridian. Like I see embarrassing side character that he plays. Yeah, no, it's a rough looking alien. Like all of that stuff's quite fun. Is this the 1st indication that there's going to be something between Odo and Kira? No, that that occurs in series two. And it's after she leaves the room in one scene and he, like this you, you, you, the camera lingers on him and he's thinking about what they're talking about. You're like, what the hell's that all about? So it's just a sort of a flirtation. So we're still, we're still kind of laying the groundwork for it. And I thought that worked very well, that 1st scene where Kira pretends to be with Odo. just the interaction. with the characters working. Yeah, yeah. Even in these god awful dreary episodes. They're sort of bringing a bit of life to it because they're so fun to watch. The end of the B plot, right? Is Eva the most inspired ending of any plot ever or the most cringing juicy scene in Star Trek of all time? When Armatuma's head comes up. I mentioned I was in fits of laughter. But it was more sort of, I can't believe they did that than that's a really funny joke. I mean I think we'll have fun with this. Yeah, I think so. Let's play spot the TNG cliches. Okay, let's do that among other things. All right. I will count it in. Of course. Above all of those things, of course, you're going to be extremely pleased with this episode because they go outside. We will talk about that. We will talk about that. All right, sorry. Please count us in. All right. Okay, and that's it. Five, four, three, two, one. And we're off. I do have some quotes, you know, but I'll pepper them throughout the episode if we get a bit desperate. Everyone talking about one, is that right? Pretty much, yeah. pretty much. Although they all like working with Jonathan Frakes. Of course they did. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because he's our space dad. So we're in the reprimand. Is that, is the replemat said? Yeah, I wanted to ask you about this, you know, you know when you have a hot drink. Are you Kira? Do you have it too hot to savour the taste or do you make it sort of and then I like that dialogue. It's super cheesy. Like it's such TV dialogue. That's just whole episode, though, to be fair. Yeah, but I did like it, you know, like it's a it's a fun sort of thing. Oh, I like the fact that they just hang out and have lunch together in the replabat. You get loads of scenes like this. Usually the best ones are, Bashir Garak. And that's mostly because he's winding him up. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't mind this said. It turns up it turns up late, doesn't it? It must turn up in series 3 or is it even earlier than that? The replemats in the series. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, they're sitting at this table when um, garage, uh, shop blows up in, no, no, Keiko school blows up. A lot of things love on the propenade, right? Okay. Yeah. Oh, he's a son. Can you describe this alien on the Beaumont scale, please? So he's got kind of big floofy red hair and he's got a kind of it's something about his mouth. What's going on? He's got no lips or something. It's, and he's got like green teeth, and he's got like big bug head, forehead and chin and stuff. And just sort of mottled and unpleasant. Weird deep lines all over his face. Segmenting his face in a strange way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's nothing. This is definitely mid-season. Michael Westmore can't be our Australian. Yeah, he's got 4 nostrils and they're all upside down. It's to make up for the woman with no nose. He's got two. Oh my god, Odo's face when she goes, Oh, sorry. Odo's my partner. And he goes, yeah. Can I do Jeffrey Coombs? He goes, what a interesting couple you make. Like, even with a thankless role like this, he just embodies it does he? He goes for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I think it would be less fun if it wasn't for him. And like he's a sleaze and like that's Odo's thing. Like, just the idea, just the very clear thing that people just use the holo sweets to kind of jerk off is so hilariously great. And there's some really funny stuff about it here, but it just seems like a very odd thing for a Star Trek show. For me, right, when I watch Deep Space Noy. That was the thing that really separated this from TNG in that. Obviously, in TNG, Riker goes on and sees Minuet, and we know what they're using it for, but no one talks about it. Whereas they're just so open about it on the show. In the 1st series, Quarks going, you know, don't you have sex on your world? You know, use these programs. They were just a bit more honest about what was going on. Odo looks at his hand, the hand that she's been holding in the thing, and Odo looks at it, which I thought was... Yeah, yeah. I like the bit. She goes, she calls in sweetheart, and looks Odo in the face. And then Odo looks Taran in the face and goes, yes, sweetheart. So here we have the define, and clearly the reason we've introduced the Defiant is so that we can do Star Trek the Next Generation episodes. Is that what you think is happening? And weirdly enough, three, season three, is peppered with these sort of TNG, yes. Every sort of 3rd episode. And then in season four, they just abandon it completely. and use the defiant one for the war and 2 for somewhere for war to sleep because he's not going to hang out with those primitives on the station. Yeah. Yeah. And like, so this is a step backwards, I think. I can I can imagine being disappointed at the time that we're just doing Star Trek shit and the reason that we have a ship is so that more than 2 people can go on a mission at once. It's a very weird period, this, and it's almost odd and even, good and bad, because you get this, which is pretty bad. Then you get defiant, which is wonderful. Then you get fascination, which is the love virus. then you get civil defence, which is the Cardassian. It's like you're sort of spearheading between good and bad constantly in three. It's really weird. And and civil defence, which is on the same videotape as this? Is it civil defence then Meridian? the one just before this? Oh, is it? Okay. I think it might be. I maybe misremembering that. But civil defence is a great episode of Deep Space 9 that absolutely, like, depends on the premise of Deep Space 9. It's not a Star Trek the Next Generation episode at all. It's really great. But sort of, from series 4 almost, we just had a line of technobabble there where they were all looking at the viewscreen and going, my God, the gravitation fluctuations are destabilising or something. Well, we don't, we just don't do that in the latter half of these nine. Yeah, yeah. So are they still trying to figure it out at this point? Oh, I think so. But I think that, I mean, that's what this show does, isn't it? Like it just reinvents itself every year as it tries to work out what's working and get rid of what's not working and that's good. I'm glad it does that. I think the hit rate is like the latter half of season 2 is one banger after another and they're really leaning into the premise of the show and they're doing lots of Cardassian episodes and great character tales. They're not doing any of this. While they suddenly decided to start doing TNG light. Leave it to Voyager. Is it because TNG is now off the air? Oh, maybe. Yeah, maybe we'll throw him a bone. We'll give him a couple of TNG episodes. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Like, there's one later in the season called Visionary where O'Brien is having visions of like 3 hours in the future, and eventually it leads to a vision where the station explodes. And so we have to stop that from happening. It's totally a TNG episode. Right. Yeah. Or do you remember the one inside Bashir's head? inside his head, the station. Yeah, of course it is. With the lights down a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Okay, right. Well, what is this? Oh my god, do you know what the planet appearing out of nowhere is like? It's a bit like Aldea from... Yeah, absolutely. I was thinking I'll die. Or even Megas 2. You know, appear in half. It doesn't look as lickable, though, as make us too. No, mega C. Oh, this woman, she is so boring. Do you think? Well, I mean, it's a kind of boring character, but she's kind of you know, charismatic enough, I think. Yeah. Do you know what they do, right? In series five, they do children of time, and it is an identical opening to this, where it's like, 0 god, this, we're going through this gravitational what's it? And then a woman appears on the screen in stock colony set number 58, just like she does, with a similar sort of lighting. And I was thinking, oh, God, no, please. We're doing Meridian again. And instead they go, no, we've learnt our lesson now. We're going to give you the best character drama you've ever had on Disney. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, see, that's quite a good painting thing. Yeah. What do you think about that sort of backdrop there with the plots everywhere? Well, like what they've done is rather than do the sky. They got it lead in such a way that the camera blows out slightly so that it looks like a sky. But of course, he's never looks like anything other than a said. And as you said, it's stock colony set one. Now, here is this guy who is who opens with a creepy line. Nathan, I was just admiring your markings. Oh, yeah, no. Jesus Christ. I was just admiring your markings. If you don't mind my asking, how far down do they go? That's so awesome. Like, this is the 1st time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she just goes all the way. And then look, Miles is having a little bit of a reaction there. Cisco looks very relaxed there at the Roman table, doesn't he? Yeah, he does. He's a Roman table, isn't it? Did you notice as well? They keep having these sort of delicious fruits and vegetables right in the front of the shot just to show that these people are very sophisticated. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's sort of shorthand to eat anything. No. Oh, I mean, there's just peppers and things. You know what you're going to do? Pick one up and bite into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't look very alien. Do they? Oh, God. He has a line in a minute about the fruit, though, where he goes oh, the trick is to get really get the pulp out. And that's supposed to be like sexy dark. sexy. Yeah, yeah. Like, I can't see. Why do they they like one another? They're like, there's nothing there. There's no... She's a woman. What more do you need? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do that? What could they possibly have in common? Like, it's nothing. It's not just nothing. I think the problem with this... the woman, the leader. What's her name? Her name is Celton Rakard. Space name. Celton Ricard, you say. She has 2 names. Celton. Probably with Celton. or Ricard. Yeah, depending on what her 1st name is. is she just says everything on one level. She never really displays an emotion. Even when he wants to leave, she's just like, oh, look, here's fruit sex here. Look, eat the thin layer inside the rind. Oh my god. Fucking hell. Excuse me, feeding her. Can someone pass me a cushion, please? I'm getting to a dog mile. Oh, yeah, yeah. This is the sexiest thing that ever happened. She goes, it's delicious. Oh, that goes, oh, no, it's one of those terrible Star Trek Jag jokes. Oh, it's a long time between meals, 60 years. yeah. But that means between banging, doesn't it? That's a long time between we've come back to this porny subplot. This is where all the fun is. He goes, I want Kira. doesn't he? That is actually very Geoffrey Coombs, isn't it? No, no, this, you know, he didn't need to stay the whole hour and he goes, yes, it's a very effective program. On the contrary. I found it quite dull. immediately. But it's just so explicitly you're in there to rub one out. That's why it's out of a thing. Nathan, I'd like to pretend that if we had hola sweets, then we wouldn't be using it for that purpose. Yeah, of course we would. But, you know, we are men after all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we absolutely would. Well, with lower decks, remember, you have to clear out the hollow suite sometimes. If you're a lower decker, it's your job. It's always going on about the pleasure goddess of ricks. We do hear about her quite a bit. That's his favourite program. Oh, okay. No, I don't know about that. Oh, I see it's like Marina Certius from Reg Barclays. Yes, the goddess of empathy. Yeah. I don't like picnics quack. But let's not pretend that having a custom built sex program made for you is very icky. Yeah, yeah, of a person. Do you know what I mean? Like of someone. Yeah. But but obviously the comedy comes from all the different various ways. He tries to trick Kira into having a hologram scan done. Also, is it because we can do this now and there's a word for it and it happens and it's really super creepy. Whereas it's, there's a level of sort of space fantasy to it because it isn't a real thing in 1990 or whatever. Is that a thing? make a difference. I don't know. I don't know It is still creepy. And Kira rightly regards it as creepy, like she thinks it's terrible and it doesn't happen. Like, to be fair, quite gets thwarted. Um, So, what I like about it is, go with me here. This just doesn't happen on any other Star Trek show. Like, like this sort of dodgy, underhanded things that are going on behind the scenes on DS 9. Perhaps we shouldn't be privy to them. I think this is the sort of thing, you know, when the Enterprise docks and they go, oh, we're going to that sleazy station, DS9. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a it's a little more honest. maybe about humanity. Maybe. It's just a little bit kind of, to be unfortunate. But it's not as offensive as it could be. But then why was I having more fun with this than I was with Meridian? Yeah, this is more fun than the meridian pot. But that is another problem with season three. is very often the B plot is more enjoyable than we've done a couple now. That's such a funny line from Quark, where he goes, the things I do for money. Yes, that's the point. It's such a funny line. I've just suddenly realised why these 2 are infatuated with it up. They both walk around with their arms behind their backs. Their arms like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think that that's a thing that they've decided to do to show that, you know, like you, you know, you sometimes imitate people, I don't know, I think it's a deliberate acting choice. When they start to decide to actually give these characters long standing relationships, that's when they think, right, what sort of actor can we bring in that would truly compliment? Let's bring in Penny Johnson Gerald to go with Avery Brooks. Oh my god. Michael Dawn and Terry Fowell have great chemistry, less explore that. I don't just bring in these bland murder she wrote actors. to come in and seduce Jadzia for one week. such a generic white guy who is sort of roughly attractive, I guess, in a very dull way. She would not fall for somebody this bland in a million years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Is it because it's what men think women find attractive or something? I can't tell the gender of... I think maybe you're right. I think maybe the writers of Star Trek, the Express 9 are nice blokes and they think, well, you know, just like we always laud writers on this show. Let's put ourselves in it because obviously Jad Zero would fall for a nice guy like me. But unfortunately, this is not sort of bloke that women usually fall for. I mean, I found it far more believable when Jadzia had her arms around Vanessa Williams and they were doing the pottery together. That's the sort of person she would fancy. Yes, yeah, exactly. Oh, well, did you like Cisco playing with the kid there? I quite like that. It's just, he's got a very natural way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we are, now we're back on the station. For the B plot. That's right Oh, this is when he tries to trick Kira into going into the holo suite, isn't it? You've won all these special treats because you're my 1000000th customer. That's so great. There was a beat of character work in this that I liked where she went, I've never won anything before. Of course she hasn't, she's like... She was in a refugee camp. Yeah, yeah. that's right I liked that. I thought that was, you know, it's a boring thing. It's a sort of fairly standard bit of dialogue, but it works with Kira, I think. I thought that was good too. I think that our visitor is a strong enough actress to know, God this bullshit subplot. I will just dig something out of it. You made that lie, you 1000000 customer. She's really great. And she's doing like cute business as well. Like I really like how exasperated, how busy she is. oh come on don't do this to me now. Can I can I point out as well, because I do this quite a bit with DS9, but do you remember the scene in Emissary? If you don't take your hand off my thigh, you'll never lift a glass of it again to this to the very last scene in what you leave behind. which is her going, no, all betting pools are off. Like, they, they just have, they, they do these duos of characters and they run it throughout the series and they just give them lots of great moments. This is perhaps not the best, but she's actually quite excited by the champagne. She's quite happy about that. Doesn't she say? Thanks for the champagne quark. Well, it's Ensign Quintana's birthday, so he'll like the hola sweet tokens. not transferrable. Why doesn't he say that? Yeah, like she likes the champagne. Thanks for champagne. And then she holds up her little dabbo things and goes, oh, I've got these. Like she's actually been excited. And then she goes back to work. with her champagne. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good for her. The only thing is, right, is in the very next episode, because I watched a fire after this, I don't know if you remember the beginning of the fire, it was having a bit of a nervous breakdown because she's overworked. So Bashir goes, right, you're relieved of duty and I'm taking you to Quarks and he forces her to sit down and Quark comes in with another load of stuff. Gambling tokens, hollow sweets, jumpjaw sticks. I'm like, didn't we do this last week? Did you do that last week? Whoops. Like the defiant sense, you know. I like how claustrophobic it feels. Yeah. And I'm like going with that brown colour that isn't quite the brown from the station, but reminds you of it. Like you can see why they did that as well. Oh, God, look at this. It's the same as that bit where... Chakotay said to Janeway, oh, every time you've got a tough decision, you play with your badge. and she's never done it. Jazzy, I never bites so low a leg when she's coming. You've got to tell. You always look to the side. They're constantly doing that in Star Trek. She goes, I suppose I do. I've never noticed it before You must be a man of deep insight. Oh my god. Like, what is this? Are they are they going to bone? Like what's happening? Like she's adjusting the neck of her thing. Can you see Cisco watching from behind? Yeah, yeah. Oh my god. We're going outside. Now this is a very pretty park, don't you think? It looks like the planet Trill from Star Trek Discovery. You don't have those lovely CGI creatures coming out of the bushes. No, that's true. Little flying things coming out of the water. It is refreshing. Although DS9 has a weird habit. of spending its location work on episodes like this and times orphan. Maybe they were thinking, how can we shush this up a bit? Let's go outside. Yeah, well, imagine if they'd done it. Oh, look, there's a waterfall. There's a thing, blah, blah, blah. But you know the bit later on where they climb the tree, or it might be in a 2nd and you see the sort of the whole view of the park and the river and everything. I'd love to sit there and read. That'd be a lovely park to read and have a little picnic. So there was a moment and I'll show you why, in a sec, where I thought, no, look, look, look, we go over here to the tree, now we're at the tree, and I'm thinking, oh, we're back in the fucking studio. Look at that. Because they've put fake grass down around the tree for some reason, like there wasn't sufficient grass. They've put, look, you can see the edge of the fade grass. and they've scattered the fake grass with leaves. That was that's like the sub-rosa grass there, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. And they've added some extra sort of branched things to the tree as well. See these fuzzy branches so that he can climb up without falling over. Oh, how funny. Oh my god. It's a sitting branch here. I can tell you a small quote from David Livingston now who says this episode was mostly talking. Jonathan got some really nice performances out of Terry and our guest actor. I'm not sure about that. But he does say we went back to Huntington Gardens and we found this tree and that was great. That's all he's got to say. He liked the trade. So this guy is in everything. Brett Cullen. you look at his memory alpha page. He just has a massive career. Well, as bit parts or, yeah, yeah. Big parts and things. I've seen lost and shit. Desperate housewives. Maybe it's the rice in there. I don't know. I don't know. Well, it's kind of a, I don't know, he's in Allie McBeal, V, Ghost Whisperer, just stacks of stuff. You got to remember, this is the Jonathan Frakes that's directing you know, Captain Burnham and her hot boyfriend. You know, he can read some passion to the screen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, about, you know, Captain Burnham and his hot and her hot boy boyfriend are kind of hotter than these couple, I think. Terry Farrow is very hot. Terry is a very, very beautiful woman. I agree. Ugh, yuck. And you're going to eat be these fucking... I think they're blueberries out of a pond. Yeah. In a pond. Well, no, we cut away, so I'm assuming it wasn't the ones that he took out of the water. No, no, no, but I'm just saying that's what he's doing in the story. Now, I, now that I'm going to say, I did like these park scenes. I mean, not so much for the romance, just because it was nice to look at. And I think Dennis McCarthy, who's fresh from Star Trek generations doing the sport for this, actually did quite a nice it's almost more sort of sad than romantic, but the music was quite nice in this scene as well. So I'll give them a few props. Yeah. Yeah. Oh no, here we go. Very chaste. It's that sort of chin kissing. You know, when you sort of push your chin in like that. It's like yeah, you're kneading dome with your face. Whereas, if you see her later when she grabs hold of Michael Dorm She gets her tongue so far down his throat. Yeah, well, like Terry Powell's been waiting for that moment. We saw him in far beyond the stars recently and he's very, very pretty. He's a big guy. I think this lighting in the set's not too bad. Yeah, that is actually pretty good. What I what I like in this era is where they have that really bright yellow lighting and even though the lighting's really flat at the beginning, there's lights and shadows in the background. Like it's in the foreground, it's really, oh, no, like there's silights on her head. Do you know what I mean? The lights reflecting off their hair and stuff like that. Like, it's okay. I can't believe I'm going to say this as a critical remark, but I like the fact there's tons of foliage and they're put in the light through that. So it's throwing shadows everywhere. I don't know. A bit more effort than we saw in TNG series one, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's even better than Ensigns of Command. Go and watch the, what's it called? The Bendy City, Benzardi City, an encounter of Far Point, where it's all just flat lit. Yeah, yeah. They're learning. They are learning, but this, like, interestingly, again, by the time we get to children of time, they do lots of scenes where they go on location at dusk as the sun's going down and then they match it in the studio with the same precisely. So they really do start learning. Sorry, what were you going to say? just super bored. They're just looking at these pads. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. One thing needed to be card. Do you know what I mean? Like, just, like, if you don't need to do a romance about Dax, like I don't know. So the romance here is to make give her what? So her romance falls foul of a space anomaly. That's right. Yeah. I just don't know like what's... She just said a load of text about what. jumped up sort excitedly. Now, I did like it when she ran off and then came back and given him a kiss and then ran off again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Daxy. My favourite scene of the whole episode. See this? Well, I think this is directed in a fun way as well. I've only got one thing to say to you. If I ever catch you pointing a hollow image of me again, you will end up eating it. I was hoping she was going to say that I was going to go and go and threaten to feed it to him. Go on. Oh, and there's a wonderful way because Cork keeps telling lies as to why he's using this hollow imager. And with every lie, Odo goes, ha, ha, ha. And he goes, will you stop doing that, please? It's so great. This is a very witty scene, I think. Yeah. Yeah. No, but I love the direction of it. I loved having them just run towards him as well in that tiny set. They manage to get a bit of a run happening. He goes, he's bored in an hour. He goes, where are you going? And then he realises she's heading straight. He goes, oh, no, Jesus. I mean, I wouldn't say this is the best These are 3 very good actors. Well, yeah, yeah, I agree. He's the program. If if you ever needed a better example of 3 prestige actors lifting terrible material, here, yeah. And a director doing it as well. Look at Lodo. Look at Odo, smiling indulgently because he knows it's all a lie. Naked, Irish. Isn't there some petty thief? Isn't there some petty thief he can harass? And he goes, just you. Just you. so fun. It reminds me. That reminds me of that scene from Emissary as well. You know, at first, I didn't think I was going to like him. Is that a no? So funny. And then she throws it away. And he goes, it's definitely a no. It just clatters though. They should have followed you at smashing. Oh, back on that footage. We're back on the, back in the, yeah, we're outside. I mean, I will say one thing about this park. It's a bit too cultivated, isn't it, to be this sort of random planet. But look, we're shooting we're shooting the the reflection in the water. That's a thing. That's definitely a thing. He's trying, isn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you remember the park in Silicon Avatar? Yeah. Where the colony was taking place? This is a little bit more lush than that, but, you know, it's the same sort of thing. Can I throw a quote at you from Hillary J. Bader, the writer of this episode? Yeah, now, I was trying to work out whether Hillary was male or female a little bit earlier and I can't find out. There's a couple of times because there are sort of gender nonspecific names in the Star Trek creatives. There's a few times. Well, their partner is called Jay, which also is probably gender nonspecific. So I couldn't work it out. Because Kim Friedman's a director and that's a man. That's a man. Yeah. Anyway, he or she says, of all the stories I've done for Star Trek Meridian is my least favourite. And then Ronald D. Moore says, I don't think anyone likes the show. I don't think we like the show. This one just went wrong and it never jailed. And visual effects supervisor Glenn Newfield says. It's a classic case of making it up as we go. I don't wanna talk about it. Now, Ira Bear says about the visual effects, he goes, there's some nice things in this episode, but to make that show really work, we would have needed to have had another $200,000 for opticals. What opticals? Well, I think he's talking about the bit at the end where she's trying to breathe in that weird void as the planet's vanishing because it looks really bad. But, but I have to say that it's not the problem. Do you know what I mean? Like, it tells the story. We know what's happening. It may not look great, but it's Star Trek in the 90s and sometimes that doesn't quite work, but the special effects actually tell us what's happening, which is their job. What can I say something kind then? Because Terry Farrell should go. And she says, I thought that show was done well. I loved working with Jonathan, but to be honest, I thought rejoined work better as a love story. I don't think Meridian was as emotionally honest as rejoined in its approach to the Dax relationship and its dialogue. I just sort of fell in love with this guy. Boom. Many people enjoyed the show and as an actress, I did too especially the scene where I had to say goodbye to Avery Brooks. Those kind of scenes are easier to play because it's with Avery and because he's very sportive of me. If it hadn't have been for Avery, I don't know if I would have gotten through our 1st season. So I agree with her criticism, but I can see that she's sort of having fun with it. I mean, they only get 2 episodes a year with the focus. Like I said, yeah, yeah. I think, like, I do think that scene between her and Avery is good. I actually, I think there's some good things in this scene as well. Look how chill they are, and that's a thing that you need to do. Like if she was really leaving. You would have to have this scene. And, you know, the scene about Tongo where it turns out she doesn't know that Quark is letting her win Tongo all the time because Quark fancies her, which is a thing that, you know, comes up in series 7. you know, like um, in shadows and symbols and stuff. Um, and when, you know, he, you start selling weapons on the station. He goes to Dax's quarters because he knows he's going to die because he's about to expose the whole the whole chain and goes to Dax's quarters and gives her the tongo wheel. So they play with that quite a bit later on as well. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a it's a game. I'm very good at it Season 3 is really where they got Bashir right as well. He's so chill here. Compared to one and 2 where he was so hottight all the time. Well, it's kind of overwritten, isn't it? You know, like, are they just decide to let the actor do his thing I think? One thing in this episode's favour, and I said this to you on the chat, is if this was a TNG episode, I don't think we'd ever do the point where the man was choosing to leave Meridian. It would just be Beverly Crusher or Councillor Troy staying on Meridian. And I do like the fact... Yeah, I do like the fact that we go there first, and that's his natural assumption is that he is going to leave rather than she is going to stay. That was nice. No, because both Odan and Ronan want Beverly to give up her job can't believe you remember their names. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And creepy guy from the price wanted, I think, wanted Deanna to give up her job. Like the assumption was that she gives up her job. Yeah, I don't know. Like that that is better. But why are they making these kind of weird career altering decisions in like 2 days? Like are they are they 17? Like, what's going on? Because the episode is only 45 minutes long and we want to forget about it next week. That's right. And so what you do, you have to rein it in. You have to, like, like, none of that happens again. the recent Doctor Who episode as a, as a, as a comparison. They don't do any of that. Do you know what I mean? Like they don't, like, it doesn't get to that point. What works in rejoined is that it's Susanna Thompson's character Lenara, that makes a choice. I'm going to stay here. I'm going to defy trial tradition. I love you. I'm going to be with you. Then her brother talks to her and her career would be over and all of this and she's like, I don't know what to do. I know what to do. She goes, well, the shuttle's going tomorrow and make your choice because I really want to be with you. And Dax is there all hopeful, hoping that she's going, and of course she goes off and she's devastated. But that works. Yeah. But they've got a history. You know, there's stuff invested in it in that relationship already. But this doesn't work because we know Dax isn't going to be leaving DS9 on this God awful episode. Whereas in that episode, we don't know that Leonara isn't going to join the station because Barell did. You know, Chicago did. We've had love interests come along, so she maybe she would have stayed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Penny Johnson, Gerald will, you know, like everyone will. Nathan, I really like the lighting in this episode, this sort of suffuse glow of the lads in my time. Yeah. It's quite nice on that. And the fact that it seems to be open to the outside. What's Daryl doing? Well, I... how I sit with my other half. I do just sit in his lap while we're watching the TV and he strokes my hair and the way she's sort of stroking his arm. So body language wise, I can buy this. I think they do do a good job of trying to sell that. Do you know what I mean? Like, I think they do try. But I can't, I don't get anything from them because I don't, he what's he? He's got no characteristics at all. What's he like as a person? He's just blonde. She could find out he's a beast when they come back 60 years later. Oh, God, all my friends are 60 years older, I'm stuck here with this monster. You know? I don't think that was going to pan out that way, B. Oh, God listen to this dialogue. I could lose you What if you didn't have to lose me? Oh, what if I stayed here with you? sent a robot. I wish you could. But that's not possible. It's like if you asked AI to write a romance in Star Trek, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, particularly the line, your molecular structure wouldn't survive dimensional shift. No, she goes, I could build a quantum stabiliser. Oh, my matrix and yours could be joined or something. It's like, my gosh, I'm getting weak at the knees. That so sexy, isn't it? Only Insta, the only genre. Sorry, the only franchise that does romantic dialogue worse than this is George Lucas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's considerably worse. Oh, possibly JMS on Babylon 5. He does terrible romantic dialogue as well. have never even heard of it. Maybe just romance in science fiction. It's not a great movie. No, I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true because I think the relationship between book and and Michael is good. I think the relationship between Paul and Hugh is good. Like, Cisco and Cassidy, Gray and Adira, you know, like... Do you remember that wonderful scene where, oh, I know I keep bringing it up, where she wants to move in and he's like, that's a big step. What the hell do you mean by that? She goes, you are afraid of commitment, Ben Cisco? I'm off. I'm never going to see you again. It's wonderful. I suppose it's how you play it and how you write. Well, but these single episode romances never really work, do they? Have they tried it? Kursman Trek. The single episode romance? I'm trying to think. I don't think they have. No, it's because they're all actual people. Yeah, yeah. In lift me up where suffering cannot reach in series one, which is one that you haven't seen, which I think is really good, and you should watch. Um, um, Pike has a, an old fling. Do you know what I mean? Like he comes back to a planet where it's a woman that he's had a relationship. Do you know what I mean? Like a brief relationship with and they're going to have sex again sort of thing. And that seems much more grown up and much more kind of sensible. Do you know what I mean, than this stuff? Terry Farrell says in that quote that she didn't leave the relationship herself because why on earth would Dax just fall in love with this man? But she liked this scene. And you can see it because even the situation is absurd. Everything she's saying is crazy. The emotion is real. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's really doing a great job of this too, isn't she? Selling this sort of stuff and look, look at Avery. And then they hug in a minute as well. I've always said to you, I love, don't take this for a while. I love how much they touch each other on DS 9. It just suggests a familiarity. And then I can call you old man. I look forward to it. It's beautiful, isn't it? Look at them. Yeah. That I buy, that relationship. Just great. I say, there are just way better Cisco taxi elsewhere. Yeah, and because this isn't really a thing, like, but I thought that was pretty good, I thought that was great. All right. Back to the proper plot, the A plot. Oh, yes. This program is as good as you claim. Oh, it goes, I've got my own holosuite back at home and Quark is so impressed by that, isn't it? That's such a funny line too. It's like the things I do for money earlier. He, his very own holly's hollow sweet. What's he say? Just a little present I bought myself, he says. good to have money. Again, I think it's great how Jonathan Frakes shoes this, sort of going through these lustrous peak silks. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty basic. It's just a visual gag of having nanal visitor lying on that bed an almond shimmerman underneath it, and it's... Don't you think it's a body double? Don't you think it's her body double? Oh, I hope that's... It would be pretty great if it was a... They still talk about it to this day. Remember that time we were in that porn program together? I went home and goes, I've been waiting for you. Oh, say these terribly gross pan up her body. What, whoever that woman is, she's got... Great legs. I mean, it doesn't work convincing. He's probably selling it, though. I don't know how Quark, but I will ruin you for this. Great. And actually, I love Odo and Kira going, oh, I never satisfy customer and they come in like a good work, you know, a good job done. They do these fun little subplots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they outwit Quark's doing something skeevy and porny and they beat him. Is that the end of that play? Yeah, it is. Do you remember Nathan in sound of her voice when it's um... Uh, oh, God, I can't even remember what it is now. There's a wonderful. Oh, no, Jake and Quark are working together to get these crystals on the station and they're trying to go to all these lengths to outwit Odo so he doesn't realise that it's coming. And then and but Odo sees through it all. And at the end of the episode. him and Kira going off to the holo suite again, and she goes, are you sure you want him to get away with these crystals? And he goes, look, I owe him one, all right? He did introduce me to you. But he'll only get this one and that's it. And he walks off. I really like those those fun little subplots. Need I remind you of the no J consortium? Yeah They've sort of set that stuff up so that they kind of write themselves. Like, that was a bit nothing. Again, there's no sort of reversals or anything like that particularly. I guess there's the surprise reveal at the end. But that was pretty good. It's a bit nothing good. thank god it's there. Yeah. Otherwise, we'd be stuck watching this. for 45 minutes. But, you know, like if they gave this 45 minutes, would that give us enough time, I just don't think they're interested in that relationship. It's not a story about Quark falling in love with a guy and then losing him. It's about. Sorry, didn't I say Quark? falling in love with a guy and losing him. It's Clark. That would be, I'd watch that. No, that's rules of acquisition, remember? Um, yeah, it's, it's a story about Jadzia falls in love with a guy and then they're separated forever by a space anomaly and you just sort of think, well, that's super boring. I love story for the ages. Yeah, and even the separation doesn't fall out of the relationship in any particular way. Do you know what I mean? It's just, and they're randomly parted. and they don't even really like there's, it's a very strange low-key farewell too. Mrs. Hall was there. It's just so flat. And like, they're like, oh, something's destabilising the Matrix. I wonder what it could be. And then it takes them about a minute to realise it's Dax when she's the only one not turning gray. That's right. That's the other thing, too, is that there's something in the script that doesn't rely that doesn't think it can rely on the visuals to tell that part of the story. And so while we've seen this happen for like a couple of minutes now, these scenes where it rocks and now she puts her hand through him, all of that stuff, but we still need it explained to us, you know, like it takes them a long time to work it out. The visuals or it doesn't trust a view, you can tell. to figure out what's going on. Yeah, maybe both. But, you know, like, that's why I don't think the visuals are that terrible because I think this, you know, it does sell what's happening. Do you know, that poor woman playing Stalim Rana or whatever her name was? She just came along at the beginning and went, did a bit of exposition, didn't she? And then at the end she went, well, come on, let's go. That was her whole role in this episode. How thankless? I mean, she does, she, she does a few more kind of, I mean, telling you about the thing. Yeah, that is pretty shit, is that? Actually, I think Terry made a bit, maybe to play it fast. That shot is. She does have more. Terry, come on. Yeah, that was terrible. I don't think another $200,000 would have helped. No, no, how would that have happened? Oh, and this is now when she slides down the wall in utter despair and then we never mention it again. Yeah, yeah. So pure TNG. Oh, we didn't do the cliches. Can you quickly go through them now? Well, no, that was basically it. It is an absolute Star Trek, the Next Generation romance, you know that it is about the high concept rather than the romance that the guys are creeping in a sort of way. What about the masterpiece society? We did sort of mention that, but again, that's another romance isn't it? Is there a romance episode? Yeah, yeah, Troy, I've forgotten. Troy bangs that guy. They snorke in front of that dreadful window. you remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, Dax, don't worry. Wharf's coming. Oh, for God's sake. 60 years or so. Yeah. That's super boring. And yet, the close-up she gets at the end of rejoined where she's trying to keep it together and she can't quite do it. It's so moving. Avery Brooks just zooms in very slowly on her face and it's all done with Terry Farrell, you know? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, it's, I think it's just the romance is the problem, isn't it? Well, just the general concept is boring. I've tried to think of any single episode romances in DSI. I know we've had this conversation before, but now, you know, it's another time and I still can't think of any weather romance was. Do you remember Fenna? Do you have a fenna in 2nd sight, the mysterious woman in red. that Cisco keeps seeing around the station, and then it turns out she's the, where go with this. She's the lover of Professor Sayatik, this mad eccentric that's going to ignite. He's there doing a scientific experiment as we tend to do in these romance episodes. And it turns out that Fenner that he's seeing is a projection of her anxieties because she's sort of beaten down in this relationship. I mean, it's just terrible. The level I can't describe. But then, I don't know, after in series four, they barely do the single episode romances after that. Yeah. I mean, I think it's a shame because as I said, I like romance. And when we did, when we did all those episodes ago. When we did subrosa, I said that one of the things that it does is it moves into areas that are domestic and that are traditionally female concerns. And, um, I don't mean that it's doing it to appeal to women or anything like that. What I mean is that it takes in and deals with some aspects of life that are kind of absent, say, from original track, and that have the potential to make the characters more rounded and interesting and increase the kind, you know, the range of stories that the show can tell. But they just do it badly all the time, I think. And that's a problem. In Kurtzman Trek. The assumption is that in the future, yeah. women and men do exactly the same roles, they're as competent as each other, and when they have romances, they're equally as adept at handling them and that's the approach to take, right? Yeah. I mean, this I, this kind of does that because, you know, you have the sort of drag factor of the original casting of Star Trek, the Next Generation, where you have women in traditionally caring roles. I know that doctors are traditionally men, but, you know, it's a caring role and Deanna's role. And then you've got kind of yeah, kind of going against height by being security thing, but then she's very quickly not in the show anymore. And so the 2 female leads have these sort of traditional roles here. You've got Kira, who is 2nd in command and you've got Dax, who is science officer. And so they're a bit less stereotyped. Like I don't think there's any indication in this episode. For instance, that she was going to give up, you know, as you said he was going to give up his life and stay with her and let the planet kind of warp off into its other dimension for 60 years without him. So I don't think that the sexism of it's a problem. But I do think that there's no real sense of what makes someone attractive here. Or what makes someone attractive to Dax. Why is Dax attracted to this man? And if you're doing a romance? That's what's interesting, isn't it? Like, it's got to be about the characters. It can't be about the space anomaly. And I think that that's the problem, why it doesn't work. Where, and we talked about this, but where DS9 strengths lie, is long form storytelling and not really single episodes. So doing a romance like this doesn't work, but say just putting something out of a hat, having Cisco and Cassidy's engagement and wedding threaded through the last 10 episodes of the series or having Odo and Kira's relationship threaded through the 6 part arc at the beginning of series 6 where it looks like he's defecting to the Dominion and they're doing really interesting things with the relationships. Although, I mean, the payoff to that where they just go in a cupboard in Dax's wedding. And just sort out their problems and then come out and go, well we've sorted it, you know, wonderful. But that's where DS9 thrives, isn't it? By giving us a little bit at a time rather than doing it all in one go. Can I throw one last quote at you from Renee Chivaria? I think makes an interesting point. He goes, I think it's Ira's sister is the one who said it seemed like an original series episode, and I'll take that as a compliment. On the original Star Trek. They often ask the audience to accept a love story, a huge premise or a tragic separation, sometimes all 3 in a single episode. I don't think that's untrue, but I think the original series would probably have done it better than this. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't know. I like the idea. Like, I get the idea. A romance, high concept thing and a tragic separation. I think that all of that has a potential to be really good, but I just don't think they're interested in the romance at all. And so there's nothing there and that needs to be the centre of it I think. All right, it's the end of the episode and it's time for us to find out where we're going next. You chose this one, Joe, so it's my turn. I would like to just say before you even tell us which series you're going to choose. I did, in fact, want a truly dreadful episode of DS9. So I think I... We should have made that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think what we learn is that a truly dreadful episode of Deep Space 9 isn't quite the atrocity that it might be in another series and that we can still have fun watching it. We did laugh a lot, yes. We did. So a thing has happened over the past few weeks, which is that 20 episodes of Prodigy dropped on Netflix, which means that Prodigy is now our least covered series. We have done 11.34% of the episodes of Enterprise. And 12.31% of the episodes of Discovery. Prodigy. We've done 7.69%. And so that's 40 episodes. We make it 39 because the 1st episode was, you know, our long one. Um, and so I'm going to pick a prodigy one. Now, I don't want to pick one from too late in the run because it is super serialised, and I think it would be kind of incomprehensible, and I don't want to have to kind of watch... Well, basically, to choose one up until the port you've watched it. Yeah, basically. So let's see how we go. Okay, we're not going to do this one. Your random Star Trek prodigy episode is the Ascension part one which is season two, episode 15. Let's try another one. Part one. Hmm. So this is Into the Breach part two. I actually watched this today. That would mean that we'd have to watch Into the Breach part one as well. That's our rule. That would be season two, episodes one and two. So we would see the 2nd season start off. Well, let's do that then. Let's do that then. I'm not sure that you've watched much of the 2nd half of series one, which was sort of 10 episodes that dropped and kind of changed the premise of the show quite a bit. Although we did, I think, do we did do one of these. One that was quite late. Quite late. Things were starting to roll. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And some new interesting things happen at the beginning of series 2, which I quite liked, some, you know, new character development things, and it is heading off into quite a complex plot, and that is very serialised, but this is, I think this is a good introduction to the 2nd series. Colam intrigue. Plus you love a series two, episode one. I do. to see how that's a nice year is reformats itself in its 2nd year. Exactly. And actually, it'd be quite interesting to just jump in not having watched the tail end of series one, to see how well that does if somebody was just jumping in at the start. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah let's do it. You've been listening to untitled 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 Sisarin and the theme was composed by Cameron Lamb. This episode was recorded on the 16th of July, 2024, and released on the 26th of July. We'll see you next time for Star Trek Prodigy into the breach part one and into the breach part two. And I'll get my notes such as they are. There's really nothing. I'm hoping you can tell me something about brigadoo. No, I really don't know anything about it at all. No, I don't either. Let's look it up very quickly. A musical, because there was a TV show called Schmigadoon recently which was, it's by Lerner and Lowe, Mysterious Scottish Village that appears for one day every 100 years. How does that end? Blah, blah, blah. Okay, I don't care. So essentially it's the same premise, yeah? Like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they must be very excited by that, but I think it's a bit shit. What's the other one? That was the idea, though. Wink of an eye. Much better than this. Wink of an eye, blink of an eye, wink of an eye. Although interesting, I think they use the same picture you've got behind you there. blink of an eye for one of the various stages of that planet. Oh, do they? Is Blink of an eye the Voyager one? Yeah, it's the one where forages in space, there's like a star and they build like whole religions around it because time is... They do the same thing in the orval as well. can't remember that. And then there's an episode called Wink of an eye. That's the original here, isn't it? is original Trek. And what happens there? Wink of an eye works best. If you don't try to use reasoning or logic. That's Star Trek in general. Oh, and that's the same thing. Okay, all right, that's super boring. Yeah, no, um, Orville does a great version of it, a really good one. I can't remember. I don't remember too much. that being a god being made into a god. And then the people from that planet appear again in the 3rd series, which is a fucking brilliant series. Yeah, I haven't watched it. I need to. It's really great. I watched it over a weekend and it's like 8 episodes, but they're all like an hour and 20 minutes or an hour, 30 minutes long. They're all like short movies and they're really good. Like and the whole plot, the whole thing hangs together. they. good reception really well. I don't know. I thought it was fucking great. Like, it was a problem. You used to have so much money from it. That 2nd series anyway. The 3rd series looked brilliant and it picked up on all of these threads from the previous series in a way that didn't, wasn't annoying and yeah, just good. Unlike this episode, which has stock colony set number 68. Yeah, number one. Although, I do think this is the point where they have started to learn how to lie. You know, you said there was a point where they, do you not? No, the inside was super boring. Oh, yeah. Disagree. Yeah, it's okay. But it's not the inner light. Because where they... I just remember that for a test makeup that Patrick Stuart's to wear on Patrick. That's what he looks like now. No, that's not true. His face would have to be out here. Oh god. All right, all right, all right, right, right, right, right, right right. Okay. And it's my choice at the end. Yeah, let's have something good after this pair, right? That's how it Dixon. Don't choose our best. Okay. Here goes. Hey, Joe. Hi.