Hey, Joe. Hi.
So, we're back aboard Star Trek Voyager.
It's season six, episode two, Survival Instinct, which 1st aired on the 29th of September, 1999.
So I guess that's 2 weeks after the moon gets blown out of Earth's orbit.
And this is not the 1st time we've mentioned survival instinct, because we have, of course, talked about just that brief shining moment in late Voyager, where it looked like we were going to get Ronald D. Moore doing stuff for the show.
Get out the scouring paths.
All right, because this was the golden period for me.
Four episodes, um, equinox number two, survival instinct, Barges of Dead, Tinker Taylor, Doctor Spy.
I watched the 4 of them back to back on the videos and was like, oh boy, voyages arrived.
It's the one Star Trek show that's being made.
Ronald Dumour's on board from Big Space 9.
Happy days.
Why do I keep going back to these things and the shine is taken off them a little bit.
Like, I feel like this is a heavy duty scouring pad on this one because there's good stuff here and there is still good stuff here.
But boy, it's a lot more flawed than I remember it being.
So I had seen it before, and I remembered the premise, but I didn't remember it particularly well.
And I actually thought that this was better than the general kind of, you know, middle of the road voyager.
I thought it was good.
I think I texted you this afternoon and said, I think this is a very good episode.
I don't think it's well directed or well made.
No, no.
There are some really bad directorial choices.
But you've only got to look at, what's his name?
Terry Windell's credits.
A dark frontier or side, don't they?
They hardly stand out as the most visually arresting episodes of Voyager.
And I think this did need that.
And we'll talk about that when that turns up.
But you have a really excellency, I think, between 7 and the doctor, who are 2 of the best actors on the show.
The premise is interesting and it goes to the heart of who 70s as a character and shows us something new about her, which I think is really good.
Ross Moore, right?
To step in and actually, we know he was asking.
Well, but Wyatt, is characters doing these things?
It's why he got booted off. is because they were going, never mind why.
All right?
It's a fun idea that we're playing space wrestling or whatever it is, you know?
although that is great.
Never mind why he's fallen in love with that sports car.
It's just fun.
The other thing, too, is that there is, I think, a critique of how the show turned out at the beginning of this episode and that Ronald D. Moore has a much warmer, more expansive, more interesting idea about what Voyages approach should be.
Fabulous, isn't it?
Isn't it, right?
It's really good. really properly fun.
Yeah, it's not great.
Just terrific.
Yeah.
What did you say, pre-hensile?
So good.
And I think the ending was really good.
I think the 3 guest stars were fine.
I thought they were great.
There's some really heavy hitters there.
They've all been in Star Trek before and some of them have been in it after.
Um, and I found that final scene actually surprisingly moving.
And there was a little while there where I thought, oh, this is all a bit too science fiction-y, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about all of this, but they did land it.
It did go into a place where I knew what to feel about it where it was analogous enough to, you know, real life to feel like it, you know, like it was earned.
I thought it was good.
I just think the premise of uh, 7 of nine and that group of people, you know, crash landing on the planet, being disconnected, reasserting their individuality, and then her choosing to force them to lose that, and then dealing with the consequences of that in the present day.
That's such a strong dramatic premise.
And Jerry Ryan's there and she's strong enough to play all of this.
My issue was, I didn't think those guest actors were particularly memorable, and they're all choosing because they're ex-Borg to sort of underplay the emotions.
And so I wasn't feeling anything for those people.
They were all just sort of whispering and being a bit clandestine and a bit sort of naturalistic.
I was like, come on, play it up a bit.
I want to see some emotions.
See, I thought I thought that where they really landed was in that final scene because it was kind of like you're condemned to feeling each other's emotions all the time, kind of like a really dysfunctional polycule or something.
You know, like it just seemed...
That's how they do it now.
Throuple.
But like, I just didn't know how to feel about that.
That's such a weird science fiction-y thing that I just don't know, is it a good thing?
Is it a bad thing?
Like, I don't know, they say it's a bad thing. like whatever.
And, but you don't really kind of, you just have to take their word for it that it's bad.
But at the very end, and I think particularly when Vaughan Armstrong, the kind of main guy, when he leaves, and then the other 2 are there, and they express that real moment of affection for one another, and it's just natural and normal, and now I know how they feel, like I've got some idea of, of the choice that's been imposed upon them again, but, you know, they're resigned, but they're not resentful.
Like all of that stuff I just thought was really good and and like that landed for me, I think.
More knows how to do that, right?
This is the same riot that gave us rocks and shoals.
Do you remember the emotional punch at the end of that with the decision the Jemmedal made?
He knows how to take a premise to its emotional conclusion.
And trust me, not all Star Trek writers in the 90s know how to do that.
They'll give you a sort of technobabbly answer, and everyone just goes, well, that's all sorted.
How lovely, you know, and you're like, well, okay, like, yeah, I mean, they're not interested in kind of doing that.
Do you know what I mean?
It's a space procedural with a high concept and we don't want to do that.
But, you know, the Michael Pillar discovery that not only do science fiction things have to happen, they have to happen to our characters is the thing that makes the difference, I think, between a fun procedural kind of twilight zone episode to something that we can actually care about and possibly even be moved by.
What baffles me completely is how they didn't see those couple out, those handful of scenes where the regulars are just having great fun on this space station and getting into mischief and things like that and go, oh my god, can we just do that 4 times a year?
We've only got 2 seasons left.
Let's just go to fun places and explore alien environments and see weird creatures.
Why didn't they do that on Voyager?
I just don't understand why we're doing procedure of the week when we're in this region of space where anything goes.
Yeah, I mean, so, I mean, there's a problem, isn't there?
I think inherent to the show, and inherent to what it promises.
And when Star Trek the Next Generation talks about exploring Strange New Worlds and seeking out new life and new civilisations, but then it's just taking an alien delegate to the Planet Pacifica again or like whatever.
Do you know what I mean?
So we're not exploring.
Voyage has been thrown a long distance away.
And so it's in a hostile environment.
But for me, that was always the idea that Voyager was, what if Star Trek, the next generation, only more right wing.
Do you know what I mean?
Where all of the aliens are enemies and in fact, the script here uses the word xenophobic to describe all of the aliens that they encounter.
And more, I couldn't help but read that as more commenting on the direction that we've chosen to take the show.
It sort of gets steadily more right wing as we progress towards enterprise, doesn't it?
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's right.
And Enterprise gets more right wing over its run as well.
But the idea that we would form alliances and have mutual cultural exchanges and that we would help one another and that we would enjoy meeting new people and that the aliens would be funny and ridiculous rather than, you know, 9.8 on the Beaumont scale and threatening to blow us up.
You know, like, like, even Chakotay is fun.
I mean, come on.
Yes, he's coming through the bridge, like stupid bat.
And he's like, oh, excuse me, everybody.
I've got another bit of tap for you here, Captain.
Oh, more, please, why don't you stick around?
Come on.
I can only give a couple of times, though.
Do you remember when we did alliances and we suddenly cut to that bar in season 2 and that woman sort of dancing exotically on the table.
We're in some sort of sleazy bar and I'm like, my God, we never do this.
This is great.
And then in season 3, there's one called fair trade.
Do you remember where it gets to the end of Neelix's knowledge?
And they go to this sort of space station where crime is rife and it's a really sort of visually interesting weird place.
That, those are the only 2 examples I can think of apart from this.
And, and, you know, like alliances is that time where they try and form an alliance.
It's in the name and then they decide, no, we can't afford to do that.
That's bad because they could be evil whites South Africans.
Yeah, terrible.
Like that's super unfortunate.
And but that's what Star Trek is and it's hard, I think.
And just making the aliens just intransigent unreasonable obstacles to us achieving our goals every week.
That's tedious and just not... just described Voyager, there.
Oh, just I'll never forget it.
What's it?
She goes, we cannot abandon our principles of the Federation by making friends here with these horrible aliens.
Okay.
I mean, do you remember that one in series one?
Where there goes for that planet, you know, where Chewvac steals the technology that could get them home and prime factors. they're all just sort of lounging around. a man with a very strange voice, a card of talks like that.
Yeah, and but they're just sort of hanging with these people.
I was like, yeah, this, this.
You had it there.
Well, let's just enjoy the one time it happens then in the latter half of Voyager.
Let's do that.
Should we go in?
Yeah, dude, indeed.
There's abandon our principles of Voyager and have fun for one episode.
Yeah.
Okay.
Brilliant.
All right.
I will care to see it in that case.
Five, four, three, two, one, and we're off.
And here we go now.
We're in flashback territory.
Fresh landing.
There was another thing.
Yeah, there was another thing that I kind of liked about the flashback thing too, where the flashback runs out at a and then it was like what they did in timeless.
Do you know what I mean?
Where the pace of the flashback had an impact or had was reflected in the pace of the main story.
And so they all start getting their memories back and they all have the barbeque.
And then, and then that stops because that's where their memory ends.
Oh, yeah, I have to say immediately, Terry Wendell, I see your very sort of stagey direction there.
The camera sort of pulled back.
So everybody, a bit like 80s TV. everyone was in the screen in various positions waking up and, you know, bravo for adding some dry ice to suggest there's a bit of mist in this forest, but this is a bad forest set.
Like, Jesus Christ.
I mean, it's um, it's obviously the dry ice is there so that we can't see the studio floor.
Yeah, I mean, it's sort of okay.
I mean, it's typical 90s forest.
But every now and again they'll pump in like steaming and light air from above and stuff like that.
So go watch like something like change of heart where Dax and Wolf are down on that jungle planet.
And they filled it for all the bloody lizards and snakes and all sorts.
It's great, but yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's very rudimentary and that is kind of, like, I guess that's intriguing, I guess.
We read it as a flashback.
We have to.
Do you know what I mean?
Like what else what else is possibly happening here?
It's worth remembering as well.
This is like the, I mean, God, I don't know how many they've done now, but it's another episode, of course, where we're leaning into the Borg, we're opening with a Borg, uh, sphere tearing across the screen right from the start because it's just currency now, isn't it, the Borg?
It's like, yeah, people love the ball.
Let's just keep doing that Well, I mean, they introduced a Borg character.
So you have to think that they're going to be Borg episodes.
I mean, that's how this works.
Which is fair, but they did overload 4 and 5 with Borg episodes to the point where they're inching out other interesting characters.
So it does get in seven. where you're going, oh, another Borg episode.
Come on now.
This has been tough to death.
Yeah.
That's fair.
You know, like the Borg episodes are pretty great.
And I think there's something to be said for having few of them, but also, you know, just becomes a thing that Star Trek can do and let's just do it.
At least it's interesting here, right?
Collective was so boring.
Like, at least this is dramatically interesting. yeah.
If you're gonna do it, do it well.
Oh here we go.
Here we go.
Look at the space station.
It looks amazing.
It just looks great.
You know what it looks like?
That looks a bit like the conceptual design for DS9 before they went for those weird spikes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it also reminds me a little bit of that one in Dead Stop as well.
You know, the...
Yeah, but it's like big and interesting and it just looks like a place where a lot of things are happening.
We don't go there, do we?
We don't go on there at all.
Everything's happening here.
But there's enough aliens about, I mean, keep your eyes peeled because all of these aliens have been in Voyager before.
It's all the stock miles because they've got, I sort of are...
Yeah, I think there's one who turned up as like a one scene criminal.
It might have been in the Bongmar episode, actually, you know, just popped.
Oh, here we go.
The station manager didn't tell me the vines were pretty hensile.
So obviously she's being felt up by this bush.
Oh, what did she say at the end?
It's got my hair.
I mean, look at the state of this room.
And she's got fronds coming out of her hair.
We know things are bad with her hair.
I came from a voyage of medallion.
The cheapest thing I could think to give them.
Oh, Cheuvoc is great in this scene.
Isn't it?
Where every they're sort of going, oh, it's so wonderful when he comes back with a catty line each time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Christmas morning.
And that's what it felt like as well.
It did feel like Christmas morning. was a great line.
Well, when you go, what's it?
No, there's a 2nd page of all the crimes that have happened.
And then he goes, she doesn't talk.
Yeah, yeah.
So they're actually doing funny lines.
Like, they're actually doing funny lines.
Because Ron Moore.
Yeah, yeah.
I know, he could have written us some great comedies. couldn't it be to stuck around?
Yeah, yeah.
Look at her hair for the whole scene.
They just give her this silt.
Like, she's just been through. bush backwards, which is literally what's happened.
Oh, he goes, what is it, don't you find true?
People have got freedom and they're happy.
He goes, open this.
Does he say I'm happy you're happy?
Yeah, yeah, yeah Oh, are you sure pleased?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's pretty good, isn't it?
Oh, but he does get he does get a Voyager medallion as well.
No, he decides. got me by the hair.
She goes, why don't they let Kay have fun more often?
She's so funny.
But I mean, I think this premise where they're here to meet new people and exchange, have cultural exchanges and stuff.
Oh, what do we think of Naomi Wild?
Oh, she's the most irritated moppet, isn't she?
But I do quite like her in this episode.
I thought there's a couple of scenes where we veer towards crossing the line of oversentimentality, but Jerry actually sells them really well, especially the one where she says to her, no, I do consider you.
Oh, would you look at the direction here?
This is so bad.
It's a tight shot on 7 and Naomi, right?
Whilst all this stuff's happening in the background.
They're all just waiting to par.
You can see.
And the camera sort of comes back and then they all just part and it's so staged, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But like they part because she barks at them, which I think is actually pretty funny as well.
So, you know, the crowd is there and she barks at them and they all part.
But yes, hang on.
They just made the bumps a bit different.
I know he's gray as well.
But it looks like me on the Star Trek project to show up.
You made it into the show.
Well done.
I, as an Australian, I have to say that marsupial surprise sounds disgusting and literally eating pouches, but I can assure you that kangaroo is actually pretty delicious.
I don't know what 7 and Naomi Wildman are eating, but it looks absolutely miserable.
Well, it's spinach in creamy sauce or something.
I actually really like how 7 knows how eating things works on Star Trek because you never sit and need an entire meal.
You sit down and get served to you and then there's a blue alert or you have to go somewhere or something and so she's decided she doesn't want to eat.
All right, this is Vaughan Armstrong.
Yes.
Who I thought was the strongest of the three, Boar character.
And he's the chief one.
He is in Heart of Glory.
Way back in season one of TNG.
He's Captain Chorus, the main the main guy.
He's in past prologue.
He's in as a Cardassian.
He's in Eye of the Needle as a Romulan.
He is another Cardassian in the dogs of war.
He is the Videan captain in Fury.
He's the alpha Herogan in flesh and blood.
He's Korath, another Klingon in Endgame, and his forest in Enterprise.
Remember Admiral Forrest?
Yeah.
And he's a Klingon captain and he's the Cretasson in a night in Sick Bay.
Oh, boy.
And so he...
He saved the best.
More different characters.
He's played more different characters even than Jeffrey Coobs, I think.
Do you think he's got some photographs of Rick Berman somewhere?
I think he's solid.
You know what I mean?
certainly the best of this three.
He's got a bit of gravity.
He does.
Now, the woman who plays Marika, who is seeing here who is a Bajoran, is a Vulcan in the McKee.
Oh, she's terrible in that.
If it's the one that flirts with cool.
It's a really, really bad performance.
I mean, here, like, the way she's delivering all of her lines, here, you know, I was talking about murder, she wrote a lot.
I just imagine her being sort of like the one that everyone accuses us to kill her and she's like, no, I'm innocent.
It's that sort of performance.
And this, I think, is really great, where he kind of goes, so this is Pachan 4 of 9, and he's the 1st one who gets a memory back, because he realises that desecrating the body of the drone would be a violation of his religious beliefs, from his original planet.
And I actually thought too, the way that they describe their past is really interesting.
So he was a young man.
He lived in a small building near the river, and his job was to look after his parents.
I thought, and and what you get from them, like she says that she has a husband.
Nathan, Ball's been delivering these bullshit backstories now long enough to be able to do it convincingly.
But they're really, they're not...
It's a little detailed, isn't it?
It's not a narrative, but we normally care.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I thought it was really good.
Really nice.
I mean, I love the look of horror on Jerry's face when she goes, excuse me.
Do you think of yourself as an individual?
What is happening here?
And yet, she's clearly feeling that herself.
Oh, this was great.
Yes, this same.
Torres and why did we not get more Torres and Serpent and Lyon?
because they kind of love and hate each other at the same time.
Torres is like, I'm the super bitch on this ship.
And 7's like, really?
Come on now.
But when they have a moment like this where they managed to connect despite the fact that they're not really friends.
It's lovely.
Yeah, I think what they did was they said, well, we have a woman, and so we'll use her, and poor old Roxanne, who is unbelievably good, and massively underutilised in this show.
Um, you know, they just put her on the back.
This poor good scene.
It's so great. at this point where they sort of remember her. 4 and five. she got I mean she's pregnant in one of those seasons as well.
So they sort of shepherd beyond consoles like Gates McFadden.
But, you know, you get barging a dead next, you get Muse at the end of the season.
I know we have some issues with lineage next year, but that's, you know, for me, they start doing things with her again.
Sure.
I think they're sort of like, we think exhausted seven.
Who have we got left?
Oh, Belana's there.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah, she's still here.
Nathan, I'm sorry, but that man's sort of bulging forehead.
It's very unfortunate.
Look at him.
Yeah, another Westmore problem.
Yes, isn't it?
Huge brain.
That's what it is Yeah.
Yeah, they sort of look bowling and stuff.
I don't know.
I think that they look good and I think that the scars on their face are a good choice.
Because, I mean, in a way, because they don't have implants, the way that 7 does.
She's still got the implants and you want that because you want her to kind of look Borg, but you don't want to stop her from being incredibly sexy.
Whereas here they give them scars and notice that they give Marika fewer scars than the boys.
But that's a great scene there where they're all just sitting there talking to one another in each other's heads and you kind of go, what is this?
Who are these people?
Generally speaking, when the episode is relying on the dialogue, which is really good.
It's good.
It's when it's action or has to be presented in an interesting way.
That's where it falls apart.
In a minute.
You wait. 7 of 9 wakes up in her alcove and they try and stage a sort of weird action scene where they're all around her and Chewbok just sort of saunters in the room with a gun.
And I'm like, that couldn't have been less dramatic if the director tried.
And I think that there's a real scene of genuine horror that would have helped the episode to land.
Like, there was super important to how the episode ended up and he fudges it.
I don't think it's very good at all.
The hell was that alien that just sort of sexily slinked out of the turbo lift?
Did you see the back of her head?
She didn't lock it up.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, awesome.
Oh, yeah, sorry.
I forget about your ginks.
God.
The trouble is now, right?
The episodes are sort of underway and the premise is sort of being worked on.
So Chakotay can't be fun anymore.
Now he's just pushing buttons, take the babble again.
But so they're going through this dark thing and they're kind of scared, but they look like they're just sort of strolling into the sand, don't they?
The whole room should be dark.
Right?
They have done it before, where they make that room really dark.
And then they should maybe POV shots of them creeping in handheld, you know, like sort of closer to them, though.
The camera's too far away from them.
And so you don't get their subjectivity.
You don't get how they're feeling about it and they're anxious about doing this.
They don't want to harm her.
They're doing something that they shouldn't be doing.
But they don't look fast.
It doesn't really change like that.
Look at the man there.
Oh, dear, we might get caught, you know.
Oh, I thought Vaughan Armstrong was selling anxious there, actually.
He's got a good moody Stano, wasn't he?
Like, yeah, he's good for a close-up with those eyes.
And I do think the woman who plays America is beautiful as well.
I think that held.
Did you see there where she just flashed her leg and it had all scars and implants in it still.
I mean, that's why we know all of their bodies are, you know, still.
Yeah, that looks great.
And we do see more of that.
I think we take Vaughan Armstrong's shirt off.
Watch this.
Watch this like she wakes up.
It's so terrible Oh, hello.
What's happening here?
I will not comply.
I'm going to push you there.
I mean, look at it.
It's so awful.
Yeah.
It's really bad. you know?
But there needs to be real...
Yeah, far out.
There needs to be real body horror around the nanotubes or whatever they are. doesn't that?
Particularly because of the that incredible moment where she just essentially reassimilates them.
Like she just goes from one and does what was done to them originally and reassimilates them.
And that should be absolutely horrifying and terrible, but it's just not well directed at all.
The only level that works for me is her performance, you know, because Jerry is so good, and there's just a sort of dispassionate, but a little bit of a, oh, God, what am I doing?
In a performance where I was like, wow, okay, there's some conflict there.
But, but they need to be properly terrified by it because, you know, because it's the thing that costs them all these, and they've all blanked it out.
Star Trek can remember it. reluctant to make people really scared, isn't it?
It's not something that Star Trek.
Sorry, the Doctor Who does all the time makes adults bloody terrified.
Yeah, I mean, we talked last time about how original Star Trek was scary.
Um, but, um, yeah, Voyager doesn't tend to do horror, but I think Jones wants this to, uh, Moore wants this to be horrible.
Do you know what I mean?
Like he's writing a horror scene where she is going from person to person assimilating them.
And the Borg were always scary and they are scary.
Um, you know, I'll tell you what, look at his face, the lead bulk.
Do you see where his face is torn, where the makeup is the sort of holes in the makeup?
That's nasty, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. where the where the tube.
The pike is going in. sort of like sort of stretching like gum. it's horrible Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you know, now, I mean, I am just getting sitting around a campfire. just having a nice barbeque, like you said.
What's the creature, do you think?
What did they eat?
Yeah, I don't know, big cow.
Space cow.
Okay, okay.
Why could we have seen the scene where they're sort of chasing it down?
That would have been great. would have been awesome.
Oh, boy.
See, as a script, though, right, this sequence where they're all remembering various parts, it's really good, and it builds momentum, they all start remembering things really fast.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And she has no memories.
She doesn't report any memories, does she?
Or did she say my parents are dead?
No, he does.
Heap achan.
He says his parents are dead.
She has got no memories.
And I think that I, because I'd seen this before, I must have kind of remembered how it went down, but she, um, uh, like she has no memories.
And, and, you know, the original conception of her, I think, was that she was raised by wolves.
Do you know what I mean?
Like if we're going to, you know, make this comprehensible in some way.
What we want is raised, what we want is raised by wolves, right?
But there were other possible conceptions of her, like she had been a drug addict and she was coming off drugs.
Do we play it like that or she'd been in a cult?
You know, but here I think the idea is the cult.
But yeah, yeah.
They should they do. don't you think?
The drug addict stuff is in the gift, you know, where she's sort of coming down from that throughout that entire episode and fighting against it.
They're certainly the cult thing they do a couple of times.
But they're doing it here because she is someone who has been converted to this cult as a child.
She has no other way of understanding the world and she's scared without because she has nothing.
Her only memories of her childhood are the terror of being assimilated by the Borg.
That's all she can remember.
And so she can't experience that again.
And so she makes sure that it doesn't happen.
She makes sure that they don't, you know, that the Borg doesn't go away or anything like that.
So voyage, Nathan.
Oh my god, the raised bar wolves approach is easily the most interesting and the one they barely touch on.
But I do think that the raised by wolves thing is does inform her performance.
Does inform how she plays.
Whenever she's sort of cold, whenever she's dismissed of people's deaths, whenever she her reaction to something is like, whoa, let's just murder them all.
Well, get out of here.
Come on now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
But look, look, look at Vaughan Armstrong.
Like he's got his shirt off here.
Nowadays, you know, like you couldn't look like that and have your shot.
God, he's got a creepy studio.
Yeah, you wouldn't see a crease, would you?
Yeah, but look, doesn't he look amazing?
Yeah, the makeup job is so good.
And how often do we say that in 90s strike?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the makeup on on Pichan as well.
I think is pretty good too.
I like the fact that, you know, because she's so pretty.
We've only got a little bit to the side of a red there because we don't want to make her look too ugly.
We learned our lesson from coarse oblivion.
Yeah exactly.
Exactly.
That's actually look at his chest.
I mean, it really is. are going into his skin.
Because, I mean, they have to do, they have to make because she's still got the implants, but it has to read like this was done by people who are less good at this than the doctor is, right?
And so the doctor manages to get her to grow hair back.
The doctor managers, but has to leave some of the implants behind.
But here, like they look like they've been done by some sort of back alley surge and that's exactly how that's supposed to read.
The most chilling thing that could possibly happen.
Yeah, is the line that Ronald D. Moore just gave the bald man, was where he went, oh my god, what the hell have they done to me?
Like he's seen that he's been mutilated.
And it's the thing that makes the cybermen scary and it's the thing that makes the Borg scary and it's the thing that both shows very rarely touch for whatever reason.
Yeah, yeah.
Voyager really, Voyager.
Star Trek, the Next Generation, you know, sort of does it, and obviously that incredible opening scene of 1st contact with the with the drill going into Picard's eye.
But, you know, when um, 2 of nine, when Lansor says, this isn't my hand, what happened to my hand?
I want my hand back.
Like, you don't get any of that from 7 or anything like that because it's all kind of just neatly fixable.
You know what, right?
I mean, I was just looking at the back of his head there, that amazing sort of crane implant that he's got.
Had these not been X-port drones?
We would have been going, oh, you know, it's the usual sort of latex, but because they can add some detail to it.
That's what makes it interesting, isn't it?
I wonder why she wears a beret.
It's such an entrees.
Yes, sir.
She's got one fuck off Eugene plant under that, I reckon.
Highly, highly prized amongst my people, you know.
Did you miss that detail?
Great religious symbol, the beret.
Oh, boy.
I mean, I still love I still love the fact that they put this ball cubicle in Voyager.
Like, it's so unusual for Voyager to have that, actually, something that impacts the bloody ship.
I think too, that that we very we very quickly get rid of the idea that these are our adversaries and we decide to start working together.
You know, it's unlike Voyager where these guys would be villains who are trying to get, you know, like the guy in hope and fear, who is trying to get revenge on the Borg or whatever because of what's been done to them.
They're not our enemies at all.
They do do this thing.
They get caught, but then 7 immediately agrees to help them.
And so this isn't about conflict between aliens or anything like that.
This is about the past and what 7 had to do.
This sort of wordplay that Moore's put into the script here.
Yeah, where they see each other's really skilfully done and it just feels like they've had one turn here.
I mean, go and watch something like Doctor Who's midnight. and there you'll see 2 hired skilled actors delivering wordplay in a really sophisticated way.
That could have been an incredible scene there, but it's it's just a bit flat.
We'll talk about that in a minute, but now we have a dressing down with Harry and Tom in her ready room.
You are looking for a bar.
Tell the truth.
And you'd been drinking.
I mean, they're just terrible, they say, but she's wonderful.
At the end where she goes, did you win?
You know, like, yeah, yeah.
I mean, what the hell do you do with that stupid racket?
Yeah.
So again, and I kind of like that the racket has been established.
Um, you know, like why not?
We had that set, that stupid prop, let's have the stupid propaganda.
I think, you know, this is the sort of story that Picard tells about his misspent youth, isn't it?
You know, like playing Domjot with Nausicans.
You know, it is that sort of thing.
Cisco with curzled in all the bars, you know.
We don't get to do that anymore. you know, and so it's kind of nice to give them that.
And you can see that that's why Ron Moore did it because that's a Star Trek staple that Voyager's not done.
I don't like it that much because it has nothing to do with the rest of the episode.
It's clearly there for contractual reasons to get these 2 guys.
And there's a kind of boys will be boys attitude, which I think doesn't really fly anymore.
You know, like 30 years later or whatever.
Um, you can't really get away with that.
It feels bad.
But the trouble, and I don't disagree.
It's totally out of place, but I just can't not want to watch a scene where Kate Mulgrew has been bossy.
I just love it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sardonic look, she gives them at the end, you know?
Oh, good.
But why, again, it's this pathetic thing where Harry has to say we kick their rackets because it's PG and he can't just say we kick their arse like a grown-up.
Like, it's just absurd.
If you can have O'Brien say bollocks, you can have Harry Kim say arse, right?
Well, I think the problem is that bollocks and bloody, which are both things that Tom gets to say.
They don't know any other English swear words or British swear.
Really?
That's not that strong.
I know.
Come on.
Kick their rackets.
That's such a voyager line, isn't it?
I reckon Bragga put that one in.
Oh, have Harry say something really cutting at the end, you know?
And then undermine it by not allowing him to swear.
Oh, here we go.
Look, we're in safe hands now.
We've got Kate and Jerry in a scene together.
And Jerry, fortunately, is dating Brandon at this point in season six, so Kate's being nice.
Jerry is definitely getting her toilet breaks now.
But this is good, isn't it?
Like, I think that this is actually quite a good scene as well.
Um, and like, it is exposition, but because Kate's great, like, because Kate knows her and how she feels, she gets to open up about it a little bit and about how she's feeling and what she's anxious about.
Like, I think all of that's pretty good.
Oh, I love her saying I'm uncertain. and taking that to Janeway as well because there was a time when she wouldn't do that.
God, it's so lovely, isn't it?
that they brought in a character, which meant that both 7 and Janeway, and obviously they're doing it with the doctor as well.
They are genuinely developing some characters.
Yeah.
Because they weren't doing that in one to three, really, were they?
No.
I mean, there was a kind of good relationship, I think, between Janeway and Kes setup, like they had quite a nice dynamic, I think. as well, which that does fall to the wayside when 7 comes in.
Yeah, it does.
We've done a couple of episodes where they've had some, you know, close scenes, Janeway and Torres.
Oh, here we go.
Yeah, yeah.
He's Naomi now.
You know, Nomi Wildman.
Do you consider me part of your family?
I mean, I was going, 0 boy, this scene is not going to end well.
No, I mean, I think it's okay.
I don't quite know what she's doing here.
Oh, Naomi.
I mean, I ask that lot.
But what's this stuff about family exactly?
Like why?
I don't know quite why it fits in this episode.
I mean, you've got this sort of weird enforced family among the triad among those 3 people who are kind of stuck with one another.
And now a foul family on Voyager.
But the link's not there, is it?
No.
And like, I don't know what it's saying about it, because generally speaking, you know, the triad is negative and it's only at the end.
I thought that it was actually a little bit of a shame they didn't take it further, that they all kind of loved one another, that they knew each other so well.
I just like 7 being gentle.
You know, they didn't give her enough moments like that.
When she came back and Picard, you know, she kicks arse, but she gets to have romances and be really sort of human in a way that plays to Jerry's strengths even more than they did here.
Yeah, so maybe it was just a chance to give Jerry and Naomi a, you know, boxing to do.
I don't think you, I said this before, haven't I?
You don't need to stress that a show has a family in it if you are displaying well enough in the relationships and Voyager does it every other episode.
Oh, we're breaking up our family.
How sad, you know?
So now we go back. to the cliffhanger, not the cliffhanger, the flashback. and we catch up.
We go beyond where the where it's been before.
And I don't hate these scenes, but I do think that, as I said to you before.
So this is where we left off, isn't it?
I do think that it needed to be more terrifying, and I think it's all overlit.
It needs to be directed to the potential.
Yeah, walking off there.
That camera just walked off for about 10 seconds while she walked the whole length of the studio.
Terry, you can move the cameras.
Well, he's doing it now, like with a steady cam, you know, the handheld as she walks through the thing, but it's not close enough to her.
You know, like if we're trying to convey her subjectivity here.
It needs to be nasty this, you're right.
It needs to be, she's really taking something from them instead.
Yeah.
Well, actually, the blood snot.
Look at the blood on his face.
Yeah, so this guy just dies, doesn't he?
Um, and that's that's what terrifies her.
But, like, I don't think that's enough, and I don't think it lands enough, and I kind of struggle to know what was going on later on.
Look at this shot.
I'm so sorry to interrupt.
They're just standing in a row in a row.
I mean that is 82 there, isn't it?
Come on, Terry.
Good grief.
I mean, he had, this was his 44th episode he directed, for God's sake.
Yeah, yeah.
No, he does 10 episodes.
He literally does 10 episodes.
He just saw that man who's about...
He could get it done on time and on money.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's not inept, but it's just not as good as it could be.
I don't know.
I feel these could be proper horror scenes, couldn't they?
Yes, exactly.
But this dialogue scene, though, is, again, playing to this as a religious cult.
Do you know what I mean?
I do not exist.
I exist only to service the Borg, you know, like it's a whole thing.
But like, you know, I'm going to make a comparison now to Willow hunting down those geeks in the forest in Buffy.
Yeah, do you remember how scary that was?
Black Eyed Willow, pushing the trees pass, and the music, the bloody omen music's coming in.
Here, 7 or 9 just sort of wanders about and goes, oh, there you are, right?
There you go.
There's your things.
But it did need to be that, didn't it?
Yeah, and she should have means to be she's hunting them down and they're terrified.
Music, maybe as well, Nathan.
I think, like, they just don't have the music, do they?
You could probably sell it with a good horror score.
But I think you need horror direction.
Like I think it, you know, it's not enough to just have her breathe deeply and look around.
It's not like they can't do it because do you remember how impressed we were?
with the atmospherics in the haunting of deck 12, which was a flawed episode, but it had some atmosphere to it, didn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, look at her now.
She's like, hello.
Yeah, she's pacing her anywhere.
Like she should be hunting them.
Why isn't she hunting them?
She's just sort of strolling around.
And then we can't see her sleeping looking quite peaceful, actually.
I don't think she looks anxious It should have been like Tapole. suffering from ponfire.
Yeah, look, I mean, come on now.
She should literally be tearing down trees and oh, it should be really...
Yeah, but she shoots him from like a long distance away, then walks slowly up to him and then puts the tubules in him.
You know, it should have been a chase.
He let her down there, though.
That techno-babble.
She said, no, you just need her to be like stabbing him with the bloody things.
You know, don't give her check the babble lines.
I knew that.
We knew the nanoprobes were going to create the interlink things because we'd seen it in the previous scene.
The fuck is this Crane Shaw as they're sort of wandering off together.
Look at this beautiful sand.
Beautiful, you say.
Okay.
Oh, he looks like he's anxious in his sleep there.
Yeah, that's a bit better.
That's a bit better.
But again, you know, like he wanders off.
And then we just sort of come to her doing that.
I mean, look, as they walk off, they look like bloody Crichton from Red Dwarf walking, don't they?
Like they need a poo.
I mean, what is happening?
Maybe I was just very so pleased when I was younger. was really scary stuff.
Yep.
Here we go.
See, this, that look on her face, we at least got that, you know, like that we didn't get that in the other 2 ones. like she just looks implacable.
Like that's something that we could have seen.
Look at them all in a row with their arms hanging.
It just looks so awkward, doesn't it?
Yeah, that's the...
Like do close-ups here.
They look like bloody dollies standing in a row.
Yeah, yeah. insane, isn't it?
Oh, just punch, you know, like I keep saying on the page, it's so good.
It works.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I think it could.
And like, why are you doing close-ups of them stating their names, their designations?
They had their names. you know, and why don't we have a close-up of their faces as they say their designation. to emphasise what they've lost.
Yeah, now we can...
The way the camera's shooting around us, they shower.
But don't they all kind of get brain fried or something?
Something happens to them and they, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I would have said, Terry, I'm sorry, that was your last Voyager, all right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, maybe they don't have money for this either.
I mean, obviously money's a problem on this show.
Even like Barger the Dead, which is next.
Do you remember?
That blood sea and that fabulous atmospheric's on the barge.
No, I think it's the director.
I think I think if the director, you know, if his heart isn't in the horror, then it's not horrific, is it?
No, that's right.
That's right.
And now we're having them talking about the interlink.
This isn't the scene, but there is a scene later on, a scene where she comes back and makes the decision because there's, you know, this is a little bit, we're sort of heading towards the end of the episode, we're about 9 minutes from the end, and we still have to have a fair bit of dialogue to set up what the conundrum is.
So we're coming quite late to the choice, the big moral choice at the centre of it, which is, do we allow them to be assimilated by the Borg so that they can live out the full length of their lives, or do we uh, take them away, you know, de program them, but they die in a month.
I mean, that's spectacularly late for the moral dilemma to hear in an episode.
Even tubes.
It lands somewhere in the middle of the episode.
That's right.
But they don't have time to probably deal with it in 2 weeks because it takes them a while to kind of get there.
But now we've got another scene. you know, but with Chakotay talking about this too.
They're romance, Nathan.
Yeah, oh, God.
I thinking?
But again, it's where we get the explanation of why she behaved the way that she did.
And I think if you're attentive, you would have guessed this because this is, you know, this is the right answer.
Ronald D. Moore knows how to make something happen because of a character's kind of backstory, well-known backstory, and we've seen Dark Frontier and stuff at this point.
So we know and the Raven, so we know how she got here.
I do think like this is good dialogue.
You were a scared little girl.
I saw the drone died.
I became scared that I would die, and so I did what I thought, you know, we had to do, which was to turn everybody and become the collective and survive.
It makes sense.
It doesn't always make sense, Nathan.
No, but like it's the death of the drone.
I don't know.
Like the death of that drone may be just one element too many, I think.
Like, I think she needs to be scared of being abandoned because that's a nice contrast with her, not being able to tolerate crowds now.
We had that line.
What if it was like, and now he or she is on the, in this dark forest and she's a little girl and she's terrified.
She's only known the Borg and being a terrified little girl.
We don't get any sense of that from her performance that that's how she's feeling.
And that that's what motivates her to go and get her friends back and forcibly assimilate them all again.
Like, I think, I think that the, the, dead drone doesn't quite get it.
That's overwritten as well.
I've been saying nice things about the dialogue there, but I don't need Chakotay to say to me, well, you know, if they go back to the Borg, they won't really be living out a human life.
No, I know because we've been watching the episode.
I mean, he says, what is it, a month as a human or a lifetime as a drone?
That's enough.
Yeah.
So this thing now, I think, is really good.
And it's properly rightly.
Notice that it starts with 7 coming in and saying survival is insufficient and the doctor pushing back against that.
And then we have all this stuff about the doctor and an understanding of the doctor's character and the doctor's backstory, and the thing that makes the doctor like 7 and 7 has worked it out, and I don't think it's been said in quite the same way.
And it ends with him telling her that survival is insufficient.
Did you see that little flick of her eyes, what he says, is this what's best for them or what's best for you?
She's so good.
Yeah, she's really good.
It's tiny... flinch that she gives.
This is a well-written scene.
It's super rightly, do you know what I mean?
It's, you know, like Ron Moore doing his thing.
Um, and it works in a way that I don't think the previous Chakotay scene is all that interesting.
But this is electric, I think, and this is, you know, like, the turning point, right?
I'm going to experience individuality as I have, which is a great most.
Functionally, this is the climax, isn't it?
Yes.
Although, like you said, the actual climax is quite moving.
Yeah, well, I, but I think that that, that, that thing is not quite the climax.
I think that's us cleaning up.
Do you know what I mean?
It's us saying goodbye and showing the consequences of the decision, but making this decision, is the important thing that happens in the episode, and this is where this thing gets made.
You've established the emotions in this scene.
I don't need a making comparisons with the mobile emitter.
We don't need any of that.
No.
But I do think that saying you are like me.
You would not go back to being at the call of, you know, uh, summoning the EMH, you know, you became a person, you sing, you do this stuff.
And then the doctor says, yes, you're right.
Survival is insufficient.
And that's the last one I've seen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, with her delivering it to him.
And then did you see the look on her face then?
She almost looked like she was gonna cry, but she also looked conflicted and a bit angry as well.
It's it's so good.
I mean, Jerry Ryan, Chef's gift.
I like this scene too.
And I love him saying I had no idea you were going to say that, which I thought was, I haven't said it yet.
Nathan, practical lighting in the set.
Coming through the windows from the space station.
And look, it's on their faces, it's in her hair.
Why don't we do this more often?
And it works.
Do you know what I mean?
Like it's sunlight on their face.
They're staring out into the sunlight. and that's representing and maybe it's even a sunset.
Do you know what I mean?
That that it works for what's going on in the scene, that their faces are bathed in something like sunlight.
I think it's really good.
And I think Vaughan Armstrong, who is, you're right, the strongest of these guest actors, is great.
Got more warp here as well, haven't they?
Because now they're not robots anymore.
They're people Well, I had I had actually wanted Vaughan Armstrong to be a little bit more demonstrative.
I do like, they can't give him a line to say to her.
Do you know what I mean?
Because she did a terrible thing, but he forgives her, doesn't he, with just that look on his face and says, no, you made the right decision this time.
And I think that's really well done.
Here, when these 2 are.
Yeah, that's lovely.
He's looking at her.
I mean, I've done with a bit more of this earlier.
I'm sorry.
No, but this is what they get. they love one another.
They're saying goodbye and they've been so intimate with one another.
It's beautiful.
I know, but it's really good. keep saying to Nicholas Briggs, you know, you try and make robots and Mo.
It's not very interesting Just have to be people, all right?
And this, my people don't believe in holding grunges.
And remember the 1st thing that we learned about his people were that they were religious and that they had religious sensibilities.
And she's given that back to him with this choice.
I think that's great.
That's a lovely show. of her there facing the sunlight with tears in her eyes and 7 behind looking at her.
Like Terry, you did good.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, but it is one of those very standard scenes where someone is looking out a window and someone else is standing behind them towards them in the back of their head, which is...
Don't you talk to...
Come on, I do it all the time.
Please, will you just turn in the other direction?
I'm just used to this on the telly. you very much.
But it's a great saying. that's a really good scene Yeah.
Oh, here comes.
No, me to polish us off, look.
Yeah, well, well.
But listen, have you seen her now?
I mean, she's beautiful.
The woman that she's become.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
Yeah, of course.
I mean, once upon a time.
We will do it one day.
It may not cause oblivion off the bottom sport.
I doubt it.
Somehow.
The trouble is, Star Trek has a habit of doing this.
Put in fabulous, you know, magnificent actresses like Jerry Ryan in scenes with Scarlet Pomer.
Small children, Snarky Waltman.
Well, so sort of mixed response from me from that one, but I think on paper, it's doing all the right things for the and in execution is wanting quite a bit.
Yeah.
I think that I think that that's the problem.
But I think it is trying to do something that's really good.
And it gave us something interesting to talk about.
And it is, I think that's mission accomplished.
You know, like I actually wanted just a kind of a mid-range normal episode of Voyager.
Um, to just kind of talk about because we hadn't done that for a while.
And this ended up being better than I expected in all sorts of ways, but it still fell short in production things and stuff.
So it was interesting to talk about.
I thought it was good.
The universe is imbalanced then, because this wound up being worse than I was hoping for, because I remember absolutely loving it.
It's been life and we can meet in the middle like this.
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 my choice, I think.
And so it's your turn.
What do you have in store for us?
Yes, well, now, listen, don't be cross because you give me the tools to do these things, all right?
If you didn't give me the tools, I couldn't make the art, okay?
It irritates me how well you know me, though, because you've just told me what I'm going to do, and it's precisely what I'm going to do.
I have, of course, chosen my favourite Star Trek, Deep Space.
Now let's stay in the 90s for a bit.
I've chosen a specific season as well.
I've chosen six.
See, what the hell did you know?
Now, here's my role.
That's for this role.
Well, we married once. can't remember.
No, but now there is an episode I'm aiming for, but I'm only willing to press the button 8 times and if I don't get it on the 8th whatever I've got I'm going for.
Look, if you didn't give me these seasons, I couldn't do this.
All right.
You were begging for them.
You are Oppenheimer in this situation.
That's it.
Of the randomiser, that is at least.
Okay, you ready?
I'm ready.
Okay, season 6 of 6.
I mean, it sounds good.
It's a vintage year.
Let's have to go.
Far beyond the stars, well, we have already done that.
We've done that already.
Okay.
Oh, dear, no.
We're not doing this one.
Profit and lace.
No.
I've just skipped straight over that one Oh, no.
In the power moonlight. done that one too.
Yeah, that's right.
Oh, the reckoning.
Oh, no, please.
I can't be dealing with those great fairy lights coming out of Jake and Kira on the promenade.
Oh yeah, that's nonsense, isn't it?
I mean, wind's in it.
A win is great, but...
Let's keep going.
We've done a lot of six.
I haven't we?
Rocks and shoals.
Yeah.
Okay.
Oh, shit.
Oh, if this is brilliantly tiled, wrong, darker than death or night.
But I just don't know if we should be doing sort of prostitution, you know, and sleeping with Nancy Commandants.
No, let's not.
Okay.
Oh, God, where am I at seven?
Seven.
Oh bloody hell.
Honour amongst thieves has come up next, which is our sort of torture O'Brien episode of season 6 where he goes and has a relationship with Nick Tate from...
Space 1999.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it has to be this one.
This is eight.
Whatever it is, it's what we're doing.
Oh, well it's not what I was aiming for.
I was aiming for sacrifice of angels.
I really wanted to do something in that 1st off.
I mean it managed to avoid all the episodes.
The 5 we haven't done and choose the one we have.
You put a bug in this thing.
Are you sure?
not well.
So the episode that we're doing.
I mean, please.
He's face nine.
Season six, episode 14.
One little ship.
Oh, yes.
Let's do that.
That's awesome.
Come on, that's a great outcome.
Sacrifice of fucking angels.
You've got to be kidding me.
Fabulous.
Let's do one little shit.
I mean, I'll do enough a bit where Bashir starts looking up and he realises a massive, defiant symbol is out the window and he's sort of upside down going, what the hell is that simple?
Oh my god.
Honey, I'll shrunk the runabout, Jesus Christ.
That's so much fun.
That's going to be great.
That's brilliant.
Gosh, that show's great.
Is it the best hanging the lantern ever seen where Kira says at the start.
Are you seriously telling me?
We're going to shrink these people down to the size of coffee cups and she just falls apart.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's awesome.
That's great.
She just makes complete fun of the premise.
Oh, actually, it continues our run of Jem Hadar episodes as well.
Do you remember?
This has got the alphas and the gammas.
The 2 sex.
The ones that were bred specifically in the Gamma Quadrant and the ones that were bred in the Alpha Quadrant.
They don't get on at all.
There's a sort of hierarchy happening.
Right, right, right.
Okay.
Oh, that's fun.
That sounds good.
I haven't watched that for ages.
I remember it really well.
It should be really, really fun.
I'm looking forward to that.
And the last episode, all right.
Don't say that.
Yeah, it'd probably be a disaster.
I seem to remember it being sort of mid-level.
Let's go with that and then hope for the best.
Okay, all right.
Let's not get too excited.
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 Ciceran and the theme was composed by Cameron Lamb.
This episode was recorded on the 28th of July 2026 and released on the 31st of July.
We'll see you next time for Star Trek Deep Space 9, One Little Ship.
So, I did watch the, um, the Strangely Worlds episode this week, and it was so good.
It was so good.
Yeah, they seem to have gone down pretty well, 60 minutes, and it did the, you know, that thing I complain about the, um, time can't be allowed to change, that it's wrong to change time, that if you do something nice for someone in the past, then that's wrong.
Um, And where, whereas I think it doesn't actually really matter when in time things are, you do the right thing, being nice to people is good and being bad to them is wrong.
And so this really plays, but that it breaks those rules, and it made me appreciate Orphan 55 a little bit, where I know.
But where, you know, suddenly the rules of time have changed and we're in an alternative future, like we've just been travelling.
We not in a parallel universe or anything like that, but we're just in a future where, um, humanity where, you know, climate change has destroyed the world.
And although the episode doesn't manage to be about that, it kind of fails, but at least it presents a version of time where your choices have an impact.
You know, like there's not just a right course of action, a thing that's supposed to happen irrespective of what choices lead to it or anything like that.
And so they go back in time and it's 65000000 years ago and they don't realise they're in Earth's solar system because there are 3 M class planets.
And they meet this woman, this Englishwoman, this fantastic English guest star who is a Martian.
She's literally from a planet Mars, which is still a going concern, and it's been attacked by people from the 5th planet, insect people from the 5th planet.
Um, And so suddenly everything's different.
You know, the past is different from what we expected.
We knew nothing about it.
We get to have dinosaurs.
Laan punches a dinosaur in the face.
Of course she does.
Fuck.
Did you watch the video when the, in the, all of those people from Strange New Worlds are there and Christina's dog?
It's kind of, like, I sent it to you on Instagram.
So it's like, it's Christina's dog, the one that was licking her, her daycolitage in the Elysian Kingdom, and it's there while they're doing a convention panel thing.
I hope, I hope that the reception to this last series is like absolutely phenomenal.
I just want there to be a little bit of embarrassment about the paramount towers that have torn everything down. and they've just been like, oh, dear.
This is going down really well, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe we should have kept going.
There's 15 more episodes left because there's another short season coming, like a 6 episode season coming next year. and we've still got another.
Last go.
Well, there you go.
So that sort of gives a little time, hopefully, in the interim for something to emerge.
But I'll tell you, I just think we're having a break, aren't we?
But why is the king and queen?
The king and queen are travelling in the Tartars to the Commonwealth Games.
God knows.
Who knows?
It's just like we're desperately trying to make Doctor Who happen, just to remind you that it's still a thing.
No one's made it. that's right.
That's right.
That's so depressing isn't it?