Episode 698- Soap Opera Tropes in Star Trek

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2:22Welcome to new on-the-dreams-lovers since now we talk about the series. Comics go singing, keep going on with show now. We talk about the series. Come enjoy the sad season, tell the world and all. Well good evening for ecstasy instructors around the globe. Welcome to another episode of TREX Talk and beyond this episode of 698 is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. This is a makeup show. A ketchup show actually. This is going to be a short and show of our usual broadcast, but tomorrow night show will be the normal one. So sit back, relax, and have some fun. Okay, before we go too far, I'd like to go around and introduce my wonderful spokesperson. We'll start off with Eric. Eric is out in Portland. How are you doing tonight, Eric?

3:25I am doing really good. As you can see, I'm actually in Captain Pike's quarters here. He just finished me making me a really sweet meal and my belly is full and I'm a happy man. So yeah, feeling good about the podcast ready to talk about this episode. Excellent. We also have with us Paul. He's the toy guy. He's also out in Portland. How do you do Paul? I'm doing good, Uncle Jim. It's been a heck of a good week to be a Star Trek fan. It's been really delightful this 60th anniversary week. There's a lot of love for Star Trek coming back on social media, which is great. And it's pretty amazing to be able to see Star Trek episodes and features in the theater again. So it's been pretty darn exciting. And also from Portland, we have a very old helicopter day today. David. Pretty good, pretty good. I got lots of snacks and I'm really excited to talk about this episode. Excellent. Did you bring it off for everybody? Thanks so.

4:26And I'll still come. One great. And from Las Vegas, we have Charles on this tonight. How do you do Charles? I'm doing good. I agree with Paul. I got a chance to see one of the movies and movies and shows on the big screen and had a ball with it. I was disappointed because I couldn't partake in the 60th anniversary because people here just I don't know. I'm going to Star Trek. I haven't figured it out. So I missed out on all of it. So I don't know. And last but not least from Virginia, we have a very own B. How you do it tonight? Doing all right. I have not been able to see any of the movies in the theaters because well, I just it's been crazy at work. I haven't looked to see if they were around. I don't know. I really wanted to get that $80. That's her prize. Popcorn holder. Just, you know, why not? So, but let's be here. That looks pretty cool. Tonight, we're going to be talking about

5:29strange new world episodes four. I mean, season four episodes seven, like chronotons through the hour last. So without any further ado, we're going to have Charles jump right into Okay, let me just quickly load up my notes. Okay. Cadet training, which is how I kind of tie in different episodes to the episode we just saw. And tie in a couple of characters. Let's go TOS, season one, the Squire of Gatos and strange new world wedding wedding bell blue season three. This is the two times we've seen Terlane. And then of course Star Trek five and strange new worlds, the serene swall is where we saw our sidebok. Of course, this meant this one then caught

6:30to me. It kind of reminds me a little bit of the everyday daytime soap operas from 60s, 70s, 80s. Of course, I looked up famous Star Trek and Ninja episodes. We got the original series, the Paradise Syndrome, Next Generation, Vine Own Self, Enterprise Twilight, and strange new world among the Lotus Eaters. Of course, a little bit reminds me of TNG's cupid from season four with Q's Robin Hood fantasy. And of course, there's one I will talk about later in mine, strange new world, new life and new civilization season three. I'll get chance. That's where we got to see Juliet. And I'll talk more about her in my review. I can pass this over to Paul.

7:37I think he wants to talk about what happened. Wait a minute, wait a minute. I've just been had some breaking news friends. I've just been had a special bulletin from Eric over on the Trek talking and beyond behind the scenes desk. Eric, Eric, are you there, sir? What do you learn? Yes, Paul, Paul, I'm here. And as you know, on August 31st, the episode trailer for light chronotons through the Hourglass circulated around the internet. And in a stunning display of serendipity seemed to feature Jim's holy grail character from Star Trek 5. Cyboc. And for four beautiful days until the episode airing, it was as if Jim's dreams really did come sides. Oh, return it to me.

8:39And surely your dreams you see will come true to me. You must keep up your own pain and try to make them understand your dreams come true. And I will be glad to see you. Wow, that was the best thing ever. So Jim, that one was for you in those four beautiful days where you were really like a young kid again. It was really fun to watch.

9:41Oh my God. Oh my God. That was the best. I was the best. I was the best. I got a very funny picture. Thanks to David who helped me put the slides show together. Obviously I did the song. That was fantastic. I was like, man, cyborg has gone to hell since he was. He looks like shit. So anyway, I will now pass the microphone back over to Paul who would tell us what happened in this episode. Wow, well, if I knew what happened in this episode, I feel like I could get the number. I don't know what the hell happened in this episode at all. But then rather dramatically in sick bay with the very confused and bandaged captain bike, having awakened supposedly having some kind of cosmic amnesia

10:49as Dr. Mabenga explains it, because he's been in a shuttle accident and he's been unconscious for two weeks. And right next door to him is Commander Spock, who was also in an accident in the same shuttle. And it is revealed by Chapel at all that the only thing he could save Spock because of his terrible injuries is a living heart transplant. A wonderful medical, very apparently very futuristic Dr. Mabenga technique that only the most shaky hand of surgeons can perform. That means that Laon is flying off to find the only viable candidate who of course could possibly be able to give that living heart transplant. His brother, Siobah, yes, friends, it's true. That would be the only person who could do it. So she has to break him out of prison where apparently all the prisoners are held without shirts on. That's what I took to my parent.

11:50There is no prison buyer. Somehow things get even more surprisingly dramatic when Lieutenant Aurora tells Pike that she learned she is actually... It's fall in Jeep country, and during the drive into fall sales event, get a great deal on four by fours that refuse to be contained, like Jeep Wrangler, confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and freedom that can't be denied, with the open air freedom and Jeep Gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand. Get a great deal during the Jeep drive into fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, Jeep and the Jeep Grill Register Trademarks of FCAUS LLC. Shop Vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at Vans and Albertsons, get fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $199 per pound limit 10 pounds. And locally grown, grape-arre cotton candy grapes are $299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus, 24 packs of Canada Dry or 7-Up 12-ounce cans are $499 limit 1 with digital coupon.

12:51Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in! These deals won't last. Visit vansoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. And freedom that can't be denied, with the open air freedom and Jeep Gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand. Get a great deal during the Jeep drive into fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, Jeep and the Jeep Grill Register Trademarks of FCAUS LLC. His daughter. Yes, and though we've never seen this person in three years, apparently there is a ship's counselor on there to weigh in and help with these type of situations. Dr. Chivers, but she's no hope at all. Help at all because all she wants to do is talk to Pike about his repressed feelings. Mm-hmm. As sort of a glorified cameo from an actress, Deedra Hall,

13:55who for decades played Marlena Evans on days of our lives, supposedly. So she's really trying to go from the whole soap opera thing on here. Pike rejects all of this and keeps kind of commenting on the fact that there's all this weird music and people keep looking off of the distance. And of course there's a lot of sudden camera zooms in when people are revealing important information. So it's almost like you're in William Shatter's head, but there's so much melodrama happening in this episode. Right, but it's not a musical. It's not another simulation. What it is is it's that wacky wedding bell blues iteration of troleines slash Q, whatever you want to call him. And he's played by Reese Darby, who's running this kind of reality vending experiment, this part of his dissertation on humanity, like from a, you know, for cock the TV control room right there. And there's a apparently a cue proctor wearing a lady's version of the judges robes that we saw in the cue where sometimes on next gen.

14:56And then in kind of a bit of a shift towards the very end of this stuff beneath all the campy daytime TV soap opera presentation. The story is trying to use pikes morning for this, you know, non-existent family life and non-existent daughter. That he had during his whole betel thing last year to explore how people will process profound loss and futures that never really happen. So that's the best I could do to sum up all this crazy stuff. And yeah, well, you know, but I'll have an opinion later because you know God knows I always do. But let's hear what our wonderful fans had to say about this, right? I think Eric has been channeling them. Yeah, I always like to channel the fans. It, you know, they're both their love and their hate flow through me into the microphone out into internet. So here we go. Ronald Paul Woods, one of our top fans said the episode worked because of Trilane.

15:57I would give it a 6.5 was pikes daughter and life he experienced with Winona. Sorry, she will always be Winona real from another reality or was it all just an illusion. Thanks Ronald. Dorothy Harris gave it a 10 because Star Trek is meant to inspire it did. Maybe someone will seek out a friend or someone to talk to if they need it. Secondly, Star Trek is meant to entertain they did. Cus abilities you never know what it leads to. Thirdly, they are meant to make you question and feel the unknown like was Julia real? And what happens to her when she's gone? Fourth, they had cybok. That was interesting and how it was part of his spot coming out. So that concluded the relationship he had with Laon. Another great episode if you are a true fan and could understand. Thanks Dorothy. Clive McThorg said creepy AF cybok. Horsecript. Reflecting the genre, it's a pastiche of, I guess. I love daytime TV.

16:57I'm not a fan of Q episodes generally. I'm in the UK so I haven't seen days of our lives so no nostalgia for me. The two, which is what he gave it because I thought the blurred screen and bright colorful lighting effects were clever. There you go. Ashley Kills said too much gimmick for a short season. I would rate it a three. David Higney Jr said I'm going with a seven. Not the greatest episode in the world but they nailed the genre quite effectively. Nice character development too. Kimba Thom said nine. I said what I said. I don't think he said any. He said nine. What do you mean by that? Kimba say something. I love that. That's a lot of comments. Kimba thank you. Flist Lawrence, perhaps a distant cousin of mine, gave it a 10. This is Star Trek at its best, seeking out, strange in the world, not in 3D space, but in the characters emotional lives and using it familiar genre as a playful lens. Thanks, Flist. A senior UC said 10 so funny.

17:58I love this season. We need humor and laughter in the current world. Frank Bono said I give it a seven as in 70% AC grade because I do not see it as something that would be a D or F. Okay. So it wasn't terrible. The biggest issue for me was the so proper acting aspect was difficult to watch. I know the acting was intentional, but still it wore on me. Yes, it was humorous to see Pike react to the change, but that was about it. Great casting of Deidre Hall. The reveal climax of the episode made the entire episode worth watching. I often thought about this other life Pike experience as well as McCartes, similar situation, and how both enriching and devastating it must be. It was true loss and wonderful and wonderful to see the episodes address it. And finally, Angela Rotaro gave it a five. It's way better than the Casablanca ripoff, thanks Angela. And that gives us a combined fan score this week of six, so kind of middle of the road for this season, I guess.

18:59All right. There you have it. The fans have spoken. And I think Uncle Jim is going to speak first. Shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons, get fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for one ninety nine per pound limit ten pounds. And locally grown grape-ary cotton candy grapes are two ninety nine per pound with digital coupon. Plus, 24 packs of Canada Dry or 7-up 12-ounce cans are four ninety nine limit one with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in! These deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.

20:05Shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons, get fresh, boneless, skinless, chicken breasts for one ninety nine per pound limit ten pounds. And locally grown grape-ary cotton candy grapes are two ninety nine per pound with digital coupon. Plus, 24 packs of Canada Dry or 7-up 12-ounce cans are four ninety nine limit one with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in! These deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Okay. So, let's get our cyborg references out. What do you say? Let's do it. Okay, so here we go. You know what was coming, didn't you? So, cyborg, what can I say? I'm speechless. I have been waiting patiently for years for this episode. And what did they give me? Yeah, nothing.

21:09So, there was a scene though. There was a scene with Juan and Spock in the shallow craft where Spock Bach says to Juan, everyone hides a secret pain. Share your pain with me and grain strength from the sharing. I loved it. And why did I love that particular line Eric? Why did I love that line so much? Because it's from your favorite movie of all time, Jim. That's right. It is from Star Trek 5. No, final frontier. This is exactly what side of the world is. This is exactly what side box says to check-offs to get him to change course to go to Shakavri. Other than that, the end. The end where we're pike actually.

22:09Seize his daughter is imaginary daughter from a couple of from last years. That was awesome. That made the whole episode for me. Oh, no, that's. So, yeah, that's still how I liked about this episode. I was going to give it a two because I absolutely could and stand it at all. This is one of those problems I talked about. When we talked about the black and white episode there, I was like, in this case, so popular. I'm sorry, but I just didn't get into it at all in the ending. Someone explained the ending to me. So, not a horror thing. It's like a star wars thing. I am your father. So now, a horror thing that Pike is her real father. Is this what I gained out of this? And and and and Banga thinks he's got some space to mention madness.

23:10I don't I don't I didn't understand that anyone when they're all sitting around talking about their feelings from this imaginary episode. Am I just am I not a real fan and do not understand that one of our one of our well, I think Jim, I think the the fundamental argument that one of our listeners there was making in the fan reviews was that much like the interlite, you know, we're Picard experiences and entire lifetime and as a result is affected right for him despite the fact that it wasn't real per se, you know, for anyone else. It still was real for him and it still affected his life. And I think that this episode meant to do the same thing where, you know, it's like Pike's experience with the daughter and everything wasn't real. But that doesn't mean that it didn't touch something. It didn't touch something deep within him, you know, that that needed

24:10to be explored in some way. Now, did you guys not think that Ethan Peck made like super sexy Latino side box? Oh, heck yeah. Um, he was. Wow. Have been steaming. Oh, my leather. I mean, did you know that he leather pan and the my Terry test. Oh yeah. The chest. Yeah. I was so excited when he told off the headpiece and it was Ethan Peck playing side of the box. I thought we are in for a treat. This is going to be good. I was just, in fact, I'm going to tell you guys, I'm going to tell you something. I stayed up to watch this episode as soon as I could because I couldn't wait to see it. I was like a kid of Christmas. And so I watched it immediately and yeah, yeah, that's all I can say. So, um, yeah, I can't think of anything. I was going to give it a two. I'm going to pump it up to a four simply because of the Star Trek 5 references and the pike

25:14and his daughter thing. I don't know who Deedra Hall is, so I can comment on that. I don't watch days of our lives or sands through the hourglass. I can't comment on that. Um, Trilane, you know, when this cute eating popcorn deal, yeah, you know, whatever. But yeah, I'm going to give it a four. Unfortunately, I was ready to give it a 10 just because I've ock was in it, but. No, no, no, I'm going to go to four. Sorry guys. That's the best I can do. So, yeah. I'm going to give it a five. Yeah. You want to. Sure. Um, well, I happen to like it because having been a fan of days of our lives, um, way back when. This just hits every single, uh, soap opera. You know, moments or experience or trope or whatever you want to call it with looking off into the distance,

26:17you know, having some, um, you know, life threatening illness or injury or something and. Da, da, da, da, you know, they find your twin who's the only one that can save you. And, um, you know, we did the test and he's your father, uh, or, you know, all that. It just was it hit every single, um, soap opera story because I watched not only days of our lives, but. Um, uh, general hospital too. But, uh, so I really appreciated that and these are a haul. Um, did anybody ever, did anybody else notice that, um, they had the TOS down the fact that, you know, whenever Trilane or Cure, whoever made something happen when. I was, I was walking back, he was trying to leave, uh, because he didn't want to have that counseling session and, um, he walked right back into the same scene.

27:17Um, so that, that was, that was funny. But, um, you know, that was with all the, the, um, start track episodes and everything. Um, I was thinking about how, um, you know, couple of times, you know, several times over the years. If you've ever had a dream that was still vivid and you woke up and you're thinking, did I dream this or is this real? Um, and it just sticks with you for a while. So that's, that's how I was able to relate it. Um, and then there was, um, something that doctor, what's their face was saying. Um, about, you know, health, because I guess Pike hasn't, uh, obviously, you know, the whole thing was his daughter. He hasn't properly mourned the loss of Marie, but she said, um, you're not just mourning the loss of that person, but you're mourning the loss of the future that you would have had with them. So that's that really got me.

28:19But on the flip side, uh, yeah, five sexy sidebok. Oh, heck yeah. Ethan Peck and those tight leather pants and the long hair and the chest and all that. That was, um, because every soap opera has, has a sexy villain like that. Um, but at the very end when he, he goes back to talk with a counselor. I don't know, it just, it really took me off guard when Pike just started crying, you know, he just was, you know, at for a moment there, he, his, his emotions were just laid there. And so that sort of gathered me. But, um, I enjoyed, you know, being a, uh, days of our lives, uh, soap opera fan. I enjoyed it for what it was. Um, I will give it. Huh. I think because they, like I said, they nailed all the soap opera aspects. I think I'll give it an eight. Sure. Why not?

29:25So that is my, that is my review. Okay, we got it. We got a four for me. How about you, Eric? Uh, yeah. So V, it's funny to hear you name those two titles because I grew up in the, he's watching both general hospital and days of our lives with my mom on weekday after it. And when I came home from school. Um, and you know, I remember that like high drama intense overacting, um, in all of those shows. Um, like this year, a number of times that a single character can have amnesia or be married to their brother or, or have a secret terrible disease or, you know, there's like all these things. But what soap opera was really do and, you know, um, Jim said they're not popular. They actually are incredibly popular, just not obviously with your demographic gym and, and you, but they're like a billion people to watch these things. And I think they do it as a kind of like way to explore their own like emotions. They see other people going through things.

30:31And while it's overacted and kind of overdone on the television, it evokes these things within them that kind of like speak to them. So I think that's why so many people do like soap operas in that genre that, you know, one of our reviewers said that they didn't care for either, which makes a lot of sense. You know, it's not, it's not for everybody. That's, that's very clear. Um, but what I will say is that I thought this episode did a great job of using that exploration of character insides up against this backdrop of soap opera. Whereas, whereas so many other episodes, I think this season have used the like we all, you know, we're all sick of the, the kind of trope of the week, right. But like what this one did that I think some of the other ones haven't done was like use the actual things that occur within the trope to really effectively do the same things that happened within the trope, which is explore all of these character issues. Um, was it ridiculous that the crew of the enterprise were behaving like soap opera characters? Absolutely. Like no question. But right from the beginning, if you're just kind of like, okay, my biggest concern at the beginning was I swear to God, if it was going to all be a dream, I was going to flip the table.

31:44I have no tolerance for any more of that. Well, that would have been a good, well, not, I mean, I mean, not for me because I actually like restarbies Trilline. I, you know, I know he's not for everybody. I know not everybody liked the wedding episode that we saw last season where he was introduced. But I like him. I think he's got the right kind of feel. I think he's whimsical, which a, a Trilline slash Q was supposed to be in this episode. He clearly behaves like a child because he's doing this thing for a school project. So I actually really liked his character. If I had a criticism of this one, it would be that it's very much like cupid that episode, which I was kind of surprised actually didn't come up in Charles's. I was in that training because it did. It was in there. I had in there. Okay. I must have blanked out for a second. Sorry about that. So, so yeah, I mean, so for this one, like in that one,

32:47a card does the thing or excuse me, Q does the thing so that the card can kind of like confront his feelings about Vosch, right? And there's the whole Robin Hood thing and all of that stuff. So, so it kind of followed the same plot as that a little bit, but whatever. When in Benga had, as soon as in Benga's hand was shaking and they zoomed in on him, I leaned over to my wife and I said he's going to have space madness. And then he said space madness. And I was like, yes. But similarly, Uncle Jim, when they revealed the evil twin, which is another so Bob, the first thing I leaned over and told my wife was, oh, that's really going to piss off. I absolutely recognize that that was not the side. You were looking for. Oh, sorry about that. Yeah. But yeah, you know, a relative amount of like emotional complexity in this one, I thought it was funny. I was giggling, but I get the tropes too. So, you know, it maybe was.

33:56Maybe that's what I rode on was the, you know, just the fact that it had these tropes that I was familiar with and that, and that I liked. But I do think that it was a quality episode, a lot higher quality than some of the other ones that we've had this season. So, I think I'm going to give this a, I'll give this a fearless seven. So we got a four and eight and seven. David, how about you? There's a lot about this episode that I didn't like. I'm not really a copoffer fan at all. I tried watching them and they just tasted really bad my mouth. So, you know, no pun intended. But anyways, the. I want to go to a couple of funny parts in here that I did actually laugh at, especially when Pike was looking around trying to figure out what going on because he felt something was off. He's like, oh no, it's just another musical.

34:59Yeah, that's like the idea that, you know, they're using past episodes to bring them forward the what they had experienced into this episode, which actually kind of fun. I got the whole sidebok thing with Ethan Peck playing him as somewhat of a twin. I get the trope and I get all the close-up stuff and it's just the way that they filmed it like tropoppers. But to me, I actually think sidebok will make a comeback and now it's established that's Bach, Ethan Peck is playing both parts. You might actually bring in one episode story with Ethan Peck playing sideboks for a real serious episode. I could share that happening. But hold on David. So a wonderful idea except that in this episode, Ethan Peck or sorry, Bach says, you know, actually my brother's not a twin. And you know, sidebok is significantly older than shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop.

36:05And in Albertsons, get fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $199 per pound limit 10 pounds. And locally grown, grape-ary cotton candy grapes are $299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus 24 packs of Canada Dry or 7-Up 12-ounce cans are $499 limit 1 with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vansoralbertons.com for more deals and ways to save. It's fall in Jeep country and during the driving to fall sales event, get a great deal on 4x4s that refuse to be contained like Jeep Wrangler. Confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and freedom that can't be denied with the open air freedom in Jeep Gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand, get a great deal during the Jeep driving to fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, cheap and the cheap grille or registered trademarts of FCA US LLC. Shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons, get fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $199 per pound limit 10 pounds.

37:11And locally grown, grape-ary cotton candy grapes are $299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus 24 packs of Canada Dry or 7-Up 12-ounce cans are $499 limit 1 with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Then Spock, I'm not sure Jim you probably know how much older, isn't it like more than 20 years older than Spock? He's quite a bit older, yeah. Yeah, I'm just not much of a fan of these. I'm just playing with them or something. Yeah, I mean, they could just booing them in just to play if they haven't found anybody else. But I mean, my question is, when we first saw Shai box on the back, was it played by Ethan Peck? Nobody knows really, right? I don't know. But he knows. Yeah, so just the idea that if they did booing him, because they've already established that maybe this was like a test episode to see how many people would love the cheese.

38:16Ethan Peck play his brother or something, you know, so I don't know. Well, maybe the next series is going to be a Star Trek 5 remake and they're going to have, you know, Paul Wesley play Kirk and Ethan Peck play Sibock and they're going to, you know, give us a Star Trek 5 remake. That would be awesome. Yeah. I'm just, I'm just throwing, you know, out of there to see what happens. I, you had to know that with Sibock in this one, we were going to be talking about the best. You had to know that. Yeah, so there were a couple of other funny parts in here that I enjoyed where a lot of the sound effects like V was mentioning the original sound was actually. I actually enjoyed that and that was pretty clever. If I was the heart transplant, I just, I don't know, this whole, this whole episode just seems a little weird. It was just, so it was a project of a queue.

39:24And I actually enjoyed some of the, some of the things that he would say, like, you know, now was here for my sponsor. Yeah, you know, and snap to finger and win straight to a commercial. It was just like, okay. But other than that, it was just, I don't know. I didn't really enjoy this as much as I thought I would, but, I don't know what else is there. Okay, not much left. All right. Well, I guess I'll pass it off to someone else and I'll just give this episode. I'm going to have to give it a five, but I'm going to have to give it musical. Okay, I'm going to give it a seven. So there we go, Charles. You're up next, buddy. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

40:29Share my pain and logging into my pad. Okay. A few things. One of my questions was in there. Why did Ethan pick play side-box, but you guys had explained that part of the soap opera trope. Eric, yes, I didn't mention Cupid season four. I said, cues, Robin Hood fantasy. So yeah, I did see a little bit of cues, cues theme in this one. One of the things I had a question about was the doctor. It's interesting that she's okay. All science is in blue and medicals and white. Why is the counselor in teal?

41:30And this is the only character I've seen on board ship with a regular uniform that had a full jacket on. And reminding me of Beverly crush, yeah, not well, Crusher slash Diana, sort of the costume they wore. Sort of a jacket like Diana war, which I don't see anybody in medical wearing that color or that style. And finishing is how all of a sudden the counselor is an entirely different color uniform. I thought that was a bit confusing why that was going there. That's for Pike's daughter. I've always had sorry, I was just a state Charles. I've always had some head cannon on that, which is that the counselor is like in a more, almost a more intimate setting in some ways with their patient or with the person that they're counseling, then even a medical doctor is. And so I've always taken the casual dress to be kind of like a getting close to the person, you know, feeling different from what's on the rest of the ship.

42:43So, you know, getting them kind of out of that like space that they are in, putting them in a different place. But that's just my own head cannon. I don't have anything to back up. Right. They did that sweet. I think we've only really seen one strong counselor in the series that I can think of. Now, when we got to Juliet, I kind of scratched my head saying, okay, I don't remember her. And so I wanted to go actually back and try to understand who she was. So we actually went back and watched the new life and new civilization season three episode 10 and watch it straight through. Had forgotten the fact of our medical person, which was supposed to come on at one point as a guest and never did. And in being possessed by that society.

43:43Well, Captain Battell, who was very confused from what happened to her and to gain a power to banish him had to live a whole life. And so she actually went back and gave a whole we actually got to see an interlite theme for her and pike together through the decades. And we got to see the daughter once when she came home and said to the pikes, hey, we want to get married. And now we know the fact that yes, we didn't see it, but there was a marriage ceremony in there and the years that they had there. So that we knew the so that the daughter could be brought back. And I thought that was interesting reaction.

44:43That when the daughter was being brought in and Elaine did not know about it, trans like where'd she come from. So I thought it interesting that pike was able to throw in a confusion to terrain, which we'd say we'd be like, but the queue is like, oh, I'm going to throw something in the queue is not going to expect. And it's like, oh, I didn't think about that. So I thought that definitely wasn't interesting addition to the story. Not to really probably add a whole lot more to it. I'm going to go with probably a six on this one. It was all right, but just wasn't the episode I was looking for. All right. So Paul, that means you get to bring up that caboose, buddy. All right, my friend. Okay. Well, yeah, this was not my cup of tea. I guess it's the nice way to put it.

45:46Again, I think we've this whole phenomenon of, you know, gimmick of the week that we've been subjected to this year has just not been my, not what I turned to stargets for. We're kind of going out of sequence with our reviews this week. They have a lot more positive things to say about the previous episode that we'll talk about tomorrow on there. But this was a huge failing for me. I feel really bad for Hanson now because he's really trying his hardest in this. I mean, the guy is a really good actor. He was the most believable part of things at the beginning where he's just like being really skeptical and like, what the hell is going on here? And he's just, he was played that really well, very convincingly. He had to go do a very emotional place for the end. So I really respect him as an actor. I just don't respect what he was given to work with, right? This percoct that was all in your head nonsense. I think it was just ridiculous. So I know they want us to buy into that and it's meaningful and all this, but I just think it's really lazy and poorly done.

46:51So it's like, okay, everyone was making confessions earlier, right? And about like, oh, things I recognized from before. But when I was young, I used to watch a lot of Gilgons Island. And I know episodes of Gilgons Island have a lot of like tropes and things in them, right? And so if I were to see them again, I would recognize them, right? And be, oh, that's just like when, you know, the howls are, you know, detached from the stakes that are actually going on. I don't want Gilgons Island in my freaking Star Trek. Okay, I don't. I want Star Trek to be Star Trek. This rotating, you know, let's play and do a different kind of dress up game this week that has been playing this episode, each episode with a couple of exceptions this year. It's just not my thing, right? So didn't enjoy it. I thought it was really poorly executed. I mean, if you like this kind of thing, this is great. Awesome. Good for you. Right? I don't want to detach, to drag from anyone's enjoyment. The show is becoming like a, like, you know, a Saturday and a lot of episodes. I mean, I just, it just doesn't, you know, you get like what, 10 episodes a season now, and I found two of them to be watchable.

48:01So that's pretty, a pretty low batting average. So just not for me, right? So really looking forward to talking about 4.6 tomorrow instead. This episode gets a big old three for me, and that's, and I feel like I'm being generous. Shop vans and Albertsons for fresh savings every time you shop. This week at vans and Albertsons get fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast for $199 per pound limit 10 pounds. And locally grown grape or ecotin candy grapes are $299 per pound with digital coupon. Plus 24 packs of Canada dry or 7-up 12 ounce cans are $499 limit one with digital coupon. Enjoy fresh and delicious savings for every meal. Hurry in, these deals won't last. Visit vans or Albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save.

49:03Hi, my name is Madison Templin, and I'm Presley Hossbock. And if you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check us out on Firmic Smiles. Firmic Smiles is a podcast where we try to make health and wellness way less overwhelming. In partnership with Colgate Palm Olive, we're breaking down topics like oral health, pet nutrition, skin health, and more with the help of expert guests. We'll be swapping stories, learning healthy habits, and asking the tough questions like how often should I floss? What kind of sunscreen is right for me? And finding out what vets wish every owner knew about nutrition. Be sure to check out Firmic Smiles wherever you get your podcasts. I just wanted to say something to what you said, Paul. And I think that Star Trek means to find an identity.

50:04And right now it doesn't have one. Right now it's just copying other genres and not being itself. And I think Star Trek means to start writing Star Trek episodes that are Star Trek episodes. And not like what are we going to see? Like what is next week going to be the Brady Bunch? Well, actually we already know what next week is because we're going to talk about it tomorrow. But still, I mean, when does it end? When are they going to start giving us Star Trek that takes place in the Star Trek universe with Star Trek related things that aren't lifted from another job? That's what I want to see. You know Star Trek. That's not going to happen with the writers they have right now unless they go back and get writers like Ronald DeMore or like the kind of writers they had on next gen or old school science fiction writers who write written science fiction. Right. I mean, you know, get what's that guy's name who wrote. He's a local guy Jeff Vandermeer, right? Who wrote an annihilation. Really great local science fiction writer lives in Portland.

51:14Get that guy to write a Star Trek episode. He'd do a phenomenal job. He understands character dynamics in a group, but they're not going to do it. They're going to hire these sort of, you know, you know, look at some of the writers credits on the show. Right. Just just pick a few of them and take a look at what they've done. It's not very impressive. And certainly none of them are published science fiction writers who know the right of book. So yeah, until they get a different bunch of writers with a more focused point of view, expect more of this thing. Well, I'm hoping that the end of season four for the finale is going to actually be serious and get back in the Star Trek. Here's hope. Here's I hope you're right. I want to throw a couple of things out for Jim's questions. One, I think or her. It was the fact that she believers are dead. She had that chance at that meal with Pike. And I think she would disappointed as not being the daughter, not being able to do that. And I think she just want to make connection with Pike and do that as a co as a coworker.

52:20I think you she just liked the idea that meal and that's why she wanted to do it. And bang my have a little bit of issue, but also remember, and begons on his way out. We only get to see him in one or two TOS episodes. So he's still got his egg that claws coming up. Because eventually somewhere we've got to see McCoy. Well, I don't want to pee in anybody's cornflakes here, but the episode that's on tomorrow night is entitled once upon a long. So I don't have much. I'm not expecting much from that one where we can see a fairy tale with rumble still skin or something. So they did have they did have in the s nine with forgot what that were where everybody thought came to life. And so Molly O'Brien did have rumble kill skin.

53:24Yeah. Yeah. I think that once upon a law on is actually two weeks from now, Jim. I think tomorrow is orders of magnitude. Oh, you're right. You're right. Or the matter. Yes. Yeah, which is a time to do real episode. So like tomorrow tomorrow on September 10th. Yeah. So the fantasy ones the next week. So one thing I wanted to ask the group about is, you know, so we've known since. So the third episode or so that we were going to be getting these kind of gimmicky episodes. And, you know, while we didn't know that they were going to go the entire season, we sort of saw the writing on the wall a little bit. So for me, what I've tried to do is just kind of like ride the wave a little bit and try and find the good in the gimmicks. And I completely understand and agree actually with what Paul saying in terms of the quality of the overall writing.

54:28I do see things that they're trying to do with, you know, building backgrounds for some of these characters that we already know a lot about or ones that we don't know a lot about like pike, you know, I mean for pike, we only know the cage. Essentially up until this point, unless you count the Kelvin timeline stuff. Do you think that you're the fact that we're in this gimmick loop right now? Do you just kind of go into each episode like expecting it completely suck? And so do you think that that at all colors the way that you see the episode or is it just really like? No, they're just really that bad and you look at each one objectively. I've gone through. Go ahead Paul. I was just going to say I was just I always I don't root for anything to fail. I'm not always hopeful. Right, I like to be surprised and entertained and I would love to I like to see people succeed. Right. I'm always hoping it's good. I'm hoping that I'm going to get an episode like what we had that we have yet to discuss like off hour, right or the premiere of this season, which was really good.

55:36Right. I want to be good. I want it to be a real good science fiction show. You know, it's like, you know, when you know, I'm. When your famous race car driver crashes, right, you feel bad, right? You still want them to succeed. I have a lot of affection for this cast. I don't have a lot of affection for the writers room of the show. At all because they saw it. I don't I just saw I'm really I'm really out of their corner right now. I mean, I just I'm I'm, you know, I'm. I'm kind of glad that somebody's going to come in and have to redo this entire franchise, apparently, because I think you couldn't get any worse. I mean, I just don't think so at this point. I mean, I feel bad because there's a lot of good actors here. Right. And and everything like that. But you know, you're never going to see it. I've been watching like Jim. I've been watching a lot of the center C2 series, right? And they talk a lot about on that series, right about how, you know, the jump from a small screen episodes to taking a show and turning it into with the

56:40theatrical ten pole and making it into a movie, right? And what that's like, you're never going to see a strange new world movie ever. Period. And I'm just going to say that it's just it's just it's just it's it's there's you know, there's one thing to shoot you first off in the foot. It's another thing to blow your leg off at the kneecap, right? I mean, it's just you can't even stand up. And so yeah, it's sad. Yeah, I wish it wasn't. I kind of agree with you Paul. I don't know if they've been switching the writers around like the first couple of seasons of this period was actually pretty good. But then for some reason this season just self-platamers is like, what I used to enjoy watching the world. But now every time a new episode comes, I'm like, I have to but today I'm just kind of like, I'm hoping that it's a good episode. That's why I'm hoping for the finale of this season will just start to go into the next season for the last season for 6 episodes.

57:40That's why I always said, I feel like it's going to be worse because they got all the stuff that they have to cover and they sort of done it for this season. It's like, oh no, so I don't know what's going on. But to me, I'm hopeful I'm hoping that it will do better, but who knows. Well, I for one actually have been enjoying. I've been enjoying the some of the different series. Some of the shows, some not bits, the horror one bit. I enjoyed them. Yes, they're a bit of a trope, but there was still a theme enough to the episode that I enjoyed myself. I just didn't quite understand why we need to go towards black and white. Why we need to really push. Yes, we get to a terrain episode. Why did it have to be a soap opera? I kind of just wish they'd gone a different direction. But some of the episodes I've actually enjoyed. I enjoy the trope just because it's a theme I do enjoy.

58:48Some of them are just themes I wasn't as happy about. So I go into each episode saying, OK, what are they going to do? Because I may still I may not be as happy with it. I may seriously enjoy it. It's just how I like some of these episodes. There was a Voyager episode, the Q and the Grey, where they are set in the Civil War era with costumes and running around. I haven't watched it in a little while, but I just came to my mind just now. So that was one where the Q, I think it was the Q continuum or whatever they're called. They were just messing with the Voyager crew. Do you think anybody remember that one? Yeah, yeah, of course. That was actually a fantastic episode. And I think what we're finding is that when you have these special little moments like subspace rhapsody,

59:52and you're just hung within a season of sort of normal Star Trek episodes, it's really cool. And people like it has an effect and people can see the kind of like metaphorical relationship between the setting and the story that they're trying to tell. I think that when you have an entire season of that, it just creates so much like episode fatigue that every single time you're just initially right from the get go, expecting it to be a trope that we hate. And so, and I don't think I'm not defending the writing, I think the writing's bad. But I also think that we're approaching it in a way that is not like that special little moment like the Q and the Grey, or like a Captain Proton episode or something like that. Yeah. You know, we talk about stupid, right? Just imagine if they had filmed that episode like a 1950s,

1:00:55Errol Flynn movie instead of like a TNG episode. And I think that's what we're seeing here. They want to do something tropey, that's okay. Keep it in Star Trek. They're not doing that. You know, they're copying, they're stealing other people's stuff and calling it Star Trek. That's my issue. But some of the biggest things that killed me was so bad. Oh my god. I was devastated. You have no idea how excited. Well, yeah, you do. I was for that episode. I have been waiting since we saw a side box shadow for this. I love Star Trek. And side box. I wanted to find out where he was. What does he been doing? How did he get out of jail? How does he end up where we see him in Star Trek 5? All these things going through my brain and I see this,

1:01:55this leather clad half naked, you know, even. You say that like it's a bad thing. You know, in a cheap country, and during the drive into fall sales event, get a great deal on four by fours that refuse to be contained. Like Jeep Wrangler, confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and freedom that can't be denied, with the open air freedom and cheap gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand. Get a great deal during the Jeep Drive into fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, the original registered trademarts of FCA US LLC.

1:02:59It's fall in Jeep Country, and during the drive into fall sales event, get a great deal on four by fours that refuse to be contained. Like Jeep Wrangler, confidence built into every drive with the most awarded SUV ever, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and freedom that can't be denied, with the open air freedom and cheap gladiator. After 85 years, it's no surprise that Jeep became America's SUV brand. Get a great deal during the Jeep Drive into fall sales event. Jeep is one more awards over its lifetime than any other SUV brand, even the Jeep Grill or Registered Trademarts of FCA US LLC. I was so let down for that because I've been waiting so long for this, and it was just a major let down for me. So, yeah, that's it. So, Charles, how did we stack up with our Facebook fans? Well, the numbers are interesting. I thought, numbers were interesting the way they came out. The fans gave it a 6.6, and the host went with a 5.5.

1:04:02Okay, that's cool. It's not too bad. So, the reason why we covered this out of order, there's two reasons. One, I already had all the show notes and everything ready for tomorrow, and it would have been too much of a pain in the ass to go back and change everything. And then once I saw this episode, I wasn't really too excited to talk about it, and where's the one that we're going to talk about tomorrow, I think, is going to be much more live here in the future. So, tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel, we're going to be talking about off-hour. That'll be 730 Eastern 430 Pacific, and we'll have our fans shout out, we'll have all the movie of the week. We'll have our birthdays, we'll have our regular show, Chat and Say's. And we're going to have some fun next week, I promise you. So, did we lose me? We did. Yeah, we lost to be okay.

1:05:03So, without any further ado, guys, I'm your most SNH host, Uncle Jim, saying, please, everybody, stay safe, and be good to each other. Healing frequencies are closed. Thank you, everybody. Oh, wait, wait, wait, I got to say, thank you to Charles for hanging out with us. Thank you, Charles. Thank you, Jim, always fun. And thank you to Eric for hanging out with us. Talk to him with us as well. Thank you so much, Eric. Yeah, thanks a lot. Good times. And thank you to David, of course, our Miracle Worker for the awesome videos. Thank you, David. Yeah, good fun. And the side-box video was awesome. I'm going to have to go back and watch that drive my eyes. Thank you to Vee who we lost. And thank you so much to Paul as well. Oh, thanks, friends. Here's to another 60 years. And happy to get what, what, what, what, let's give a shameless plug in here. Paul, who are we talking to next week?

1:06:06Oh, dude, it is going to be epic. I mean, epic. We were just talking about, you know, the, what's the, the new show, right? Then just drop yesterday on YouTube, right? These new episodes of the documentary on the center chair, part two. I have to go back and watch the center chair, part one, to get all those in there. But we are having, I'm willing to say the legendary Brian Volgweiss on here, who is a producer of media such as that, and also the Wunderkind behind Nisselle Toys. So Nisselle is just going crazy. I mean, this guy gets stuff done. Okay, he has resurrected the Star Trek action figure universe in a way that I think many people thought was not possible. Absolutely phenomenal, really, really doing some great stuff. So I mean, I'm just chomping at the bit that picked this guy's brain. And just a super cool producer and director and toy and prosario. So can't wait. I want to say that's what is it? The 17th gym.

1:07:06Do I have the date right? Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be legendary. I can't, I absolutely can't wait because it's just like if we can just get him to talk and reveal something. I know there's probably a lot of stuff he's going to keep quiet because I'm pretty sure he's going to be at New York Comic Con in October. And right, so I'm betting he can't say too much about what's coming prior to that. But he loves to tease stuff. And you know, if you're not following him on social media, you should. I mean, he's very entertaining and has a lot of cool stuff on there. But gets it done, man. Gets it done. Shout out to a guy from Queens, right? It really is just the toy thing. I'm just going bananas. All right. So I'm just waiting for this set of expands figures to show up from the TV series. The expanse. I mean, man, they're just phenomenal. So what next, man? I mean, I can't wait to find out what's next from this guy. So yeah, that's going to be a great show. I've been working, working hard to get him out here for your palm. I'm glad I was finally able to make it happen. So yeah, much appreciated.

1:08:07He's a tremendous dude. So it who knows what it'll do in the years to come. So you'll get into maybe he'll become a movie producer and he'll take over the franchise. Yeah, he should take over the franchise. Yeah. And V, I just wanted to say thank you so much for hanging out and struct talking with us tonight. Thank you so much. That's be here even though we're inside kept on taking me off, but I'm back again. You're here now. So I mean, most excellent host Uncle Jim saying, please stay safe. We go to each other. The only frequencies are closed. Good night, everybody. Good night. Bye.

1:09:13And now for our commercial. Buy one of these things. What is this thing? The shaky box. I need the shaky box. Available where you get your things. All right guys, I just wanted to end the show on something a little different. We'll be back next week. Same bad time. Same bad. You know, thanks a lot. Good night, everybody. Bye. McDonald's is putting value back on the menu. Whether you're craving a Big Mac, McNuggets or sausage egg and cheese McGrittle's, make it a meal and save. Your favorite is now your wallet's favorite too. Extra value meals are back. Get a big something extra with a Big Mac or 10 piece McNuggets, fries and a medium Coke all for just $9. Limited time only, promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing. Bada bada bada.

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