Hey, Joe. Hi.
So, this is season two, episode one, which is always my favourite
episode of a series.
It's series 2, episode one of Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
It's called The Homecoming, and it 1st aired on the 26th of
September, 1993, which is, I gather some time ago. a long time ago
now.
I was 13.
Yeah, no, I wasn't.
It's pretty great, I have to say.
I really did enjoy myself.
And it did exactly, I think, what series 2, episode one needs to
do.
Which is?
Well, it's kind of like a mission statement going forward.
You've kind of done your 1st season and, you know, your 1st set of
ideas are out there.
You've established what the show is and what it's like.
And series 2, episode one always tells you where we're going.
And like, in a way, this is a bit atypical series 2, episode one
because the one thing that it doesn't do, which I don't think you
would try and get away with now, is it doesn't have a really big
hook, I think.
But what it does do is it gives us a fair amount of hang time with
the crew.
It reestablishes relationships and we get to see them doing new
things and interacting in slightly different ways from what we've
seen before, but it still establishes who they all are.
It shows us the top floor, which was very, very...
I told you, didn't I?
You shot the camera zooms around and shows you the top level of
quarks.
Yeah, yeah.
We spend money.
You'll see it.
So it shows you that.
It goes on location and it has a cliffhanger which threatens the
status quo, which I think is a pretty good thing.
In an interesting way, right?
It's not like a big political moves like DS9 usually does.
Yes, we're going to remove a character that is central to the show
which kind of shows us how much we care about that character.
Yeah.
You said they're about learning what they're going to do.
I think season one was them learning what they're not going to do
for the most part, because, you know, that middle part of season
one is them basically saying, right, we've spent all the money on
the pilot, and now we're going to do a ton of TNG knockoffs, you
know, dramatis personae, and, oh, God, what have we got in there?
Battle lines, you know, on the planet where people can't die and
all these sort of premises of the week.
And at the same time, we're going to bring in Laxana Troy, Q
Lurser, and Beto.
We're gonna try so hard to bring in that TNG crowd.
Yeah.
And bizarrely, that kind of didn't work at all and it isn't at all
where DS9 lands and the viewers haemorrhaged from the pilot anyway
even though they were doing all those cheap tricks.
Then at the end of the season, you have that double whammy of duet
and in the hands of the prophets and you can actually feel them
within the writing and everything going, oh my god, this is what
this show is.
And as memory alpha pleasingly tells us, Michael Piller goes
season two, episode one, our mission statement is not TNG, which
is what we did last year.
What makes DS9 unique?
It's the stationary setting.
It's these characters.
It's the politics, it's the Bajoran, Cardassian conflict, all of
that stuff.
And so they lean in.
We've a huge, like 3 part, and this is, I think, this is a quiet
opener, but it is setting down all of the setup for a really big
political, really interesting, a very funny, a very ultimately
action-packed, 3 part story that we've never, ever done before.
It really is a confident start to season two, I think.
Even though this is a gentle beginning.
Yeah, yeah.
I think we said something about it last week where this is where
Deep Space 9 actually lands, and this is its 1st kind of best of
both worlds, where we slightly change the premise of the show, that
we, we discover a little bit more about Bajor, uh, and what its
politics are like now, like what's been happening on Bajor, while
all this sort of nonsense from season one was going on, and it
turns out we have a kind of movement or a supremacist movement
that's starting to grow.
We haven't heard about that before, and that does turn up here.
And it is introduced very gradually.
I think you'd be tempted now to have some kind of terrorist attack
or something big, you know, the way that that Vulcan 3 partter
starts, I think, on, you know, in Enterprise series 4.
You don't get that here.
It is, like, it starts with a bit of graffiti, you know, and
there's a lot of dialogue.
Like what's happening on Beja is not something that we see, but we
are told about it quite a lot.
I mean, there's a scene in episode 2 where Kira's down on the
planet and she goes, oh, God, I wasn't expecting a storm today and
it's gunfire.
You can hear gunfire.
So the planet is literally going to war by the end of this 3
part.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean it's huge.
That is a big thing and it is a different threat too.
It's not a threat that you, I think that you're kind of
anticipating when you start watching it in series one and it's
clever.
Do you know what I mean?
It grows organically from the premise, I think.
And then, of course, we get the twist, spiler alert, which is that
the supremacist group or the separatist groups are being
bankrolled by the Cardassians.
And I think that's brilliant because it's not an allegory or
anything, but it does talk about the way that, I mean, you know
like English speaking countries, at least now, are being tricked
the populations are being tricked into blaming immigration for
their problems in order to distract them from something else
terrible that's going on around them instead.
And so you can see that happening here.
The Cardassians actually kind of stoking this separatism thing so
that the Federation's forced to leave and that leaves them wide
open for kind of reoccupation.
I mean, we always say, don't we, the biggest threat you can have
to a TV show is to threaten the status quo.
And the threat here is, is that we are literally going to go back
to where we were before emissaries started, and the federation
won't be on the station.
I mean, they're even still a year on.
They're still calling it the provisional government.
Yeah, they haven't really got their act together, have they, in a
year?
So I don't think it's very hard for Minister Jaro and his group of
rebels to incite the sort of, and then when he brings in win as
well, you know, it goes for the religious angle too.
Oh, it's just marvellous.
But that's all still to come, of course.
That not here.
What I think is really, what is probably more important than this
episode is I think it reinstates Cisco's mission.
So there's a scene where he talks to Dax and we talk about why
he's there.
But also you're right.
It is all of those, and this is, again, is DSI's biggest strength
is all of those two-handed character scenes.
We had them inware of the warrior.
They're not quite as funny here, but they are good.
And you have a scene with Odo and Kwalk.
You have a scene with Cisco and Dax, you have a scene with Cisco
and Jake, and it's just reinstating how great all those
relationships are and how they're developing as well, because
they're in completely different places.
A lot of them are.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not odour of pork, but they're in different places to where they
were in emissary.
The other thing I noticed here as well, because I have just
watched Duet and in the hands of the Prophets, is it feels more
expansive, and the lighting on the station is a lot. very
claustrophobic season one.
In the way that they light it, in the way that they shoot it.
I just got a more of a sense of space in this episode, especially
because we go outside and we're in the sunshine and all of this.
Season one feels very inside, you know, and quite small, and this
feels like just the nature of the structure as well in that this
is a 3 par.
It just feels like everything's opening up a bit.
And I think that was needed.
I think, you know, like enterprise series 4, when it settles on
that series of 3 parters, um, you can't just do a space problem of
the week that won't spin out for for 3 episodes.
And so it does have to be epic and it does have to be about a
change in the status quo.
They don't spin out for one episode.
We've done quite a few of those.
I have.
That's right So I think this is this is a good call.
I was surprised after watching it how light on incident it was.
But it was so kind of agreeable.
And a bit old-fashioned, a bit sweetly old-fashioned.
Do you know what I mean?
This is Star Trek moving away from Star Trek, The Next Generation
in a sort of decisive way.
And in fact, you know, the lack of incident in this is surprising
like even just a normal Star Trek episode would have more going on
than this.
But it's really here to reestablish the characters, which is
really super important.
And to just slowly let a big thing happen, which I think is a
pretty good approach.
I think this is Ira Bear.
It's only his 2nd script, I think, for Deeks Space Line.
His 1st was the Nagus in series one.
I think this is where the baton is starting to be handed over to
him.
By the time you get to series 3, he brings on run more, and
Michael Piller steps back, and Ira Bear basically takes on the
show full-time to its conclusion.
But I think you can see here already what a handle he has on these
characters.
He understands the show and he understands the people within it.
If this had been a two-parter.
Obviously, a lot more would have, but they would have had to have
fit.
The 3 episodes worth of instant into two.
And I think it would have moved a bit more like a TNG 2 parter
where things sort of escalate quite quick in episode one and then
you're dealing with all the consequences in episode two.
I did quite like, I mean, I like Hang Time on DSI anyway, so, you
know, like you said, it is very agreeable, but...
Not slovenly.
What's the right word?
Um, measured.
Measure is good.
But it is something that Star Trek the Next Generation could never
do.
And so stepping out and like leaving TNG shadow and going off
forging ahead in its own direction and doing something that only
it could do, which is what Biller said he was going to do, that's
absolutely what it's doing.
No other Star Trek has this sort of time to do that sort of thing
I think.
And, you know, at one point, you know, a 3 part Star Trek story
was revolutionary, but then TS9 goes on and says, no, no, we're
going to do 6 parts.
No, no, we're gonna do 10 parts, you know.
Yeah.
Well, the eventual sort of serialisation that we get, it sort of
starts here, doesn't it?
There's light serialisation in series one.
But there's still plenty of things that happen one week and then
never get referenced again.
Whereas here, I think, the idea of the show being more serialised
sort of land.
By the time you get to part 3, the siege, you know, you're doing
sort of all out action on the station on a couple of levels and
phaser fights, but you've got Kira and Dax finding this rotten old
Bajoran shuttle in a, in a cave that barely works and they're
doing sort of dog fights in space that, as, I was about to say
Star Wars star, but that may be overstating it a bit. as much as I
can with the budget, you know, and it's working.
There's like 5 or 6 locations in that last one and it's jumping
between all of them.
Again, it ain't Pisey, I wouldn't say, because I don't think Trek
was there yet.
But it's moving, you know?
Yeah, it gets there.
It gets there, basically.
This is setup, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, should we go and set this thing out then?
I think we absolutely should. will count us in.
I was going to come as the Lasepian woman, you know, all in
leather.
She's great.
She's awesome.
Ethan, how are you lobes?
I've never had any complaints.
All right.
I will count us in. 543, two, one, and we're off.
Uh, here's the glorious top level.
And now we're in class.
Oh, that strange alien with the...
Yeah, it looks like a twin neck.
Yeah, very long, very strange thing.
Look, we're even looking down onto quarks.
Look, look how much space we've got and we've never seen that
before.
And then, yeah, so this scene here, I think, is really good
because this is, you know, absolute characteristic Deep Space
nine.
This is a very deep space 90 thing.
It doesn't have any federation people in it.
You know, it's a setting and it's brightly coloured and it's all
of those things at Deep Space 90s that TNG isn't.
But it's these guys doing something very different from what
they've ever done before because he's cooperating.
It's so playful, isn't it?
And do you know what I discovered?
That I was telling the truth.
That's right.
And like quotes being encouraging like touching him on the arm and
stuff like that.
The cigar is the role of acquisition, isn't it?
Yeah, definitely now and again.
Declare peace.
It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
Like, he's acting all hurt too, you know?
I was sort of thinking as we were doing these 2 handles, like, what
will the equivalent scenes be on TNG?
And I just couldn't find one for this.
But I think this is this is properly fun and funny because it
doesn't really go anywhere.
It sort of introduces the idea of that Lasepian and stuff.
But it is taking these two, like reestablishing how they normally
interact, but turning it slightly in a way that's really funny.
No, they, there's, it's Odo's new makeup.
I mean, it looks like he's had a stroke.
Look at his eye.
It's almost coarse oblivion in its hideousness.
That's just, it's terrible, I'm afraid.
I do love how you've got Rome in the background looking so
confused while they're talking.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brother, I don't understand.
Yeah, no.
So he has that over here so that that line doesn't get delivered
to Odo, which is to Odo, which would spoil it, I think.
This is the season where they decide that they've got something in
Max Grotonchek as well.
They do that wonderful bit in necessary evil, where it turns out
he's an absolute genius.
Oh, there's a shot now, right?
He sort of goes up the stairs.
And a shot looking up at this woman.
I mean, it's right for her legs.
Wait, she?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Her leather.
Oh my god, she's wearing like black vinyl or something.
Did we see the ceiling then?
When was the ceilings?
She, that's a great makeup job, I think.
Don't you?
Like, there's something about it.
It's very kind of, it's sort of sub Klingon, but she still manages
to look sexy despite it.
It sort of weirdly streamlined.
I like it, I think it's great.
They have her back, you know.
She comes back in broken link at the end of series 4 and she's the
one where Odo, you know, we sort of melting away, Odo, he's the
link are trying to tear him apart and she's doing a crime and he
goes in and goes, no, you don't, and goes, ah, and he becomes a
puzzle and she just runs away.
So, you know, she's not a regular character, but they sort of...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. great.
I like our opening line.
Harry Lobbes tingling at the sight of you, my dear.
He's such a sleaze bag.
Great.
But I think it kind of works in that he doesn't expect her really
to fall for that.
Do you know what I mean?
Like he doesn't seem like he's trying to sort of get into her
pants or anything.
It does seem to be kind of ritual rather than anything else.
It's brighter.
I can't explain it.
There is a, it's like the contrast has gone up on the station.
Seriously, when we go back and do one of those series one
episodes.
Wait till you see how sort of flat and one note, the lighting is.
Do you remember there's a big change in the way that TNG gets lit
between series 2 and three?
Yes.
It suddenly feels quite filmic, doesn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's lots of subtle changes in 3, the uniforms.
Yeah, very good moves.
Oh, I like this.
I do too. into Kira's quarters.
And again, that is that is a plot thing because this is him, you
know, this is where we identify the earring that that woman has
just given Quark.
Do you know, they mirror this in the 2nd episode.
There's a scene in Kira's quarters where they all come in to say
goodbye.
It's like a French...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. right.
Will someone please explain this conversation to me?
Someone says...
That's really funny.
Kira's answering everyone's questions at once.
It's very funny.
I do like it when it goes...
What is it?
She goes, you take one more step in it.
It could be your last and he goes, it could be worth it.
Okay, there's no one on TNG that would say that line.
Consider it a gift.
But that's so weird.
She leaves her own quarters and leaves him in there.
Yeah.
I'm sure we didn't leave straight away.
No, I'm sure he went through our drawers.
So that's sort of 5 minutes in.
So that's like, I don't know, a ninth of the episode or whatever.
And it's just those 2 scenes, isn't it?
And they are both around Quark.
We haven't had a federation character in there yet.
So it's not about the Federation.
It is about the things unique to Deep Space Nine.
I never thought about that.
Yeah, I mean, that's unusual though, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, no.
And it's a definite clear choice, isn't it?
And this is...
We always love the Federation characters in DS9, even.
But I do think the non-federation characters are probably the more
interesting ones.
What I think, what I think is kind of good is that this, this
story arises from the deep space nineness of the setting.
Do you know what I mean?
Like there's a very few episodes, maybe gambit in TNG, that
intersect with a world like this one.
Do you know what I mean?
Where some, you know, where some freighter captain has somehow got
hold of this thing, you know.
And...
Oh, I feel you're saying someone just come into the station and
start off the adventure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And there's, you know, like it's a slightly underworld, you know
what I mean?
Like thing.
I don't know.
We're going to go straight into a wonderful scene in a 2nd where
Cisco's walking the promenade and Jake catches up with him.
And, you know, after watching that Star Trek Academy episode, which
was all about, um, Sirok's love affair with Avery Brooks.
And there it was on the screen and I was like, yeah, it really was
there.
They have magic together.
Like I just believe they are father and son.
It's wonderful.
And, and, and two, it takes Jake somewhere new because Jake is
such a tiny, he's such a little boy in that 1st episode.
He such a tiny... determined to shoot from that top level. aren't
they?
Yeah, they are, aren't they?
But he gets to run down the stairs.
Look, he's getting nearly as tall as Avery. right.
His clothes aren't getting any better, but...
No, they're shockingly bad, aren't they?
Ah, yes.
Now you want some advice from the old man about to meet girls?
Well, good for you.
No, he doesn't need that.
And that's really cute.
I think, you know, because now he's dating.
You know, he's growing up.
And I mean, they've got to anticipate that he's an adult by series
7, if that's where we get to, and he stays.
I love as well how this is just along the promenade where so much
activity is happening.
Again, we're sort of like really weird.
This is our wonderful setting, and this could seem could be in
their quarters.
Yeah, if they wanted to, but they fill it full of extras.
There's airlock doors opening, there's shops opening up, you
know.
It's our vibrant setting.
Why not show it off?
But I also think there's something really nice about this
discussion because it's so normal, you know, like it's about him
drawing boundaries about how and where he can date this girl, which
I just think is so sweet.
And look at him...
This is my 1st date.
Well, I don't want it to be my last.
Well, I love...
I can see you're not ready to have this conversation.
Yeah, it's so good.
Because it's also really sweet too, that he's having that
conversation with Jake.
Kira comes up.
He says, have it, hold on a second, major.
I'm talking to my son.
And that's when he says, I can see you're not ready to have this
conversation.
It's wonderful.
It's so good.
Oh, no, I was very confused about the replimat here because he
seems to get his drink from one replicator and he gets his food
from another one.
Oh does he?
No, that's the same one. isn't that the same one?
don't know.
Why didn't you get it at the same time then?
I don't know.
No, I don't know.
Oh, I did love this, though. because I think this really shows how
far.
Remember Emissary?
Remember how hostile Kira was to him.
Now she's there cup in hand, saying, please, I need your
Federation runabout, and I can't tell you why I need it.
Yeah.
And and and she just tells him.
Do you know what I mean?
When he asks, she just tells him.
And he goes, oh yeah, you shouldn't have told me, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, what I love is, um, is he says no.
And then he gives it to her anyway, right, after he talks to
everybody else and we learn Kira, the biggest gossip beyond Dax
has been telling everyone on the starship about it.
That's a great feature, too, of this show.
Is that they're constantly talking about conversations that
they've had off camera with each other?
And that, I mean, we discover that she's been talking to everyone
about it.
Like O'Brien knows about it before, you know, like everyone has
like she has been telling everyone, um, and that sort of gradually
becomes a thing.
It is a little bit like a smaller version of the joke in episode 2
where everyone comes into her quarters to say goodbye.
The best one is still.
I forgot, was I talking about it last week?
I was telling you recently, the whole Jake Strotter setup, Cisco
Recassidy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And everyone on the station.
Oh, how great, captain.
How many people has Jake spoken about this woman too?
Yeah, And any of them, any of the shows could have done that, but
Deep Space 9 designs to do it.
That's my workplace.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So we're also getting some important exposition here, haven't we?
Like Kira is explaining to us...
They're fighting on the planet since the loss of the Kaiser, where
they're reminding us of that because by the end of the season, we
have Kai Wynn.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And she's absolutely convinced, isn't she?
She's convinced that Narlis is just going to walk in and what if
he doesn't want to do it, even if he was this great hero that they
all thought he was.
Yeah, but what we're imagining is, of course, that he got the ring
smuggled out, do you know what I mean?
We only find out later that his friend stole the ring. the earring
off him and smuggled it off planet without his knowledge.
So we're, you know, we're concluding that he's trying to
communicate with them, I think.
Ah, graffiti on the walls.
What's occurring here?
Yeah, this O'Brien O'Brien's line here is like, is he a primary
school kid?
Like, what makes them think?
Well, give them the riot.
What makes them think they have the right to mess up our station?
Come on, are you 12?
Like, come.
You know O'Brien, he's such a suck up, man.
He tells every bloody captain he works with, but you were the best
captain I ever worked with, you know?
So, and and this is...
Look at where's he gone over there to look at the wall. when Rick
Colby told him to, obviously.
You guys look at the graffiti.
Renee, you walk over there and look thoughtful. stand near the
camera.
We could get you all in shout then. wonderful.
And we don't have to move the camera.
It's classic soap opera moment, isn't it?
Like you move.
Oh my god, I've just noticed.
Did you see the at the end of that corridor there?
Yeah, it was a backdrop.
Oh, really?
Flat backdrop.
They have it going round the corner.
Oh wow.
Oh, night is Shrep, we love you.
Yeah, I usually notice that in the Jeffreys tubes, particularly in
Voyager, where it's just a painted force perspective backdrop.
Baseball mention.
Curzon mention, all of the little details of the show back.
Yep, yep.
Now, Nathan, what if I was to tell you I could find somebody that
could unite all the factions and make our job here a lot more
easily.
Yeah, and that's right.
I would say, oh, so Kira's already told you about Leonardo's
right.
She's like, what?
I'd say give Kira the shuttlecraft.
Oh, for God's sakes.
It's really funny, isn't it?
That, like, this is now 2 Federation people talking about what
it's like for them doing this particular mission.
And of course, they've just spent the last year, you know, like
catching plagues and being possessed and kind of, like, it hasn't
really been about that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's right.
So it hasn't really kind of been like that, you know, when they
characterise, characterise what they've been doing.
It isn't quite what we saw on tally.
But it's a much more kind of interesting thing than what we ended
up seeing on telly, I think.
I don't know if you noticed.
There was a shot just then where we saw the clock from Dramatis
Persona, which is in his office.
Obviously the greatest development of season one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. for the rest of the show.
What is it?
You said Cisco can now tell the time.
I wanted to know what time it was.
Now he knows.
But like, okay, I'm going to say this and you're going to say, yes
that's very sedentary.
But we've had shots like looking over the promenade.
We just had a shot there where it sort of zoomed, zoomed.
Stately, went up the consoles on the various levels of ops.
I just think these are more interesting says on different levels.
You know, you can shoot in more interesting ways.
Oh, yeah, no, absolutely.
They're more interesting sets.
And, you know, they try and do it on with that terrible bridge set
in TNG so that you can have all of the characters in you.
But it's because some of them are above others.
Do you know what I mean?
Voyage is not like that discovery doesn't have a bridge like that
you know, like I think the only time they shot that bridge set in
a dynamic way in the entire 7 seasons is when they gave Gates
McFadden control of the cameras and they had that shot in Genesis
where she went slowly across the bridge and that man's guts were
all spinning out everywhere in the dark.
That's pretty good.
I love this outfit, can I say?
Like I just love Kira's outfit, her little resistance fighter. you
know, it's a great. got like a little sort of knitted waistcoat.
Yeah, it's just really cute.
Like, it's really cute.
Although she's still got a sort of American lady hair at this
point, doesn't she?
I quite like this hair.
I think she has like her worst American lady hair is in the pilot
like that's unbelievably unforgiving.
Like, it's so bad.
I got they changed that.
Yeah, but this is sort of elfin.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, you know, like it's a it's feminine, but not too feminine
floofy.
You know, like it's cute.
This is classic without O'Brien.
Had she gone without him?
I mean, she would have been stopped within 2 seconds.
He's very useful on this trip.
All of the techno bad boy does in a minute.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I, I, I think it's, I think it's nice too.
Like, I do think it's good.
You know, he's got that backstory with the Cardassians, which
dates way back from the wounded, which we've done already.
And the show kind of leans into that.
And it's not...
I mean, it's not Cisco keeping tabs on her.
It's Cisco making sure that the mission succeeds, you know, like
he's on the side. saying just one thing before we go, like we may
not be coming back.
And he just goes, yeah, I understand.
Yep, makes sense.
I'll just write my letter to Keiko again.
There we go.
Right.
I've got it saved now, you know.
But they're not, like, they're not butting up against each other.
They're not oppositional or anything. on the same side.
I, you know, you sent me a message saying that this was very
linear and I really did notice it this time, the sort of A to B to
see plotting here.
Interestingly, I think as soon as the circle starts. very quickly
out, doesn't it?
The show ramifies and things are going on in different places at
different times.
And, you know, getting Kira off the station, which, of course, is
that great cliffhanger, the cliffhanger that threatens our
enjoyment of the show because, you know, it takes our favourite
character.
No, we love it.
That's right.
She's my favourite, you know. and puts her somewhere else and
replaces her with someone really very boring.
And, and, you know, that's a kind of threat to our enjoyment.
So it's a great cliffhanger. boring, isn't he?
I mean, I know that's the idea.
He's supposed to be this sort of understated man.
But boy, you could have given broad.
Do you see him in Twin Peaks?
he's an absolute monster.
So, so apparently he's a bit of a gerd and they didn't think they
would be able to get him, which is why they kill him off.
But had they decided not to kill him off, and they were thinking
you know, there were at least some people on the, on the writing
stuff, who thought that they shouldn't or shouldn't have done it.
And so they end up with Shakar instead.
Do you know what I mean?
Okay.
And Shikar, I think.
He's quite boring as well.
He is quite boring, too.
I was boring too.
I mean, all these, but you're a man, I'm quite tedious, aren't
they?
Whereas you know, Kai Wen and Kira.
Oh, fabulous.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Kai Parker.
Oh yeah, another one.
Yeah, yeah. was awesome.
Yeah.
Okay, now this was very, I was like, okay, I've just watched some
Kersman trek, and I was watching this scene where they're just
chatting with the man, and it's just the 2 regulars and this tiny
set, suggesting that something very suspenseful was happening, and
I was going, yeah, that's very nice.
Although I do have to say, and like the scene ends very obviously
with him saying who's Gul Moraine and she says, I don't know, I
just made him up and you could, like, that just writes itself.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, you could almost recite that line at the same time as she
says it for the 1st time.
But it is still charming.
You know, like it is kind of likeable.
So this isn't as sophisticated as it gets.
It doesn't have the really funny sitcom scenes that we have in Way
of the Warrior, for instance.
You've got to hit them with a box.
Far out.
That's so good.
Why do my favourite seeds ever?
Cut for syndication by terrible people.
But what I did like, though, is then you suddenly cut to the
location.
And that always feels unusual in not this track because we go
outside 3 times a year, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I think that is great.
I have to say that I think that giving, like, making Kira the kind
of sex worker you know, like is a little bit kind of that's...
Oh, we must disagree with that.
That's rare.
Do you know what I mean?
She's sexy and kind of in control.
She sort of owns it, you know?
I'm going to discipline a boy like you.
Come on now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's not cowed or anything like that.
But it is just a little bit of a shame.
I mean, she still kind of beats the shit out of people and stuff
that's kind of what you want to say.
Let's see why you're worth all this money and she goes, yeah, all
right then. smacks him in the face.
Yeah, yeah.
That's right.
That's pretty good.
That is funny.
I actually think, though, like, I found this quite a convincing
location.
Like it's well dressed.
I think they shoot it well.
They find like a waterfall.
Yeah, there's waterfalling from the cliffs and they do some really
interesting shots.
It's just like you breathe a sigh of relief when you've got some
space in the next street, don't you?
It is pretty great.
You're right.
A lot of extras there.
Yep, yep.
You're right about dressing the set as well.
They've put things there. space things there and, you know, more
than they needed to.
Now, column, Meanie, who is known to complain quite a bit on
shooting Star Trek.
Apparently, he thought that him and Kiram, so Nan may not survive
the shoot because it was so ridiculously hot.
And unfortunately, for the actors going ahead.
They so like the look of this location, we go back again for the
ship.
We go back again for rocks and shoals.
And rocks and shoals.
Apparently it was like 10 degrees hotter than this.
Right, okay.
So, that's right.
People were melting, weren't they in rubber, you know?
Basically the Doctor Who quarry.
But because it's got lots of places to shoot and things like
that.
I think it's a good place.
They chase well.
I'm trying to find who this young man is, the, his boots must have
been full of makeup, right?
his socks would have been black by the end of that shoot, wouldn't
they?
It would just be terrible.
I do like how she comes in and start sort of unpeeling her talk.
She's absolute swaggers too, doesn't she?
And I love that.
I'm doing a little bit of mime acting, you know, like when he gets
trapped behind the behind the barrier.
I thought was pretty cute.
I like it.
We want to see the prefect.
It goes sort of all cockney, doesn't he?
Yeah, yeah, it does.
Yeah there we go.
That's it.
Kick the shit out of him.
Oh, that Kardashian was so slow. could have shot her in that
time.
Did you say?
And now he's dead.
I do like the man falling off the cliff there, like, whee.
Yeah, that's really great.
That is really good.
Yeah, just for that water in the background there.
That's a nice show.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think that big cliff is amazing.
That big cliff is so good.
And I do, I like the bit where he goes, are you sure it's at
peace?
Like they can't, but they haven't been told.
It's been a year that they've been labouring.
It's pretty amazing Oh, so he gets shot, doesn't he?
I think it was the same actor, though.
You know, the one who fell off the cliff.
He just went back up there, yeah, yeah, yeah, probably.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Almost certainly.
Woo, that was one hell of a jump.
That one.
Yeah, the guy in the background.
I think they had a little trampoline or something.
He totally went flying.
Sometimes they have, you know, elastic and stuff.
It's pretty amazing.
And it's just, look, it's all we said about their corridors in
Discovery the other day.
It's just so nice when you can have like people running.
And people far out in, you know, far off in the distance out of
out of focus.
You know, we had earlier, the Kardassians some distance behind
them.
And I, yeah, I don't mind this too.
I do like the, you know, we don't want to leave anyone behind, but
the people themselves say no, um, and then they let go anyway.
I think is really great.
Like, I think that's...
Well, the last thing we expect is for to cut one to apologise and
2 saying, oh, those people you left behind, they're safe and
well.
That's really good.
I like that.
That's not unnecessary.
And, you know, like, it's a little bit of a heroic thing that
these guys do and they don't get punished for it.
I like it.
They've put in like Cardassian symbols or something, yeah, yeah
yeah.
Yeah, to absolutely make it look more Cardassian.
Is it a Kardashian?
Is it a Bajoran?
Where are we?
They're on Cardassia four.
So I'm assuming Cardassia, it's in the Cardassia system.
Do you know what I mean?
It's another habitable planet, along with Kardassia Prime.
You know, I don't think I'm picking up the game. two gala class
Cardassian warships that we're never going to see.
No, but the galore class warships are mentioned way back in TNG.
Like, that's the only class of Cardassianship that I'm aware of.
I'm sure that others exist, but that's the one I at least know the
name of.
I mean, it's a good call, I think, like going and saying, just get
us out of here then, fine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But like they agree to it and he objects, you know, because he and
it's a 1st indication.
I think that he doesn't think he's worth it.
You know, like he's actually, he hasn't escaped.
He didn't smuggle out his own earring or anything because he just
doesn't really think he's any use to anyone, you know.
Oh, it's a nice guy, because coming out. these people are worse
than me.
They need medical attention more than I do.
Yeah, again, that's more of the kind of like I'm really not going
to be any use to you because I'm super boring and I didn't do
anything.
Of course, he is one of the people that decides to stay on the
station when everyone else goes to protect him.
He's one of those people that refuses to walk over the line
because he's so boring.
And this, it's really great, isn't it?
Because you think she's going to be dressed down because she's
broken some kind of rule.
Well, she's dressed up by Jaro, isn't she?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cisco.
Yeah, yeah.
A formal apology.
You don't hear this very often from Dakart.
And like, it just made me instantly suspicious, and I couldn't
remember quite what it was doing.
Like, I thought maybe initially the purpose of it was to put the
Cardassians, like, to take them off the table for a 2nd so that we
could concentrate on what was going on on Bajor.
And then I realised obviously he's being introduced at this point
because he will come in later and discover he was behind it all.
He goes, yeah, we had no idea, but these prisoners were like, oh
really?
But, but, season two, episode one, I think that we might be
thinking that something has changed and that they've decided that
you know, you can't wants peace with the Federation and there's
treaties and stuff and he's prepared to respect them.
We don't know.
You and I know where he ends up somewhere.
I mean, they, again, like, they decide that Ducat is somebody that
they want to elevate. because he's incredible in that one scene
and he's in duet in that one scene where he's saying gold or he
was dead.
And that's it in series one.
Oh, I didn't.
Whereas he lies.
He's obviously here.
And then he turns up in Cardassians, but then come the marquee.
He's going on the missions with Cisco, you know, he's properly
involved in the series by the end of series too.
Maybe they I really think they took a good look at one and said
what are our biggest assets?
I mean, like Garak, you know, it was only one episode of series
one.
Suddenly he gets tons to do in series 2.
Yeah, well, it is, it's like giving the, because, you know, the
the episode's always focussed on maybe 2 regulars.
Do you know what I mean?
Like they would, they would get in a runabout and go somewhere and
they would be talking to each other and stuff and we'd have an
adventure.
But here they've decided to foreground the secondary characters
more and concentrate on the characters that are unique to DS9, the
Cardassian characters in particular.
I know for a fact that the reason why the secondary cast got so
much attention, it is Ira Bear.
He loved Nog.
He loved Rome.
He loved Garak, you know, like, and he really wanted to beef up.
God, man, imagine if he'd worked on Voyager.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
We wouldn't have lost Cesca for one.
No.
I mean, Voyager doesn't quite have the scope, does it, for that
because despite, you know, putting McKee in there, it's still just
a fairly kind of human...
There's enough in one or 2 though, it feels lived in, though.
Yeah, that's true.
It has the opportunity.
It just feels like there are only 8 people on the ship.
Yeah, and the same with TNG all the way through.
There's so few secondary characters.
Oh, here's Frank Langella from below.
Really good.
And again, you know, like I, I saw this at the time.
I remember watching it at the time.
I didn't remember that Jaro is, you know, part of the whole plot.
And he seems like an elder statesman.
He's perfect casting, isn't he, for this.
He has a stillness, though, about him, like an intensity that's
very quiet.
Like he does never raise his voice, I don't think, in the entire 3
episodes, but he's, I mean, look at those eyes.
Yeah, yeah, he's amazing, isn't he?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
He's good looking guy.
Next time you disobey orders.
Oh, he's very handsome.
Yeah.
He goes, it'll be the end of your military career, major.
All right.
Maybe by the end of this episode.
You never know.
That's right.
This poor woman with him, the secretary, should don't even get a
line look.
And but you notice there was a fair amount of affection.
There.
Like he was physically holding her and not in a threatening way.
It was an affectionate way.
Do you know what I mean?
He was dressing her down.
Do you know what I mean?
But there was something paternal and affectionate about it.
I thought it was really good.
And yeah, in the 2nd episode, he's, he basically has so tortured.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, um, that's not the biggest crowd I've seen on the promenade.
I mean, it's a reasonable size one. 25 people?
Yeah, yeah, it's not too bad. quite a few people.
I think I realise like when I 1st watched this, I mean, I didn't
need that horrific backstory that he tells in a minute.
I could tell from his sort of underwhelming sort of underplayed
performance that he was just a regular bloke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And now he's the vastly more charismatic Franklin.
Actually, you're right.
He's very handsome, isn't he?
Yeah, I hadn't really noticed it the 1st time through, but it's
those some, you know, deep Italian eyes, those dark colours.
He's got a lovely coloured olive coloured skin, isn't he?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He goes, please.
A politician has to take advantage of this moment.
And he's so much better at it than Liz Alice.
You know, like, never forget this moment, the moment where you say
eyes on Lee Knollys.
Yeah, he's trying to make clean Alice happen, isn't he?
He's like a desperate publicist.
That's actually great.
You know, like, like, um, the guy who plays, um, Leonalis, Richard
Beamer, is kind of, is generously giving that scene to Lancello
isn't he?
I mean, I mean, he's only playing it in the way he's supposed to
be...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, isn't he?
He's supposed to be somebody who's not the hero that they think he
is.
So he's playing it.
Oh, he's written.
I don't think he's got the opportunity to show off. his acting
prowess here.
No.
Like, I don't know, like beyond, I mean, I'm pleased he died in
what else can you do with this man?
Yeah, I mean, do you make him a semi-regular and do you make him
someone who discovers what it is?
Like, they're sort of saying he is a hero because he served that
function, even though he didn't do anything particularly heroic.
He was a symbol and someone that people remembered and stuff.
And they do spend a lot of time bigging that up.
And I think they like a good job of that.
Line, yeah, of like Bajor doesn't need a man who needs a symbol.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And but at the very end of the of the siege, You know, he, um, you
know, Cisco says he's determined to remember him as a hero, you
know, despite what he knows about him.
I don't know if you take a look at British politics at all, but
recently, just a single constituency.
The green party got in, right?
And they're making this that. huge D-Lab, even though it's this
back end of summer up north that no one cares about, sorry, anyone
that lives there.
But she is a symbol for the potential of change, right?
Like, ultimately, one constituency means nothing in this country
at all.
She'll be shouted down in Parliament, I'm sure.
But as a symbol of, 0 my god, we're not as far right as we thought
we were.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
Yeah.
And so I think she was a simple farmer, just like Lean Olis.
So he has a dark secret, but his dark secret is stupid and we'll
learn about it later.
Nathan, one podcast for you and 6 for me.
I just think Quark is doing weird Star Trek alien intonation.
He's decided that to make this slice.
Why are you looking so glum?
Payday is supposed to be a time of joy.
You do feel sorry for a rom, don't you?
Like, it's a real moment of tribe when he steps out of court
shadow, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Doesn't he try and unionise?
Isn't there an episode where they...
It is wonderful. and Quark gets beaten up by North Coons as a
result.
But he shoves him against the wall, you know. and says you're
always trying to make me look dumb and you look smart.
Like, he really, but all the groundwork is being done here.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And that's great too, because this is comedy kind of capitalism
and stuff, but it is illustrating a thing.
Do you know what I mean?
Like an actual thing that happens to people.
But it's doing in a comic way.
And remember that bit in the Nagus where Rom goes, you know, man
now you're going to be the negative.
Maybe I'll have the bar and Cork spits his drink out.
Yeah.
Now, I feel like these masks that they're wearing that look a bit
like autons from Doctor Who.
They're great, aren't they?
Well, they are good, but I think they could be scarier.
I think they're slightly scary because they have eyes, like
painted on them.
So they look like he's, they're looking at him.
Um, but they're sort of featureless. say, what do they think
they're doing?
You know, branding.
Yeah, why are they a brand bartender like this?
What makes sense?
I mean, someone having a red hot poker of a symbol scorched into
their head?
That's quite extreme.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. and that is so that is an escalation of it.
Obviously, you know, it's the sort of thing that we know that we
can fix with a dermal regenerator in about 30 seconds, the camera
would just cut away. he'll be as good as new.
How do I look?
Yeah.
He goes, oh, really?
Yeah, I thought that was just a tiny bit too obvious, but okay.
Like, it's a cute, uh, cute performance from...
I can't believe it.
Bajorans did this.
I don't think he's been a prize of the full horror of the
situation on Bajor right now.
Well, he's only just now fighting out that they're supremacists.
Hasn't the provisional government tried to stop them?
Someone just say, yes, that tells you everything you need to
know.
The provisional guy.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
But the circle is bigger than the government or better organised
than the government, you know.
Is that always the case, do you think?
No, but it isn't.
I think it might be England right now.
It is certainly a thing that can happen, isn't it?
You know.
So I think there's a kind of a feeling of realism about that.
I mean, this is 1993.
You know, they don't have the rise of fascism that we get to enjoy
now here in 2026, but it's plausible and it seems of a piece with
that, I think.
I know it's probably supposed to be because he's an alien, but it
looks like Cork has painted nails.
It's wonderful.
Oh, no, he does.
I think he does, but I think I think all of them do.
I do think that they always make Frankie have those sort of
slightly blue nails.
I loved actually how Kira delivers that line handsome as ever
because she's really super tentative about it.
She kind of goes, am I going to do this?
And she sort of does.
She hates squawk on this for him.
That's why.
Yeah.
Do you remember in, um, in behind the lines in that 6th part?
That's why when Quark saves them, their whole relationship
changes.
Again, though, stuff that's set up early and pays off later.
I like this too. like this a lot.
And it's because, like, like, it's super interesting because I
don't know, it's because they're 2 black men having this
conversation, like he's explaining about racial prejudice to his
son.
Do you know what I mean?
And I think we're supposed to imagine in the, in the 24th century
there isn't the anti-black racism that there is now.
Um, but um, but so he has to explain to his son about this, but it
just makes it realer, I think.
And also, what was a cute, acute romantic fun beat?
Do you know what I mean?
Now becomes the 2nd scene in a row about how Bajoran's Bajor's
being taken over by kind of white supremacists.
I love as well, though, how it's obviously big events that are
happening and it's brought into their personal life at home. you
know?
I can't really understand that geopolitics.
I can understand an upset little boy.
Yeah, it's wonderful, doesn't it?
That's what I love as well.
Avery kisses him on the head.
I know.
You know, I love the intimacy between the characters on DS9. how
much they touch each other.
It stresses the family element of the show without stressing the
family element of the show.
Oh this is great.
He tried to just get away on a freighter.
I I don't blame him.
No, with that ugly green alien who looks just amazing.
Here we go.
It was a big, ugly tree.
You know?
No, it's replaced this time by I shot an unarmed Cardassian man in
his underwear.
What we need, what we need is Teresa there to suddenly set his
broken arm and say good story, bro.
There was one line I did like, though, was when he goes, you
should have seen the look on his face when I shot him.
He looked so embarrassed.
Embarrassed.
It was a great line.
It is like, I don't know, the show has to do this, doesn't it?
It's not going to show. where they are at this point. yeah, yes.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, you know, progress was before this. how to take the piss out
of this stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's right.
They were already making fun of it.
And again, he's good.
You know, he delivers this speech.
It's not it's not uninvolving to watch or anything like that
but...
And I do like the conclusion it leads to was him saying that Cisco
saying about being a symbol, you know, and not being a hero.
But yeah, Jesus Christ, man.
I mean, it's such a detailed story as well.
I slipped down the bank, he reached for his phaser.
He was lying, his clothes were on a nearby rock.
Why is that an important detail?
But don't you think, don't you think that the point of this scene
is to give this actor a chance to do some acting?
Like to tell the story, so that we get to know what sort of man he
is not just by the content of the story?
But by the way, he tells it and to give this, you know, fairly
distinguished guest a chance to do something, I think.
And I do think, like, the story is kind of agonising, but I do
believe that in the situation the Bajorans were in, if this
happened, then they would elevate somebody, despite the fact, they
were looking for any glimmer of hope, were they?
And in fact, you know, like we do have episodes where we go back
and see the occupation and stuff like that, you know, where we
travel back in time or whatever or get sort of flashbacks and
things, but the only way that we really know what the occupation
is like is through these speeches, I mean, duet.
Do you know what I mean?
speeches about all of that as well.
We get a sense of what that was like.
It's so brutally described.
I mean they couldn't show you that.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
But, but, you know, and we make fun of it, you know, when Shacks
finally meets Kira again on Deep Space 9 in Lower Decks, and
they're constantly talking about the different ways they rescued
each other during the occupation and stuff.
And it's all those backstories that they tell each other, all
those war stories.
He is good here, though, Richard Beimler.
Like where he goes, yeah, I've done everything that Bejos need to
be to do over the years and now this is enough.
Yeah, yeah.
Like I am dumb.
Yeah, yeah.
And you know, like they're not sort of overplaying the trauma that
he's experienced.
You know, he's been locked up for a year doing hard labour in a
Cardassian prison camp, you know.
It's just that backstory though.
Oh, boy.
It's too much.
It's a good, like, I don't think it's a terrible story, but it is
kind of so Star Trek.
I sent you a message saying, wow, this really does show me the
value of good actors.
Sacking the lines, you know?
that's right.
But the 1st thing I thought was the thing that you just said was
the big, ugly tree, speech.
Progress.
Are there any examples in Kurtzman Trek where people aren't
punished for their agonising backstory?
No, I think so.
Do you remember that we get the agonising backstory from the
pirate in the Serene Squall?
that turns out to have been alive.
There's a wonderful one.
Actually, there's series one as well, in vortex. where the fella
the Odo takes Croden, tells the story about how he snapped the
neck of the prison of the guards that were trying to take his
daughter away and how he, it was like cut in the necks of the
chickens when he was younger.
And I just goes, do you really expect me to believe this appalling
tale, you just...
Are we at the cliffhanger already?
I think we may well be, yeah, that flew by, actually, didn't it?
It is not very much happens, I think.
Do you know what I mean?
40 minutes go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We just like hanging with the people, though.
Oh, that's it, but it is super lashly.
And I think for, I do think it's a risk for series 2, part one.
Do you know what I mean to come back and have so little happening
it.
Nathan, it could have been the child, all right?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, I think they paid off.
I think they paid off but I think it was a risky move.
I think having a couple of really good actors having some location
stuff, having things develop, having some things bubble under, and
having a few scenes in a row which centre on the existence and the
rise of the circle.
Do you know what I mean to set it up so that it doesn't come out
of nowhere?
Like, I think it was worth it.
I think the scale of this was worth it.
But it is striking how little happens.
Yeah.
Yeah, they are saving like the incident for the later episodes and
they are just doing a lot of setup here.
But it is so telling when we have just watched Way of the
Warrior.
And just everything in that.
Like the jokes are wittier.
You know, it does move faster than this, the 1st 45 minutes.
Like there is a great action sequence towards the end of part one
of where the Warrior.
The two-hand scenes have got more energy to them.
We visit more parts of the station.
But they realise they realise series 4 when they are the exec said
you know, you kind of need to set up your game a little bit, they
realise that they just have to up the energy.
Yeah, with everything.
That's right.
But you can see them getting there here because I think way of the
warrior makes the choice of being an hour and a half of being 2
episodes jammed together.
And so it can afford to be quite leisurely and to spend a lot of
time on those 2 handers because everyone tuning in that night is
still going to see the fist fights and the invasion of the station
and the space battles and so on.
But I do think here, it is a bit of a risky choice.
Um, but just just in context of the 1st broadcast.
It's a risky choice as the 1st episode.
That's right.
Now, you know, the show exist says it is, it went for 7 years
everything's fine, and it's very, very easy to enjoy this episode
but I wonder what it might have been like for someone tuning in
for series 2, episode one the 1st time.
So worth remembering that these Bajoran episodes weren't popular.
At the time.
We've enough.
I think I think they've gained popularity as time's gone on
because there's some quite mature, quite sophisticated stuff
happening in them.
But I think at the time what people wanted was TNG.
Yeah, you know, and not, you know, explorations of politics and
religion in a stationary setting.
This stuff is aged really, really well, I think.
Well, yeah, and the themes of it, you know, like what it's
actually about, I think, is still spot on and incredibly relevant
and interesting now, but they did drop the Bajoran episodes.
You go forward to season four. and I think you have accession.
I think that might be it.
Well, they almost forget that Cisco's the emissary.
Like they kind of they put that on the back burner for quite a
while, I think.
Yeah.
And then sort of pump it up at the end.
But, like, it's not the last time they do a quiet opener, because
we did image in the sand.
And on the back of big, huge catastrophic events in tears and the
profits.
That was a very quiet character piece where we were dealing with
Cisco down on earth and we were dealing with wharf, dealing with
the death of Dax, and all of that stuff, and it was very, very
quiet.
But like this, all of the big stuff came in the conclusion.
But I do think that that did come off the back of some something
really big.
Whereas this doesn't look back to how the previous season ended or
anything that happened in the previous season.
And when it talks about what was happening the previous season, it
talks about things that we didn't get to see.
And so I think that Image in the Sand can afford to be a little
bit more leisurely and stuff because all the characters are in
very, very different places from where we saw them because things
have changed over the years.
Here, we're just emerging from the initial setup in the kind of
seasoned Bible.
We're just starting to move away from that.
And so the scenes between the characters are really enjoyable and
charming and they work really well, they do exactly what they need
to do, but they're not as momentous, I think, as what's going on
in image in the sand.
And that's exactly what they do at the start of 3.
You have the Gemadar at the end of two, and they're threatening.
You dare come through the thing.
And in the search, you get the defiant.
There's a frenetic action sequence where the Jem'adar attacked
them at the end of part one of the search where you're not sure if
everyone's not dead at the end of that.
Like, it's really exciting.
Ron Moore comes in and goes, right, let's up the answer a bit, you
know.
So again, they're learning, let's say, they always learn lessons
on this show, doesn't they?
Exactly they do.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
But interestingly, the journey, like, as you say, the journey
learning those lessons can still be really enjoyable as well
though.
And I think you're right.
As a single episode in its own right, the homecoming is a little
too subdued as the 1st part of a three-parter, I think it is
pretty great and it is setting up some misdirects and all sorts of
interesting things that pay off later.
Yeah.
All right, it's the end of the episode and it's time for us to
work out where we're going next.
This was your choice, Joe, and so it's my turn, and I'm going to
pick a show that we haven't done that much of, and that we
certainly haven't spoken about for quite a while.
We are going to watch an episode of Star Trek prodigy.
Oh, marvellous.
Oh, I'm so used to you. whiplashing back to the hideousness of
enterprise.
Yes, to hear you play a decent show. very refreshing.
Little bit of a toss-up.
So, yeah, Star Trek prodigy, and we'll pick one of one or 2
seasons.
We've done a little bit of two, a little bit of one.
So we'll leave it open and I'm going to press the button. do you
think?
Oh, God, what if we get like the finale or something?
would be amazing.
It is season two, episode three.
Who saves the saviours?
Well, stranded on Solum of the Future?
The youngsters must avoid any actions that might disrupt the
timeline.
Meanwhile, Gwyn challenges Asencia to a ritualistic battle to
prove her identity.
So this is still the setup, and we did actually do episodes one
and two, I think.
We did the opener, didn't we?
The two-part opener of season two.
And so this follows directly on from there and he's still kind of
setting up the main problem of the show.
In fact, I think at the end of who saves the saviours, they make a
mistake that has resonances through the rest of the show that they
need to fix and that they only really properly fix in the 2nd half
of season two.
Like season one, season 2 falls into kind of 2 halves of 10
episodes each.
I think it's interesting, and it is a pretty good episode, but I'm
going to press a button again.
Yeah, I'm seeing a couple of sort of two-parters in series two, you
know.
Yeah, they're quite fun to do a two-parter.
Because they're show episodes, aren't they?
Yeah, they are.
Yeah, 25 minutes.
So the next episode that I've just rolled is season one, episode
14 crossroads.
Crossroads.
The gang decides to abandon approach store and find a transport at
a snowy spaceport where Admiral Janeway's crew is already
investigating leads in their search for the missing starship.
Oh, that sounds very mid-season.
Try again.
It is very midseason.
Oh.
It's season two, episode 20 or Roburos part two.
So it would be the finale.
Now, how many finalees have we done?
Have we done too many finales at this point?
We've done endgame, we've done all good things.
We've done...
We haven't done discovery finale, have we?
We haven't done Picard finale.
I've done DS9 finale.
Oh, come on.
Auroborus part one and part two.
That could be quite fun, do you think?
All right.
I think...
Let's see how this all sort of comes together.
Assuming we're not getting any more prodigy, are we?
I think we're not.
Yeah, no, I think we aren't getting any more prodigy.
I think it's ending.
And I have to confess that I have not.
I've been struggling to bring myself to watch the last 4 episodes
of...
Oh, is that why you sounded a bit tensive there?
I've literally never seen the finale, but this would get me to do
it.
What do you think?
I think we should definitely do it.
And you know what?
Even Jama thinks we should do it.
He gives part 3 a bem and a beer.
I guess part 4 a beem and a star.
Oh, wow.
Okay, that's pretty high price.
He's usually very hard on Kurtzman Trek.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right. think we'll do it then.
Listen to this.
It sounds very exciting in their final effort to correct the
timeline.
The crew must prevent an all-out invasion of the loom.
What the hell's the loom?
and ensure the protostar is returned to its rightful place in the
past.
Okay, cool.
That sounds wonderful.
The loom are pretty great monsters, actually.
They're pretty good.
Yeah.
I hope Murph gets a big role in it.
My favourite is too.
I hope you say this today.
He's awesome.
Wonderful, isn't it?
I mean, this is the season where we've got Chakotay involved, isn't
it?
And it's sort of a bit more voyagery than before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And we get Wesley as well in this season.
Well, at the end of this.
He's in the middle.
He's probably at the end, I would think.
Yeah.
Wesley Chakotay.
I mean, what more do we need in our lives?
The doctor?
Jane Williams?
Plus, you know, it looks visually stunning.
So great.
Okay.
Let's do it.
Absolutely.
All right, let's do it. listening to entitled Star Trek Project
with Joe Ford and Nathan Bottomley.
We're online at untitledstar trekproject.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 3rd of March, 2026 and released
on the 6th of March.
See you next time for Star Trek Prodigy, or a Boris Part one, and
you're a Boris Part 2.
Yeah, I think that was good.
Yeah, that was good.
I did wonder whether it would be just us saying, oh, this is so
lovely, how much...
I just think there's lots to say with the characters in this
show.
But I think there is something to say about kind of like where we
are in the history of the show and stuff.
Do you know what I mean?
And like that thing that, you know, it just sort of reinvents
itself all the time.
I'd forgotten about 3.one.
They really did.
Yeah, and they go full on into the Dominion and it feels like big
things are happening.
Not having a, it's not having a cliffhanger at the end so much.
It is sort of a cliffhanger, but it's not a part one, part 2
cliffhanger, but they have a big development that happens.
Do you know what I mean?
Like at the end of the, at the end of the thing.
Oh, DNG's ending.
You think we can't destroy a galaxy class ship.
Wow.
Here we go.
Okay, where are we?
Oh my god.
You get to choose a season if you want to.
I do.
That's kind of exciting.
If you choose Enterprise Series one, there'll be some serious
trouble about the slot, all right?
Starfleet Academy is our least covered show.
Prodigy is our 2nd least, Colin.
And Enterprise and Voyager, then next year.
I feel like we haven't done original series for a long time.
I'm sure...
I think you were going to do original series three.
I was thinking of doing it.
Oh, I was going to do it next time, wasn't I?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What do you think if I chose a prodigy?
Although I need to bring up jammers because I don't have a clue.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I haven't seen all of them.
Let's do it.
All right, it's the end of the episode.