Episode 615- Star Trek: Lower Deck "Upper Decks" review

0:05 Well, good evening, Trekkies and trekkers around the globe. But it's Thursday, December nineteen, twenty twenty four. Welcome to episode six hundred and fifteen of Track Talking. That was my mistake because I'm new to the studio and I forgot to go live on the theme song, so I cut a little bit of it out. But you guys have heard it enough times you have it in your memory. We're gonna be short two trucksperts tonight. Eric and Paul are not with us, but they are with us in spirit, and they have recorded a special message that we're going to play for you guys a little bit later in the show that I haven't even heard yet, so I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say. Please head over to our trek Talking dot Com page. Over there you can find our previous shows and all kinds of fun stuff, including a little blue talk back mic in the bottom right hand corner. I urge you the bookmark treuk Talking dot Com and use the little blue talkback mic. You can record board a question for mister Tim Ross, who's going to be with us on the sixteenth.

1:04 We will play your question for him live on the air and get an answer. You can also say hello to us, tell us what you thought about an episode, and you want to get used to doing that, because in the not too distant future, we're gonna start giving away free prizes to people who leave us a message. So if you want to get used to leaving us a message now so that when we start giving away free stuff, you're all set. So okay, Charles, are you online with us? I am online? I had to disconnect. And reconnect okay because my switchboard is saying Charles is not online. So but you're online and you can hear us. Yes, okay, excellent, So anyways you can help it or our page, our Facebook page, A Truck Talking Podcast is still having issues with that, damn Facebook. AI. The page is up, you can see it, but it's not live. I can't post on it. So keep an eye on our Facebook page for future posts because we like to put poles up and ask you guys what you thought about episodes and all kinds of fun stuff to get you know, actions with you guys, which unfortunately we can't right now, but we will hopefully have that resolve very very soon. As of right now, we have twenty four nineteen followers. It might be more if I could access the page. So we're going to go with that. Yeah, so that's it.

2:32 I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim, and I want to go around and say hello to my truck sports. We'll start out with Charles Charles is out in Las Vegas. How you doing tonight? Charles Charles is muted right there is He's not mut it anymore. Yeah, Jim just has a look at my screen, say turn on your mic. A long week. Oh glad, the week's almost over. I missed a little bit of the intro. I'm not sure if you mentioned it. But not only is he working on trying to get the Facebook page running, we have a new Patreon page no longer. The old Truck Talking Patreon paid is going to be dropped and we's going to be replaced by a truck Talking podcast paid right now. I got a couple of free memberships on there, but looking for some paid members to help help us pay for the show and maybe do some special things. So come on join us. I'm just posted a link to last week video, our live live view of our podcast, and the Cadet review missed out what I said about what was on the Cadet review. Visit the Patreon page. You can see that some past fast pass lists. See what shows you want to go back

4:05 and watch to see what's how how Lower Decks Eyes into past episodes some other truck series. Yeah, and in the future, we're are our video versions of our podcast aren't all gonna be up there for free, so we're just doing that to test it out. In the future, we're gonna make those videos be a paid membership as well. And we're also gonna have some special shows, like some comic corners, some book nook, I might get Leslie Hoppin back, and we might do some special stunt tracks for you guys. So we're gonna have all kinds of exclusive members only stuff coming up in the future, so you want to keep an eye out for that as well. And we also have out in Portland our Only Portlander Tonight, our very own one and only Donut guy himself, my new engineer, mister Scott David. How you doing, David well for.

5:04 Being the only Portlander. I guess that means I get all the food. That's true. Just don't get that moldy cheese. Oh you mean that moldy cheese. Yeah, that moldy cheese. Don't be eating the moldie cheese. Yeah. But yeah, no, it's been good. I was really super excited about today because we got to talk about lower decks. She's getting pretty good. It's rolling down. This is episode eight, where we are a week behind. Will be two weeks behind because we're not going to be having a show on Christmas, well the day after Christmas, because I won't be here, so there won't be a show on that Thursday, which is. Gonna prolong our art. Jim's is for Boxing Day.

5:49 That's right for Boxing Day, so but that's all right. It'll just prolong our enjoyment of lower decks. So that's pretty cool. But we got some great stuff coming up for you guys anyways, And as I mentioned, you can go to our Facebook page and over there there's all kinds of great stuff. Once a damn AI pulls its head out of its ass and gets things straightened out, I have a post on there asking you guys, hey, where you're listening from dudes, and then just drop us a line and tell us where you're listening to. Emojis will get my attention quick and then if you see your heart next to your name from yours truly, Uncle Jim, then your name is going to be featured in a future fan shout out. So not only does the whole world know that you're a Star Trek fan, but that you're a fan of this podcast. And at this point I would usually turn to Eric, but Eric is not with us, So in that case, Charles gets to start us off with our fans shout outs.

6:43 Take it away, Charles, Oh, thank you, Jim. Listart off with the top contributor. Welcome from the Northwest suburbs, m Sorry, Chicago, Linda l. Lambert, Welcome from Charleston, West Virginia. Nancy Bennett to Morgan Stern. Welcome Nancy and Linda. Then from La Pumick, California. Welcome Sergio Diaz. Another top contributor from down below Bob below me in Arizona. Welcome Carolyn Hayn. Hope you're getting some nice weather too, even though it's a little warm bock here in Vegas. And from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Welcome evelin Deon Groves like that. Welcome Evelyn David, who's on your list?

7:58 Yeah, thank you. Paul. I would like to say helone, thank you for listening to Janna hoffen Hoffman. She is a top contributor and it from central Oregon. I guess you can share some of my food if you want, but uh. Next on the listage, thank you to Evelyn de on Afrio from Jacksonville, Jacksonville, North Carolina, and thank you, thank you. And next is thank you to Kenneth Senior Barmall from Bayton Rogue, Louisiana.

8:43 Thank you to play Cooper from Sanpan Valley in Arizona giving us a little symbol of a purple cactus. Must be pretty hot over there to grow their things. And last time I list thank you to a top contributor, Margolin from New Jersey, USA. Hope you guys are keeping shape up there. And I'm going to swing the shover to Jim. Yes, thank you so much. David. I have no Paul and I'm definitely no Eric, so we're going to try to go international here, so you guys got to bear with me on this one. Okay. We want to say thank you to listening to Peter Burns, who's a top contributor from Derby Shire, England. Good day nights, Thank you so much. We also want to say thank you for listening to Alice Dashwood who's listening to us in France.

9:38 We don't know where in France, but we just know it's from France. Thank you so much, Allice. We also want to say thank you to Henry win Spear who's listening to us in Portsmouth, England and sends us the flag waving probably, thank you so much for being a fan, Henry. And of course we have Saku Heinen from Finland excellent. Never been to Finland, but I hear it's nice. And last, but not least, we want to say thank you for being not only a fan but a supporter of TREUK. Talking to Victor Nunez, who's a top contributor from South Paulo, Brazil. Here we had a Star Trek aired NonStop since nineteen sixties, he says, thank you so much for being a fan, Victor.

10:23 We really appreciate it and it's great to have you guys along. And now it's time for our Star Trek. Polls Poplin, Poland you know me like no Win, what you thought about the showmen. We try to share your opinions with all of our minions out there because they listen worldwide. So tell us just what you think. Get together, we will. All t Canal and robulind Ale nine.

11:07 Okay, we're going to turn to Charles for our polls this time. And uh so, Charles, you want to get us started? I sure will. Let's start off with Relics, aired on October tenth, nineteen ninety two, the sixth episode, fourth season of the Next Generation. Did you like it or was it? Fan service? Ninety five of mark ninety five percent of our fans liked it, ten only five percent on its fan service. Now, Jim's gonna addry a pressure memory because I have forgotten what Relics was.

11:49 Really. Wow, that's a shock. So Relics is the episode where h all right, So for those of you who don't remember, Relics is the episode where the USS Enterprise d finds the USS Jenolan crashed on a Dyson's sphere. They go aboard the Genolan and they find out that the transporter has been locked in a feedback test mode. Jordi turns around and cross wires it and gets whoever's in the pattern buffers to come out, and of course it's Scotty with a broken arm, and he's he's fine.

12:32 And what was the name of the guy that didn't come back Chester Charles? Remember, I can't remember, but there's another poor lad that doesn't make it out. So Scotty is the only survivor of the USS Jenolan. He comes aboard the Enterprise and he gets into it with Jordy and blah blah blah blah blah. So yeah, you know, so nine percent of our fans liked it. Five percent felt that it was fan service. Well, unfortunately, I think I'm in with the five percent because I felt that it was fan service, pure and simple. I enjoyed it, but I just felt that it was fan service because you know, they were making scott he's been in the Pata Buffer for what one hundred years or something like that, eighty nine years something like that, And here's Jeordie, who's the engineer of the Enterprise d and here's Scotty telling Jordie how to engineer the ship and how long repairs are going to take. When Scotty is so far out of date, how would he even know these things? And I just felt that it was a lot of fan service for me. But I it was nice to see the character come back. I did you know that was nice, but yeah, I did feel it was a touch bit of fan service myself. I did though. I really did enjoy the scene where he goes on the high and he says, show me the bridge of the Enterprise, no

14:03 bloody A, B, C or D, And he goes on the bridge and then there it is and the card comes out and they share a drink of something green on the bridge of the Enterprise, and I thought that was a touching scene where we're hard uh you know, got together with Scottie. I did like that. So, yeah, I with the fans on. That, Jim, I think you need to get the line correct. It's no bloody A, B. C D E. Yeah there was, Yeah, there was no E. But yeah, I felt that it was a bit of fan service.

14:44 What about you, David Oh? I actually I'm kind of both with us. I liked it because of the story plot, but I'll show yes, it was probably bit of fan triviish. I mean from the point on, I mean what he doesn't really do fan srivice for almost anything, now right, I mean MCU does that a lot of different other newer TV shows that are kind of reflecting off of old, older TV shows. You know they do a lot of fan srivish in my opinion, but to me, I enjoyed it. I thought it was really good for the plot or like the Law of Trek and Everything show. I thought it was really well done. And I'm glad they brought Gotti back.

15:26 Could that prove that they are from the Shame Prime universe show? You know, kind of made fun. So yeah, I liked it. See, I think that when they bring a character, if they're going to make a reference to a previous show, or they're going to bring a character back, it needs to be for a purpose. It needs to and we've talked about this with Lower Decks many times. You know, when they bring a character back or reference a character, if it's for the plot and it has something to do with the story, then then that's great. But I think doing it just to do it is when I is what I would classify as fan service. Like when they brought Sarah back on TNG. There was a reason for him to be there, and it was integral to the plot of the story and trying to find stock and all that stuff, and that was cool. So what about you, David Charles, or what did you think?

16:21 I think there's a split. It was a good episode, but I think it was also another way of trying to bring some of the original series, original cast original series cats to the series. Where Bones did it the first Kirk didn't want anybody doing it yet Bones did the first episode. Then we eventually got and then we eventually got Sky to come out. Then we ended up having Spock come out and Sarah come out, so it's nicely the characters. It was a bit of a predictable episode.

17:05 And yeah, we ain't talking about fan service back then, but doing that. Right exactly, it wasn't as. Much lower decks as I think we were talking, not for art, where you got people just showing up. It's like, well, don't just have a show. Give them a good reason why they're there. Exactly. There's got to be a reason for them to be there other than you know, oh look here's another character. Oh look, here's another character. Then it becomes fan service. Yeah, yeah, I think there was just like a filler episode. They didn't really quite knew how to do that Showldy're like, hey, let's just bring somebody in from previous sharing. But they probably had planned it a long time because I would imagine for like, what's your real name, Duhan? I think, And yeah, I'm pretty sure it took a long time for that particular at that time to get him on board to even get into an episode, So they were probably planning it for quite a while, So I would imagine they had some sort of story plot that they wanted to go based off of. And yeah, it might have been fan trivish, but I think it's a little bit of both show.

18:23 Well, like when they had when they had George Decay on a voyager, that was a great plot. The way they worked too vak In it was a flashback he was the captain of the Excelsior. That whole thing worked really, really well. But I digress. We're getting off track and we're kind of deviating. So what's our next poll question? Charles Geret tricked the animated series episode The Magic h Augustus too. The Enterprise is sent on a side did ignition to find a creation point in the area of the galactic for where matter is being created. Did you like it or not? Seventy five percent of our band liked it? Twenty five percent of our bands did.

19:16 Now. The reason why I picked this one is because I was reading an article about the animated series and this particular episode was banned because a lot of the Bible Belt States felt that the main character, Lucien, was too reminiscent of Lucifer and that the episode was promoting the devil and devil worship and this type of thing. So the episode was banned, and so I wanted to find out what our fans thought about the episode, and seventy five percent of them liked it and twenty five percent didn't. What about you, Charles, did you like it? I'm going to have to answer. See, I think I missed this one. I know there's been two or three mentions that I have not gotten around to seeing, and this was one of them.

20:08 Yeah, this was an interesting one where everybody had the Force. I'm gonna call it the Force. I don't know what else to call it. But you know, if you mastered the Force, then you could pretty much, you know, do anything you wanted to. And Spock and Kirk master the Force, and uh they face off against these Denzians at the core of the universe or wherever they were it was. It was a very interesting episode and I I don't want to say I loved it, but I liked it. I thought it was fun. How about you, David, did you get a chance to catch this one? This is the Deer Ones. Yeah, it's It's been a while since I've actually seen tas but I'm trying to remember because I kept thinking that they had some sort of red flying serpent thingy, but it wasn't really like a full dragon dragon. It was more like a snake with wings from what I remember.

21:09 And yeah, I can see how the the Christian or the Bible believing people would say that this would reministion of Lucifer because exactly what describes Lucifer in the Bible. So I mean, technically, yes, I guess I would say I'm kind of didn't care for it, liked it category again from kind of but yeah to me, I I like I said, I'd been a while seen this episode, but yeah's men one. It was the second episode of Star Trek that got banned in some state.

21:55 Yeah. I picked this one intentionally. Nothing I do was buy mistake. All right. So before we start talking about the episode, we always get to do some cadet training with Charles, so we have to play our current cadet training song. We have a bog shields and ships. We will add to a biological chological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to resistance. Can them into some food instead? Yeah? Some food? All right. So this is the part of the show where Charles will share some interesting insights onto other episodes and how they relate to this episode of Lower Deck. So take it away, Charles.

22:48 And this was a harder episode to work on, but I got a few things in here. Of course, with the mention of the crew member that was de evolving and evolving, of course, we kind of tie into TNG's Genesis season seven, episode nineteen. This is where the crew deevolved. You remember warp turning into this wild creature anti Dianna. I think that was part of the reminiscence of that series.

23:28 Of course, one of the lines had the thinking Jim, when I saw it when the doctor sat there and mentioned, well I got ad oats, or when the crew started singing randomly again, well, I'm not sure she was around when that happened, but of course she's talking about strange New World Space Rapody season two, episode nine with the singing episode, and they weren't sure why they were singing, but they were, this was an interesting one. I picked up here Dinas Nime's Toe Front Part one and Paradise Lost Part two. Remember the creature who was representing himself as a razor, right, and then transformed to another creature. Well, this is not the first grazier right we've seen in that episode. In those two episodes Total Front, Paris and Paradise Lost. President Jerosha is a graves right, the same species as the one we saw disguise as a scientist this episode. And then I think at the end, when Captain Freeman went on her little holiday visit, i'd cork.

25:01 We got to reminisce a TNG. We'll always have Harris Season one, episode twenty four. Say, there's a few episodes you can go back and kind of look at. Charles. I kind of I remembered when Jacks was in the in the holid deck well, when he was doing his thing, I was thinking of the comic book Day of Blood. Okay, but that's just me, all right. Guys, So we always ask you on our Facebook page what did you think about this week's episode? And we ask you, guys to give us a score of one to ten, or in this case, you know you liked it or didn't like it, and usually we have Eric doing this, but I'll jump in and do it tonight. So we asked you guys about upper decks, and I got to make my screen bigger because I can't read the text because it's too small for my old eyes. There we go. So.

26:04 Joseph Finn, who's a top contributor, said the running gag with Freeman attending the crew was legit adorable and I got a bit misty at Stevens arranging that date. Jonathan Rosenthal, top contributor, says this was an outstanding episode. Every plot was just great, but my favorite has to be the Shacks story. Got to love a dude who Archie who a cheese piece by kicking ghosts ass Amen brother David Prada Molina, who's another top contributor, says, I loved it. The paradomical shift in the episode feels so fresh. I'm glad we have the episodes done. Yes, add next to nothing to the overall plot, but have so much health that it's wait, wait, wait, am I reading this wrong?

27:03 I loved it. The paradomical shift in the episode feels so fresh. I'm glad we have this episode done. Yes, add nothing to the overall plot, but have so much hearth then is wonderful. Yeah, I read it right, Okay. I would also Oudra Wilton, who's another top contributor, said I'm a sucker for Carol and her husband getting a little romanced in We don't see that kind of long term marriage often in Trek, and it's just a wholesome relationship. Peter Christian Ritrich, who's a top contributor, also said best on an episode ever, I gotta agree, her trying to inflict pain on herself was just absolutely hilarious, and I wish they didn't bleep it all out because it was some funny hiznick going on there. Andy Stephan says it was nice to see both the senior staff and some of them in the background characters getting a look in.

28:03 Peter Kennedy says, Another eighties DC comics fan notices that Shack's ghost had the same color scheme that George Perez used in the Teen Titans comic when the heroes fought thoppelgangers created by Raven and try Gone. Hmm, I know that that gray body, red eye look anywhere. I gotta admit. Pete that I'm not really big on my eighties DC comics, particularly Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry the Teen Titans, but if you say so. Laura Peterson says, I didn't mind this episode overall, but I did feel like Billups should have the Rutherford working with him on the engine room repairs rather than the new ensign. It seems like something about Rutiford could have been revealed, promoted, or developed had he been with the crew member featured instead of another new person.

29:02 Jason Zelenak's top contributor says, did Harry finally get promoted? I think he's answering a question for next week's episode, but that's okay and Scratch Martin says, sorry, but I thought it might be the worst episode yet. And the original shows that parodies like TNG and Voyager, the Bridge Crew does everything even when it makes no sense to send your captain, chief medical officer, and chief engineer on an away mission. So Lower Decks is a whole parodies and subverts this trope, giving us the perspective of Lower Deckers. Instead, this episode subverted the subversion, so it brought us back to the original status quo. So it was a slightly sillier version of a TNG episode. Overall, our fans scored it an eight point nine. And now, because we don't have Paul and Eric with us, but through the magic of technology, they recorded their opinions of the episode, and we're going to play that for you guys right now.

30:06 I haven't listened to this and neither has. Neither has Charles or David. So we're going to hear what they thought about this episode for the very first time. So here's Eric and Paul sharing their thoughts on upper decks. Any. Hey, cool, cool excellence. Hey hey Paul. Hey Eric, how are you okay? Man? It's been a day. It's been a day. Yeah, I hear you. I have a new brace on my left middle finger that I didn't have before this day. What did you do? I apparently separated a tendon slightly. From a bone in my kind of lower middle finger area here.

30:51 So we have been flipping off too many people, is what I'm understanding. I think that I may have been a little aggressive with the flipping, but you know, these are the things that we must do and for efficacy right now, emphasis. Must be made. That's what I'm saying. Seriously, what did you do. What did you pull it up? I didn't. No, I wish it was work related, then they'd pay for it. But now I was lifting some furniture, and I actually did this several weeks ago, lifting a very heavy piece of furniture. But this is actually a type of injury, as I digress here, that they say affects rock climbers quite a bit because you have these things like in your fingers that are supposed to keep the tendons against the bone, and if you overload them, they can.

31:37 Kind of pop and the. Separates from the bone a little bit, and then you got to like press that ten and up against the bone and let it heal up. So that's what this little new dad is for. So here's the thing, as somebody who's like older than you, not by a lot, but some right, we don't want to be moving furniture anymore, right, we don't. We don't. We don't. We want to be like you know that is when you play the I'm an old man eccentric card right. Well, and we're in our lives where we should be able to hire people. Yes, you move the furniture. Because basically it's just you have to like this is the number one way that an injury can be sustained. That or like when your spouse says, hey, let's try stand up battle boarding, right, which is how this finger got screwed up, right, Because it's like it's you know, it's those are the kind of things man. So it's like, if I ever have to move again, at some point in my life, I will be hiring. That's when we moved here. I hired people because I'm like, there's no I just you know your back's gonna give out. There's something nonsensical. So at least this is a good you know, at least it's your middle finger, right, doesn't get the wife too much.

32:40 If there's one to not be able to bend that, you. Can hold up your head stake. You want to know what I happen to the last guy who like, give me his lip? He said he didn't care about wicked, never wanted to see it. We love you, We do, we do. We just it's our job to speak out. I did not hide quietly. That's wrong, all right, So we're here to talk about what are you to the upper decks? Upper decks. Yeah. The latest episode of what may be the last season of Our beloved lower decks. That's what they say. I refuse to quite believe it, but for the moment, you are correct. That is like we're in the throws here of the end of things. I think this is the third to last episode, if I'm correct. I think there's ten episodes and it's number eight, eight, nine, ten, something like.

33:32 That sounds legit. I can easily verify or that whole thing. But it seems like it's been doing pretty good on it. It seems like it's been well received. It has from folks, So I don't think that there's like a problem that needs fixing other than a paramount larger. You know. I keep hoping that this is going to be a like a Futurama type situation where it just keeps coming back over and over and over again and people can't get enough of it. So you are correct, this is the third to last episode, or as we like to say in the as we like to say it, the TV Guide offices the antipenultimate. Anti penulty, te antipenult answer penultimate penultimate.

34:17 Right, Yeah, so you know, and then we got so it means we got two more, right, and we'll see how we do. But so let's talk about Upper decks. Man. We start off with a pretty memorable line of dialogue from fan favorite to Lynn. Will someone please explain why we are mutilating Gords? I asked myself that every single Halloween, you know. Because it's like it's I think that's a for me. I like, uh. Uh, a show should start with a memorable line of dial You want to get hooked right and just be oh, what's going on here? This sounds interesting, right, And I thought that did a good job of doing that. So I thought that it was pretty fun.

35:00 Yeah, yeah, no, I I love that opening line. And in fact, like speaking of Taanna like to me one of the stars of the show. I mean the So essentially the layout of the show is that you've got all of these different kind of A stories. It's not really an A, B, C, D story. They are all kind of equal, and they're all character stories that happen around. A single character. You got the Shacks kind of like war PTSD story. Nothing. Yeah, You've got the the Tana like weirdly like sado masochistic sort of like pain story thing going on. You've got the the Carol Freeman you know story going on.

35:45 What else we have we have. I feel like Billups is actually really featured pretty heavily in this episode too. And we've got the whole weird thing in the in the cargo bay, in the shuttle bay right with the with the bagoon space right, and the the kind of bizarre. You know conflict dynamic between beta shift and delta shift right, and who's trying to you know, express you know, how to get along and command camaraderie style not so effectively, right. Those So, first of all, those aliens in the bay were really cool. I love that they're like little pill bugs that sort of go through the shields and then they roll themselves up and they cloak and they cause mayhem.

36:27 Right, that's just like the perfect kind of. You know, foil for all of the people who are trying to just hang out in the cargo bay and do their job. And it's fun when something really big and big enough to kill you in theory, like a large animal is basically benevolent and dupacy, right, I mean, that's kind of, you know, inherently funny. It's like, Okay, this thing's big enough that it could kill me, but it's like, you know, I'm really just sort of like you know, taking up space. So I thought that was pretty funny there. So I think you did a great job of like you know, listing all these different elements. And initially I'm like, what in the hold of these things have to do with each other? And where is this going? Right? And so that's kind of where we start to Meamber wait, and we we kind of realized that there's a theme happening of like the lower deckers kind of you know, tooting their own horns, thinking that we really the stars, this thing nothing ever happens around and then you have these wacky you know, oh, we're going to see that it's really the bridge crew, right that's in charge of things.

37:25 And they even do a wacky salute which is just you know, like like a like a little league baseball team kind of thing. I was like, what is that? Right? So it's like what it was like Crino Strong Strong like now, so it's kind of funny. But then you know, things. Evolved, right, And initially I was just like what is going on. With Shacks and who is it? Then you realize the shadowy, weird serpent tongue dude is him. It's like, is you know, do you want to get like that Shack story for so the Shacks. So here's what I'll say, Like, some of my absolute favorite parts of Deep Space nine are the really heavy.

38:09 War episodes with with the Kardassians. Like you've got that episode with Nog the Siege of Ar five five A, which is the one where Nog loses his leg, and you know, it's really about like the trauma associated with war. And we've kind of toyed with that a little bit with Shaks, right, He's got his attitude that he kind of brings to the table about you know, really hating Kardad. I mean, he hates Kardassians as much as as much as Kira does. Right, well, like when we first met the first the real first Deep Space nine referra or not even deep Space nine, but no, next gen, I want to say the Wounded with O'Brien right where he just freaking races really really and then in this one they represent the reference for Shak's Battle of Tempasa? Is that do we know that battle?

39:01 You know, I didn't have a chance to look at it. I'm gonna guess that it's probably been referenced somewhere. Nine, But really, you know, a lot of bombing, and you know, it very looks like a like a Vietnam type of firefight. Absolutely, and so Shacks is kind of like still dealing with a couple of different demons. And I really liked the the kind. Of you know, he's he makes that joke at the end about constantly fighting with his astral projected self or whatever. But but isn't that what like a lot of people. Who have been through traumas do, right, I think they like fight with their astral projected self and like almost literally have to do battle with their own inner demons, and that this is just like a. Perfect this is not making it tangible to convey that.

39:42 So I thought that was a good idea. Yeah. So initially though, I'm like, what is the way? It's because they just jumped right into it. Oh, they totally jumped figured out. And he he kind of it's a little random, right, He's like sitting on the bridge or whatever, and he just kind of looks off in the distance and has like a vision or whatever. I mean, we learned later it's because of these alienllions that they're actually coming in and they're affecting like how people are thinking about things. And what they're seeing and that sort of stuff. But but it really comes out of left field at for us. And when you say the aliens, are you talking about the clickets not the bagoons. We'll get to the clickets. But and it's interesting because I am so used to in an episode if we've got Shacks and we've got Tavana, they're together, right, and it's this They're never together in this episode. You know, we're getting the look at doctor Tana that normally you would expect Shacks to be like, you know, can I help? Yeah, yeah, but which doesn't happen, which is strange, right, But but yeah, she's just like uh and again, I mean she had a great opener in hersing like uh, a Chief Medical Officers, fucking log, great intro to her.

41:00 She's just foul mouth and just bitter. I love it. So, you know, I've been wanting more of the dock, and we got more of the doc and this look way more than I think we were expecting them. A kind of intense doc. You know at first, you're you, I could understand it if somebody was like, oh, that was a little kind of like off killed her for me For the doc to me. It was totally on character, and I didn't actually mind it one bit. And actually I think it makes the relationship between her and Shacks a little bit interesting too. Yeah, we're both on our wounds, don't wait, Yeah, exact kind of things. It seems like they are more you know, I think they would both swipe in the appropriate direction finding each other. They'd be like, Okay, we see that more common.

41:46 Than we don't. Yeah, yeah, so cool. So we got all that going on there, and we've seen the the Delta Shifters and the Beta Shifters kind of arguing it out. And let's not forget I think it's Ensign Barnes who oh who goes crow Magnet or yeah, who basically turned into a futuristic cave man and so yeah, still plays thesophone. My god, Freeman talking about that, she's like, I don't know, she like evolved or de evolved or something like. She just like it was so ridiculous that even the Captain didn't really understand what completely happened. But what was important was that a pseudo Crow Magnan and Son still plays the suzophone and somehow demands the attention of senior staff.

42:30 Members to come watch her like recital or something, and what it was. Really interesting with And I love Freeman, right, She's great, but I love her, But what was really interesting is how they portrayed her and whoever the lacky functionary that she's teamed up. With for this, Oh yeah, I didn't. He's like from Star based or something. He's not part of the crew. He's like like a liaison a sign, like an administrator. Because he's not. He didn't really get much description, right, but he was sort of I got the impersson he was because he had high ranking you know, pips pips and whatnot. So, but it's like I felt like somebody was riffing pretty hard to me, unlike the the purposeless, ham fisted way that the managers in corporate America like basically have nothing to do except pretend to be interested in the people that report to them, right, I mean, I feel like that was like that was the least heroic we've ever seen Freeman, right, and she's just like just going through, Oh, I'm going to watch you do your you know, one man's show and him sitting here and I wish I could stay for more, but I'm really not interested in need to leave.

43:36 So it's just like, and she. Says at the beginning, you know, I've got a busy day ahead of me, and you look at the little schedule and it's all these little ridiculous things that are in these little windows, and they just check them off as they go. And it's nice. How at the end it's kind of been a little bit of you know, engineered deception so she can have her anniversary thing with, you know, the big guy. So I thought that was pretty cool, so surprising, but but yeah, I'm so And then all of that stuff and then we get to should we talk about the clickts? Let's do it. Let's talk about the clickts, because they're basically the threat that's you know, we always have the hidden threat that's through the Prince. It comes out there and then everything and and their whole thing is they've been trying to essentially harvest the balloon.

44:18 Did I get that right? I think so, I think that And basically, and we want to know, they want to get them for their their they want their technology, for their clothing technology, and maybe we'll sort of chee if they're tasty when we're done harvesting them. So it was kind of like that, right, and so they're kind of the weird insectoid sort of. I mean, it was very like do you remember that episode of Voyager the Equinox, the two part episode where. The oh god, what was that captain's name? Anyway, the Voyager meets up with this other ship that's also in the same part of space that they're in stranded, and this other ship has a captain who has found an alien that if he slaughters these aliens, he can get a.

45:03 Little boost to his engines. And as a result, he's sort of like blasted ahead several tens of light years because he has harvested. These aliens. So it's kind of it's kind of like that. That actually gave me the same sort of vibe. These clickets are like trying to find these or like trying to get these little pill bugs. They're cloaking technology off of them. The idea is basically another form of life becomes a resource for right, and you're going to exploit them as much as you want to. It was John Savage. I remember Captain Ransom. Ransom, Okay, that's why I was Ransom. Because I remember Titus Welliver, who went on to become a pretty big TV Starck. It was like his second right Burke or whatever.

45:46 Right. I think that episode was just called The Equinox Partner. Yeah, but a really good episode. And it's one of those ones where it's like, uh, you know, ostensibly heroic main characters from Starfleet are. Like kind of you know, doing dark Ship, really doing. Dark Ship and basically unapologetic for it. You know. So it's but they felt like they had to do. I mean, some people feel like Jane ways that way, that she does what she has to do to get the crew. Home, you know, or to get somebody back where she feels that they belong. Like tu Vis was clearly like, Nope, I'm just gonna murder these things. I'm gonna get a little boost on my engines, and I'm gonna do it again. You know. And it's just like, and how is that different from having, you know, a chicken dinner. Yeah, you know, we were just elevating ourselves arbitrarily above an our form of life.

46:33 Sentience is a question what level, yes, exactly, But we. Had the species that invented whaling. We did, so we also invented the concept of sentience. Who the hell knows a lot of crazy stuff. But that's why we keep coming back and keep liking Star Trek because it asks us to look at those questions. And so is this bad or we really fucked up? Yea, let's let's discuss which is what basically, you know, Star Trek always does to us, which is fantastic. So I think one thing I just have to not forget to say is the whole exchange with Talker that Phaser was sick to kill and so am I Yeah, that's nuts hilarious.

47:16 But I love the fact that Anthonia's is the funniest thing in the episode, you know, with the fact that the way you defeat the click its was pie complimenting and. Over and over and over, and they told us that at the beginning of the episode, right, but it's. Just so nonsensical and silly. But somehow it's like a Monty Python routine. Right, Well, it's exactly. I mean, it's another way that this show is making fun of Star Trek, right because you you had the teaser at the beginning, which was obvious, and then at the end they take the obvious teaser and that's obviously the thing you have to do to make. It all work. Yeah, plant the seed and led to Germany for three acts and then you harvest it in the in the phenomen totally so yeah, pretty funny. And then eventually you sort of realize, okay, both you know, the lower deckers and upper deckers have their thing. Of course, the lower deckers want to end their day by going to the bar, which is appropriate, and so we had a lot less of Mariner and Boemler this week and more about the upper deckersthing like that. But I still think it was generally pretty entertaining. What's your score going to be? Is my question? Given all this, I mean, I don't know that I was like, laugh out loud funny a lot.

48:27 No, there were a couple of moments when I was definitely. I think where this episode really shines is in the you know, the little the little character moments that we get and kind of like the the mini development of each one of these characters, Like we kind of they haven't really told us anything. New about these characters, but they've really taken us into. Their world a little bit deeper, which which I did like. So last week's episode was my favorite, and I think I gave. It like a nine or yeah, me too. It was great. It was so good. This one, I think is right is like a quality episode. Will I watch it over and over and over again? I'm not entirely sure, So I feel pretty comfortable given this one solid eight.

49:11 Eight to Okay, I think I'm right in there. I'm probably more on like a seven, and I think I would be more inclined to get I think it's just it's a seven because it's all. I've got a good ideas in it. But to me, it's just where it's lower decks. I just didn't find in that funny yah. You know, which is a subjective thing, right, But what if I remind you that At the very very end, the last line that we hear is to Lynn saying, I have made a joke at your expense. Damn you bring to ly in my favorite character out. Does that add a half? I don't know. I can't do a half. I can't do a half because I feel, well, you know what, here's. The thing she says boom. Yeah, she does say boom. All right, So I like your negotiating tactics and your persuasiveness, and because it's the holiday season, I feel the right thing to do is to is to take my reticence and bump it up to an eight. So you know, I think that's appropriate, right, just so, because you know, I don't want to be the old man that's yelling at clouds.

50:08 I really don't think that. Let's keep bucking my sunshine. Damn you, it's just not good, right, So I think that causes way more problems with myself image than it solves. So let's let's both say eight. There you have it weeks. I mean, that's an eight, and just let's just transition to next week's penultimate episode. And who knows what that'll be like, because I don't think you to watch it. We have not yet watched it, but I'm sure it's going to be good. I think we're all kind of riding this lower decks wave, you know, as hard as we can. I think we're gonna miss it. I know. I plan to go back to the beating and sort of start over when it's all over with Ben. Oh, I just realized something we didn't talk about. What's that we feel bad about?

50:51 It? Well? In Engineering we had a new character. Oh yeah, the person helping billups out. Yeah, I think her name might be Meredith. Sounds right, Yeah, I am not positive. I feeling when I have to look this up, maybe someone can well helping. So so she did you know she was helping Billips all over the place when they had all the sort of plasma or whatever. Yeah, what was this episode was called again Upper Decks. I need more sleep on a regular basis. It's been more than six minutes. So Paul started to forget her. Yeah exactly. I'm like Dori, I'm hoping I'm spelling billups right.

51:33 It's b I double l e ups. I believe. Yeah, well, at any rate. She Yeah, I thought that was a really good character. I thought she was. I didn't think that. I didn't think I knew. I don't think I recognized having seen her before. I don't know that they identified what her name was. If they did, I feel I missed it. But I thought she was a really good character, and I thought the voice acted did a great job. And I wish I knew who it was. I'm just like kind of glancing over IMDb hastily trying to see who might be this person, and it might be do we have a Meredith. I don't know the character.

52:15 I don't remember another man it might have that might have been so. It might be the Charlotte Nick Dowe. I don't know, well, but I'm thinking that's probably the character. A good character, and somebody who seemed as dedicated, but like in a more junior role as Phillips, right like she when poop started going down, she He's like, come on, let's do the thing, and she was like, even if we die. Yeah, it's Meredith. That's a character. Yeah, And I think she's an ensign, right, ensign Meredith. And so we are talking about actors named Charlotte, and I hope I'm pronouncing this right. Nick Now, I believe, But I just thought her voice work was great and really interesting, uh you know, vibe to it, and I was rooting for her and I was like, okay, cool new character. So I didn't want to forget to throw that in there. So I thought all the more reason to stick with an there you go, because it was extra good things. See, there were so.

53:10 Many reasons to take it from A seven, and I'm glad that we kept on. I know, you know, this could be maybe how politics should work. Right. It's basically it's like negotiated. You know, you think you're ready to go ahead and do a thing, but then he's got changed boards. You know, we should really be more open minded. Son. Well, I think this was good and so we've ye. Despite our incredibly hectic and overscheduled weeks, we're still at the contribute. We are still the greater good yep. Absolutely so we miss you Trek Talking, and I imagine we'll probably see you next week. Great. I think so that is after the holiday. It is, it's like the day after Christmas. I assume there is there an episode on as we say where I'm from Boxing Day.

53:52 I believe that there is. There is a Boxing Day edition, and we should be we should be marketing it as the Boxing Day edition of Trek Talking. Have you unboxed this week's episode? I mean, take your package back and watch some lower bits. Yeah, exactly. So you know we're running out of stuff to talk about here and then and then pretty soon I think the I think the most cantankerous, craziest upcoming episode has got to be when we review section thirty one, because someone's head's going to explode. It just know that is absolutely and I am there for its going to happen, yes, because it's like, you know, you got your preconception before you've seen it, yeah, right, and I'm the same way right.

54:33 And then then but after you've seen it, does your preconception stay the way? You know? Can you say, wow, I'm ready to be wid Yeah, it's like how I am. It's tomorrow morning at like six am Pacific. Okay, they're dropping the trailer for James Gunn Superman movie, right, and I have major preconceptions for that. I'm super excited for that because I'm a big James gun fan, big Superman fan. I want it to be good. But what if it's not. I'm like a little nervous. I really am looking forward to it because that's going to be for me, like I got to see it. I'm you know, I know, miss Superman. So yeah, crazy. Thank you for doing this all right? This was fun. Yeah, we enjoyed it and we'll be back soon. Trek talking choo.

55:19 All right, guys, Eric and Paul, we're kind enough to record that for us, and they both scored the episode of eight, although I think maybe maybe Paul could have gone with a seven point five or a seven point eight. What do you think, David? Yeah, yeah, it's the holidays, man, you gotta. Do it, that's right, it is the holidays. And to answer your question, I addressed it at the top of the show. There won't be a show next Thursday because I'm not going to be here. My father just passed away, and so our holidays have been moved and shifted around. So I'm not going to be here for the holiday for Christmas. I'm going to be traveling back home from Massachusetts the day after Christmas, so I won't be back here in time to do a show. So there won't be a show next week. So the episode, which what's the title of the episode that was on O.

56:18 I have it right here. It's actually called Fiszer Quest Fissier Quest. We will talk about that the following week, so just mark your calendars about that. So, David, what did you think? Are you? Are you right there with Eric and Paul? Yeah, pretty much. This was a pretty good episode. I really liked Anna. I think this was probably the best episode that I was just I had to watch that whole thing. I was like, what is she saying? Because I watch movies on subtitle because of my hearing and everything, but the subtitles sometimes go by really super quick, especially when it's like a fast scene and other people are speaking, and so I had to wind and I was like, because she's said the alien the click it said that it was set to kill, and so she said, so I oh man, this was probably one of my favorite episodes, at least top five for sure. But yeah, this uh and uh. To answer the question about next episode, I did watch it unfortunately, which is also really funny, just you know, spoilers of course. But going back to the upper decks though, this one was, uh, yeah, there's a lot going on, and I like the concept of yes, she's called lower decks, but what does the upper deck crew do while the lower decks you know, do their thing.

57:48 And so of course we seen all that throughout all pretty much all of Star Trek. But this is why I like the lower decks, because it's just something different, you know, it's so it can be trophy here now. But yeah, this this one particular, I enjoyed a lot. And yeah, sure we didn't get to see Mariner or Boimla or all the lower deck crew. But of course the towel guy I don't think he was in this episode, was he? No? I didn't see him. Yeah, so you know, they they'll all be missed. But I mean, it's just thirty minute episode. It will be fine. I did, however, enjoy the the whole Kardashian law with shacks. Yeah, I thought that was kind of interesting. Of course, he's a bajow and you know, they stuck with the whole profits and everything, which was really kudos on low Deck for that. I'm glad that they're sticking with a lot of the different laws of trek and everything, so because they could have easily just gone off and done something different, which I'm glad they didn't. But other than that, yeah, this, uh, this particular episode. Oh, and answer the question that Eric Paul had a new character. Yes, I had just looked it up and it was Meredith. So she's the new apparent Upper Decks now, I guess. I mean, yes, she's an ancient, but is she still part of Lower Decks?

59:17 I guess I don't know. But yeah, as you can see on here this the slide show, it's starting to come up to my favorite party. But other than that, uh, yeah, this episode, I'm actually gonna give this one. I was gonna give it an eight point five, but I'm gonna go with a nine point one. And Paul would be so proud of you. Come on, be proud. I do have a point, so you know, yeah, but yeah, that's that's good for me. Well, you know, I gotta say that. So one of the one of the fans was saying that that that that you know why I wasn't. You know, why was the engineer? Why was Billups working with a different engineer? Well, because this engineer was an ensign and is a lower decker, right, so the lower decker was working in engineering. So that's that's why why we saw her. And I thought she was a great character. I was trying to place her accent.

1:00:22 I couldn't. I couldn't. I watched the episode twice. I was trying to figure out what kind of accent she had. It was very unique, but I don't know what it was. But I liked it. I really liked it. And I thought it was great when Billups is inside the giant tube and they're doing the Rathacon thing and like he's going to die in the tube and she breaks him out. You know, every engineer dreams of dying on the job, you know. I thought I liked that, and I liked how he had the whole ship. If you remember the episode Trials and Tribulations on Deep Space nine with Basher and O'Brien around the Enterprise and they pop open this this panelum O'Brien's pretending to look in there, and this other ensign comes up and he's like, you know this, he's got everything bypassed. I don't know what's going on in here. And it made me think of Scottie in that episode when O'Brien says that because Billups is like, I can't remember the jargon he used, I had to bypass the Heisenberg compensators and tie him into the do Dads so that the Witch of mccallay wouldn't do his thing.

1:01:31 And he's going off with all this techno babble, and I loved it. I absolutely just loved it. And you know, one of the fans said that it was it was trophy that they troped the trope, and but it was interesting to see the bridge crew doing what they're doing while the lower decks are doing what they were doing. And I thought it was great that that mariner is like, oh, well, well, they can't do anything without us, and we make the whole show run, and if there was an alien invasion, we would have known about it, you know. And meanwhile the aliens are walking down the hallway right behind him, you know, and they're like, oh, I saw your father here.

1:02:11 I saw your father here, and he's just like, no, I would have known if he was here. So, you know, they don't know everything that goes on on the ship, and everything doesn't evolve around them. So I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun Like Paul said, I it wasn't very funny. It wasn't your typical lower Dex episode because it wasn't a lot of humor in it. I did like though, I did. I did find it funny that they when they were carving their their pumpkins there, that they were carving Vegre, you know, and Mariner's like, oh, let's go and beam up to the with Vger, you know, and they were making fun of Vger. Yeah.

1:02:52 You know, when I first shot that image, I thought it was just Species eight seven two ship, you know, it looked just like that. And in the original motion picture you didn't get to see Vegre. That that ship of jer wasn't added until they did the director's cut, much much much later. You actually get to see Vgre in the original theatrical version, you never see Vger. Okay. Yeah, so that was cool. And Boemler had his has a a go tea. Now he doesn't have the full Riker beard, but he's got the goate going on. So we'll have to see if he actually develops the beard before the end of the show.

1:03:33 And the Tahna stuff, Oh my god, I was laughing. That was the funniest part. You know, turn turn it f and up, you know, my guts out, Oh my god. And you know, I always look at Ta Hannah and I see her, you know, as Pulaski. I look at her as Pulaski, and I could just see Kulaski screaming that same stuff, you know when he walks in and says, I have the hyposprays in case everybody breaks out. And saw Oh my god, I was laughing, and she's like has fat and slams it on the floor. It was great.

1:04:15 It was a great on an episode. So yeah, I think I'm right there with Yeah, I think I'm there with Paul and with you. I think i think I'm gonna go with the nine, you know what. No, In honor of Paul. In honor of Paul I'm gonna go with an eight point nine just for Paul in eight point nine. Don't want to give it a nine, but I'm gonna go with eight point nine, just just for Paul, just in the spirit of Paul. And that's going to bring us over to Charles. So, Charles, what do you think about upper decks? Buddy? Okay, well, I want to throw a little apology the fans and the god chance to see the live video. Eh, they just put a new update in the software, downloaded it and I'm getting all kinds of frame rate errors.

1:05:03 So I turned my camera off and I seem to be stable for now. So I missed a little bit of Paul and Eric's speech, but this one't seem to be a little bit of a filler to me at points. I I'm not sure I could see a captain who sit there and schedules for day, hour by hour to what she's doing. And she schedules sit there a live birth going on, she schedules a theatrical performance. It's like I could see you putting some of this stuff on your schedule. But to sit there and say, hour by hour, I've got a list of what I'm doing every every moment.

1:05:51 I don't think I seen any other captain that has such a detailed schedule. I do agree that Tiana was a good story on that part. But the aliens, So we've got this doctor who's actually an alien trying to get the ships they could sit there and steal these species abilities. Sounds like something we kind of done before. I'm not sure maybe what episode we've done it, but sounds like something that's kind of been done previously. And I agree, Yeah, we got new ends and it's like, okay, yeah, and we got two more episodes. We're probably not going to see you again. So oh so it's a new I guess our version of Lower Decks final season red shirt where they put a new cast member that is going to show up for an Apple and we'll see them once. But I think most of this episode has probably gotten a review on it. I'm going to go with Paul and David on this one and go with an eighth.

1:07:23 All right, an eight? So what does that? What does that give our truck spurts in comparison with our fans on our Facebook page. Well, the fans gave Upper Decks an eight point nine, the host given eight point four. Wow. Wow, that's very respectable, very very respectable. Yeah, all right, So that wraps up our review of Star Trek Lower Decks, Upper Decks, weird lower Decks, Upper decks, And I think the slide show looked pretty good. David did it a good job. And now you know what time it is is time for our Star Trek birthdays.

1:08:23 That was not a cling on song. No, that was not a klingon song, and Wharf says that every week. But we love him anyways, And this is the part of the show where normally we returned to Eric to do our remembrances, but Eric isn't with us, so I'm going to try to fill his shoes right now by sadly enough, remembering those members of our Star Trek family who are no longer with us. So we're going to start off by remembering a really awesome, awesome character, Christopher Plumber. You guys know him as General Chang from Star Trek sixty Undiscovered Country. He reprised the role of Chang for the video game Star Trek Klingon Academy. In her career spanning over sixty years, he earned two tony nominations.

1:09:17 Books right now, really loud, Oh, hurrying on me too. He also reprised his role of Chang in the video game Star Trek klingon Academy. In the career spanning over sixty years, he earned two Tony Awards out of seven nominations. Two This is not gonna work. I'm sorry, but you've got to go over here, over there. No give me back, my give me back, my dear piece. There we go, and you stay right over there. Good kitty, Good kitty, Where was I? Two Emmy Awards out of six nominations, an Academy Award nomination, an Academy Award, and numerous other accolades.

1:10:00 Michael Dorn, who acted alongside Plumber in Star Trek six, once described him as an incredible actor. Perhaps Plumber's most famous film role is that of Captain George von Tropp in the classic nineteen sixty five musical The Sound of Music, directed by Robert Wise, who went on to direct Star Trek Demotion Picture. He was also the father of Amanda Plumber, who played Vadic in season three of Star Trek card. So Coplah to Christopher Plumber, we miss you. Next on my list, we want to remember Gail Bonnie, who died at the age of eighty two. She appeared as the second Witch in Star Trek the original series second season episode Cats Paul Their Attempt at a Halloween episode. A prolific bit actress whose career began in the very late forties, with a handful of appearances throughout the fifties and sixties and the first half of the seventies. She works steadily in small parts with fairly genetic generic credits such as a woman nurse and similar descriptions. Among her roles were Miss Hudson and the mother of precocious, mischievous twin boys and Desi lu sitcom I Love Lucy the Amateur Hour episode So Gail Bonnie, we miss you, and we also want to say how bad we missed. Maria duke bol who was the actress who played Ardra and Star Trek

1:11:30 the Next Generations four season episode Devil's Do. The Boy was born in David Panama portrayed Princess Koji in Mutaka's adventure series Tales of the Golden Monkey. I don't recall that one, starring Stephan Collins from Star Trek. The motion picture. The Boy was listed in the opening credits of every episode, although she only appeared in ten. She also had recurring roles on Magnum Pi and made guest appearances on such greats as Hardcastle, Cormick starring Brian Keith and Daniel Hugh Kelly, The A Team starring Dwight Schultz, La Law starring Corbyn Bernstein and Larry Drake, and Silk Stockings and Matt Locke.

1:12:13 So yeah, she's been pretty busy herself. We also want to say that we remember and miss Ben Cross, who died at the age of seventy two. He was an English actor who played Sarah in Star Trek two thousand and nine. Hailing from London and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Bloomsbury, Cross made his feature film debut in the nineteen seventy seven war drama A Bridge Too Far with Jeremy Kemp. While performing in the stage production of Chicago, Cross was discovered and cast in Chariots of Fire, co starring Star Trek, the First Contacts actress Alice Creed, Nigel Haves and Deep Space nine and Star Trek Enterprise guest star Dennis Christopher. The film became an international hit and launched Cross into stardom. Wow, we got a lot, a lot going on here. I don't know what's what, but we got to do everything here.

1:13:17 We also on my list a final one. We want to say how much we missed Bill Zucker, who died at age eighty one. He was a New York born actor who played Johnny b Hand, the Sheriff the Star Trek the original series third season episode Specter of the Gune. Zucker's career extended nearly half a century. Besides his stint on Star Trek, he also made guest appearances in such classic television series as The Honeymooners, Gun Smoke, My Favorite Martiam starring Way Walston, Family Affair starring Brian Keith, Bewitched, Barnaby Jones with Lee Merriweather, and Mad with Adrian Barbo, Mary tim Moore, and Quincy Emmy with Robert Itto and Gary Wahlberg. He also had a one year stint as Arthur Bradwell on the Emmy Award nominated series Mister Novak from nineteen sixty four to nineteen sixty five. Unfortunately, we have another Star Trek actor who passed away recently. Star Trek actor Jill Jacobson dies at age eighty seven after a lengthy health battle. Jill Jacobson, whose career included a role on Falcon Crest, has sadly died at the age of seventy. The news was confirmed by actress friend Dan Harey.

1:14:36 The entertainment world is mourning the loss of Jill Jacobson, who passed away at the age of seventy. The actress celebrated for her roles in Star Trek, died in California due to a long standing health issue. Jacobin's career spans several decades, with her first on screre appearance as the lead in the supernatural thriller Nursed Sherry in nineteen seventy seven. She gained further recognition at the Convincing Aaron Jones and the CBS soap opera Falcon Crest, joining the cast in nineteen eighty five and being featured in over twenty episodes until nineteen eighty seven. Her journey with Star Trek began as a role of Vanessa on Star Trek the Next Generation in nineteen eighty nine, followed by a portrayal of cafe owner Aria in Star Trek Deep Space nine and nineteen ninety six. Jacobin's extensive television career is documented on her IMBD profile, including appearances and shows like The New Gidget, Quantum Leap, Murphy, Brown, Ghost, Whisper, and Castle. The filmography also includes notable movies such as Splash in nineteen eighty four and Reality Queen in twenty twenty. She will be deeply missed by numerous relatives, fans, and her beloved dogs Benny and Kolaski. Hoirey expressed, So, I to tell you guys a story, because you know what would Trek talk and be without one of Uncle Jim's famous stories. Right. So,

1:16:08 a friend of mine got a job working for Star Trek in nineteen ninety one, and my wife and I flew out California. There's a burger joint out there called pud Fudruckers, and Karen and I stopped there to get burgers one night, and who comes walking in but Jill Jacobson. And she, for those of you who don't know, she is the lady that Blue Data's dice in the episode Royale. And you guys remember her? No? Yes, yes, So Karen and I were just like blown away. I'm like Karen, Karen, look, that's the lady that Blue Data's dice, like, should we go over and talk to her?

1:16:52 And Karen's like, no, no, no, she's eating her burger. Let her, let her be, Let her be. And I just sat there and just was amazed that the lady that blew Data's ice was eating there, sitting there having a hamburger, like two tables down from me. I was just it amazed me. So I didn't actually get to go over and talk to her or express you know how much I thought she expertly blue Data's dice. But I did, I did, you know, admire her and marvel at her from afar. So that was my big run in with Jill Jacobins. So may you rest in peace, Jill Jacobs, and you will be missed. And now we're gonna turn this flaming birthday candle over to Charles.

1:17:41 Thank you, Jim and Hard guys ahead of time for a few of these names. Good birthday to the jay I'm reading Jack. They played Captain Joel Rudolph Randolph in Star Trek for the Voyage Home. Happy Birthday to Melanie Smith, with the third and final and most frequent actors to play Torah Zaiow on Star Trek d Space nine. Happy birthday to Jason man Zukas is an American a character actor, comedian, writer, and podcaster who voiced Jacob Bogg in Star Trek Prodigy and the last one on my list, but a big one here, A very very happy birthday to Garrett Wang, an actor out of Riverside, California, the most famous for his role as Insign Harry Kim, a Star Trek voyager.

1:18:44 I believe we're gonna get a chance to hear Garrett Wong in the next episode. Is that it David? Is that the next episode we talked about him? I believe so? Yeah, yeah, So I guess I'm blaming Candle over David. Yeah. I guess I'll be taken over for Paul. Thank you, Charles uh So. My first birthday on this list is Billy zan zannd uh. He is a writer, producer and occasional actor. He played the part of the Rand Night randall Right Ancient Ancient in the Star Trek Motion Picture.

1:19:32 And next on the list is Howie sa Goo uh. He is an actor, director, and producer who played River in The Star Trek The Next Generation second season episode Loud as a whisper like his character Chicago is deaf. Oh so he was actually deaf. In real life. I did not know that. Ye cool, And last time made lest is. Ronnie Rolle Junior is an actor who played the communications officer Ronald A. Brice in the Star Trek Discovery. Yeah all right, guys, and that wraps up our Star Trek birthdays. And now it's time for some Star Trek news. Hoops.

1:20:26 Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secure channel. Incoming transmission enter authorization code, Command codes verified. Define parameters of program level nine. Authorization required, specifying parameters. Transfer updata is complete. Alert Alert. All right, guys, we've got some breaking news to fill you in on Star Trek. Starfleet Academy continues to build excite for the new series. The cast already includes Hollywood familiars like Holly Hunter, Paul Giamatti, Tatina Melizi, and Tig Nataro.

1:21:10 It also features Robert Picardo reprising his doctor character from Star Trek Voyager. Now it's added the WWE Superstar. In a video shared to x, Becky Lynch announced quote, you know, when you're already been a champion of the world, there's only one place to go next, and that's to the Stars. I'm so excited to share with all of you that I'm joining Star Trek Starfleet Academy as part of the Bridge crew. This has been the most amazing experience acting alongside such a spectacular cast and crew. I can't wait for all of you to check it out when it comes out on air Mount Plus end quote. The Irish born Lynch his real name Rebecca Quinn, is a five time WWE Woman's World Champion. She has also one of only five women in WWE history the headline WrestleMania, the industry's biggest annual show. Lynce is one of the company's most popular stars. In recent years, Lynch has tested her charisma and went in various TV and film projects. She has guest appearances on Billions and Young's Rock, and she also voiced the character of Ax Hammer in Rumble. Star Trek Starfleet Academy will be her biggest role yet. It has probably explains why she has been on iatis from WWE for almost a year now. I have to admit to you guys that I have no clue who this

1:22:42 woman is. I've never watched WWE. I know nothing about this at all. You know, it sounds like she's a big deal, but I don't know. And Starfleet Academy was also picked up for a second season, so I don't know if she's in the first season or the second season. Does anybody, Charles David, do you know anything about her? Not? No, no, even less than Jim does. Wow. Okay, I don't like all right, well on that. On that note, we are gonna move right along and I'm going to turn the news over to Charles. Take it away, Charles, Okay, thank you.

1:23:27 Jim kay McGrew fought conclusivety can inclusivity on Star Trek Voyager but got rejected. Star Trek, which is a very progressive franchise, and may respect, it's always had something of a fraud fraud relationship with the queeriness. Gay or lesbian characters weren't always fully visible on the series, and dating Compell's tend to fall into the to the heterosexual near the end of his life in the early nineteen nineties, Star Trek creedor gene Roddenbray once I lay mused they'd liked to see it to depict two background male characters holding hands in her menic way. That's hardly a great spearhead for progressive ideals. There were occasionally attempts to include queer stories and Star Treks throughout the nineties, but they were a few and far between. The next generation. The outcast was controversial even at the time, and Deep Space nine Rejoined did allow Jays Jesia's Daks to have hermanic relationship with a woman, but she never had any other relationships with any other women after Otherwise, it wouldn't be until Star Trek Discovery in twenty seventeen the franchise would

1:24:58 include an openly character as part of her regular cast. Discovery certainly made it up for lost time, featuring multiple queer relationships and even more queer actors. When Star Trek Voyager debuted in nineteen ninety five, however, some felt that it was already high time to include a gay character on the show. Lead actress Kate Maulgrew, who played the star Wart and commanding camp Captain Janeway, felt that Star Trek could even be more progressive than it already was, and she even appealed to the show's executive that a gay character might be written in the show, and it was quite unfortunately shot down. McGrew recalled talking to Star Trek head Honchow and creating credited Voyager co creator Rick Berman about the possibility of a gay representative on the new series. Even before it debuted, received a lot of press for hiring a woman to play the show's central captain characters. Well, I saw previous Star Trek shows featuring men in the captain's chair. Crent of A grew. Berman felt a female captain was enough in term a positive represent representation and queerness with elbowed out. A. Gru said, I went a gay character on the bridge with me, but they couldn't be pushed good enough to get a

1:26:29 woman in the seat. You know. I went to Rick Berman and said, it's a good cast, it's a very good cast. We need a gay character. I want this known. This is my preference and my choice. But there wasn't any room, they felt. At the time. Things changed quickly. Floyder to its credits feature the first Nation nation character of its first officer, a Latino Klingon as engineer An ass had a black vulcan. It wasn't hurting for diversity. Berman was, however, still weirdly reluctant to feature a gay character on the show. It was nineteen ninety five, it was well pass a time when such things should have been acceptable to a mainstream science fiction series.

1:27:23 In retrospect, it thought that there was a queer character in Voyager. After all, Jerry Ryan joined the show in the four season. We played a former board named seven of nine. The character was mentally popular but also seemed heterosexual at the end of the season seven to nine instigating the affair with Chakota. But in the twenty twenty series, Turtuck for Card Silver return and began having an affair with a new character named Raffi played lon Michelle Hurd. It seems seven was a bicycle after all. Thanks to this new Rigum McGrew god Herbriquest thanks post facto. Definitely, I agree that DS nine thought about trying to do some stuff, but they really didn't go very far. And if you ever watch the documentary on DS nine, they hardly admit that that was one area they completely failed that And I'm thinking with the new documentary for Voyager, they're probably going to say the same thing. That's the one area that the series just never.

1:28:41 Got to that should have you know, I want to do we are going to do a Star Trek Discovery Legacy podcast. I want to talk about Discovery now that we've had time to digest it, now that it's been over for a while. I want to talk about it and and bring up our memories and discuss it in great detail the whole five years. But I really think that part of the failure of Rick Berman and the reason why so many fans just hated Discovery with a passion. I've heard it called weird, queer Trek, woke track, all kinds of derogatory comments, is because Rick Berman failed. He failed miserably to give these give Star Trek that inclusivity, so that fans didn't see gay characters. They didn't see these characters represented. So when Discovery came along and represented them, they weren't used to seeing it, so they immediately hated it.

1:29:39 And that's unfortunate. But I think that Rick Berman did a lot more damage to Star Trek than he did good by failing to give us representation. Because to me, representation that's what Star Trek is all about. It's not about the Borg, it's not about the starships of the Klingons, all the cool technology. It's about working together. It's about acceptance. It's about it's about Rudolph and his red shiny nose saving Christmas. That's what it's all about. And if you take that out of Star Trek, you don't have Star Trek. And a lot of fans don't seem to grasp that, unfortunately, and that's that's why I think they should have put more, uh, you know, gay characters on Star Trek through the whole thing, and that even Okay, is there a gay character on Strange New Worlds? No, there's not.

1:30:38 Unfortunately, we don't know a couple of the preferences of the characters all the series. Right, we don't know, and that's that's the sad part. We don't know. So yeah, I mean, representation is very important. It's extremely important. Geen Rydenberry started it with tos by having having a horror on the bridge. You know, you know there's a horror every day. You know, you're looking at a black woman on the bridge. That's representation. In the sixties, you know, an Asian character on the bridge, a Russian character on the bridge, that's representation. An interracial kiss, that's representation. And people forget in the sixties what a big deal that was. And so Star Trek started with that.

1:31:28 But when Rick Berman took over the reins in the second season of TNG, he was more interested in making money and making Star Trek mainstream. Didn't want to rock the boat, didn't want to go too far and upset advertisers. So they had a cookie cutter that worked, and it worked on TNG, so they used it on DS nine, they used it on Voyager, they used it on Enterprise, And unfortunately, by using that cookie cutter design over and over and over and over and over again, you create generations of Star Trek fans who don't know the importance of representation because they're not seeing it. And so that's why I think Discovery is such a great show and why I think representation is so important to Starstrek. It has to be there to keep Star Trek alive. So, without any further ado, Jim, go ahead.

1:32:22 While you were doing it, I was doing a quick search and one of the episode was come to mind was Murphy Brown, and I did a quick search on that one, that episode about her. One of the characters on that coming out of the Closet was nineteen ninety two, four years before Discovering, four years before Voyager came out. There was already an early president on that, and yet Berman still refused to accept it. Yeah, I mean, you know, people will mention the episode of Deep Base nine Rejoined, and that's the first thing they always go to. But I have to point out something that the episode rejoined with that particular scene that they're talking about. Dax is a trill and the trills are asexual. So even though Dax is a female and and she's kissing another female, they're both a sexual symbiotic beings.

1:33:24 So they're they're they're they're using a gimmick, is what is what they're doing. It's not it's not true representation. They're they're they're cheating, is what they're doing. But they're not. In the episode back with Riiker and that a sexual society that originally was supposed to be a male character, and the showrunner refused and said, they're gonna make it a female, make her feel female, even though the true story is they wanted to actually make it a male character, but they wouldn't allow it.

1:34:05 That's right. Jonathan Frakes has talked about that many times. They wanted that to be a male character, and Jonathan Frakes felt that the episode would have been more impactful had it been a male character, but they wouldn't do it because they didn't want Riker to be seen in a relationship with a man, so they wouldn't do it. So Star Trek wasn't always, you know, at the cutting edge, but the producers weren't always on the cutting edge like Star Trek should be. So we'll talk a lot more about that when we talk about Discovery when we get through our Discovery show. But you know, that was an important story that I wanted to get out there because it really bugs me when I hear people referring to Discovery as gay Trek or queer Trek or woke Track, and to me, those are people that were behind the door and don't understand what Star Trek is about. Because representation is the number one thing that Star Trek is a we should all accept each other for who we are and what we are, and that if actually, if the world did that, it would be so much of a better place. Look at what's going on right now in the United States. You know, we need that now more than ever, and that's where we need Star Trek, and that's where we need Star Trek to stand up and put that in people's faces. You know. So, David, you've got our next story, and this is this is a fun one and actually funny story. I was coming home from work and I heard this exact same story on my local radio station on my way home from

1:35:37 work the other day. And take it away, David. Cool. Yeah, So. Let me brun this over here to the center. Second, keep an eye on everything. Let see New York woman blames Star Trek lightning plate for ten of tens of thousands of dollars in accidental tickets a Long Island says she's getting traffic ticket from all over the country. But the thing is, she stopped driving four years ago, So how could this be happening? Better, Cory Love of Star Trek made maybe at the root of it all these came yesterday from Chicago shooting tickets. They are one hundred dollars each, better, Corey said. Back into twenty twenty, the Huntington residents surrendered her license plate, sold her car, and stopped driving. I quote, I don't have a car, I don't drive. These plates were turned in unquote. The seventy six year old said, sorry, getting a little bit of a clogged throat here yet many walks in her mailbox. Sorry, many walks to her mailbox bringing the retired unwanted surprises.

1:37:09 Quote. They are president persistent in what they are persistent, and they keep sending me tickets unquote. Her old custom plates honored star Trek and had the same number as the Starship Enterprise, and she she won seven oh one. However, for fifteen dollars on Amazon and eBay, some trackers have been easily replacing the real plates with the same novelty plates and getting away with it. Huh, they're a cured ticket from all over the country are being mailed to Corey.

1:37:54 Issa's pronounced her name Kory Corey. I believe so sorry for butchering the name. So anyways, continue on. Quote red light beating, parking school zones unquote, she said, describing the types of tickets she receives. She also gets hit with e Z pass tolls. Not sure what that is. It must be something over in the East Road. That's all roads. Yeah, you need to pay control roads. Go up to Seattle, you'll see them, Okay.

1:38:35 Going over bridges, under through the tunnels, they charge you. Interesting uh so quote I got a phone call from Ohio and police chiefs looking for plates because they were involved in a robbery. Unquote. The New York Department of Motor Vehicles says novelty plates being used illegally on the road is a matter of for law enforcement, and nothing in its system connects Korey to her former plate. The DMV also said that it's up to each state and billing entity to make sure it is utilizing the most up to date New York DMV data. For instance, she doesn't drive a motorcycle yet has received a ticket. Quote I've run out of ink, I've run out of stamp, Corey said, Trying of trying to answer every summon, Corey has hearing and site issues. Quote she said, sorry, she said, quote it all comes back to me. So the whole country has my name and address for tickets. I don't even owe quote she said. The reason for her tears and frustration is because she has been bill tens of thousands of dollars and as you yet another quote, Yes,

1:40:07 because I can't afford it. I'm on the fixed income. So yeah, I don't understand how the DMV could be unless there's some sort of mixed up with a name or address. I don't imagine they can't trace the plates to current data, so they decided to go to historical data see if they can track it down, not realizing that these are based on flights that are probably fake. Hm hmm. Yeah. It's interesting, very very interesting, and you would think they would know that, you know, but hey, it's it's DMV guys. They're you know, they're slow. Now we know just how slow they really are. She hasn't been driving for four years and they're still sending her tickets.

1:40:58 Yeah that's slow. Oh. I've seen situations where it takes longer. I mean, oh my god, it's a DMB, especially over in organ Oh. I would imagine working like bigger shitties of course, but my goodness, Portland is just like That's why the reasons why I don't drive, I just I can't stand to DMB anymore. Yeah, poor woman. I hope they get that straightened out, all right. So the next story I've got is as a little short, little quip here, Star Trek's Strange New World's producers asked for more than ten episodes. This is probably the biggest complaint that I hear over and over and over again about Star Trek. Is why only ten episodes. Well, let's find out. Once upon a time, Star Trek fans could expect twenty or more episodes of their favorite series per season. You guys remember those days, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight episodes per season. I remember those days. With the event of streaming, though, the numbers are considerably less, with most new series getting around ten episodes per season. Only.

1:42:07 Star Trek Prodigy has given twenty episodes for its first and second seasons, while Star Trek Discovery was given thirteen episodes in season one, fourteen in season two, three and four, and its final season received a ten episode order. Star Trek Lower Decks and Star Trek p Card each had ten episodes per season, as has Star Treks Strange New Worlds. So this is something that fans have complained about and we still continue to want more. It's clearly not something that's going to happen. Star Treks Strange New World's executive producer Akiva Goldsmith verified that this is true. Quote. No, we aren't doing more than ten episodes. I mean not so far, and we tried. In fairness, we have to.

1:42:57 We have that sense, and its most practic represented by the number of cards that are episode cards we get in the beginning of each season. It's sort of like a friend's analogy. Let's do the one where, let's do the one where, let's do the one where, and we always have more cards than ten by the end. So Discovery was thirteen episodes, and we sort of mated our eyes and said give us more. They said, no, you can have less, and we said, no, ten is good. And that's probably where things are going to stand for a while. So, you know, I don't get it. I honestly don't get it myself. I've read read things on the internet that say ten episodes is what they figure the average binge worthy series is. If it's more than ten episodes, people are less likely to binge the whole series at once. And I get that, I really do get that. But I want to go way way back to the beginning of Star Trek Discovery. Remember Charles, when we were doing shows where we had new Star Trek every week for almost a full year. Do you remember those days?

1:44:10 Yes? Yes, one year we went through all fifty two weeks. We were like forty weeks of Star Trek. Yes. And in the beginning when CBS, I'll access now Paramount Plus started, we were told that their goal was to have New Star Trek every single Thursday, and they were moving towards that goal, and then all of a sudden, they just started canceling shows left and right, and they started knocking everything down to ten episodes. And now here we are at ten episodes and we're lucky if we get New Star Trek six months out of the year, never mind every Thursday. And you know, and it's crazy because if they're going to do that, let's say, for instance, they give us thirteen episodes. So if they give us thirteen episodes and they do three Star Trek series, there you have it. We're just about where we want to be, right but ten episodes and they're only giving us two new series. That's only twenty episodes a year. And to me, that's crazy. They can do better than that. They have to do better than that, because a lot of people I've been reading they're now canceling their subscriptions because they're mad about lower decks being canceled. They're mad about Prodigy being canceled. You know, Discovery was just prematurely canceled. And

1:45:41 if they want to keep fans interested in engage they've got to give us new content, and they don't seem to be too inclined to do that. I mean, when are we going to see Starfleet Academy five? Yeah? Six, Strange New Worlds we might see in twenty twenty five, right, yeah, yeah. I think that's coming out, and like, what may did they give a date yet? So so let's look, let's look a year ahead. We have Star Trek Section thirty one coming up. That's a one shot deal, one movie done. We've got that. Then we have ten episodes of Strange New Worlds. And then what do we have after that?

1:46:30 Nothing Academy yep. We won't have Academy the probably the following year. Yep. So we have, and then they do the next next season of Strange New world. Yep, yep, which means we are gonna have about We're gonna have about forty weeks of nothing new, and that's unacceptable. We're at the point where they canceled all these series. Is there are no more series left? They were saying, oh, we've cut one series for a new one, but we haven't gotten new ones yet. It wasn't there a series that a comic series they're working on.

1:47:13 Yeah, We don't have a title for that or any information on it. But Kawnie Newsom's working on that new series about the live action series about people working on a star bas and that's all we really know about it. It could be Star Based eighty. It's supposed to be a comedy and she's pretty she's really hilarious, you know, I think on lower decks and that's going to be a live action series. But we don't have a title, We don't have anything about it. We do know that there's two seasons of Strange New Worlds. We do know that Starfleet Academy is going to have two seasons. I have to assume that this new Tawnie Newsom show is going to be at least one season, right, probably.

1:48:00 Yeah, renew just for a second shoession even before the Tush Seasion comes out show and. Other than that, we might also get the situation and let's see what happens with Paramount Plus's for a streaming movie and maybe we'll get a chance to get some more movies or something from that. But then that's going to be at least a year or two in production to get. That out, right, So we're yeah, we're running We're running pretty late here, you know, for Star Trek shows. I mean, there's not much in the pipe. And even if they do a movie, you're looking at a year to see it.

1:48:41 So yeah, it's looking pretty dim for the future of Star Trek guys. Yeah, and there's no need for it either. With a little bit of planning and just looking ahead a little bit, they could avoid this whole thing. But they don't seem to care. You know. I think some of the profiteers and moneymakers in the industry just isn't looking thing in Star Trek to big profitable series. Well, some of the other ones aren't really turning a big profit either. True. Also, I don't think it's not it's not that they don't care. It's just I have a feeling that has something to do with ideas. Like sure, Stranger World was an idea brought on from Discovery, and I think if they're going to come up with any more shoeries, they're probably gonna have to fill in the gaps for like, you know what took place between Cook and the next generation, right, So there's that whole one hundred year gap with that twenty third century kind of thing.

1:49:50 So I don't know it could, right, fans gave them a big idea and they blew it down, saying, now, we don't. Want to do Bricard Legacy. We don't want to do Star Trek Legacy. You want. The fans sat there and said, we want more from Bicards, we want expansion path that series, but nope, they just don't want to sit there and go with it, even though there's a big demand for fans saying they wanted more. Yeah, and I mean, I don't know if any of those particular producers or people who make Trek or anything watch our show, but uh, you know, we've had a couple of cool ideas that they could probably end up doing.

1:50:33 So I mean, the whole clean on story or like you know, the different aliens with their point of view is to start fleet kind of thing. So it'd be like a Game of Throne style. But you know, it would be an interesting idea. There are lots of ideas out there. It's just that it's the thing is is that people need to bring the idea to the producers and the people who film and stuff. So you know, they also will say that that five seasons is the maximum that they want to go for a streaming series, because beyond five seasons, they're losing money at that point because anyone that's invested in the series is already there, and going beyond five seasons isn't going to attract any more new people than they already have.

1:51:21 So after five seasons they want to switch gears move on to something else. Whether or not that's true, I don't really know, but I think that they were very shortsighted, and particularly in pulling the plug on Prodigy like they did, because in my opinion, season two of Prodigy was absolutely outstanding. I mean, that was some of the best truck we've seen in a while. I wasn't overly impressed with season one. I liked it, but season two just blew season one out of the water. Yet they canceled it. You know, had they kept that, that would have given us twenty more episodes of Star Trek on Paramount Plus. But they dumped it. Now they're dumping Lower Decks when Lower Decks is just starting to really get its feet and get really really good. They're canceling it. Discovery they did the same thing. They canceled Discovery right you know, when they were just you know, taken off, they canceled it. The card was always going to be canceled. That was always only meant to be three seasons, so we knew that going in. But I don't know, I don't know. We're gonna have to wait and see what happens with Star Trek.

1:52:33 I yeah, I really think that Star Treker would still be alive even in the darkish hours that we tend to go through. So to me, I think it's just it's like a Wheler coach that goes up and down, up and down. We're gonna have good years win a bad years. So I mean, like it like before a Teager came out, you know, I mean I was really young by then, but I mean between Captain Coach's original series and TG, I'm assuming that a lot of people, Yeah, the movies were there, but I mean. These movies that was it. Yeah, animated series. It wasn't Internet, No, the Internet didn't exist.

1:53:20 Yeah, So to me, came animated series came out, but four of the movies. Did, yeah, seventy three, seventy four. Yeah, to me, I think, I mean that might have been the darkest year for Star Trek. And then when Next Generation came out, there and that's when it started getting the ball rolling and then from that point on it was just like now idea had to come in. So I think we had a dark era after Enterprise, and that's true, especially with the JJ coming out and kind of the way that one came A rolled out with a bit of a fan issue, and I think we finally got Discovery and came through and that kind of re brought us back to having a good series of shows.

1:54:08 And then that's when New World came through the world. You know, at the very least, I think they should bring back short treks. You know, we had a lot of fun talking about short trucks and and don't forget short trucks actually gave us a lot of Captain Pike and Number one and Mister Spot we saw them on Q and A Trouble with Edward. There was a lot of good short trucks that came out and filled in some gaps. They could have a lot of fun with short treks and give us a lot of different you know, they could go all the way back to tost with short trucks if they wanted to, you know.

1:54:49 Yeah, so you know, yeah, and speaking of short tecks, I I just had a really interesting thought about how they could do the new short track because have you guys ever seen the new Amazon series called Secret Level Not yet? Okay, it's a very interesting way of doing a short a video. It's basically random stories that aren't really connected to one episode to another, but they're just random you know what if kind of things took place. So it's a really interesting look at like a short If Trek ever did a short track, they could do something similar to that where they would take like a character and just kind of like go through like maybe twenty minutes, maybe fifteen minutes or something of just telling the story of a particular character, like maybe Lower Deck kind of character or something. So I thought that would have been an interesting take on if they were ever to bring short Trek back.

1:55:56 So that's that's what they're pretty much what they did on short tracks. Yeah, and they could they could do it again because they could visit you know, they could do it Captain Sulu. I mean, you got to remember, they already have the sets, they have the uniforms, so utilize it, you know, do it, you know, but you know, I don't work for Paramount. I'm not in charge, but I think they gotta they gotta get their act together. And you know they don't even do they don't even do the ready room anymore. When's the last ready room that we saw. Jim, you missed the announcement today. We are going to get another ready room, I think next week because Will Whaton is going to interview several members of the cast of Lower Decks on our final episode. So we are getting a Lower Decks episode coming soon.

1:56:50 Okay, all right, well they're okay, but but still, guys, they gotta get they gotta get their Star Trek stuff together. They got to they're gott to pull their shit together, get their act together, you know, and do it, you know, stop the crap and do it. Well, you know what, we filled up another show. Hard to believe, isn't it. Yeah? Wow, we we We absolutely did it. So I'm looking at the calendar. I just want to let you guys know that there will be no show on the twenty six, which on the on the twenty six, which is Thursday, because I'm not going to be here. So the following Thursday will be January second, and that is going to be what is it, Fissiers, Oh Fisher question Fissier Quest.

1:57:39 We'll talk about that one on the second, and then January ninth, we're going to wrap up our Lower Decks coverage. That'll be our final episode, which is called the Next Generation. And then on the sixteenth, we're gonna have Tim Ross with us mister Truvak himself. So please go to Chuck talkin dot com record a question or a comment. If you just want to say hello to mister Russ, please go there and record your question or comment so we can play it on the show for him. And then on the twenty third, we probably do a Discovery Legacy podcast because I'm really wanting to talk about Discovery, and we're also going to have a section thirty one is going to be in there as well. We'll talk about that.

1:58:27 So we do have some stuff coming up. So anyways, I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim, and I'm just reminding everybody to stay safe and be good to each other. Remember Star Trek fans are the best fans. You guys better believe it. So I want to say thank you so much to Paul and Eric for recording that awesome, awesome segment for us, and thank you to Charles for hanging out and Trek talking with us. Thank you, Charles. Thank you Jim. In fact, you just gave me an idea. If you're not wanting to really sit there and leave a voice message, but you still got a question for Tim or Uss, come over to the new Patreon page.

1:59:12 Jim Gamon. He just said it, and I said, I need to post a posting we're gonna have him. We're gonna have Russ on the show, and if you got a question, can post it there. I will throw questions out from the page as well. Yeah, and hopefully they're going to get our Facebook page back up and running so I can get the Patreon on there. We also are on YouTube, We're on x We're on Blue Sky, we're on Instagram. Hopefully our Facebook page will be fixed and we can get all that information out to you guys as soon as possible. So we're Facebook is just crazy. Let's hope they fix that up. I also want to say thank you to David for hanging out and Trek talking with us and for the awesome slide show. Thank you, David.

1:59:57 Yeah, it's just been fun. Think you speaking of a slide show. I was just thinking when Charles was mentioning posting the questions on Patreon? Is there a way that we might be able to get them to also do a video recording if they wanted to. That is an option, if that could be a thing. I don't know. I don't know. You don't have any way of doing a video on Patreon? Okay, yeah, not sure we can. We used to do we we used to do live people, live callings and everything. Is there a way to. Also get that going in as well for this particular platform.

2:00:37 We gotta talk. We got to talk to our engineer about the new studio. Yeah, I mean sure, there there might be a way to do it. David, I'm not sure. Well, this is only our second podcast with this, yeah thing, Maybe there's a way we can do that. We'll work on here. I'm just trying to, you know, get people involved. So we'll work on it. We'll see if we can do that. There might be a way. I'm not sure, but we'll work on it between At any rate, guys, I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim, and thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. Star Trek fans are the best fans, and you better believe that hailing frequencies are closed. Good night everybody, good night, live long, and prosper.

2:01:20 All stations. I'm ready for departure, sir. Some problem, right, I'm just hoping this isn't the usual way our emissions will go, sir. Oh No, Number one. I'm sure most will be much more interesting. Let's see what's out there. Engage