WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-06 at 23:08:10

1
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Hey, Joe. Hi.

2
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So this isn't our first Pandronian-based episode of Star Trek, is it?

3
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Only on the Star Trek podcast, could you just stole there?

4
00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:58.020
So, so we're doing the animated series and we're doing series 2, which seems to be like 4 episodes that they had left lying around or something and it's called BEM, and it has a Pandronian alien called BEM, the eponymous BEM.

5
00:00:58.079 --> 00:00:59.399
You do his full name.

6
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His name is Ari Bin Bam.

7
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The reason I know this. is that in I excretis, which is an episode of Lower Decks, we did some time ago.

8
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There was another Pandronian character and her name was Shari Yin Yem, is he?

9
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The reason why that episode is because they're just taking our piss out of this shit.

10
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Yeah, that's right.

11
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But what they do, which I think is really terrific, is that they gradually make all of the most ludicrous things in the animated series canonical.

12
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So as well as having a pandronian.

13
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This episode has an Adocian Arax.

14
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And Aryx is on the bridge and he is in the time trap, but he doesn't get any dialogue. curious as to whether he had any lines at all.

15
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I think he did, but I wish he hadn't because his weird voice.

16
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Yeah, so that's Jimmy Dewan.

17
00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:02.579
So it turns out that...

18
00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:03.120
Yeah.

19
00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:04.799
So the original cast.

20
00:02:04.859 --> 00:02:07.560
So it's not the best he could do.

21
00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:09.000
So this is it.

22
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Jimmy Dewan does everyone's voice.

23
00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:16.620
So he's Bam and his ARX. in this episode as well as playing Scotty.

24
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I don't know that.

25
00:02:17.219 --> 00:02:17.879
I don't remember.

26
00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:19.259
Yeah, it's doing with doing the law.

27
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So, Jimmy doing play a paper alien.

28
00:02:22.740 --> 00:02:23.039
Yeah.

29
00:02:23.099 --> 00:02:28.080
So, because Chehov's not even this, although he may write an episode, I think.

30
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So he's not in this yet.

31
00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:30.360
Yeah.

32
00:02:30.419 --> 00:02:32.280
No, you remember, there was that big spat, wasn't it?

33
00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:33.840
Nemoy saying, I ain't doing it.

34
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If you're writing out all the ethnic characters, making Star Trek or whitewash.

35
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White show.

36
00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:40.979
Yeah, yeah.

37
00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:49.979
So this is perhaps the most low effort episode of anything that we've ever watched.

38
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Oh, by a mile.

39
00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:57.360
Maybe even more than Manhunt, which I think is our previous winner for just not giving a shit.

40
00:02:57.419 --> 00:03:00.900
I mean, they had to knock together the sets for Manheim. you know, things like that.

41
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That's true.

42
00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:05.580
I don't think there was any original artwork in this.

43
00:03:05.639 --> 00:03:09.539
I swear, the jungle appeared in about 15 other TAS episodes.

44
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Yeah, yeah.

45
00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:14.520
And I think this got something like the same score.

46
00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:19.800
So Jama, who obviously reviewed these ages ago, gave this 2.5 out of 4 stars.

47
00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:30.599
And just for context, the most recent Strange New Worlds episode that we did got 2 stars, the Elysian Kingdom.

48
00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:36.120
And he did give 2.5 stars to the like not this week's episode.

49
00:03:36.180 --> 00:03:42.000
I mean, just a couple of episodes ago, the Among the Lotus Eaters episode of Strange New Worlds.

50
00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:55.800
Now, I suspect that his calibration has shifted over the years and that he might not be quite so willing to make the same mistake again. in the light of recent trek.

51
00:03:55.860 --> 00:04:00.479
Although, I've got to say, if Laan turned up in this episode in that fabulous princess dress.

52
00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:01.139
Yeah.

53
00:04:01.139 --> 00:04:02.159
You know, that dog.

54
00:04:02.219 --> 00:04:04.680
I wouldn't think...

55
00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:07.259
Nathan, do you know I fell asleep 3 times watching this?

56
00:04:07.319 --> 00:04:08.939
Yeah, and it's 25.

57
00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:12.360
I said to you.

58
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I have to keep rewinding it to see what I've missed and not a lot because nothing happens in this.

59
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No.

60
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See, this is a story that had been kicking around and had been considered for the 3rd series.

61
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And obviously, the character's called Bem because Bug Eyed Monster, BEM was a sort of term of art in early science fiction.

62
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And we're Doctor Who fans, we know that the original remit for Doctor Who was not to have any bug-eyed monsters, and then the Daleks came along.

63
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So he's called Bem, and he's sort of non-human, and the idea had always been that he could detach bits of himself, like he was a colony creature.

64
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And so they were considering it for the 3rd series and, you know, he was going to have his hands come off.

65
00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:00.000
They would have realised that.

66
00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:01.740
You've been terrible.

67
00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:04.379
Oh no, I just don't think they could ever have done it.

68
00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:13.560
And then I think we get the godlike alien entity at the end, and that was Gene.

69
00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:16.860
Gene Roddenbury insisting that they go in.

70
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So this...

71
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Really?

72
00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:20.339
You surprise me, you know.

73
00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:22.620
So this script's my David...

74
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I've never used that trick before.

75
00:05:23.699 --> 00:05:24.720
That's right.

76
00:05:24.779 --> 00:05:27.420
It's like, I'm sure we've never done a godlike alien entity.

77
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We need to have one at the end of this.

78
00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:31.079
So that was his idea.

79
00:05:31.139 --> 00:05:38.339
The original script by David Gerald, who did trouble with Tribbles, who can genuinely write good, interesting Star Trek.

80
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And he's only right in his, remember, because there's a writer strike on, so he can't write television.

81
00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:45.240
But you can't write animation.

82
00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:47.040
Ah, okay.

83
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Oh, you know, we're drawing on all of his skills and genius as a writer here and pouring it into the animated set of what went wrong.

84
00:05:55.500 --> 00:05:56.399
Yeah.

85
00:05:56.459 --> 00:06:08.699
So I think, look, also, like, I'm a little bit young for this because this, I was born when this was broadcast, but I was, you know, 4 or something like that.

86
00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:17.339
But there was an early Saturday morning cartoon thing that was on, you know, where it was like incredibly cheap, incredibly low effort.

87
00:06:17.399 --> 00:06:20.279
And I still remember some of them?

88
00:06:20.339 --> 00:06:21.600
Well, like this.

89
00:06:21.660 --> 00:06:24.660
I mean, this was what was given to kids as entertainment.

90
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:33.839
And when you look at something like prodigy, which is beautiful and smart and well cut off in its 2nd season.

91
00:06:33.899 --> 00:06:47.759
Well, maybe, maybe, but, um, you know, like it, it just seems extraordinary that this was what Star Trek ended up being, that after its cancellation, to compare it to this.

92
00:06:47.819 --> 00:06:49.560
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

93
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Because someone cares about prodigy and lots of effort goes into it.

94
00:06:53.459 --> 00:06:57.839
Well, what's baffling is that, you remember I said to you, DC Fontana considered this?

95
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the next season of Star Trek.

96
00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:00.000
Yeah.

97
00:07:00.060 --> 00:07:02.759
Like, this is what she aspired, Star Trek.

98
00:07:02.819 --> 00:07:05.160
I think DC Fontana made some great choices.

99
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She wrote some brilliant episodes.

100
00:07:06.540 --> 00:07:08.759
And she skipped into 90s track as well.

101
00:07:08.819 --> 00:07:13.620
You know, she was talented enough that they brought her in and said, right, you know, she did Dax in DS9 and things like that.

102
00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:14.399
Okay.

103
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But this has not got one iota of the charm or the drama.

104
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Oh, the brains.

105
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There are no brains here.

106
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Like, no.

107
00:07:23.939 --> 00:07:26.279
Essentially, what happens in this episode?

108
00:07:26.339 --> 00:07:28.439
I'm gonna cut, you know, let's just break it down.

109
00:07:28.500 --> 00:07:33.120
It's like go down on this planet with this new crew member, BIM.

110
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They all get put in a cage.

111
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Because Bim's an idiot.

112
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And he wants to study them and see how they get him out of a cage.

113
00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:44.399
Then they get out of the cages.

114
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A godlike entity comes down and says, you know, all right, guys.

115
00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.720
And then Ben goes, oh, I should never have done all of this.

116
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I will disembody myself and the godlike entity goes, no, no, no, you're all right.

117
00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:56.699
And then they all leave.

118
00:07:56.759 --> 00:07:58.620
Yeah, that's the episode.

119
00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:07.920
We learn a valuable lesson about learning from our mistakes, but they do put out another episode of this the following week.

120
00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:11.759
So certainly not everyone has managed to learn from their mistakes.

121
00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:13.980
There is one amazing moment, though, right?

122
00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.680
where all the lizards won't run in.

123
00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:19.560
They'll go, oh, right, and go running scared.

124
00:08:19.620 --> 00:08:21.540
That did make me laugh, that one bit.

125
00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:25.379
But apart from that, I don't think my brain engaged at one point in this.

126
00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.199
No, it is it is pretty terrible.

127
00:08:28.259 --> 00:08:29.100
All right.

128
00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:29.759
What do you reckon?

129
00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:30.959
I think we should...

130
00:08:31.019 --> 00:08:32.460
I think we're going to run out of things to say.

131
00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:34.799
There's 23 minutes with nothing happening.

132
00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:41.639
We'll get to talk about the tilty animation, you know, impressive high angle animated shot of the bridge that's in there.

133
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I didn't want to say that, you know what, right?

134
00:08:44.460 --> 00:08:46.500
I consider you to be the most intelligent person.

135
00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:51.480
I know, brainless art of a planet, teaching a dead language to rich children and all of this.

136
00:08:51.539 --> 00:09:02.279
Oh, I really want to apologise, you know, because I feel as if I sent us on this path to you eventually, spending your valuable time, watching episodes of this.

137
00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:05.220
I'm really about to see more.

138
00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:09.419
I really want to see more of it because it is astoundingly terrible.

139
00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:22.559
It's like a car crash and I love seeing like Shatner kind of putting no effort into it and it's just, it is a very, very strange thing because this is what passed for Star Trek in the early 70s.

140
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And I just can't help imagining how crushed.

141
00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:27.000
I remember when I was a kid.

142
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Tuning in to Space 1999 during the school holidays.

143
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It would be fun.

144
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The 1st few episodes of that were very exciting.

145
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But when the 2nd series came along with Freddie Freiberger and a whole heap of production changes and stuff were made, even as a primary school kid, even as a 10 year old, I knew that this was disappointingly crap compared to what we'd had the previous year.

146
00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:52.320
You were that young.

147
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It took me to learn, I was at least sort of 11 or 12. to recognise that any television could be better.

148
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Could be terrible.

149
00:09:58.200 --> 00:09:58.860
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

150
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I remember being just awfully disappointed that lots of the things I loved about the 1st series weren't in the 2nd series.

151
00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:15.659
And just think about the way that Star Trek captured the heart of so many nerdy children, you know, when it was 1st on.

152
00:10:15.659 --> 00:10:21.360
And then they're a little bit older and it comes back in this form.

153
00:10:21.419 --> 00:10:23.039
It's kind of miserable.

154
00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:26.519
Oh, well. you know.

155
00:10:28.620 --> 00:10:30.720
Let's watch it, shall we?

156
00:10:30.779 --> 00:10:32.279
All right.

157
00:10:32.340 --> 00:10:38.399
Well, you know, what is really interesting is I think we have done some TNG episodes, you know, that are almost on this level.

158
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You think Star Trek would learn from its mistakes, but actually, we've watched, we've watched Justice and Manhunt as well, and Genesis, you know, which are Genesis.

159
00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:52.440
Yeah, I think Genesis is leagues ahead of this.

160
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All right.

161
00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:54.960
Okay.

162
00:10:55.019 --> 00:10:56.639
I'll count us in.

163
00:10:56.700 --> 00:11:02.519
Five, four, three, two, one, and we're off.

164
00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:11.580
You know what is funny is, I don't think, um, oh, good grief, random trek, you know, I don't think they've got TAS in the mix.

165
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So we might be the only podcast doing, you know, ciques on the animated series.

166
00:11:17.879 --> 00:11:20.940
Well, we regard it as canon.

167
00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:25.799
We think that this happened every bit as much as measure of a man.

168
00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:30.059
I just don't care about cannon, you know, like, no, it all exists to me.

169
00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:32.940
Oh, so it's like really funny about this elevation, right?

170
00:11:33.059 --> 00:11:35.279
So when the ship is going through space, yeah.

171
00:11:35.340 --> 00:11:40.559
You know how, you know, when they've got the money, they can do the stars kind of, sort of zooping off.

172
00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:45.059
But here, they just have 3 or 4 stars going into the middle of the screen.

173
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Just suggest it's going very fast.

174
00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:50.879
The shocking animation when it turns around the corner.

175
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Like most of the time it just goes in a straight line so they don't have to change the shape.

176
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It's so bad shot there.

177
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So miserable.

178
00:12:00.059 --> 00:12:02.220
And the way it goes to one side of the screen to the other.

179
00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:03.000
Yeah, yeah.

180
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Is it going sideways?

181
00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:06.779
Yeah, yeah, that's right.

182
00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:08.039
It's going directly.

183
00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:09.840
Oh, you go, bam.

184
00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:11.039
Here's a shock.

185
00:12:11.100 --> 00:12:11.940
It was directed this.

186
00:12:12.059 --> 00:12:13.799
Yeah, someone directed it.

187
00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:15.179
Bill, Bill Reed.

188
00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:17.159
I actually quite like this opening shot.

189
00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:18.840
I have to say, for some reason.

190
00:12:19.740 --> 00:12:24.240
What astonishes me is William Shatler's performance, right?

191
00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:29.220
I really want to talk about that because I think even at his most low effort in other shows.

192
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He always adds some charm and humour to it.

193
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And it's just so flat.

194
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He delivers every line. and he's not written with any charm washing either.

195
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He's just like this sort of officious man.

196
00:12:42.059 --> 00:12:43.980
It's very strange.

197
00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:53.820
The use of the word aboriginal is super embarrassing as well, but I guess that was the 60s, but like, yeah, just...

198
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These men sitting around the table, we can't, you know, bother the women for this important talk.

199
00:12:57.779 --> 00:12:59.159
Oh, yeah.

200
00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:03.539
You know, I was watching Straight Shoe Worlds last week.

201
00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:09.059
And in the opening credits of Strange New Worlds, there are 5 women and 3 men.

202
00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.840
It's so right direction.

203
00:13:12.899 --> 00:13:14.220
So much better.

204
00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:19.080
We could just say there, though, Lieutenant Huro will be tracking us the whole time we're down on the planet doing this episode.

205
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So here's them.

206
00:13:21.419 --> 00:13:29.519
And Bem calls himself this one, which is what Yem did, actually, in I excretis as well.

207
00:13:29.580 --> 00:13:31.799
So that's something that happens.

208
00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:34.620
And I guess it's an effort to make him sound alien.

209
00:13:34.679 --> 00:13:36.659
So he doesn't call himself I or me.

210
00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:38.580
He calls himself this one.

211
00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:48.779
And there seems to be some gesture at making, because he's a colony entity or a sort of aggregation of bits and pieces.

212
00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:53.460
And remember he's going to disassemble and, you know, all of his limbs are going to join other people.

213
00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:56.279
Yeah, it's all very stupid.

214
00:13:56.340 --> 00:13:59.159
But it's something, like, it's an attempt to...

215
00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:03.659
The best bit is when they're in the water and his legs go walking. so funny.

216
00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:06.419
And it's got to have been deliberately funny.

217
00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:07.500
Come on.

218
00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:13.919
Like, I think there are moments here which are laugh out loud funny because they're stupid and I think they're deliberately funny.

219
00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:16.559
Like, I don't think they're aiming at sensible and missing.

220
00:14:16.620 --> 00:14:18.899
I figured that that was where we were going.

221
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:28.320
So that I did like that, whereas his body is still visible, but his legs are off walking under the water and nicking their faces and communicators.

222
00:14:28.379 --> 00:14:31.740
And I figured the end of this would be because they're all in prison.

223
00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:36.659
We'll say they use Ben's amazing powers to escape and that was going to be just a follow.

224
00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:38.039
He uses them to escape, though.

225
00:14:38.100 --> 00:14:41.159
Look at this transporter chief's moustache.

226
00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:43.200
Not Scotty.

227
00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:44.580
Scotty hasn't got his moustache yet.

228
00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:47.100
That reminds me of someone, you know.

229
00:14:47.159 --> 00:14:49.200
Sort of that red hair.

230
00:14:49.259 --> 00:14:50.580
I can't think who is.

231
00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:52.440
He's someone famous.

232
00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:55.860
Is it fat bastard from Boston Towers?

233
00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:56.759
No, I don't know.

234
00:14:57.179 --> 00:15:03.779
So this is suspicious because they've been on 6 missions already since Yes, and he's been in his quarters.

235
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:08.519
Now, Bem set the transporter coordinates which saw Kirk and Spock land in the water.

236
00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:10.860
And then he's come, look, he's got look at his hand.

237
00:15:10.919 --> 00:15:14.879
He's got, he's got little hands that come out the top of his body.

238
00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:21.120
He's... come up the top of the water and they don't know this today.

239
00:15:21.179 --> 00:15:23.340
It's like he's going...

240
00:15:23.340 --> 00:15:25.559
Behind you.

241
00:15:25.620 --> 00:15:28.980
But the great thing is, he picks their pockets.

242
00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:38.940
So he steals their phases and communicators and replaces them with like cheap plastic imitation phases and communicators and they don't notice.

243
00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:48.840
And when they go to detect the phases and communicators on board the Enterprise, they try and detect where they are, they can't detect them anymore.

244
00:15:48.899 --> 00:15:55.980
So I don't know if he breaks them or what's there or but extreme way to go in it because he's only testing them.

245
00:15:56.039 --> 00:16:00.539
He wants to see how they will rescue him if he gets himself into a tricky situation, isn't he?

246
00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:01.320
That's the point of all this.

247
00:16:01.379 --> 00:16:02.580
I guess so.

248
00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.919
Now he's Arex speaking.

249
00:16:05.100 --> 00:16:10.139
Um, We said before, it is quite nice because you're in the animated series.

250
00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:13.080
You can't, you know, it's not prosthetics, it's animation.

251
00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:20.879
So you can have sort of weird and wonderful creatures, which led to us having that fabulous theme in the time track with all those aliens. lady with no nose.

252
00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:24.179
The weird cat alien, you know.

253
00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:35.039
Well, so the weird cat alien location, which is what Dr. Tahana is in lower decks, and we've seen them in prodigy as well.

254
00:16:35.100 --> 00:16:40.019
And I think there's an Admiral, Acacian Admiral, in one of the films.

255
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:49.679
So that's come from this series, and then Arax Theodosian has come from, um, has come from this.

256
00:16:49.740 --> 00:16:54.299
And there are 2 Odosians in 2 separate episodes of lower decks.

257
00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:56.580
They've used the character, again.

258
00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:57.840
I love this.

259
00:16:57.899 --> 00:17:00.899
I don't like that artwork of jungle.

260
00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:02.879
It's sort of striking.

261
00:17:02.940 --> 00:17:06.000
It's lots of bold colours like they do in the original series, you know.

262
00:17:06.059 --> 00:17:07.019
That's quite nice.

263
00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:12.299
And you just had them as little shadows in the distance, go through the jungle.

264
00:17:12.420 --> 00:17:15.900
But I mean, just the animation is so cheap, isn't it?

265
00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:17.579
Like, it's so dreadfully cheap.

266
00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:22.440
Well, like I said, they're doing no close opposite, not to animate anything else, and yeah.

267
00:17:22.500 --> 00:17:27.900
Although I am very pleased in case anyone's been living in suspense since the 1st TAFs episode we did.

268
00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:30.000
Look, his head and his arm.

269
00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:33.359
Look, his torso just goes off by itself in the background.

270
00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:35.039
What's his torso going to do?

271
00:17:35.099 --> 00:17:36.480
It's got nothing attached to it.

272
00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:39.000
I think for kids like, that's enough, you know.

273
00:17:39.059 --> 00:17:41.339
That's quite, yeah, all those disembodied parts.

274
00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:42.299
It's quite fun.

275
00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:46.259
But it's fabulously stupid, I think, is and deliberately so.

276
00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:49.680
Sorry, go back to that point very quickly.

277
00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:56.640
I just wanted to report that since our 1st TAS episode, they have, in fact, drawn on Ahura's 2nd breast.

278
00:17:56.640 --> 00:18:00.720
Because in the 1st one we did, she only had one boob, but now she's got two.

279
00:18:00.779 --> 00:18:02.700
Just in case anyone was wondering.

280
00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:03.180
Okay?

281
00:18:03.539 --> 00:18:09.299
So the other thing is, of course, Michelle gets to play another role in this episode.

282
00:18:09.960 --> 00:18:12.480
She's the godlike voice.

283
00:18:12.539 --> 00:18:13.859
She's the godlike voice.

284
00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:14.640
And you can hear it.

285
00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:16.500
Yeah, it is a good performance.

286
00:18:16.559 --> 00:18:39.900
And, and I actually think, and I was saying this to you, um, earlier on, I think that this episode has something in common and may well have inspired to some degree, uh, Children of the Comet, which is the 2nd episode of Strange New World, which is that beautiful episode.

287
00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:59.640
Well, because remember that that opens with us seeing primitive people, like people living in tents, in the desert, and it's 2 women, like it's a mother and a daughter, and they don't, I can't remember where they speak, but we don't, they didn't say anything intelligible.

288
00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:21.359
And then we see them at the end, and the comet is there to guard those people, and the, do you remember the shepherds, the aliens are called the shepherds, and they worship the comet, and they try and prevent the enterprise from interfering with the children of the, of the comet.

289
00:19:21.420 --> 00:19:27.660
And the comet looks after the children and actually ends up leaving them with a fertile planet to live in.

290
00:19:27.660 --> 00:19:30.420
And the end of the episode sees it raining on that planet.

291
00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:32.460
So I forgot all the details.

292
00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:35.039
Why I remember is her communicating with the music.

293
00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:41.220
It's beautiful and how that's realised and how it is tied into her character as a communicator.

294
00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:42.599
It was brilliantly done.

295
00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:47.039
It's a very, very good episode. like maybe one of the best of that season.

296
00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.980
So here they've discovered.

297
00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:51.359
And look at the phases.

298
00:19:51.420 --> 00:19:57.539
So did original Trek, I should know this, but did original Trek have those little phases, like Next Gen does?

299
00:19:57.660 --> 00:20:00.420
Remember how next gen had the dust bust?

300
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:02.579
We have still enough episodes of original Trek, haven't we?

301
00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:04.799
Because I always liked them.

302
00:20:04.859 --> 00:20:16.200
Like in Star Trek, they have the Dustbuster ones in the 1st season, which look a bit crap, and then they trim them down later for other seasons, but they also had like tiny little handheld ones, which I thought really cute.

303
00:20:16.259 --> 00:20:18.539
I like the phaser rifles, you know.

304
00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:20.460
They are so pathetic.

305
00:20:20.519 --> 00:20:22.200
They're made of balsa wood.

306
00:20:22.259 --> 00:20:24.180
There's no recoil.

307
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:28.259
They render any scene, any battle scene they're used in completely weightless.

308
00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:29.759
You're mad.

309
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:35.400
So, we probably couldn't have realised there's this long shot here of all these lizard creatures.

310
00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:37.019
Well, we can't realise that there.

311
00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:39.000
Look, is just a painting of the lizard creatures.

312
00:20:39.059 --> 00:20:41.880
The only thing that is moving is the lizard's tail.

313
00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:42.900
That's it.

314
00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:44.460
And they're wearing nappies as well.

315
00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:51.240
So you just said to them, shut up.

316
00:20:51.599 --> 00:21:07.559
So he calls them Kirk captain and spot commander as well, and I now want to go back and watch IX Cretus to see where the yam pulls that trick as well, whether she refers to people that way. creativity, yeah, and imagination.

317
00:21:07.619 --> 00:21:10.259
Well, it's lizard creatures on a jungle planet.

318
00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:11.460
Yeah, yeah, you know.

319
00:21:11.579 --> 00:21:12.119
Super dull.

320
00:21:12.180 --> 00:21:15.240
And then a godlike entity comes along at the end. it's the Apple, isn't it?

321
00:21:15.299 --> 00:21:18.119
We've done this so much already, an original series, you know?

322
00:21:18.180 --> 00:21:19.019
Yeah that's right.

323
00:21:19.079 --> 00:21:23.099
They've got the opportunity with this series to go anywhere and do anything.

324
00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:27.180
We're just pulling the same old shit and it looks worse than it did when it was live action.

325
00:21:27.299 --> 00:21:32.579
I do actually like where Shatner goes, why do we always end up like this?

326
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.160
Why are we always end up in cages?

327
00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:38.579
Maybe, you know, it's fate.

328
00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:39.839
Oh, yeah.

329
00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:41.460
He goes, fate, Spock?

330
00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:42.660
I can't believe it.

331
00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:46.079
Maybe because we can't see Shatner's facial expressions.

332
00:21:46.140 --> 00:21:49.619
I think he brings a lot to the role in his body language as well.

333
00:21:49.619 --> 00:21:50.579
Yeah.

334
00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:53.400
Because we've just got this shitty animation to look at.

335
00:21:53.460 --> 00:21:54.000
Yeah.

336
00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:00.059
But I also think maybe they're not in the same room recording it and stuff too, so there's no chemistry.

337
00:22:00.119 --> 00:22:01.380
They're not bouncing off one another.

338
00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:02.519
I told you, didn't I?

339
00:22:02.579 --> 00:22:04.859
He was like, you know, on a break from his theatre show.

340
00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:06.420
All right, let's do the lines quick.

341
00:22:13.079 --> 00:22:15.359
So, Yeah.

342
00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:16.980
No, no, no.

343
00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:20.339
I just wondering why they scrabbling here. the hell are we talking about?

344
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:31.920
So he's stolen their phases and communicated, which are in his pocket, but somehow they couldn't detect them on the enterprise, even though Bem had them in his pocket the whole time.

345
00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:38.519
So there was never any sort of suggestion that Ben was going to hang around, you know, and become a regular.

346
00:22:38.579 --> 00:22:39.900
It was only...

347
00:22:39.900 --> 00:22:40.799
No, no, no. no, no.

348
00:22:40.859 --> 00:22:51.240
The idea was originally, I think, that he was very, very unhuman, like very unlike a human being to the point where even Spock was going to find him odd.

349
00:22:51.299 --> 00:22:52.380
So what's this?

350
00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:58.440
So, like his bottom half can get out of the fucking cage when it disembodies itself.

351
00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:01.500
Couldn't he just bend over and get out of a cage?

352
00:23:01.559 --> 00:23:03.599
Like, how does he know?

353
00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:06.059
Like, just doesn't make any sense.

354
00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:08.519
The holes in those bars are so big.

355
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:10.200
All of them just climb out.

356
00:23:10.259 --> 00:23:11.759
That's right.

357
00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:14.940
This is being fucking drawn.

358
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:16.079
Make the whole smaller.

359
00:23:19.380 --> 00:23:22.920
This is a hostile planet, not really, actually.

360
00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:23.940
You've been worse.

361
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:33.180
But so is there something, is there a hint of something here, Bam wants to experiment on and observe them.

362
00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:35.039
Why are they here?

363
00:23:35.099 --> 00:23:37.380
Like, why are...

364
00:23:37.380 --> 00:23:38.819
Yes, never established, is it?

365
00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:43.559
And are we sort of critiquing what they're doing?

366
00:23:43.619 --> 00:23:48.539
Like, No, you are given this a reading.

367
00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:55.319
Well, except that it's being written by someone and produced by people who have made good television.

368
00:23:55.380 --> 00:23:56.519
Do you know what I mean?

369
00:23:56.579 --> 00:24:02.700
So the Enterprise is here to investigate and report on this indigenous life form.

370
00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:04.380
That one seemed to have a bong.

371
00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:10.680
I actually had to go back and sort of rewind it to see if he was like smoking weed in the...

372
00:24:10.740 --> 00:24:11.759
I thought they were loud.

373
00:24:14.220 --> 00:24:16.259
Oh, there we go.

374
00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:17.039
Here we go.

375
00:24:17.099 --> 00:24:17.819
Here's Ahura.

376
00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:18.960
But isn't that it?

377
00:24:19.380 --> 00:24:29.819
Like, they're supposed to be, and then it happens to them, like Bam is doing the same thing to them that they were going to do to the indigenous people.

378
00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:33.240
If the twist of what Ben was doing is sort of hit at the end.

379
00:24:33.299 --> 00:24:34.859
Oh, I was studying you all along.

380
00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:37.859
Instead, 5 minutes into the episode.

381
00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:40.440
He goes well, I'm here to observe how you rescue me.

382
00:24:40.500 --> 00:24:43.799
No, that was about halfway through the episode, to be fair.

383
00:24:43.859 --> 00:24:44.819
I mean, is it early?

384
00:24:44.819 --> 00:24:45.420
very short.

385
00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:46.500
That is 5 minutes long.

386
00:24:46.619 --> 00:24:47.519
That is true, thank God.

387
00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:55.440
So this is Nichelle playing this godlike alien entity. presented in sort of coloured lights on the screen.

388
00:24:55.500 --> 00:24:56.460
Yeah, yeah.

389
00:24:56.519 --> 00:24:58.920
And like, you know, whatever.

390
00:24:58.980 --> 00:25:04.019
And we have had that before, but it is, again, it's sort of strange, isn't it?

391
00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:18.119
Because they even suggest that it's like God, you know, that like in the dialogue here, like these people have a God and that God is real and that God's looking after them and that's what happens in Children of the Comet.

392
00:25:18.180 --> 00:25:38.640
And remember, children of the comet is interesting because when the, when the um, shepherds come on the screen and start making these claims about the comet and looking after its children on the planet, they scoff, you know, they just kind of assume that that's just all bullshit because it's a religious guy saying religious nutcase stuff.

393
00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:46.440
And then it turns out that it's true and that the comet is actually able even to kind of tell the future in some way.

394
00:25:46.500 --> 00:25:57.359
And, and like, I think that idea is interesting, but this is obviously a vast...

395
00:25:57.420 --> 00:25:58.680
Keep a reading like that.

396
00:25:58.740 --> 00:26:00.180
Nothing off episode, you know?

397
00:26:00.180 --> 00:26:02.579
No, you can't because it's just not there.

398
00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:05.339
Because it's just, you know, what are we going to do?

399
00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:07.319
I will have an alien entity and stuff.

400
00:26:07.380 --> 00:26:12.420
And I don't know, the alien entity judges like...

401
00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:15.960
Like, this is to appeal to kids and it is, isn't it, right?

402
00:26:16.019 --> 00:26:22.200
This has been geared at children rather than, I hope, slow-witted children.

403
00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:32.400
So I think the idea is that Bem's a little scamp that can, you know, pull himself apart is a bit of a naughty kid and they're having to deal with his antics.

404
00:26:32.519 --> 00:26:35.099
And I don't even think that really works.

405
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:37.500
Because it's not fun enough.

406
00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:38.880
Yeah, yeah.

407
00:26:38.940 --> 00:26:41.640
Well, there's one or 2 lines that are kind of funny.

408
00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:47.339
But, yeah, like he's, he thinks they're, I don't know.

409
00:26:47.400 --> 00:26:50.759
Because he's experimenting on them more.

410
00:26:50.759 --> 00:26:56.039
Jesus Christ, its head just went off with his shot where it's like detached.

411
00:26:56.099 --> 00:26:59.700
Like 3 parts of him having a conversation with Captain Kirk.

412
00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:02.099
It's so, it's so stupid.

413
00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:04.440
But do you know what I mean?

414
00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:10.019
Like, they're observing the alien, the indigenous aliens.

415
00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:12.779
Bams of observing and judging them.

416
00:27:12.839 --> 00:27:19.740
And then Nichelle is godlike Nichelle is judging Bam.

417
00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:22.140
Like Bam says, oh, you know, I've been terrible.

418
00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:25.619
I should disassemble myself because I've done a bad job.

419
00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:31.799
And her job is, you know, observing other aliens or something.

420
00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:32.640
I don't know.

421
00:27:32.700 --> 00:27:37.619
But she she tells him to kind of chill out and he's learned a valuable lesson or something.

422
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:47.880
There's something, there's something that they could have been attempting to do that just hasn't survived the failing to give a shit element of the process of producing it, I think.

423
00:27:47.940 --> 00:27:49.920
I do I do genuinely think.

424
00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:52.019
What's the, what, they call pandronians.

425
00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:52.619
Yeah.

426
00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:55.200
I do think that you could have had a regular.

427
00:27:55.259 --> 00:28:03.420
If you give them an actual character, you know, and you could have wonderful situations where they're in deadly danger and the head goes floating off to tell someone, you know, we need some help.

428
00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:04.319
You know?

429
00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:10.140
Before the legs go running off in a bank heist or something like that, you know.

430
00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:11.880
It could be great.

431
00:28:11.940 --> 00:28:14.279
And that is a bit annoying.

432
00:28:14.339 --> 00:28:16.559
I think it's what George DeKay said, wasn't it?

433
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:27.180
When he looked at this, it was like, we had the opportunity to tell, you know, vastly imaginative stories in animation, you just did the same old shit, but worse.

434
00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:28.440
Yes, yeah.

435
00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:29.220
Yeah.

436
00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:37.799
Well, and in fact, you know, like producing good animation does cost money and they clearly don't have enough money to do that.

437
00:28:37.859 --> 00:28:41.519
This is really, really kind of perfunctory and shit.

438
00:28:41.579 --> 00:28:43.680
But when we watch the time trap.

439
00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:45.720
And I know we were similarly scathing about that.

440
00:28:45.779 --> 00:28:52.680
At least had a mystery to it, you know, this Bermuda triangle that they had to, and then the great year, loads of spaceships.

441
00:28:52.740 --> 00:28:55.140
Well, it was like where all the spaceships gone, weren't they?

442
00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:56.039
They were looking...

443
00:28:56.160 --> 00:29:03.779
They went into this thing and then we got out by doing a thing and then we have... bomb into the ejector tube.

444
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:11.880
No, didn't they join the warp cores together or do some just random shit and get out of it.

445
00:29:11.940 --> 00:29:12.599
It was so bad.

446
00:29:12.660 --> 00:29:14.700
You know, I'm going to post it.

447
00:29:14.700 --> 00:29:21.660
I'm going out now. to anyone who's listening, yeah. contact us on the socials and tell us what's the really good episode of the animated series.

448
00:29:21.720 --> 00:29:23.640
I will watch it as an extra.

449
00:29:24.420 --> 00:29:27.599
Oh, it's just like we can say something.

450
00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:31.799
We can fucking roll. like we'll sit there and roll it until it comes out.

451
00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:38.819
However long it takes. early on, I did notice, you know, that one of those lizard creatures was very well muscled.

452
00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:39.779
Oh, really?

453
00:29:39.900 --> 00:29:41.940
You know, if I sort of shut my little creatures.

454
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:46.740
I mean, we're 4 minutes to the end here.

455
00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:48.180
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

456
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:48.599
Thank God.

457
00:29:48.660 --> 00:29:51.539
Oh, so now Beam is appalled of how he's behaved, you know?

458
00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:52.140
Yeah, yeah.

459
00:29:52.140 --> 00:29:54.059
One has failed in its judgement.

460
00:29:54.119 --> 00:29:57.839
Yeah, no, and he's going to disassemble himself, isn't he?

461
00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:03.359
And he's going to go off and join other Pandronians, like his arms and legs.

462
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:06.660
We did that prodigy episode the other day, yeah, you know, preludes.

463
00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:07.380
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

464
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:12.420
And it fitted in all of those backstories for all the characters and pushed on the arm.

465
00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:16.019
In 22 minutes. in the same amount of time as this bullshit.

466
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:16.799
Yeah.

467
00:30:17.579 --> 00:30:18.960
Yeah.

468
00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:22.500
Is it that the audience is more sophisticated now?

469
00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:24.119
Is it that we expect more?

470
00:30:24.180 --> 00:30:44.640
Well, I think television, yeah, I think one of the things that happens with television as time goes on is it gets more complicated and the audience gets better at reading it, you know, like I think that I think that television from now would be bafflingly incomprehensible to people, do you know what I mean?

471
00:30:44.700 --> 00:30:52.259
Like 50 years ago or something or would seem experimental or odd or something. lovely experiment to run though, wouldn't it?

472
00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:54.420
We could time travel and just hand them, you know?

473
00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:57.240
An episode of lower decks and say, what do you think of this?

474
00:30:57.299 --> 00:31:06.839
But remember, you hear a little bit of that with people my age going, oh, you know, like I couldn't watch the thick of it because the camera never stopped moving and you kind of go, okay, grandad, like we'll...

475
00:31:06.839 --> 00:31:08.160
You wait till discovery comes along.

476
00:31:08.220 --> 00:31:10.440
That drone's going to be flying around that shit.

477
00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:11.039
That's you.

478
00:31:11.099 --> 00:31:12.480
Your reaction to discovery.

479
00:31:12.539 --> 00:31:16.740
You know, like, but just stretch it out over decades.

480
00:31:16.799 --> 00:31:20.400
I took vertical tablets towards the Jonathan Frakes directed ones.

481
00:31:20.460 --> 00:31:21.900
You know, well done.

482
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:23.519
Yeah.

483
00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:25.559
Yes.

484
00:31:25.619 --> 00:31:28.980
Alternatively, it would be fascinating to put something like this on now.

485
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:37.920
But like, and now we're getting a valuable lesson at the end, but demand recognition.

486
00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:50.519
Yeah, so she's not going to demand punishment even though she's a godlike alien entity and she actually can't see what the point of punishment is, which is interesting-ish.

487
00:31:50.579 --> 00:31:51.240
I don't know.

488
00:31:51.299 --> 00:31:52.680
I don't know.

489
00:31:52.740 --> 00:31:54.539
Context is a problem here.

490
00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:58.980
We learn, fuck all about the god godlike alien. where you learn, fuck all about Ben.

491
00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:00.480
We don't know why they're here.

492
00:32:00.539 --> 00:32:02.700
All we've learned is the lesson.

493
00:32:02.700 --> 00:32:06.240
And this is that sort of Saturday morning moral, isn't it?

494
00:32:06.299 --> 00:32:10.740
Where they sort of look out the screen and go, you know, this was all about this kids, all right?

495
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:25.619
Yeah, but in a way, it is a sort of weirdly Star Trek-y moral, which is punishment is not rational or intelligent. and taking revenge isn't intelligent and that when we make an error we should learn from it.

496
00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:28.500
Like, I think that's a, that's sort of odd.

497
00:32:28.500 --> 00:32:31.920
Like, it's, I'd like it, you know, but it's odd.

498
00:32:32.039 --> 00:32:35.220
Isn't it time to grapple with that idea, though, is there?

499
00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:46.200
No, but there's no, there would have been time if, you know, TV was a bit quicker and you could fit more stuff in, you know, in 23 minutes like you can now.

500
00:32:46.259 --> 00:32:47.519
I don't know.

501
00:32:47.579 --> 00:32:54.420
Fascinating, captain, highly advanced alien entity using this particular system for guiding another race to intelligence.

502
00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:56.460
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

503
00:32:56.519 --> 00:32:58.200
Almost a guard you might say.

504
00:32:58.259 --> 00:33:11.579
Well, but that is sort of almost interesting, is that Star Trek leaves in a world where there's God, and that's kind of true in this episode and in children of the comet.

505
00:33:11.640 --> 00:33:19.619
But the way you sort of boil that down to something interesting is having a character like Q, having a relationship with a character like Captain Picard.

506
00:33:20.339 --> 00:33:22.559
And that's how you sort of play about with that, you know?

507
00:33:22.619 --> 00:33:23.880
Yeah, yeah.

508
00:33:23.940 --> 00:33:27.900
Not just having a load of colour lights coming along and saying, listen to me.

509
00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:29.220
This is the lesson of the week.

510
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:34.140
Oh, Michelle got to do the final line saying, oh, well, you've learned an important lesson.

511
00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:36.839
It's just like, oh, I'm feeling morally improved.

512
00:33:36.900 --> 00:33:38.400
Thank Christ, that's over.

513
00:33:38.460 --> 00:33:39.420
That was so bad.

514
00:33:40.140 --> 00:33:42.359
We said at the beginning now.

515
00:33:42.420 --> 00:33:45.180
We could talk about anything. but we might be a bit stuck in that.

516
00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:48.299
But, like, it's not even, like, there's so little of substances.

517
00:33:48.359 --> 00:33:49.680
There's nothing to grab hold of, you know?

518
00:33:49.740 --> 00:33:50.099
No.

519
00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:50.880
No.

520
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:53.819
Yeah, and it's not like anything.

521
00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:56.279
Like, it's not about anything, really.

522
00:33:56.339 --> 00:34:01.920
Like, I'm trying to work out what they must have been thinking because, like, there's all these people here.

523
00:34:01.980 --> 00:34:09.719
No one deliberately sets out to write something shit and you just sort of wonder how this ends up happening.

524
00:34:09.780 --> 00:34:14.639
I would say that the next episode has started playing on Netflix.

525
00:34:14.699 --> 00:34:16.739
It's called the Practical Joker.

526
00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:22.139
And already there are free Klingon birds of prey firing on the Enterprise.

527
00:34:22.199 --> 00:34:24.599
It looks way better. sounds a lot better.

528
00:34:25.139 --> 00:34:27.900
I feel we might have rolled that one, you know.

529
00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:29.940
There is a Harry Mud episode. too.

530
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:31.500
And there's a triple one as well.

531
00:34:31.559 --> 00:34:32.760
Yeah, yeah.

532
00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:33.840
I have seen that one.

533
00:34:33.900 --> 00:34:35.280
Yeah, I've seen that one too.

534
00:34:35.340 --> 00:34:36.059
That's terrible.

535
00:34:37.800 --> 00:34:45.179
So do you agree then in sort of Gene Roddenberry's assertion that this is all best forgotten?

536
00:34:45.420 --> 00:34:49.199
Or do you think that actually this is this is something that was created.

537
00:34:49.260 --> 00:34:50.820
Let's acknowledge it.

538
00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:52.860
Let's celebrate it.

539
00:34:52.860 --> 00:34:54.900
And let's do it all the ideas a bit better.

540
00:34:54.960 --> 00:34:59.639
Yeah, well, I think that that's what this version of Star Trek does.

541
00:34:59.699 --> 00:35:13.199
I think this version of Star Trek that we have now, you know, it's the one that's taken that low effort Star Trek helmet that was like the worst piece of Star Trek merchandise that had nothing to do with the show and it's made at Canon.

542
00:35:13.260 --> 00:35:17.280
And I think it may accidentally have made it cannon twice in 2 different ways.

543
00:35:17.340 --> 00:35:26.159
And the Pandronians have now been back, you know, decades later, we have another Pantronium character.

544
00:35:26.219 --> 00:35:28.019
Yeah, mental.

545
00:35:28.079 --> 00:35:33.239
But that episode worked perfectly well if you didn't know what a Pandronian was.

546
00:35:33.300 --> 00:35:37.739
And so they, you know, there's just this rich vein of things.

547
00:35:37.800 --> 00:35:50.400
And I think the lower decks people, because they're the 2nd animated version of the show, like animated in that particular way, they see this as their predecessor.

548
00:35:50.460 --> 00:35:53.760
And so they are constantly referencing things from it.

549
00:35:53.820 --> 00:35:59.099
There was the giant Spock skeleton in one of the episodes, which is a reference to it.

550
00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:01.380
We've had a dosians on the show.

551
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:08.519
You know, like this is uh, something that uh, that it seizes its sort of uh, predecessor.

552
00:36:08.579 --> 00:36:09.659
And I think that's great.

553
00:36:09.719 --> 00:36:13.860
And it's sort of fun and generous and weird and wonderful, I think.

554
00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:23.340
Pretty much every criticism I throw at the animated series is addressed and rectified in Prodigy.

555
00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:48.840
Yeah, you know, which is like, you know, you've got weird and unusual regulars that you could never realise on a regular budget, a rock bolster, and the robot eyeball, you know, and the, the, the slime creature, Murph, you know, you've got astonishing visuals that they could never pull off and in live action Star Trek, and you've got madly creative stories taking place as well.

556
00:36:48.900 --> 00:36:50.159
You know.

557
00:36:50.219 --> 00:36:53.460
Maybe they looked at this and said, right, let's just do the opposite of this.

558
00:36:53.519 --> 00:36:54.659
You know?

559
00:36:54.719 --> 00:37:09.960
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, like, I think Roddenbury himself said that this didn't count as canon, and I'm kind of glad to see that being sort of flatly reversed because it is part of our sort of shared experience of Star Trek.

560
00:37:10.019 --> 00:37:22.320
But it's an improvement, isn't it, that something like this is so low effort that no one would attempt anything as just half assed as this anymore.

561
00:37:22.679 --> 00:37:31.800
And so when they do make the very 1st Star Trek series directly aimed at children, they cast Kate Mulgrew.

562
00:37:31.860 --> 00:37:34.559
They, you know, get proper writers in.

563
00:37:34.619 --> 00:37:40.320
They make it look spectacular and they give it a proper, proper purpose as well.

564
00:37:40.380 --> 00:37:44.400
It's not just doing more of that shit that they did back in the 60s.

565
00:37:44.460 --> 00:37:48.599
It has a sort of proper political and moral purpose.

566
00:37:48.659 --> 00:37:59.880
I think, you know, it's so superior to what this show is, you know, and I think we're lucky that we live in a world where TV is good on the whole.

567
00:37:59.940 --> 00:38:02.699
Yeah, about 2 final points, yeah.

568
00:38:02.820 --> 00:38:07.199
And I'm going to stop criticising animated series and that's only because the episode will be over.

569
00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:21.780
The 1st is, thank goodness for the movies. the original series movies because this would have been the last work that many of these actors did in the Star Trek universe and that just cannot be allowed to happen.

570
00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:23.880
And secondly, is this.

571
00:38:23.940 --> 00:38:25.079
I'm pleased this exists.

572
00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:32.940
Not because it's only good, because it allows us to go back and look at series 3 of the original series and go, I said, you know what?

573
00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:34.500
That wasn't too bad after all.

574
00:38:35.699 --> 00:38:39.539
We did Spectra of the gun, you know, we thoroughly enjoyed that.

575
00:38:39.599 --> 00:38:40.500
It's very good.

576
00:38:40.559 --> 00:38:44.099
Yeah, works on a 1000000 ways better than this did.

577
00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:45.420
So, um, so yeah.

578
00:38:45.480 --> 00:38:53.519
So this dreadful iteration of Star Trek allows us to look at Fred Freiburgers attempts and give them a thumbs up.

579
00:38:53.579 --> 00:38:55.139
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

580
00:39:01.679 --> 00:39:07.500
All right, it's the end of the episode and it is time for us to work out what we're going to watch next.

581
00:39:07.739 --> 00:39:14.820
I was the one who rolled Bem last week, so it's Joe's turn now.

582
00:39:14.880 --> 00:39:18.000
And so what series are we going to roll from?

583
00:39:18.059 --> 00:39:23.219
Oh, I would like to thank you for rolling Ben though, because I did get a couple of good naps in during that episode.

584
00:39:23.280 --> 00:39:24.420
Oh, thank you.

585
00:39:24.480 --> 00:39:25.800
I needed the rest.

586
00:39:26.639 --> 00:39:37.739
So, going back to what we talked about last week, which was the percentages of episodes that we've covered, I would like to inch up a show that's quite low.

587
00:39:37.739 --> 00:39:42.239
Or even though I feel like we've done quite a few, um, and that is Star Trek, the Next Generation.

588
00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:46.679
Oh, because I haven't had a good word to say about that now for about 5 or 6 seconds.

589
00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:47.099
A long time.

590
00:39:47.099 --> 00:39:50.760
I'm starting to question why I am a Star Trek fan.

591
00:39:50.820 --> 00:39:52.920
Given that's kind of where I started.

592
00:39:52.980 --> 00:39:54.599
Yeah, me too.

593
00:39:54.659 --> 00:40:01.559
So, um, so we're gonna, yeah, we're gonna join Captain Picard again on a, hopefully very exciting adventure.

594
00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:02.639
If you're ready.

595
00:40:02.699 --> 00:40:04.619
All right, I'm ready.

596
00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:05.940
Rest the button.

597
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:12.000
Your random Star Trek Next Generation episode is season 5, episode 12.

598
00:40:12.360 --> 00:40:13.980
Oh, violations.

599
00:40:14.039 --> 00:40:15.840
You don't really like that one do you?

600
00:40:15.900 --> 00:40:24.719
I don't really like that one because I just think that the rapey thing is a bit of a thing, but, you know, it's solid series 5 Star Trek, I think.

601
00:40:24.780 --> 00:40:29.400
I rather do like that one, but unfortunately, I've already pressed it again.

602
00:40:29.460 --> 00:40:30.239
Okay, good.

603
00:40:30.300 --> 00:40:31.019
Okay.

604
00:40:31.079 --> 00:40:32.219
Oh, all good things.

605
00:40:32.760 --> 00:40:36.000
Okay, we've done that. covered that one.

606
00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:42.360
Your random Star Trek Next Generation episode is season one, episode 11, Haven.

607
00:40:42.420 --> 00:40:46.260
Oh, cracking. starring Rick Astley and Bonnie Tyler.

608
00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:46.920
Do you remember?

609
00:40:46.980 --> 00:40:49.320
Yeah, and Arman Schimmerman as a box.

610
00:40:49.380 --> 00:40:51.480
Oh, is he the box in that?

611
00:40:51.539 --> 00:40:52.320
Oh wow.

612
00:40:55.199 --> 00:40:57.239
Let's try again.

613
00:40:57.300 --> 00:40:58.980
Oh, God, come on.

614
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:02.099
When the bowel breaks.

615
00:41:02.159 --> 00:41:04.860
No, it's the one way they kidnap all the children in season.

616
00:41:04.920 --> 00:41:05.639
Oh, dear.

617
00:41:05.699 --> 00:41:10.260
Do you think the randomizer's got something against me when I select Star Trek the next generation?

618
00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:11.219
Try it again.

619
00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:12.599
I'm fine.

620
00:41:12.659 --> 00:41:15.360
Journeys end from series 7.

621
00:41:15.420 --> 00:41:17.099
No, that's so weird, dull.

622
00:41:17.400 --> 00:41:21.179
Season one, episode 22. symbiosis.

623
00:41:22.440 --> 00:41:25.260
Which they just dealt with.

624
00:41:25.320 --> 00:41:28.320
They just went back to those planets in lower text.

625
00:41:28.380 --> 00:41:29.880
Oh, no, okay.

626
00:41:29.940 --> 00:41:31.860
I press it one more time, and I want to do this one.

627
00:41:31.920 --> 00:41:36.659
Because it is one I've got issues with, but I think we should talk about the issues.

628
00:41:36.719 --> 00:41:37.800
Oh okay.

629
00:41:37.860 --> 00:41:41.880
Season four, episode 23, the host.

630
00:41:42.059 --> 00:41:44.159
Oh, wow.

631
00:41:44.219 --> 00:41:44.820
Okay.

632
00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:47.219
Yes, a Dr. Ben. episode.

633
00:41:47.280 --> 00:41:48.119
Yep.

634
00:41:48.179 --> 00:41:53.219
Her annual fucking an alien episode. which is pretty interesting.

635
00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:56.639
They get a chance to sort of examine Gates McFadden's performance again.

636
00:41:56.699 --> 00:42:05.579
But also it has some very interesting things to say about bisexuality in the future. very stupid things to say about bisexuality in the future.

637
00:42:05.639 --> 00:42:07.320
Yeah, okay, the host.

638
00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:11.400
If you dropped her in the middle of discovery, she wouldn't know what was going on, which is right.

639
00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:15.719
The host, yeah. yeah that would be a good one to talk about.

640
00:42:15.780 --> 00:42:17.039
All right, good plan.

641
00:42:17.099 --> 00:42:17.579
Excellent.

642
00:42:17.639 --> 00:42:18.599
And it's season four.

643
00:42:18.659 --> 00:42:19.920
I don't think we've been there for a while.

644
00:42:19.980 --> 00:42:21.059
Yeah it's good.

645
00:42:21.119 --> 00:42:22.019
Let's do it.

646
00:42:28.739 --> 00:42:41.099
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 links to our Twitter, mastered on Facebook and YouTube channel.

647
00:42:41.159 --> 00:42:46.260
Our podcast artwork is by Kayla Sisrin, and the theme was composed by Cameron Lam.

648
00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:52.260
This episode was recorded on the 17th of July 2023 and released on the 21st of July.

649
00:42:52.380 --> 00:42:56.699
We'll see you next time for Star Trek the Next Generation, the host.

650
00:43:13.139 --> 00:43:15.360
Yeah, that's a good...

651
00:43:15.360 --> 00:43:17.099
That's a good E. Yeah.

652
00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:20.280
It's funny, the trill thing, isn't it?

653
00:43:20.340 --> 00:43:25.679
Because the trill really take off, but obviously that stupid head makeup thing.

654
00:43:25.739 --> 00:43:29.099
Well, there's types of things that are different. did it, didn't they?

655
00:43:29.159 --> 00:43:29.639
They did it.

656
00:43:29.639 --> 00:43:34.679
And then the producers came in and said, why have you made this beautiful woman we brought in look like that?

657
00:43:34.739 --> 00:43:35.579
Look like that.

658
00:43:35.699 --> 00:43:37.440
Just give up the spots.

659
00:43:38.519 --> 00:43:41.880
But the spots were just that, weren't they?

660
00:43:41.940 --> 00:43:46.619
And now, like there's trills in it all of the seasons, we had trilling discovery.

661
00:43:46.679 --> 00:43:49.019
Um, Yeah.

662
00:43:50.099 --> 00:43:57.420
We had a sense here, you know, um, Jim, what's her name?

663
00:43:57.480 --> 00:44:00.539
Tahani from Jameila Jamal.

664
00:44:00.599 --> 00:44:01.980
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

665
00:44:02.039 --> 00:44:06.000
But also, you know, the, the, the, uh, gray. as well.

666
00:44:06.059 --> 00:44:07.440
Oh, yeah, yeah.

667
00:44:07.500 --> 00:44:09.659
That stuff was beautiful, actually. was really good.

668
00:44:09.719 --> 00:44:14.280
Would you remember when um, uh, I can't remember their name.

669
00:44:14.340 --> 00:44:23.039
The other trill, the actual trill host, the tile host, Adira.

670
00:44:23.099 --> 00:44:24.420
Yeah, yeah.

671
00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:25.500
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

672
00:44:25.559 --> 00:44:27.719
Yeah, we covered that episode, didn't we?

673
00:44:27.780 --> 00:44:34.559
Yeah, and that had all sorts of interesting things to say about identity and stuff and love.

674
00:44:34.619 --> 00:44:35.519
It was really good.

675
00:44:35.579 --> 00:44:41.579
Like, and they leave doing trills until they get to the future.

676
00:44:42.059 --> 00:44:43.860
Do you know what I mean?

677
00:44:43.920 --> 00:44:58.199
is if they're discovered sometime in the in the 24th century or something by, you know, 1st content. that romance in there, though, because the actual trail characters are all a bit. sort of Star Trek aliens, you know, very serious.

678
00:44:58.260 --> 00:44:58.860
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

679
00:44:58.920 --> 00:45:00.659
I was like, come on, your episode though.

680
00:45:00.719 --> 00:45:03.480
Look back to Chad Zia, you know, she was a good time girl.

681
00:45:03.539 --> 00:45:04.860
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

682
00:45:04.920 --> 00:45:05.760
Having a bit of fun.

683
00:45:05.820 --> 00:45:09.000
Those hot trill men in the holodeck that she had.

684
00:45:09.360 --> 00:45:12.780
Right, everyone else, you know, as Wolf said.

685
00:45:12.900 --> 00:45:17.460
I don't believe there's anyone on T-space and I, you have not had revolutions with.

686
00:45:17.519 --> 00:45:19.500
Yeah, good for her. like that.

687
00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:24.659
I like it when she talks to Kira and wise her up about all the weird people she fancies.

688
00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:28.199
He goes, I went on a date with that Captain Bodet.

689
00:45:28.260 --> 00:45:28.980
She goes, really?

690
00:45:29.039 --> 00:45:30.719
The one with the transparent skull.

691
00:45:30.780 --> 00:45:31.440
Skull.

692
00:45:32.280 --> 00:45:33.719
Great.

693
00:45:33.780 --> 00:45:37.440
So the mourn conversation as well. remember that?

694
00:45:37.500 --> 00:45:38.699
The little bristles.

695
00:45:40.980 --> 00:45:45.900
Yeah, but that's like that's, I like that in a way.

696
00:45:45.960 --> 00:45:57.900
Oh, you know, the horrible, horny horniness in series one or 2 of Star Trek Next Generation, which is sort of gross. sort of leaves your keys in this bowl by the door.

697
00:45:57.960 --> 00:46:06.659
You know, like, uh, um, but that, you know, that's, and it's a grown-up attitude to sex that you don't ever get on Voyager.

698
00:46:07.019 --> 00:46:13.679
Yeah, you know, or Enterprise. times we've talked about enterprise. and how shit...

699
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:14.280
How can we live?

700
00:46:15.300 --> 00:46:17.099
into the holiday, you know.

701
00:46:17.099 --> 00:46:17.820
Yuck.

702
00:46:17.880 --> 00:46:18.900
Yuck, yuck.

703
00:46:19.139 --> 00:46:24.059
Although 7 does have some great lines about Sex on Voyager, you know.

704
00:46:24.119 --> 00:46:26.340
Yeah, why doesn't she tell, tell him.

705
00:46:26.340 --> 00:46:31.860
I don't keep it taking his clothes off. on deck deck 16 that doesn't know when you're having relations.

706
00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:35.699
No, but doesn't she tell, doesn't she tell Harry him to remove his clothes?

707
00:46:35.760 --> 00:46:37.019
Oh, just like that as well.

708
00:46:37.079 --> 00:46:38.280
You may remove your clothes.

709
00:46:38.340 --> 00:46:40.079
He's like, oh, no, what?

710
00:46:40.739 --> 00:46:45.000
She goes, there is unacceptable illumination in here.

711
00:46:45.059 --> 00:46:47.099
He goes, no, but it's quite relaxing, don't you think?

712
00:46:47.159 --> 00:46:48.960
She's only realising, yeah.

713
00:46:49.739 --> 00:46:51.360
Oh dear.

714
00:46:51.420 --> 00:46:53.820
It's like it's like straight panic, yes.

715
00:46:53.880 --> 00:47:06.300
There was some really funny sex stuff in this week's Drain Shoe Worlds because it was like the annual Spock to Pring comedy episode.

716
00:47:06.360 --> 00:47:11.099
And like, it was good, like, and really funny, ridiculous stuff.

717
00:47:11.159 --> 00:47:18.960
There's a scene between Spock and Laan suddenly realises what's going on and puts a stop to it.

718
00:47:19.019 --> 00:47:23.340
Like, it's very funny and, you know, like properly good.

719
00:47:23.400 --> 00:47:27.300
I think I'm going to binge the whole, when it's out, I'm going to do all of them.

720
00:47:27.360 --> 00:47:31.380
You did watch the Spock to bring body swap episode from series.

721
00:47:31.500 --> 00:47:32.519
Yeah, yeah.

722
00:47:32.519 --> 00:47:33.900
I watched the order of one.

723
00:47:33.960 --> 00:47:36.239
Yeah, I don't think you watched the last episode.

724
00:47:36.300 --> 00:47:36.960
Did you?

725
00:47:37.019 --> 00:47:39.000
And you didn't want to...

726
00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:44.699
Lift us where suffering cannot reach, which Gemma hated, and I thought was really good.

727
00:47:44.760 --> 00:47:46.139
That's good.

728
00:47:46.199 --> 00:47:47.219
It was a good episode.

729
00:47:47.280 --> 00:47:51.360
The weird non-urgency tonight to have to watch new stuff.

730
00:47:51.420 --> 00:47:52.800
It's very strange.

731
00:47:52.860 --> 00:47:55.260
And you've got the crossover.

732
00:47:55.320 --> 00:48:03.780
So the episode, so when this episode goes out, they'll, they'll have done episode 6 and then episode 7 is the crossover episode.

733
00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:07.320
You have to remember how much media I'm consuming, though, all right?

734
00:48:07.380 --> 00:48:10.019
Yeah, this is all I watch.

735
00:48:10.079 --> 00:48:10.920
Yeah, yeah.

736
00:48:10.980 --> 00:48:14.880
Books, audios, television.

737
00:48:14.940 --> 00:48:15.659
It is true.

738
00:48:18.780 --> 00:48:20.639
I'm going to press stop. do you reckon?