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VOY: "Future's End, Part II" (s3e9)
101 Plays2 months ago
WHAT THE PARADOX? It's the end of the time loop as we know it and Voyager feels fine -- kinda, sorta. Getting back from 20th century Earth isn't without its complications though, as Captain Janeway discovers that American capitalism is as evil as the Borg when Henry Starling reveals that he plans to travel to the 29th century in his stolen time ship despite her warnings that such a trip would cause a temporal explosion. Meanwhile, Tom Paris and Rain Robinson grow so close that Sarah Silverman has off-screen stories about making out with some of the show's actors during her guest stint; Chakotay & B'Elanna are captured by militiamen; and, The Doctor gains the ability to leave Sickbay, forever altering the character. Ah, but do all these qualities make the episode a TREK, MARRY, or KILL?
The grades begin at (20:28).
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Transcript
Humorous Teaser and Time Ship Dilemma
00:00:00
Speaker
Next on Trek Mary Kill. Burritos, stocks, rednecks. Energize. The Voyager crew has landed back home. How is that possible? Back in the past. You came here to steal my time ship. A 20th century capitalist. Why do you think I want to go to the future?
00:00:19
Speaker
more technology It takes only at the future. The entire solar system will be destroyed. And Earth is running out of time. We have no other choice. Fire! On that next Star Trek Voyager.
00:00:46
Speaker
Brian.
Podcast Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:48
Speaker
Welcome to Trek Mary Kill, a podcast that has been equipped with an autonomous, self-sustaining mobile hollow emitter. In short, we're footloose and fancy free to discuss and judge episodes of Star Trek. To kick off our third season, we're looking at Star Trek's predictions about the present. And this week we're picking up where we left off by discussing the conclusion of the Futures End saga on Star Trek Voyager. Futures End Part Two is the ninth episode of Star Trek Voyager's third season. It premiered on UPN November 13th, 1996.
00:01:16
Speaker
Written by Brandon Braga with Joe Manosky. Directed by Cliff Bull, Memory Alpha describes it, Jane Wade tries to prevent Henry Starling from launching the time ship without altering the past. What Memory Alpha doesn't tell you is that also Chakotay and Torres crash land on Earth for reasons and are helped by a militia, basically. Yeah.
00:01:39
Speaker
A sovereign citizen militia right finds them. A proto version of the... Who are the people that were the dudes that were sent all the dildos up in Oregon? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I cannot remember their names, yeah like whatever their little...
00:01:58
Speaker
You know, group yeah their family name was like made famous and they were held up anyway. So yeah but also and people sent them just load truckloads of dildos. Right. That was that was that was. Yep. Well, let's see. Do you remember the first time you saw this episode?
00:02:17
Speaker
No, no memory. ah Like the first part, I taped it and I watched it repeatedly just because, hey, it was different from the normal format. There was definitely the energy. And they were in Los Angeles, which I was pining to move to even at that age and and eventually did. And so now it's kind of cool looking back and being like, I know where that is. I know where that is. How did they it must have been so much easier to lock down the streets to get to park right in front of the the theater right there in downtown to stripe around. um But that was pretty cool. ah But before we get to the grades, we'd like to talk about some concepts and themes that each episode
Sarah Silverman as a Potential Voyager Regular
00:02:56
Speaker
introduces. Well, this one certainly has elements of, you know, some hints at capitalism and the destructive nature of it. That's definitely not a theme that they were really maybe going for or pulling on. So we're just going to settle on this as a concept. Sarah Silverman. Yeah.
00:03:14
Speaker
The alternative comic and definitely hit or stride after the turn of the century, edgy for edgy sake in a lot of ways, but a very distinct voice, both comedically and like sonically. ah Very, very copied in LA when I moved here in around 2003. And I guess it's triggering in a way of like, I i definitely dated a woman.
00:03:37
Speaker
and new other women who were not aping her style necessarily, but evoking a lot. of governmentman So I was very aware of Sarah Silverman. Do you have any Sarah Silverman opinions or thoughts? I i don't dislike her in any way, certainly. But um I think she was considered like the female comic that was pretty.
00:04:02
Speaker
Oh, well, that would yeah, definitely that was part of it. ah Compared to some of her um some of the other female comics. Yeah. Before and since. At the time when Voyager was on, it was really just like, who's this? She seems very modern, right? She doesn't seem like the other characters. And I didn't know in terms of comedy what she was doing. I wasn't aware of that. But i I swear, as soon as she was on the scene there, I'm like, Raine Robinson from Star Trek Voyager? That was my number one recollection. And of course for her, that's followed her around her entire career in a way I desperately want us to talk about in a second. But first- If you watched a lot of Comedy Central when they actually used to play stand-up comedy, um you would have seen her a lot. And she guest starred on a lot of stuff.
00:04:51
Speaker
dated Jimmy Fallon, you know, she's a big... Not Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel, thank you. There's a big difference there. You know, but they're all Jimmys. At the end of the day, they're all Jimmys. um That was much later than...
00:05:04
Speaker
many years after this episode. But the Rainn Robinson character was popped. She was a very she was very stand out character, certainly in Voyager's run up to that point was one of the more exciting guest stars. And again, she definitely had an energy and a vibe. Credit to Silverman for having that energy. ah So Brian Fuller, who was at one point a writer on Voyager, ah he tweeted it back in 2011, a time that seems Tragically, a long time ago. ah But he said it's so long, like, unbelievably long. he He tweeted, Little known Star Trek Voyager fact producers considered making Sarah Silverman a regular after her season three turn as plucky present day astronomer.
00:05:53
Speaker
on Trek movie, asked Brian Fuller for more details. And he responded, it was Brandon's desire to bring rain on board because he enjoyed writing for Sarah and the freshness she brought to the show, which again, like I kind of set up there, Brandon Braga was an A-lister in 1996. And so- Okay, I don't know. So, you know. Citation needed. A-list screenwriter. Was he getting into- Okay, okay. Clear enough, sorry. Okay, all right, all right.
00:06:24
Speaker
Like just saying, like, if he shows up to Spago, he's getting a table no matter what. Like maybe in the 90s, they're going to kick Paul Newman out of his usual spot. that's for Paul Newman, big fan of Spago. Screenwriter. So no, absolutely not. No one knows who they are. But some people would know. OK. Sir Silverman might be one of those people who knew. But whatever the point, I got to imagine that a guy in his early 30s, early 20s, I think he was in his early 30s. Like, you think his picture's up on the wall, just dry cleaners?
00:06:52
Speaker
No, I just so I guess my question my point is, is that the idea that he enjoyed writing for Sarah Silverman actually does take on an added bit of weight when later on he would be literally dating Jerry Ryan, a co-star on a show. You know what I mean? So i with that in mind, I do say I do say as interesting as it might have been for rain to come aboard a la Star Trek IV when Dr. Taylor joined, you know, goes to the future to be with the whales, but then also study the future, we wouldn't have got seven of nine.
00:07:22
Speaker
You know, that that probably would have been so domino effect, whatever butterfly effect. There we go. But this could also be a bit of conflation or misremembering of events, because at least at the time Cinefantastique interviewed Joe Manosky, the co-writer of this episode. I don't know how soon after this episode came out that this interview happened, but he said some consideration went into the possibility of having Rainn Robinson aboard Voyager.
00:07:47
Speaker
But this idea was vetoed by executive producer Rick Berman. Rick hated the idea. He just said, forget it. So we didn't do it. ah Now, maybe Rick Berman was like, you want to bring your girlfriend on board? I don't think we're doing that, Brandon Braga. Because Brandon Braga was not yet the showrunner of Voyager.
00:08:04
Speaker
Uh, so, and I say, uh, girlfriend because Sarah Silverman did an auto complete interview. It's their gimmicky, fun little thing that they do where they'll, you know, actors will hold up a cardboard printout with like Google search results, like that are partially completed and they peel the sticker off to reveal the the full question. So she, one of the questions about Sarah Silverman was like, was Sarah Silverman on? And then you peeled off Star Trek.
00:08:30
Speaker
And she talked about it and she said, I made out with one of the guys on camera made out with another one of the guys off camera could not tell you either of their names.
00:08:42
Speaker
Oof. Sorry, Tom Paris. Yeah, sorry, Robert Duncan McNeil, who is a successful TV director now, transitioned into that. I'm kind of desperate to know who the other person was. And i so I'm putting out a call to our listeners if this has come up at a convention since then. One of the the actor in question actually said it that, where Sarah Silverman was at a Star Trek convention. And she specified, because I think this autocomplete was some time ago, so there would have been time for that to be sussed out. But the suspects, as far as I can tell...
00:09:17
Speaker
I think she'd probably remember making out with Ed Begley Jr., right? Yeah. she And she has a separate story about Ed Begley Jr., where they were just sitting around between takes and all of a sudden out of nowhere, he just like gets an epiphany. He pulls out his cell phone, which in 1996 was still kind of a big deal. He pulled out a cell phone and he called and he goes, yeah, can you go in my garage and unplug my car?
00:09:41
Speaker
So because he was a green guy, so he had an electric car already. So she had that story to tell her friends. ah No, it wasn't that big a junior junior. I think the suspects are Tim Russ too much. I'm hoping it's him. But but I suspect it's Robert Beltran. Well, they barely had any scenes together. Yes. and But in part one, she said that she would stay behind, remember, and see Janeway and do kate see Kate Mulgrew do her scenes.
Stranded in 1996: Chakotay and Torres
00:10:11
Speaker
Well, in part one, at least, Kate Mulgrew was mainly doing scenes with
00:10:15
Speaker
ah with Chakotay, with Robert Beltran. And just looking at where, she's on location a lot for episode two. And episode one, she's actually a little bit more stage bound. So it would make more sense that she would be adjacent to the scenes of Janeway and Chakotay when they're in Starling's office, ah or at least on the lot at the same time. So that's my conjecture. Also, he he's a good looking guy at the time, um kind of tracks.
00:10:42
Speaker
But, uh, I don't, the age gap, I guess, is, is also, I'm a little but curious about. So you're not as invested in this as it's, as I am, it sounds like. No, like you've, I mean, I dunno, trying to remember the names of everyone you've made out with. I mean, Jesus, she would remember Robert Picardo. She would remember cable grew. Yeah.
00:11:05
Speaker
I feel like so I feel like Garrett Wong would have brought that up. He thinks that he would have been like, yeah, they're going to believe this. You know, I hope it was Neelix. He did Phillips. Oh, my God. In the makeup. Yeah, in the makeup. I think she would have I honestly think she probably would have remembered. Yeah. A little bit of that in my full makeup. Yeah. OK, so then the other kind of concept was like one of the bodyguards.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah, so then she doesn't necessarily know, like, yes. Oh, this guy isn't a regular necessarily. Mr. Dunbar, the the southern sounding guy that works for Starling actually was the other one. And they they have more scenes together. They're in the same grouping. That would make a lot of sense. The other concept I wanted to talk about was the militia thing, the sovereign citizen thing that we mentioned. And this was real high. This was real.
00:12:03
Speaker
real timely stuff. It's definitely something where us people who live in like the cities and don't live out in the middle of bum fuck nowhere are like, why are those people hoarding guns and like barricading themselves in a post office or whatever? Like it's it was super weird to everybody who wasn't part of those militias. Yeah, I just I'm startled by how the collectivism versus individualism, which that's what the so those are the words the Hollywood writers put in their mouth. And I'm sure it rings true and all that stuff. I'm just alarmed by how like literally nothing has changed in 30 years since this episode or 28 years since this episode came out and that we really
00:12:57
Speaker
they're in this They were in the zeitgeist. That was like maybe their peak. And then they still exist. Like we mentioned, the Oregon standoff. And they'll crop up every so often. You'll have these these situations. Yeah. Well, the difference is is back then, the FBI would just kill killed the whole group of people. Yeah. Nowadays, they let them live.
00:13:19
Speaker
ah For better or worse, who knows? you know Right. It's a response to probably a lot of conditions. you know we In 1996, 1997, 1995, what we're in NAFTA, you know american ah yeah American jobs are being shipped off overseas. And modern go we actually had an assault weapon ban. And so that like really set some people off. like They started hoarding the assault weapons.
00:13:47
Speaker
um It has since expired, as you might be able to tell by the frequency of mass shootings with salt like assault weapons. um but yeah it was ah people People were just going bonkers. like People out in the middle of nowhere were really going bonkers. You had the Unabomber, the Waco stuff. just and I feel like there was just always some like weirdo in Michigan.
00:14:14
Speaker
some weirdo faction. And like, it wasn't even necessarily a group would be like, a few people, like individuals were like, I don't pay taxes anymore. Right. ah This is just an Arizona. This is a pre Christian cinema, Arizona. If only they knew what was coming for them.
00:14:34
Speaker
yeah When we did ah past tense, we talked about how it was reflecting the current time, and it's startling how it resonates to this day almost exactly the same, or actually it's gotten worse. I kind of think the same is here, even though the episode is not about this part of the story. It seemed like a fun thing they wanted to do. I guess this is like a good way for me to transition into the memory alpha notes, because originally this future's end story ah was supposed to be an arc. It was supposed to be three or four episodes.
00:15:05
Speaker
And the the it was supposed be a the studio had some problems. According to Brandon Braga, they felt that it was too jane too dangerous to attempt, even though Deep Space Nine was over there in syndication land doing six, seven part episodes. And there definitely was, according to Brian Fuller in interviews over the years, some of the Voyager writers were like, why can't we do that? Why can't we be cool?
Writer Frustrations and Contemporary Influences
00:15:28
Speaker
Because we're on a network, asshole.
00:15:31
Speaker
Shut up. Yeah. And Rick Berman would be like, they're not the cool kids. You're the cool kids. It's like, wow. Yeah, exactly. it's That would be what the writers are like, but we're not doing anything anything interesting. And Rick Berman would be like, cool kids.
00:15:46
Speaker
Brandon Braga thought it was a good idea because it really made it a very taught and packed storyline. And I kind of agree, just having Futures End be two parts. um but again And again, he was coming off of having done work on a very successful action screenplay. So he probably wanted to bring that energy. He also produced the movie. He was on set for most days. So he probably wanted to bring those vibes into the show, which in its third season was still kind of like you know trying to find its voice.
00:16:15
Speaker
But Kristen, I kept this from you in the rundown because I wanted to surprise you. <unk>t There's a bit more- Well, first of all, that you're just assuming that I read the whole thing. You could have put it in there. You could have put anything in there. You could have put like insults and in there and I wouldn't have seen it till right now. So we we talked to last time about 2 Vox Disguise, the D-Rag. And we're like, okay, this is...
00:16:44
Speaker
It's crossing a line probably, but it probably at the least- Probably. It's not just the do-rag. Yeah, right. The whole thing. Okay. We also talked about last time that, or in past tense, that Robert Hewitt-Wolfe had been agitating to write something along these lines all the way back in Next Generation when Picard and La Forge were going to be in the Watts riots.
00:17:05
Speaker
Okay, so keep those two things in mind as I tell you this. Brandon Braga also stated, part of me wishes we had still done the four-parter though, because we had Tuvok and Paris get trapped in the convenience store while it was being ambushed by gang members.
00:17:20
Speaker
Oh, my God. And Buzzfeed. So this is post Rodney King riots. This is in the air and Brandon Braga would become a writer, eventually and and an executive co-executive producer on 24. But I think in the second season, before he joined the show, this was a storyline where one of the main characters gets caught in a convenience store when like a nuke's going to go off or something. And ah it's this ah Guy who just holding everyone hostage but just the idea that this is the stuff that they thought of for what they could put in a Star Trek show to reflect modern times
00:18:01
Speaker
is about as obvious and I would dare say hacky as you can imagine. yeah like it's And maybe they thought because it's Star Trek and Star Trek has never done this before and it's really the the bigger ideas just to reflect the time that we're in, it's okay to do the obvious. But this is like just, it is one of the most stunningly obvious ideas you could have done ah Los Angeles 18 months after the Rodney King riots or that you're gonna have a convenience store hold up.
00:18:31
Speaker
Yeah. Come on. Well, you couldn't think of anything else. Right. So i guess what what what does our current time have? I know. like Violent black people. That's right. Like, come on. Two Box going to teach them how to deescalate conflict on the corners. so The battle is not with LAPD. It's the battle within that matter. Right. lets Most fellows in the LAPD, they got you know there's no nothing they did wrong. The city of Crenshaw does not live in the shadow of an uncaring government that uses them as a political punching bag. It is their own immaturity that's holding them back. I'm starting with the man in the mirror. yeah That's right.
00:19:20
Speaker
ah Robert Picardo was initially against the idea of the mobile emitter. He felt being stuck in sickbay is what made the doctor character interesting. He admitted that he apologized to Brandon Braga as they were shooting the episode because he realized he was wrong. Yeah.
00:19:38
Speaker
But I mean, like immediately realizing that he was wrong. That's right. As soon as like a real ray of sun, I also think it was like he was probably like, na on no, no, no, no. The doctor needs to seem sick, but I don't know. I don't mean I don't have to go any of those location shoots or anything. ah That's a good point. Like I understand that. yeah I understand that big time.
00:20:00
Speaker
The episode achieved a real ah Nielsen rating of 5.8 million homes and a 9% share last week. It was 5.9 million. Jerry Taylor, who was the showrunner at the time, once reckoned futures and part two is the highest I think we had all year, which is not entirely true. It was actually basics part two, which was the episode where the whole crew had been stranded by the case on and left on the planet. So people were like, well, now what are they going to do? How are they going to get back on the ship? So I guess that's the interest is what, why it was slightly higher rated anyway.
Character Highlights and Janeway's Leadership
00:20:30
Speaker
Let's get into the grades. Great scenes. I have four. When Tuvok shows up with chili burritos and hot dogs for breakfast in the beginning.
00:20:42
Speaker
And Sarah Silverman's like giving him a hard time about it, but it's, um, he was just like, but what do you want from me, woman? Like you asked for food. It's also funny. She accuses him of like being in a little off by trying to fit in. And I'm like you're all they're all is like, there's something always a little bit off by you guys. And I'm like, yeah.
00:21:02
Speaker
It's true, but I'm also like, was Tuvok trying to fit in? Because I'm like, I don't think he would logically care. No, he was trying to yes not stick out enough to not get killed, and that is it. The rest of it, he did not care about. ah That was shot at Paramount, that right next to the fountain there ah by the main gate. I also put every interaction with a doctor in Sterling.
00:21:27
Speaker
It's yeah, that was my first great. Yeah, like, it's just great. He's just like, oh, God, why am I? What am I doing here? Like, how did this happen?
00:21:39
Speaker
it's a It's the most important scene for the Doctor in the history of the series in this one way. It changes him permanently. It is the moment where the Doctor goes from being, like you said, he couldn't be bothered by these questions because none of this matters. He knows he's a hologram. you know yeah He's usually used to getting the upper hand, having the upper hand.
00:21:58
Speaker
He thinks he's got some invincibility because he's just photons and force fields. And then Starling turns the tables on him and suddenly this doctor character is gaining an insight he never had before. We're seeing a side of the character we've never seen before. He's been pushed in a completely different direction. I think it's not mustache twirling villainy by Ed Begley Jr. It's TV, TV evil, but he's trying to be pretty real here. You know what I mean? Like he could be talking to this hologram like it's nothing and then he but instead he's treating like a person maybe mainly because he knows I can fuck with this thing and it will give me what I want but uh picardo's performance is also great so I'm with you it's a great scene okay so when the shuttle goes down in Arizona in the militia and the militia is like oh yeah they're definitely feds and then like the feds really do show up
00:22:53
Speaker
Cause they saw the ship, you saw the shuttle go down. That's why. Yeah, yeah but it's amazing. Like they're like, how do we do it? And then, um, but then with when, Tuvok and the doctor show up and you don't see them, you just hear them interacting with the FBI. And they're like, just, where did it get in here? And then they just start shooting with the the phasers and everything. And it's very funny to me. It's great.
00:23:19
Speaker
but two-man wrecking crew. And then ah when Captain Janeway is like, I'm going to have to go man these torpedoes myself. Oh, that's great.
00:23:31
Speaker
I have to do it manually. I think that whole last sequence is a great scene for Janeway being a badass. But the the thing to keep in mind is like, what is the emotions of the story? It's there's not it's not really about anything, but the emotion that is real is that the crew is on the doorstep of being home.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah, they're just in the wrong century. and And so it's so close. And there's a couple of moments where they play into that and it and it gets you something. But to me, what makes the sequence not just Janeway, you know, willing to go to the wall for to to get the job done, being a badass, it's also just the whole rest of the sequence, where they're like, Oh, we got to we got to stop this. Otherwise, it's gonna it's gonna be the end of everything. The acting is so convincing. The close-ups are all great. They all look ah tense to resolve the immediate conflict. And then the anguish you can see on their faces when they realize they're not going to get home. I thought it was so very real and and very tangible and palpable. For TV actors, it's very hard to do. But I'm i'm glad we agree that Janeway was awesome there. Yeah, um I didn't put this one down, but i also there's a scene with Balana and Shikote talking about like if what happens if we like get stuck here in 1996. And they're thinking about like how they'd spend their days on Earth. And then I'm wondering, like what what do you think you would rather do, Brian? If you were stranded in the Delta Quadrant, would you rather go back to 1996 Earth and try to make a
00:25:07
Speaker
a life or would you just be like, I'll take my chances in the in my present day where I actually have family that maybe I can get back to. Yeah, I would do that. I don't think I would. I mean, just the the basic question of would I be willing to go back in time three or four hundred years? Period. It's like live well the rest of my life there. It's different. I think it's different when it's like everyone has indoor plumbing and electricity and like vaccines and stuff versus if you wouldn't want to go back 300 years from now. Yeah.
00:25:42
Speaker
But I wouldn't even want to go back to the 60s. You know what I mean? I can't imagine ah going farther back in time. ah The other great scene is like, oh, it's going to be fine. I know where all the the archaeological sites that haven't been dug up yet, so I'll win a Nobel Prize. And Balaan is like, I think they're going to kill me or whatever. like Yeah.
00:26:03
Speaker
What am I gonna do? So that's why to me that scene, I couldn't put it as a great scene and and I don't dispute you putting it there because it's a nicely acted scene. It's emotional. Oh, I didn't put it there. I just said I, the this of honorable mention i liked I liked the talking about what the possibilities are here, like, and it is truthful in that, yes, you can become Biff Tannen and, you know, beach it be the, you know, Chiquote a famous Oh, look guess what? Guess I found a new diamond mind or whatever, like, because you know where those things are on Earth. Yeah, I was in the future or, you you know, bet it all on sports or whatever. But for someone like Balana, that's not going to be what happens because she clearly is not human. She can wear a hat, I guess. A scarf. Yeah, she should go around wearing a headscarf and that won't get any problems whatsoever. That's going to go real smooth.
00:27:00
Speaker
The part of the scene I thought that worked was the Chukote talking about what he did in the academy in his Academy days and how just seeing this view of Earth sort of reminded him of that. That was I like that probably the most of that scene because yeah and night when it gets into him being famous, that was kind of weird. But the to me, it seems like you needed Harry Kim in the co-pilot seat because you needed to Earth Yeah, people talking about being at Earth at this point. That's where the episode kind of like misses an emotion or two there. That's really important. And but anyway, yes, it's still there's nice moments there. the But the one that other great scene that you didn't mention that for me, because I only had three. So the Starling torture scene of The Doctor and then the the final sequence. But then ah Janeway confronting Starling in sickbay.
00:27:46
Speaker
You don't care about the present. You don't care about the future. What do you care about? It's a kind of a goofy exchange, right? He's monologuing, explaining his plan. And she's playing. ah She's such a good person. She doesn't realize why he would be going to the future at all. You know, yeah but it seems like she'd be ahead of that. Yeah. New technology to sell? Yes. For what? Money?
00:28:05
Speaker
But the thing is, and maybe it's because it's Ed Begley Jr., an actor of some note, especially for like actors, actors, working actors, like Ed Begley Jr. has done a lot of stuff. He's also an advocate. He's, you know, they did not know each other before this, but, you know, Kate Mulgrew always is impressive. And so I'm sure there was a part of her that was like, well, I'm going to show him what he's been missing. And I'm just surprised even to this day how much effort Kate Mulgrew puts into the scene because she He's driven by grievance, which is like kind of a characterization that I think would be ah an interesting thing that they could have explored more. Certainly last week we identified he's like an Elon type, right? So the idea that he's he's got a chip on his hand. No actual like talent. Just right place, right time.
00:28:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of there and you can kind of explain some of his actions. But I guess what I'm getting at is his grievance offends her as much as his plans. And you can see how offended she is, how disgusting this man is, not just like it had occurred to me to shoot you or whatever, but like she her eyes are welling up. She sure is. At the end of the scene. She should have, absolutely. ah But she's she's almost crying at the end. She's ever... Have you ever been so angry at someone you wanted to cry? Because you couldn't do anything else. like You couldn't hit them. You couldn't whatever. And it's like, I have. I haven't been so angry at people before that I'm like, I don't know what to do because the next words I would say would cause irreparable damage to... I don't know what.
00:29:39
Speaker
but yeah And I can't physically do anything because i it only goes in one way. And it's just, yeah it's like, and so she is able to portray a person, a it's Star Trek character that is so disgusted by the present day that it is such a great scene. I think it like two actors that really bring it and make it a veneer of reality that makes it, given an emotional, has an emotional lead to it. ah Best Trek tropes.
00:30:06
Speaker
Um, the doctor has no patience for any of this fucking nonsense whatsoever. He's such a fucking little bitch and it's great. Cause he's just like, and then also he diagnosis him with a personality disorder, like within 30 seconds of meeting him.
00:30:26
Speaker
Oh, he'd he'd be canceled. If this episode was running today and Twitter could get it in, you cannot diagnose someone for two. And also bipolar is an extreme, that is an extreme diagnosis. Yeah. I actually don't even think he is bipolar. I think he's like, he probably has like a narcissistic personality disorder. Yes. Chakotay namedrops Starfleet Astro Theory 101. So just the reference to an Academy course. Yeah. yeah yeah I liked his i liked this whole bit about the piloting and and what lessons he did. I'll i'll mention that later. but yeah Yeah, that's good. I put time travel again. I thought time travel, just out of the fish out of water part of it, I thought that all worked. Definitely brought a lot of energy to them. I like watching, even though it looks bad and when they
00:31:13
Speaker
have to up res this or remaster the show in HD. I don't know how they're going to do it. But like when the shuttle blows up the semi truck and all that stuff, you know, it's like just the the combination of images, the the Star Trek stuff with the present day stuff was kind of neat. So I like that as a trope and Janeway being a badass.
00:31:29
Speaker
Yeah, but I think that's a good. ill Do it myself. Yeah, exactly. I also got put Star Trek predicting incel tech bros who care nothing about humanity. Just want to make money and a name for themselves. Yes. Ed Begley Jr. selling the the idea that we had in the 90s folks for those who don't know. But like our Bill Gates and our Steve Jobs, they very much were of I'm doing something good for the world. I'm helping people. And they would be somewhat convincing about it.
00:31:59
Speaker
Now they just say that. but they would at least like At least Apple like would donate computers to schools. When I was growing up in the Bay Area, like we had brand new Apple computers in every single school that was donated. Today, the ones today are yeah don how dare you ask me a question, MPC? You know what I mean?
00:32:22
Speaker
<unk> today I also have a temporal prime directive. Yeah, I think that was the first like a rare mention of it and that would have been funny if she kind of scoffed.
00:32:33
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like, well, it's not the first mention, but I mean, like what they were trying to do the whole episode was to, you know, adhere to the temporal prime directive and then they get screwed by it at the end. That's kind of funny, right? Yeah. Cause there's a version of the story that you could have done, I guess, if it was more parts where Starling's like, you're okay. Well, now that I know what the situation is at first, I thought you were just here to steal my technology, but why wouldn't you just try to use it to get back to earth in the time that you want to be in?
00:32:58
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like they there's no ethical quandary on top of it. I also have, um, even Tuvok cannot talk his way out of a parking ticket in Santa Monica. We learn at the end. Have you ever felt like you've gotten a parking ticket unjustly or some LCD based ticket? I got a ticket. I got a ticket on a holiday. Well,
00:33:23
Speaker
What? You can believe it. You're not allowed to. Yeah. and ah Because it said, you know, you don't have to put money in it in the fucking thing. And that's what do you call the meter parking meter. Yeah. Yeah. But Santa Monica in particular is very militant about the parking meters. And I've seen people try to talk their way out of those tickets and screaming at the meter made. And it is it doesn't help at all. So Tuvok.
00:33:49
Speaker
got caught up in that one. And I think some people in the writers room has had that experience as well. And I'm glad they put that in because Santa Monica can just kiss my ass, really. My favorite is when people would get tickets because I worked on a call line for City of Santa Monica for a minute. there Oh, my God. And there would be people calling and complaining like, why did I get a ticket when ah for the street sweeping, when it's raining?
00:34:17
Speaker
Oh, there you go. I thought you didn't get it when it was, I thought it didn't matter when it was raining. And I'm like, it's street sweeping, not street washing. And that's the, that's the technicality. At least like city of LA started saying, okay, we actually only sweep the streets every other week. So if you park there on the right week, it's fine. But like, and they would tell you which week it was going to be. Right. So they stopped ticketing people every week.
00:34:45
Speaker
But before, I got a lot of those tickets. Yeah. Stuff. We're structrops.
00:34:54
Speaker
Balana is an angry Klingon savage. Like, she literally growls at people. OK, but i yes. And I'm going to join you on that with ah this falls under slapping down Worf. Oh, yeah. Because in this case, a couple of hillbillies are able to restrain her. Just tie her up. She's a fucking Klingon.
00:35:15
Speaker
I want to believe like she got knocked out from the crash or something. She could use her Klingon teeth to bite through the, I'm just not buying it. I'm not buying it. So like they think so little of her, but enough to like really tie her up. No, I kind of, you know, I just, it was really upsetting. But then yes, also reducing her to just ah a, a smudged face, a glare and a, and a growl was yeah stupid. Remember she's a, she's got a fiery, she's a fiery Latina. Remember like that's her like her personality, which I don't. Which, I don't know, but that's just another stereotype I don't care for. him um Tom Parris is straight up gaslighting Sarah Silverman's character. like She's like, why are you talking to me? like like you're you know I know something's going on. He's like, no, no, it's fine. He does apologize that first in the burrito scene, though. Eventually. What she says, he takes it. He's like, she's right.
00:36:11
Speaker
but Yeah, that's still true. She's like, you call yourself, he didn't comes off a spy, he called himself, what did he call him? Secret agent. Secret agent. I'm like, that they don't call themselves that. It's fine. It's not secret, if you say secret. Yeah, right. Why is the biggest tech company in downtown Los Angeles?
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's inaccurate even at the time. I mean, no, it's so inaccurate. Like they're in the same building as like accounting firms and stuff. Like why? Why? Yeah. For those who don't know, downtown Los Angeles mainly is a financial district. Yeah. It's finance. The courts are there. Clothing. Well, yeah, the part that they are in is yeah not tech.
00:37:02
Speaker
ah yeah tech now is i think venice i'm trying to yeah and as ah el guy so um thank you the defense combators are down there yeah man yeah um The only reason to be at the music center midday on a weekday is if you have jury duty. So there was way too many people walking around.
00:37:22
Speaker
ah the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, yeah in my opinion. um As you have had the pleasure of serving on jury duty in our fair city, you will know that you have to park at the music center and walk really far to whichever courthouse you have to happen to be reporting to. If you're reporting to the criminal courthouse, it's kind of a hike. And the only reason you would be there is if you're trying to get lunch. and so Yeah, and also one my minor little gripe. You know when the town car speeds away from the music center? They're pulling out of the pyramid. They're pulling out of the pyramid lot right in front of Raleigh Studios. yeah
00:38:02
Speaker
It's great, okay. ah So when when Rain says, you're the smartest man I've ever met to Thomas, that is not even that's not even the smartest man that was in your car 10 minutes ago.
00:38:14
Speaker
OK, and you know it. I know it. And the funny thing is, this episode actually makes me feel like Tom Paris is more competent than I had ever given him credit for, because he seems a little more competent. But he is not the smartest man she's ever met that day. Also, she's diminishing herself to exalt him, and I just...
00:38:40
Speaker
Maybe she doesn't, yeah, maybe she doesn't meet a lot of men, so who knows. Well, they disappeared during the first date, as she said. Yeah, but like literally you had Tuvok and the the doctor right in in there who anybody would have been able to determine is smarter. But um and also I think I didn't think I put it anywhere else. But when she said um I can't remember the line, but she's like, yeah, a guy who dresses the worst I've ever seen. And then I thought she was talking about Tuvok for real. And then she was and then the weird. I can't remember how how she describes Tuvok, though. But she was talking about Tom Parris dressing more than. Never Smiles or Frickasaurus. She calls him the Frickasaurus. Frickasaurus. Yeah.
00:39:24
Speaker
That scene. too That is one of the most killable scenes and in Voyager history. and And I wonder where the running for it is. It's such a weird filler scene. it's I'm not sure what the point of it was to show that she's bonded with them for what purpose so that she'll keep going on the mission, I guess. But it's also, if you consider Tom Paris as the writer insert character, it gets... It's like it's so much telling not showing like you're the smartest man I ever met. yeah Oh my God. No, he is not. You work out the Griffith Observatory. Like you probably meet like smarter kids. You've made contact with a with a basically an alien ship. like Yeah, it's doing great. Any other worst trick tropes? No. OK, the interferometric dispersion field nonsense that Milana Torres
00:40:19
Speaker
Vomits out as a terrible excuse.
Technical Explanations and Timeline Paradoxes
00:40:22
Speaker
Interferometric dispersion. Just shut up. This is stupid. but so I hate it. It's busted. Yeah. Interferometric. Okay. but Isn't that just someone screaming in your ear?
00:40:35
Speaker
So anyway, ah the shuttle crash shuttles crash way too easily. This is absolutely absurd. He ah activated a 29th century tricorder in in the transporter beam and it overloaded the shuttle system causing a crash. That seems like a fatal design flaw in the shuttle. Yeah. If any component can crash the whole ship, that's not good. That's not good. as Yeah. You think you'll be able to shut that part off and you could still fly the thing.
00:41:05
Speaker
I mean, it's the the obvious answer there was he could activate ah an alert device and and that satellite that's in orbit that's always trying to protect him could have like directed a beam at the shuttle. That would have made some sense. That that would have made a little bit more sense. Whatever. it's just it was uh even for Star Trek's techno babble it was just like too much for me even in even in my teenage years uh the ship being perfectly disabled again so they're able to go to warp in the solar system remember when starling leaves harry can reports to jane way he's gone to warp she's like well maintain pursuit go after him but they can't fire phasers for some reason and we we know from star trek motion picture
00:41:45
Speaker
that if the warp drive is working, then the phasers are working. We're not talking about an imbalance. ah So it's annoying that they were perfectly disabled. That's all I'm saying. She should have just said the phasers aren't working. Or that's what she said. She said the phasers aren't working. So why is the warp drive working? Why does he need to go to warp to even use the the device? It's just, I don't know. All right, and then the last one for me was,
00:42:10
Speaker
One of these godforsaken paradoxes, the future is the past, the past is the future, it all gives me a headache. You're goddamn right, Captain Catherine Jade Way. So when Braxton comes to get Voyager at the end, he says he never experienced the timeline they claimed to have just participated in, which means he never crashed on Earth in the 60s. So then how did all of this happen?
00:42:36
Speaker
Did Starling not create the tech boom? Did somebody else? It like raises a bunch. What about the shit they left on Earth? Their communicator, their tech, you know, their technology traces a voyager in the news. Did all that happen? Did it not happen? It's all just kind of brushed aside. And ah in a way that's kind of like Did they satisfy the temporal prime directive or not? That was a subplot in the show. Did they like did they set up something so that, you know, maybe a show if they did this in modern age they in 2024, they would have left something behind that would have had some impact for them in their future. You know, I mean, like there would have been some message that Voyager was here. And I don't know. Maybe that means like Starfleet could be like, well, now that we know that voyagers visited us in the past, maybe we'll be able to find them in the future. So like that I don't know.
00:43:24
Speaker
for their larger mission. But anyway, it was kind of an annoying. And i I mean, so and they left, but presumably those. Wouldn't bra the homeless Braxton still be on Earth toiling away?
00:43:38
Speaker
I love how that just got dropped. like oh yeah just fuck um yeah Like we got his calculations. We don't know what happened to him. He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison because he was like, let's go get him. Right. But theoretically, he would have disappeared.
00:43:55
Speaker
right It would have never been there at all. So then that paperwork, you could have done the Back to the Future thing where the calculations disappeared in Harry Kim's hands, I don't know. But anyway, I don't i don't know if this is a worse trick trope, but i I think I've got to mention it. I love that their combatges are broken, so they're able to then adjust the cell phone.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah, so they're calling each other on cell phones. That folks was a huge deal in 1996. It was very modern and hip that they were doing that. Those phones were, you know, that was the style at the time. Those were new top of the line cell phones and they looked very cool using them. And they it was kind of cute that they were communicating with the ship that way.
00:44:35
Speaker
But again, if his phaser, if that Dunbar's phaser can disrupt their technology so much, how's, how's Tom Paris talking to the ship? How is he firing his phaser? You know, just all that stuff. So anyway, who cares? Most cosplayable character or movement?
00:44:51
Speaker
Maybe the Arizona militiamen? I don't know. I don't have i don't really have a good one. I put Chakotay after the shuttle crash with the torn shoulder and the messed up hair. ah and it like that you could you know You walk around on the convention floor, you're kind of like, I'm Danger Chakotay. Yeah.
00:45:11
Speaker
I've crashed. Yeah. I'm um embarrassed to admit that probably up until only 2018 or 2019, but pretty recently, I definitely had what Henry Starling is wearing most of this episode. The the North. The acid wash jeans with a polo tucked into them.
00:45:33
Speaker
with the politicked in and then the um the the jacket, the flanneling jacket. and to say yeah Like all that was ah like an REI jacket type of thing. I'm not a snazzy dresser at all. But I mean, like I had all that in my wardrobe of until about four or five years ago that I had had for a long time. But all that stuff, I'm like, I could recreate that costume. And that's embarrassing for me to know that. I shouldn't have even admitted it, but I did.
00:45:59
Speaker
It's not a most cosplayable character. I'm just saying you could have done it four or five years ago. I think a lot of people listening probably can also recreate that pretty easily. I'm not one of them, but... Yeah. Now it's time for the line must be drawn here. Great lines. Doctor, it's just another environment to me. Do you know how many times I've said that in my life to annoy people who are like, aren't you having a great time? Or isn't this place great? Oh my God, right. You do not.
00:46:26
Speaker
There are times I'm like, it's just another environment. Oh, my God. you You seriously, you're like out to dinner and yeah it's more like I don't like roller coasters. So if I'm at it like a theme park or something, I'm like, it's just not how intense of the roller coaster have to be for you to not like it. So the peak of my roller coaster tolerance is at all times, Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland, or I can 75% of the time now do Space Mountain and and enjoy it. But that's it. okay That's my peak. I cannot do that roller coaster at the California Adventure that goes upside down. I can't even really do the Ferris wheel. It freaks me out. I'm afraid of heights. That's my issue. The Ferris wheel, Mickey's fun wheel, that is the most terrifying ride I've ever been on. I almost threw up. I'll never go on that again.
00:47:16
Speaker
There's a little kid. Do not go on it, everyone. If you go to California Venture, do not go on that thing. It is a nightmare. ah There was a little girl in our ah carriage. It was my wife and I, and then there was a family, and it was mom and dad and and and their daughter. And she was laughing her ass off at my freak again.
00:47:35
Speaker
oh
00:47:39
Speaker
o I was also screaming for them to please let me off, and there was a little girl who was just like, oh my God. yeah They keep barf bags in there. I did not know that. Well, Mars had barf bags. So again, for me, they know, they know it's horrible. For me, it's it's Heights. I just cannot handle. I'm also really afraid of Heights. And I did get stuck on that. um They call it now the Incredicoaster at Disney's California Venture had to be evacuated out off the ride at the peak of like at the top. No, no, no, no, no. I've had a i i dont have I don't have nightmares about that anymore, but I did for a little bit.
00:48:21
Speaker
My palms are sweating. My palms are starting to sweat. OK, like the parts of Mission Impossible movies I can't watch are the highest ones like I get. I'm like, ah I stare. Please, Tom Cruise, don't fall to your death. ah At the airplane to this day, to this day, my hands just get absolutely. So I'm like, why is he doing? Oh, no, when he's climbing the Burj Khalifa or whatever. The Burj Khalifa is and when they're when the.
00:48:49
Speaker
Paula Patton, whoever the other woman is, when they're fighting with that window broken out. Which kicks her out the window. Oh But to me, the airplane is what's so visceral is because there's no cuts. That's why I lose my goddamn mind. I'm like, ah.
00:49:08
Speaker
oh
00:49:11
Speaker
yeah I'm sweating.
00:49:14
Speaker
Okay, where it's just another environment to be. Yeah. No, I was asking because if we do go to the Star Trek day at Universal Studios, they don't have they have one out of it, but it's really it's like for kids. So it's not that serious.
00:49:31
Speaker
No, the mummy ride I've done and I will never do again and I'll never do the Jurassic World ride again. I did it when it was the Jurassic Park ride. Having done Splash Mountain and having had the Universal, I had the park pass at the time, I'm like, I might as well do it at least once.
00:49:46
Speaker
You know, it's probably not going to get as good as Splash Mountain and it's not. But the drop is actually ah not as sloped. It's a steeper drop, like it's much more up and down than Splash Mountain, even though and it's also maybe a little bit longer of a drop. And I've I thought I died. I just thought I died. ah I almost count water and we got to the bottom. um No, I I just hadn't was not expecting to fall like that.
00:50:13
Speaker
And, uh, I never, ever, ever experienced that again. So, and, and yes, when I get on an airplane, it's the same thing. I'm just afraid of heights. I'm okay on an airplane, but everything else. Yeah.
00:50:27
Speaker
Uh, USS equals federal government. The federal government is the beast. that We are not the beast. Yeah, exactly. The, the beast has many heads and I'm looking at two of them right now. Janeway's line. I want that time ship.
00:50:44
Speaker
just
00:50:48
Speaker
burned on my
Militia Ideologies and Action Scenes
00:50:49
Speaker
brain. ah The militiamen, there are two forces at work in the world, the drive toward collectivity and the drive toward individuality. You are the former, I am the latter. We've got some ah ah Zed vibes from Pulp Fiction going on in the sequence, by the way. And I can't, I'm pretty sure that had to have been on their minds a tiny teeny, tiny bit. And obviously it couldn't go in the direction that that scene goes in. You know you know the one I'm talking about, Bruce Willis, Bing Rames.
00:51:16
Speaker
the racists underneath the pawn shop. Okay. ah So, but they are talking kind of in that style, uh, little, little deliverance vibes, just that kind of thing. Uh, any great lines that you want to mention? Yeah. Henry Kim goes, I've analyzed Braxton's schematics and it's just like his like ramblings written on an old shopping bag. like And then the doctor,
00:51:44
Speaker
The Southern California 20th century had no shortage of psycho psychotherapists, competent and otherwise. And. Got them. Got their asses. And then the doctor also saying, I'm not programmed to make smell talk. And then when the when the Tuvok and the doctors show up to the militia men, they're like, they've got lasers. It's a black man and a bald guy. And then um divine intervention is unlikely.
00:52:17
Speaker
I want that time ship. I can like see her face. Yeah, when you say it. Would this episode be a fun hollow novel to play out? All right. Yes, because I think we all want to blow up an incel tech, bro. At the end, it's like, oh, yep.
00:52:38
Speaker
Got them today. I'd be like, like, like, ah yeah, the worst tech, bro. Isn't it like Martin Shkreli or whatever's in there? And you get to blow them up, no consequences. Like, all right. Grimes, if I don't make it back. Oh my goimes. That's right. Or he's just posting right before the torpedo hits, delete my search history. oh Laugh emoji, cry a laugh emoji. ah ah Yeah, I guess so. And those would be a fun episode. The Anton Curtin Award for Best Performance. I got to be honest with you, I was stumped.
00:53:14
Speaker
Yeah, I do. I guess I said I may be the doctor because he was such a bitch. It was fun, but I don't know if that was a stretch. I mean, cable grew is almost in the Patrick Stewart zone of like you could theoretically give it to her every episode because she's good ah for a character who's not actually driving the action. She's the captain and usually the captains of the shows are the ones driving the action. She's usually just largely reacting.
00:53:42
Speaker
ah I would put in the final conversation, it'd have to be Picardo Mulgrew and Ed Begley Jr. to some extent, even though the way he goes out is just absolute clown shoes, his stupid face at the end.
00:53:55
Speaker
um Uh-oh. Yeah, but exactly. ah So I don't know. All right, we'll go with Robert Picardo. Because again, this does change the character of the Doctor. Fundamental. Yeah. Is a completely different character after this point. So I go with that. The Shatner then. I actually don't know. Could you? What do you think? I mean, everyone was going for it.
00:54:18
Speaker
Yeah, I'm almost everyone. Although surprisingly, Sarah Silverman was pretty risk like pretty. Yeah, like normal. Like you could almost see her what getting the anti-credulum, but like she was probably the one going for it the least. I don't know. Hmm. Let's give it to Ed Begley, Jr. OK. I'm trying to think. No, we got to give it to one of these militia guys. They're going for the whole militia, whole of the whole militia. They're such drama queens. They're really going for it. I know they're in Arizona. They're fine.
00:54:47
Speaker
um
00:54:50
Speaker
Yes, was that one guy's like, it's going to be a long day. Yeah. OK. Shoot to thrill most exciting image or sequence. um When the van is chasing the big rig in the desert and the shuttle blows up the big rig.
00:55:06
Speaker
the co-winner is the capturing Starling sequence when they're at the at the pavilions where for many reasons you've got Tuvok and Paris seeing the doctor walking around going what the fuck Then you got a Starling being beamed out of the limo and and Rain freaking out because she's never seen someone beamed before. Yeah. And then and that the doctor takes like eight left hooks in a row from the stud bar guy. And then Robert Picardo, who probably has never run in his life or at least in since PE class in high school, he gets out of the limo and he runs.
00:55:48
Speaker
Yeah. it's And the weirdest, yeah. Like yeah but you never, someone who had never heard of running and you told them to do it just from explaining. Yeah, the Dr. Zimmerman, who programmed the doctor with his appearance and probably scanned his whole body, is probably running similar to how he's like, well, I don't think I'd ever have to run, but it's there. My biometric data is there. It's fine and settled. It can run, but it probably never will have to. Yeah. Otherwise, he would have programmed it like that. I mean, there could be a medical emergency and your kids are fast.
00:56:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. But they just hollow mid in there anyway. So I thought that was a pretty successful sequence. ah But yeah, it does look cool when they when the shuttle shoots the semi. What part of this will you teach at Starfleet Academy? um Car stereo repair is my joke answer. My real answer is. um
00:56:45
Speaker
Oh, whatever that nonsense with the shields was. I would do want to point out that Spock was able to get his tricorder working with 1930 technology and Tom Parris couldn't get his communicator going. yeah yeah exactly That's Spock. That's right. so Tom Parris, the smartest man. Ray Robinson, a person who studied astronomy at like Caltech or MIT or something.
00:57:16
Speaker
There was a lot, with especially with Starling foiling them so many times, I'm pretty confident in our label of like the Voyager crew, just an absolute Keystone Cop situation, if not for January and Tuvok occasionally, you know. yeah It's unfortunate, yeah. yeah all the different piloting or flight courses. I i mentioned this before when Chakotay is looking out at Earth and he's reminded of his pilot training. I think it would be very cool and actually very educational if you're a pilot to use Earth's solar system to pilot in different environments. You know, you've got Venus if for all the storms and you've got the asteroid belt for, you know,
00:58:00
Speaker
all the different obstacles you could face. So I thought that was really cool just to think of that. Like it was, it evoked a very strong ah idea in my head. I like that. So they'll just, the they'll teach something about the piloting for sure. The Astro Theory 101, we've got that. Something about how the interferometric dispersion can work, you know, how it works, but also that you can modulate the shields to make you look like something else on primitive sensors or radars. um I don't know. I think that would be ah all those things.
00:58:30
Speaker
ah being in there, all those things. ah Another sign that Tom Paris was a bad Starfleet cadet or Starfleet officer, not a good actor. Yeah, they would again, they would teach that we we at Trekmarie Kill firmly believe the best Starfleet officers are theater kids because they have to be able to slip into a role. And Paris had the verbiage. She had the oh, a secret agent. That's around this time, right? But he didn't. I was like, oh, yeah, it looks really groovy.
00:58:59
Speaker
Yeah. And the last step of the range is like groovy. Yeah. And Tuvok can't act, couldn't, you know, can't commit. These are things he could pick up just because he's a Vulcan doesn't mean he can't act, you know. Yeah. anyway ah Could this episode have been hornier and would that have made it better? I mean, it certainly could have. I mean, I guess they were dancing around this Are this nonsense with Tom Paris and Rainn Robinson where Tom, for whatever reason, seems completely uninterested?
00:59:31
Speaker
there's a There's kind of like a feeling. of I'm from the future, so I'm like literally older than you and you're like a child to me. It's something that's kind of like echoed by Starling's insistence that this chip on his shoulder that he thinks that they think he's primitive, but there's maybe something to that that Tom Paris can't hide. Like you little child, you have no idea what I want. What would be the other way around?
00:59:57
Speaker
Well, they're technically older, but he's coming from a place of like more knowledge, I guess. Yeah, I think that yeah he thinks that she's like not evolved enough or something, which is very dumb because she's way smarter than he is. Yeah. And also she's like genuinely interested instead of I don't know. She's she's very Star Trek. She's very interested in people, not out for herself. Right. She's she's kind of wanting to learn. And Tom Parris has been stuck on a ship with the same freaking crew for Ages and he's just like that's true from a everyone knows my moves perspective. He should be open to who should be lemmer yeah yeah shes really Yeah, I'll go i'll I'll go to the movie tomorrow with you or whatever like she keeps inviting him places Yeah, and he's like, I think so
01:00:44
Speaker
ah Yeah, I think the episode is probably about as horny as it could be. ah Any hornier, I don't know if it would have made it better, because we're gonna ask the question now, Trek, Marry, or Kill, Futures End Part 2.
Episode Wrap-Up and Next Topic Preview
01:00:55
Speaker
I like this. I mean, I like the last one, so I think I'm also gonna give it a strong Trek.
01:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, I again, like with the last one, I think there's like an emotional arc that's missing that would probably push this into marrying material. The fact that it doesn't really comment on the time that it's in, it's OK. It doesn't necessarily have to. But because it's not actually about more than what's going on, I think that's where it kind of falls down. But in terms of two parters, very successful. Like yeah a lot of times it's Star Trek. The second part just is it wraps up too quickly or it's I still feel like this one does that. Yeah, but not not as bad as like. Yeah. At least it's resolved on screen. Yes. Yeah. And in a way that's not it's not wrapped up in a captain's log, for instance. Yeah. And it's not quite teching the tech. It's Janeway having to do something with their hands to fire the torpedo. Like, actually, yeah I think that's that's OK. Yeah. So very successful.
01:01:59
Speaker
In terms of its predictions of our present day, it just reflected our times. It wasn't really trying to speak to any of that. Definitely called the technology maven being such a central figure in our and our lives, in the world.
01:02:14
Speaker
With the power to destroy us, ah that's pretty actually, they kind of nailed it there. If you just think about how much water AI uses. Yeah, like like each each prompt or something, it's like gallons of water. So.
01:02:32
Speaker
Yeah, when people use AI just for shits and giggles, I'm like, that's just, I don't know, just don't do that. The more stuff you put in it, the worse it becomes, the more ominous it becomes, so you should not do it for shits and giggles, in my opinion. Yeah. A plagiarism machine that lies and uses up a lot of the world's water and electricity. Before that, it was crypto. You got the Texas Power Grid paying crypto bros to not mine crypto.
01:03:00
Speaker
So the power grid doesn't fail on them. These are the things that ah tech is, you know, plundering the future basically to enrich themselves. That is definitely a theme that they either and intentionally they saw or they stumbled into for this two parter. They got pretty, pretty right on. So good job.
01:03:22
Speaker
That was ah enjoyable. Even to this day, you know, sometimes these things change over time. You go back and revisit. You're like, oh, whatever. But this one had the exact same level of charm. Good job, everybody. Next week, we're going to conclude our Star Trek predicts today theme month by going back to the original series, Kristen, and we're going to grade tomorrow is yesterday. If you've been to enjoying the show, consider rating and reviewing us wherever you listen. ah Check us out on social media. Trek Mary K-Pod.
01:03:50
Speaker
And on the web, check marykillpod.com where we have all of our standings. So until next week, TMK out.