SNEAK PEEK - To Be Watched: Star Trek III, with Andy Secunda

0:00Hi and welcome to Toobie Watch. The JJ Ghostbinoff podcast where Jesse and I, I'm Jordan Morris. We watch movies that have been in our cues for far too long. This month it's my pick and my pick was Star Trek III, The Search for Spock. Theme song, you gotta list in your pocket, movies and shows you ain't caught yet. And just like you they got films in the cue, it's Jordan and Jesse's to be watched. And if you're listening to this and it cuts off after 15 minutes or so, that means you're not a max fund. Remember join the club and get access to the rest of this episode and so, so, so much more. Maximumfund.org slash join JJ Go. Jesse, this is an exciting episode for many reasons. Sure. I've been looking at pornography for hours. But without orgasming. So the amount of excitement that I am, holy cow, I'm so excited.

1:07We've got a, if you're detecting a bit of a gooning energy, if this episode seems like it has a kind of a gooning quality to it. It's because Jesse's been goon in all day long. I'm tribute to the ultimate gooner. Yes, that's right. Spock from Star Trek. That's right. Oh, that guy never came in his sexual paintings. Very special because not only are we going into this with BGE big gooning energy, but we also have a special guest who is uniquely qualified to talk about this movie. He's a comedy writer and one of the hosts of the Star Trek podcast Star Trek. The next conversation. It's Andy Sikanda. Hi, Andy. Guys, thank you for, for having me on this clearly very classy podcast. It's very classy. Feel free to talk about Jack and off or whatever. I mean, we all I'm going to put it all in obviously in the context of Spock building up his contra by gooning.

2:12Yes. During his pond far. We'll get into it. We're going to get into it. You know, once you have your pond far, that's when you can really have your crème fresh. Yeah. This just be behind the paywall content. This is the way it is all the time. I know this is the normal pod. You can do it on the normal pod. Sure. It's been a minute, but yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's all just jack off stuff. You're here for two big reasons. The first reason is because you're a hilarious guy. We love you and we're glad to have you here. Always happy to see you. Two, you're, you're here for the audience. I think Jesse and I, and Jesse correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm mischaracterizing this, Jesse and I, I think are kind of medium star Trek guys, right? Like it was on a lot, you know, as children of the 80s and 90s, it was on TV a lot. Maybe not quite our thing, but we've seen some of the movies.

3:12Maybe we've been into a couple of the shows, but you know, it's something that kind of comes and goes from our life. And we will, in talking about Star Trek III, the search for Spock, we will get some stuff wrong and it will cause the audience to be angry. So it will be swerving their cars. They'll be knocking books off the shelf in the library where they work. Because we are getting stuff wrong about Star Trek. You as a, as a, as a Star Trek guy who hosts a podcast, you can gently correct us and kind of be the voice of the audience who will be mad at us for getting things wrong. This is absolutely the position I do not want to be in with Star Trek III. Sorry. Don't worry. He's the one who was the authority. Because on Star Trek the next conversation, Matt Myro of my co-host is more the authority and I can, and he hates it whenever I go. But what is this? Matt. He's like, I don't know why are you pointing the gun at me. But I'll do the best I can.

4:12Okay. Jesse, am I, am I characterizing your Star Trek fandom correctly and lumping you in with me a medium Star Trek guy? I'm going to put myself at medium low. So like a heavy simmer, you know what I mean? Like a roiling simmer. I watched Star Trek the next generation when it was on television because it was on Channel 44 sometimes when I was 10. So I did that. I've seen several but not all of the regular Star Trek movies and I watched the first of the new Star Trek movies. And I got a little annoyed about the needle drops but I otherwise enjoyed it. Oh, and I also watched a couple of episodes of the new Star Trek shows briefly when I had Paramount Plus. And I thought that that one that people like was pretty good. I, you're probably talking about Strange New World's Jesse. I have gotten re into Star Trek shit

5:14because I like Strange New World so much. Now, I acknowledge that the quality from season to season has been, I'll say all over the place, but I like the vibe of the show. I like my sexy, sexy friends on the ship. So I'm kind of along for the ride with that show. But you know, it's a little all over the place but I think the fun shit is really fun. Andy, where did your Star Trek fandom start? It started with the original series, TOS, with Shetner and Neemoy. The stars of the film were going to discuss. This is when you were a kid in the 60s when I was a child in the 60s. Not that far off, but they were in reruns by the time it got to me. I wonder how many people have walked this road also. I was originally more, even though I was always sort of a sci-fi fan from when I was a child. I think I started as more of a Star Wars fan.

6:14And then I think it was more toward my early teens that then I discovered what some might argue. More of a thinking man's sci-fi star trek. And then I became a real die hard. It also sort of went hand in hand with Rath of Khan coming out. I would argue one of the greatest movies of all time. So it really energized everything. And I held out for a long time on Next Generation, which is sort of the inception of the Star Trek, the Next Conversation, because I had watched a couple of episodes and I was like, this is like a hotel lobby. I'm out and I was like, I am now watching this show. And I would watch every, like some of the Borg stuff here and there, but really I would kind of wait for that. You got to say, wait for that. Sure. Have you seen that Queen? Yeah, bo! Which one? So many versions of her. Oh, you know, I recently watched first contact,

7:15which I've heard people say, is like kind of the sneaky great Star Trek movie, and I loved it. Sure. And there was a Borg queen in that. Yeah. I wish that in the movie theater with my dad. Hey, there you go. I'll let someone light with her any day. The boy. Nice. That is an interesting poll, which one are people to people find the most hot at the Borg queen? All right, guys. You should use your boy, Shootin' some pool. It's classic poolhole conversation. Oh, yeah. It indicates to me, you're a level of Star Trek fandom, Jordan, that you refer to first contact as a sneaky, sneakily considered the great one, whereas is that Mug's common knowledge basically? A Mug star. Mug's the die-hards, I think it's just like that. A lot of people will pick that overrath of Khan, which to be is not a fair estimation. Well, wouldn't be Jordan Jessica if we weren't phrasing a cold take like a hot take. I mean, all of these are great contestants in the race to be the second best Star Trek movie.

8:20After Star Trek IV. Do you love Star Trek IV? Yeah. My connection to Star Trek is primarily through two things. One is Star Trek IV, which came out when I was like seven and was set in San Francisco, where I was born and raised. And then, and fit my preferred genre, which is fish out of our comedy. I'd already fallen in love, I think, by that point, with Crocodile Dundee. And so I wanted to see a more crocodile Dundee like take on the Star Trek universe. And then, while that movie comes after this one that we watched, that pivot was very hard. And then, my other big connection with Star Trek, I think, is having been to the Star Trek the next generation theme bar in Las Vegas before it closed, but after it lost the Star Trek license. Is it from the Star Trek experience? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, it was in a casino that I was in for a conference. And we went out for drinks at this bar, and I said,

9:21this looks a lot like a Star Trek, the next generation set. And somebody was like, yes, it used to be Star Trek themed until they lost the Star Trek license. So they just took down the Star Trek words and left everything else. Oh, I see. Oh, it's post-posted actually being the Star Trek experience. Yeah. I really had a chance to see that. And they had a motion ride and it was Quark's bar and all this stuff was there, which is a reference to Deep Space Nine. And I was online with my friend, and at that point, I had not yet become a next generation diehard as I am now. And so I was like, this line is too long, and it's one of my eternal regrets that I did not get to experience it. For 30 years, you've sent and rushed. Now it's your turn to enter the 24th century. That way to someday, and that way to someday. That is report.

10:23Star Trek, the experience and the most biggest return. This time, it's real. Yeah, let's start talking about Star Trek III, the search for Spock. So it starts out, we get a little repyping of the final events of Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan. I think what everybody says is like, hey, if you want to watch an entertaining on its own Star Trek movie, you know, without a lot of lore gunk, that's the one to do it. So I've seen that movie a lot. I don't think I've ever seen it. I thought I had seen it, but it didn't seem familiar. So maybe I haven't seen it. If I did see it, I probably saw it when I was 10. I got rid of monobon, put the earwig in the ear. These were the... Ricardo Montobon is a man out of time. So you could say that he's sort of the crocodile-dun-dee of that movie. That's a really good point. Jesse's in.

11:23So we get a repyping of the events of Star Trek 2. Let me see if I can... I almost went back and looked at the Star Trek 2 wiki. Yeah. Because I was... knew we were going to have to talk about it. But let me see if I could do it from memory. I didn't do it. Okay. At the end of Star Trek 2, Spock gets into some sort of self-sacrifice chamber. Now that's a chamber you go into when the plot requires you to make a noble sacrifice. Yeah. And no one else can get in the chamber for some reason. The needs of the many... outweigh. The needs of the few. Or the one. And I have been... and always shall be... your friend. Live long. And prosper. And when maybe you would like to be written out of the Star Trek franchise? Yes.

12:23Is that what happened Andy? Because he... you know, this is... As the title will spoil, this is about Spock coming back to life. Was that actually what was going on? Do you know? That is the... there's been... there's been... It's a very storied history of people, different Star Trek actors, experiences with their characters and the fan base. And Nimoi, who did come out with a... Was it a book or an album that was called I Am Not Spock? I believe it was a book. It's his book. Yeah, his... His autobiography was called I Am Not Spock. So he's... so that sort of indicates where he stands. I think that there was... there was some incident where people would come up to him and ask him to heal them, these kinds of things. And he had just... was on his last nerve with it. And so I think that he was just like, hey, just... I think... I think it might have been a pre-work, because it even did doing Star Trek 2, because Star Trek 1, even though it had done OK,

13:24it was not well thought of, because it was tended to be a little bit more slow. And so he was like, I'll come back as long as you kill me. And then I believe a pre-requisite of three is I'll come back for the franchise, as long as I can direct it, which he did. I'm going to get it up. Sorry. Go ahead. When you say Star Trek 1, you're referring to Star Trek, the static photograph? That's right. Just the... just the photo. So then... yeah, and then there you go. And then he directed 4-2, which I definitely, without hands down, the funniest of them, which indicate his abilities as a director in that particular department. This one was funnier than I remember it, seeing it. Yeah, there's some good laughs in this. Yeah, sure are. Yeah, so we get... we repipe the events of 2, Spock is in some sort of self-sacrifice chamber, and the kind of MacGuffin from 2 is something called the Genesis Engine, or the Genesis Torpedo, or something.

14:33Genesis device. Genesis device, thank you. Thank you. Whatever it's called, it does what Nintendo. Right. And what happens is you shoot it at a dead planet, and it creates a world where you can play Sonic the Hedgehog and NHL 94. And so, yeah, you shoot it at a dead planet or an asteroid, and it creates life immediately through a process called the Genesis Effect. That's right. It extends as this movie tells us also to creatures and beings. Yes, it can also bring a character back to life who was previously tired of the franchise. That's the real thing it heals. Yeah, right. Is your endurance for your work in the franchise? Yeah, so yeah, we kind of get the last scenes of 2. You have, you know, Spock saying the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and then he says to Kirk, I have always been and always shall be your friend.

15:33You know, they had a, you know, kind of an oil and water relationship, this was them saying that despite the, despite the, you know, arguing they've done over the years and the differences of opinion their friends, beautiful moment, beautiful relationship. I think you, you say it's an oil and water relationship. I guess I would describe it as a shatter in others relationship. Yeah, will you shatter and other people he's working with? Are you talking about oil and water as the character relationship or the off screen relationship? I would say kind of on, I guess the character, you know, cold logical Spock and hot headed Dick Swing and Kirk, you know, it's really more McCoy who is who holds as I'm sure you're about to get to the Spock's essence is Katra in his head. Him and Spock really had more of the oil and water relationship and then Kirk was sort of the pivot point between them. Thank you. Andy, this is where you're here. Now I do feel useful.

16:36So yes, we're now in this, in this reality where where Spock has, has seemingly died, but there is this world out there, which has been had the Genesis effect applied to it. For some reason, like it's a big, you know, the start, the federation done like it for reasons that I was unclear on they don't like the Genesis effect. They don't want anybody to know about the Genesis planet. I do, I might explain now, would you please? Yes, so I think it's, yeah, first of all, yes. It really is your presentation at the end, Andy. Yeah, bring a PowerPoint. Okay, let me just get my keynote up. It definitely, it illustrates how many, how, how multi level the, the McGuffinness of the Genesis device is in these movies in that it creates new life on a dead planet. It creates new life in a being, but also it destroys the life that is there, which is why the Klingons are interested in it.

17:37It's the ultimate weapon as well as a thing that can recreate life. And so I think really the last point, independent of how well it works to create new life is why the, why the federation is, has it as like, you know, a restricted planet that you can't go to. Thank you. So yes, you mentioned Klingons. Well, they're coming up next. We see a kind of a, a, what I've been thinking of is kind of like a pirate space ships and like junker kind of space pirate guys. And they are on a ship with a Klingon woman who fun fact is the most attractive person ever to appear on film. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, very attractive Klingon woman. She is talking to her like Klingon mother ship. I think the guy is this is Christopher Lloyd. What's the Klingon characters name that he's playing here, Andy? Krug. Krug. Yeah. So Christopher Lloyd is named after champagne. Yeah. And we have his admiral Paul Mason.

18:42The French, the Klingons. That the champagne that Orson Wells was advertising when I was doing that. Action, please. The French champagne has always been celebrated for its excellence. There is a California champagne by former son. I know a lot of stuff and I'm good. Anyway, they also have a cool dog. They have like a slime dog there. Slime dogs really cool. A lot of fun practical puppet creatures in this. Yeah, it's not a targ for the for the insiders. A targ which is a Klingon dog that is frequently referred to a creature that some have his pets, even though they're deadly. And it was not apparently it was just called a Pog P.A. W.G. Because of its juicy ass, right? Oh, the ass on this slime dog. Boom. It is a cool ass. I think slime dog might be my favorite part of the whole movie.

19:44Yeah. And more of the slime dog tits guy, but you know, I could appreciate it. I bet I, you know what? I hope whoever invented that slime dog became a millionaire. Me too. Slime dog millionaire. One of my favorite. There you go. Fantastic. What a podcast. Maximum fun. A worker own network of artist own shows supported directly by you.