(upbeat music) - Greetings and welcome to Star Trek Discovery Pod, a sometimes funny, trying to be smart podcast, covering all things new and classic Trek. I'm ready for this crew to be as disorderly as the Cerritos. I am your captain. - Oh, shot fired, fate is fired. (laughing) - Hey, the doctor said it, not I. With the end of the V-screen, we have. - Clyde Haynes, let's do this. - And Paul Satatchit, who does not speak Murph. - Murph, I was trying to, I gotta work on my Murph impression, but tonight we are talking about Star Trek Prodigy, episodes five, six, seven, and eight. But before we dive into our discussion of these particular episodes of Star Trek Prodigy from season two, Paul, where can people like find information about the show? Maybe they wanna click the link to buy some merch or maybe they wanna share the show with a friend, where are the places they could go to find all that stuff. - Please everyone, please like, subscribe to the podcast on Apple Spotify YouTube. All links are at star Trek pod.co and if you love our content or hate our content or somewhere in between, you might want to join our patron for just $2 per episode at patreon.com/Star TrekPod. Murph. - Murph, and Clyde, if people are hanging out with us tonight live on-- - Oh, I like to, oh. - What, oh, oh, am I still here? - You're there, but the taco says you're black. - Oh, no. All, um-- - That was a strange comment, but okay. - I am wearing a black t-shirt. - Her screen is black, it's on the comments. - Yeah, the screen is black. I'm gonna refresh the page, but while I do that, Clyde, can you tell people how to participate during the chat? - Well, if you pick up a forever stamp, you can write us a letter and you're just dropping in the mail. We'll get your comments, assuming that we have a mailbox. And then eventually, snail mail works pretty well. We'll see your comment, no, seriously. All jokes aside, if you wanna make us a comment, just type capital P, capital O, capital D, capital pod in the chat. And we will take a little bit of your comment, your question, your musings. And in a moment, you know, just type capital HF for your hot Paul, so touch it. - There you go, hot Paul. - And we'll get your, you'll get your thoughts, your hot Paul's, your HP's. - Hot, fake Paul Murfs very soon. Am I back? Can everyone see me? - Hot Murfs, hot Murfs. - Hot Murfs. - All right, hopefully the refresh was helpful. I'm at an Airbnb, so far the wifi has been pretty decent, but who knows what can happen. Yeah, I think it is time for that time, but before we get into that time, let's read some messages from the menagerie, from Karen, we have these four are a great lead up. We have some pretty standalone type episodes before going into what is going to feel very serial. Hashtag spoiler alert, Karen. The Fast and the Curious was my least favorite, but maybe the most classic Star Trek, enable computer. I do wonder about these 10 drool things that get hollowed when they're pretty terrifying. Is there in beauty, no truth? Is it visually studying episode? Doll also seems to be featuring quite a bit. Thank you for sharing. Again, if you join us over on the Patreon, you can share your messages to the menageries. Even if you can't make the live stream, you let us know what you think and hear it on the pod. And with that in mind, I do think it is time for us to have some. ♪ Happy ♪ ♪ Happy ♪ - Some hot Paul Frank Murphs, if you will. - Hot Murphs, hot Paul Murphs. - Hot Murphs, Paul. What did you think of these four episodes? - I thought they were great prodigy. I don't think they lived up to the first four, which I thought was like great trek. But that's a high bar to start with anyway. But like, I think these four episodes remind us that it is a kids show and the kids showness about it is in full effect, but not a bad way. It's just, you know, like that's the genre. - Yeah, I would agree with that. I'd say it definitely like is easy to not pay attention, but still know what's going on with some of these in that kids show weight, right? Like things and themes and things get repeated, but it's still beautiful show. It's really touching. I think the themes and the plot are really fun. I will say the episode for me that really stood out is, number eight, is there beauty, no truth? Is there in beauty, no truth, excuse me? I just thought was like, to me, a very trekky episode in the morality and the quandary and the questions that are posed to our characters there, but we'll dive into that. - We just put a glide like, you know, when we get to it. - What was third of a climb? Clyde, what did you think about this episodes? - So as Paul alluded to, unfortunately, I haven't had to see the eighth episode. So I won't be able to talk very much about that. And I think part of that is because I have to agree with Paul. First three, I felt much more like a kids show. And all in all, it was much harder for me to get through them, right? Like the first four, I felt like boom, I just knocked them out. And these last three, like I was going, but I was kind of like, okay. You know, hijinks, hilarity ensues. All right, you're gonna try and steal the ship and let's create clones and those clones. Let's get into a fight. And it just, it did feel like a little bit like, oh, I'm watching the shows that my kids watch. Got it. And so, you know, but again, it's set in the Star Trek world. So they're these little nods. The doctor's joke about the Cerritos, I thought was really funny. Like, I feel like that was hilarious. - Photons fired. - Yeah, cool, man. - Yeah, so I mean, again, it definitely was, you know, like throwing shade, but on the other hand, it was nice to reference, hey, we're all in the same universe, so I dug that. But yeah, so, you know, I thought it was okay. Wasn't bad, it was good for a kids show, but I thought they set the bar pretty high for the first four episodes and not quite sure they got it this time. - Yeah, I mean, I think inevitably, there's going to be ups and downs when you have a larger episode order. Also, we are adults watching, we are adults watching a children's show. And I still think it is firing on all cylinders for a children's show. I think there's some very sophisticated themes. I think the animation, as usual we've talked about, is incredible. So why don't we go ahead and start with the Observer's Paradox? I thought this one, for instance, had some really just like fun scenes when we have them essentially trying to get to the bottom of what does Murph speak, which I thought was a very classic kids plot trope of like, how do you understand people you don't understand? Like, I think the lessons that are being put forth are really cute and fun and they're doing it in a very Star Trek way. Also, we finally have like a full usage of cetacean ops, which I appreciated 'cause I feel like oftentimes it's just used for the gag and the joke. But this time our whale friend, Jillian, comes to the rescue to help us translate Murph. But I appreciate that we got to kind of see all of the characters make their way through sort of their talents and things like that. But what did you think of us inevitably getting to Murph speak? - Well, I'll jump in and say, I wasn't expecting it. But the whole idea that you have a character that you can't understand, like no one can understand and you're raising the stakes of what they're going through. Like it was fine early on when I feel like their missions were fairly simple and could be depicted with just like a point, like go over there. Now you're asking them to, in Star Trek form, dialogue about science and explain complex things. It makes sense that they would start to say, "Hey, why don't we bring some communication to Murph "and really build out that character?" Like we've seen this in a lot of sitcoms where you've got a character who doesn't talk, right? - Right. - It works as a joke and as in a sitcom, but it's limiting. And so I think this is a good thing to do if you're gonna kind of make Murph a truly three-dimensional character. - Yeah, and I thought it was fun to see Murph transform and to essentially Murph, Murmade. I thought it was really cute. Murph made, again, going back to my preferred. My preferred morph form though is the cute ball of goo. I know why we had to give Murph legs and arms, but I think slug Murph is still my favorite Murph. But mermaid Murph is pretty close in contention. I wanted to ask y'all about, I thought the coolest sequence of the episode was when Gwen essentially goes through multi phases and travels through space-time essentially. And if you from that have any, I feel like that and potentially the last episode kind of give us a potential like clue as to who is calling out to Gwen, but any theories that arise after episode five for you after we have this moment with Gwen traveling through space-time. - No, I just assume it's Tukote. Like that's what they're leading. - Seems really violent though, or scary at least. - I don't know what to say. Last time I traveled through time and like changed my temporal phase discriminator, it was pretty, it's pretty accurate. - If you had a temporal phase arm band, what four periods of time would you want to travel through? - Clyde, there you go. What period of time are we talking in the past of the future? - Any direction, it's space-time. You can go any direction. - Oh, then I'm going to go hang out with Michael Burnham in the future. Or I'm going to go to, I guess for us, it would be classic TNG where like there are no problems and everything is solved and life is just grand. No greed, no money, no violence is fantastic. So like prior to cling on war. - Yeah, prior to the dominion, all that stuff, we're just like life is cool. That might be a fun place to hang out for a little while. - That's like basically 20 years ago in our time. Not even that, like 10 years ago, right? That's where they are right now, right? Are the Romulans, I think where would I want to go? - Hmm, I might go for Kirk, you know, like I felt that uniforms were stylish. Yeah, very stylish. - Very stylish. - I think there was a more of a Western feel. I feel like the moment I go in TNG, I'm like Barkley and I'm just stuck in the holodeck forever. I'm a holodeck addict, I think that's just the situation. - I mean, I hear your point. I mean, the thing about Kirk is all the aliens look like us and if you meet an alien, especially a female alien, then you gotta deal with the fact that Kirk's gonna get her. So there's like no dating options. It's just like Kirk gets all the girls. And for me, a guy who's currently wearing a red shirt, that's kind of a problem. - Got to think a card about the wardrobe. - Oh, well, it looks like wardrobe choices are clutch. - It's really weird, Clive, because I'm married and I'm happily married. So like, if I go to the future, I'm still not gonna cheat on my wife. But like, but now we know something about you. It's okay, it's okay. It's totally okay. I'm not judging, I'm not judging. - I was not speaking for myself. I was speaking immediately. - As a red shirt, I have the dot, dot, dot, dot. I'm just, it's cool, it's cool. I'm really just happy that we're able to talk so freely on this podcast where hundreds of thousands of millions of people are going like, oh my God, that Clyde. Oh, he must have a really firm relationship with his wife to just like casually put that out there. Oh my God, I goals Clyde, goals. - Well, I would wanna at least see some dinosaurs for like a minute. And then I think I would also join y'all in the future. Clyde has left the chat, he can't take it. Paul, you've scarred Clyde. - You broke me, Paul. That was a good one. You got me, that was maybe your best one yet. But I take it back, I would, I take that back. I reverse it all, I take it back. I would go to just slightly after TNG so that I can kick it with peanut hamper. - Peanut, boom, boom. Actually, I have an exact-- - Hanging out with Mariner and Peanut hamper would be a pretty good time. - So, I would, I would, in TNG and that's all right, in what you call it, in original series. Kirk goes the second episode with mud. Like there are a bunch of androids there that like, I feel like they're just, yes, Anne. (laughing) - It's like they are. - Like, I think that like, Ohora was saying that she could get her mind transferred into like a bot body. I was like, oh, that might be a pretty cool thing to do. - Would you wanna live forever? - No, it's only 15,000 years. - It's only 15,000 years, okay. - I think what I heard you say, Paul is, if given the opportunity, you would like to be a sex bot. - Yes, Anne. (laughing) - Like I look up, I look, I challenge anyone to go like, hey, if you could be a near immortal sex bot where you're hot for life, I don't know who goes like, no, that feels wrong. Who says that? I wanna grow old and die and decrepit. No one says that. - You know, 15 minutes and the pot has gone off the rails, not a record. - It's a rail. - No, we've entered Hot Dog Chat way sooner than this. - Absolutely, but you know what? In a week where we are saying, rest in peace, Dr. Ruth, it seems fitting for us to have to talk about sex bot chat. I mean, that works. - Dr. Ruth and Richard Simmons, what a week. Okay, Observers Paradox, yeah. Again, it's just adding to our mystery. We've got some Murph translation. Gwen starting to pick it up and then we dive into imposter syndrome, which Dal and his friends create holograms of themselves to take place while they attempt to steal the ship, which I thought was like a pretty classic hygiency plan. You know, gotta create a distraction, find a way for no one to, this is a kid show. We are in an adult podcast though, Chupie. - We're in an adult podcast. - And we do not talk about sex pots. - No pots. - No pot. - Just bots. - Just bots. - Just bots, no pots. We're not, this isn't a cooking show, only Hot Dog Chat or ice cream conversations. However, what did you think of our hologram? Shenan agree, if you will. It felt like a pretty classic Trek episode. It felt like a great kids episode. Like if I was gonna show my kids a random episode, that's probably-- - I think it's a really good intro one. - Yeah. - Right, but I do wanna say Michelle is secretly becoming my either second favorite character or favorite character. She's up there with Gwen. Like I like the way she's a part of the show. - Oh, I understand. Like, she might be only 70 years old, Clyde. So I don't know if you're dating too young there. - I'm not talking about that. Like I said, happily married. - I believe her, that's right. - What I'm saying is just as a character, again, I like that scene where she says, you have to protect your real friends was like, "Oh, wow, yes." - But she doses them. Like she kind of like, she dissed them earlier, right? She was at the table. And you go, "Do you wanna sit here?" And then her Nova Squad friends, like classic mean girl type stuff. - Well, I think what it was, was she just had this experience. So she went back to her, the friends that she knew. But she realized, you know what? I'm not really part of Nova Squad. Like I'm in Nova Squadron, but I'm just waiting for her to end up as part of like this crew. - Yeah, I feel like she's probably realizing what does it, it's kind of that, I think moment when you are, I mean, especially as someone who grew up as like a preteen, preteen girls are perhaps the meanest creatures on the planet. - I hate them. - I hate them. - Speaking as speaking, speaking as a preteen girl, previously menis, menis, just society, preteen, preteen girl. - And as a dad of a preteen girl, it's just like-- - So sorry. - It's terrible, it's just terrible. - But I feel like it's kind of speaking to that, where you think you know what you want out of friends is like a specific group of people, perhaps who have a reputation that you also wanna be a part of that reputation, but inevitably you have to figure out like who are the people you can actually be yourself around. And I feel like that to me is the arc for Magel, and I think she plays a good, I mean, she's Vulcan, so it's like a good straight man to kind of the chaos that is our ragtag group of kiddos, right? - Coats. - Coats. Gotta be named after Margel Barret from PW Gregory. I would assume that's a nod. There's a lot of those nods throughout this show. They do a good job of weaving in, I think, fun Easter eggs. I do think it is interesting to see kind of some bigger plot points for like Janeway in these couple of episodes. I know it's sort of our C plot, but we have Janeway kind of having to come to terms with her potentially losing Chikote. We have that scene of them kind of exchanging, I guess the rock, I guess that's you know, that map that Murph kind of puts together there, which I don't know if you all watched True Detective Night Country, but the spiral thing was also like a big motif through that season of TV. So it's in the zeitgeist, if you will. But yeah, I feel like we're seeing some pretty, I don't know if the kids get the momentousness of it. I know that they, I think they've done a good job of setting them up as like, these are important friends. I think for like long time Star Trek watchers and like, I've been trying to avoid spoilers, but there's been a lot of Janeway Chikote talk on the internet since the season came out. And I think there's a lot of those shippers, if you will, that have sort of regained their flame of wanting those two characters together. - Is that a term, shippers? - Yeah, shippers, yeah. - I did not know that. - Go ahead. - Shipping a couple, shipping two characters. But yeah, I think it's interesting to see that sort of reignited. That was never, it could have been how old I was when I watched Voyager, but I was never really interested in that relationship and what that was. I was, I mean, personally for me, I was only ever really interested in seven of nine, just being seven of nine. And so that was really it for me, but. And I always felt like, well, we have like Paris and, and Belana. So I don't need another couple on the show, you know. - And Harry and no one. - No Harry. - No one ever. - No one ever. - Oh, Harry. - Or Harry. - But what do you think of? Yeah, like what do you think of the Chikote, Janeway, Relaysh? - I think they're best friends. Like, you know, if, you know, if you were on the other side of the universe and you gave me some temporal like message, like, I go, okay, I'll get her. - Yeah, I mean, I think for a kids show, they have set it up to where it's like, yeah, these are friends who mean a lot to each other and they've done a good job with that. But I, I mostly mean, what do you think of like, the idea of the Chikote, Janeway relationship? - I don't need it. I don't want it, right? - Yeah. - To me, like, I see them, I go, mentored mentee. - Really? - It would be like saying, hey, have you ever thought about Jean-Luc Picard and Riker being in a relationship? And I'd be like, why? Don't need that. - Now that would be something that (laughs) - I mean, I like the idea of having relationships that aren't a romantic relation, right? - Yeah. - Like, and I think that you often, you don't often see that with like heterosexual, like, pairings, and I think you should. Like, so let's not force feed something that seems like it would be a really healthy relationship as a mentor mentee, right? Or as friends, as colleagues, as friends, where it's like, hey, we've been through some stuff together, right? We're like, you know, we're just, we're really close, but it doesn't have to be romantic. Like, there's enough of that. Like, we're already getting the doll and Gwen vibes. Like, let's keep it there. - And do you think they would make a good couple? - No. - Right? - I mean, it's a very-- - He doesn't drink enough coffee. - It feels very stereotypical, like, enemies to lovers situation, right? Just from like the very beginning of their relationship. But I agree that I prefer them as colleagues and friends and I think it's nice to see. I like, platonic love is nice. I think platonic love is really nice. I understand people's like shipping of them together, but I think I also, it's really hard for me to move past and I think that's your word to hold. That's your platform to hold. - That's my plasma to hold. Yeah, that is mine. That's my opinion. - Yeah, I think for all of it, I don't see them as a couple. I think for all of it, I don't see them as a couple. I think for all of it, I don't see them as a couple. I think for all of it, I don't see them as a couple. I think for all of it, I don't see them as a couple. I don't see any spark there. I don't think Avro did, aside from the fact that whereas with him and Seven, I go like, oh, I can see it. - Oh, no. - I did not see that coming at all. - I could totally see it. Here is this young, naive human and this creepy old man making the moves on her. Come on, you see it, right? - I don't want it. I don't like it. I'm not saying you need it, but I could see how that could happen. - No, see Seven of Nine is only ever with me or Rafi, and that is how it shall be. - To me, Seven of Nine is some smoking hot attractive. Smart, maybe the smartest character in the show. She's like razor edge, like a wit. - And you're gonna put her with Chicote? - I mean, I'm just saying like there's a difference between like Picard, Seven of Nine and End of Void, you're Seven of Nine, right? The huge difference. - Mm-hmm. - Yes. And so like, I don't think Picard, Seven of Nine goes for Chicote. - No, but Seven of Nine, Picard Seven of Nine with Rafi, it makes a lot more sense. - Yeah, totally. - Did Voyager Seven of Nine with Chicote? - Well, I mean, Paris would have made more sense than Chicote. - Like, do you think Seven of Nine would cheat on, you know, Paris, you know, like break up that his marriage with Belana? - It would be interesting. - I don't, but I think it would make more sense than her with Chicote. - You know what, Seven of Nine with Harry Kim would have made more sense. - They almost happened, they almost happened. - Yeah, well, yeah. - And then Kim came back and got a closer deal. - Harry tried. - Harry was a deal. - Yeah, I'll be interested to see how Prodigy continues to build the relationship because I think, you know, obviously first time viewers to Star Trek and like kids watching this don't have any of this background, right? And so I've been trying to just separate what I know from what the show is presenting. And so far, I, yeah, I mean, I understand the, like I said, I understand the relationship that they've been setting up and I don't know if it's romantic or anything yet, but I was wondering, it doesn't really need to be. I kind of prefer, I think Clyde, like you said, the Gwen and Dahl, like kind of will they want? They crush as much more, I think, traditional for kids shows, right? You know, Barry Hay Arnold and Helga, you know, the Perpetual. - Boy meets World-ish kind of. - Yeah, that kind of thing. - Boy meets World, love it. - All right, shall we dive into the Fast and the Curious? - Fast and Curious. - Very cute. We get, the Infinity is now running through a Borg conduit, which we know our crew has encountered the Borg last season. They had a little nod to that, but instead they run into a Kazon who has now essentially been like, "You must drag race for your lives." - A quarter, what is that, I guess a-- - What quarter mile at a time? - It's called family. - It's space, so it's not a quarter mile, it has to be something like-- - A quarter per second. - A second of time. - It's a wrong series, but that's okay. One light year at a time. - One light year at a time. - One, but I thought this-- - We're not funny to you, Paul. - That is smart. - Are you not entertained? - Yeah, I like to know. - Are you not entertained? - That ain't her too. - That's right. - Everything that is old is back again. Can you believe we're getting a gladiator in a Twister's movie this year, y'all? - We're getting a gladiator movie? I didn't know. - Yeah, remember, I'm going to see. I'm going to see Twister in 4D watch. Steve's going to be moving. - I saw the preview in 4D. It was an experience, so good luck. Hold it onto your popcorn. - No, no, 4D, don't bring popcorn. Don't bring a soda. 4D-- - You don't need to bring anything. - You don't bring anything. You barely need your cell phone. You got to have good pockets. Like-- - Very powerful. - So it just seems like it's like the Matrix where like, you know, they're in the chair and all of a sudden they get beat up. - This stuff. - It's very that. But I get really excited when they got kind of pulled out of the conduit because I always love when we randomly crash a ship into a very wintery looking planet and have something to accomplish. Again, classic Star Trek. I think they're doing a good job on the show of grabbing elements and tropes kind of in the same way that Lord Decks does, right? Like it's things that you can find that are familiar that make you feel like you're within the universe of the show, but definitely repackaged in a way that is the brand of the show. But what did you think of our little space race? And then we also had the classic, the computer trying to take over the world, you know? We had another peanut hamper situation. - Have we had one of those in Prodigy yet? - I don't think we've had one in Prodigy. - I mean, a little late. I mean, I was surprised. I was like, I thought that was my first thought. Well, that was my second thought. - Well, I mean, technically there is the ship, right? - Sure, sure. Yeah, and the construct, you know. I'm in the construct. I was like, 'cause this is a theme that you have to have in Star Trek. You've not had a successful season if you haven't had one of these themes. - Right. - But my first thought was like, when I heard, when Zero says, "This is K-Zon technology," I stopped whatever I was doing and looked up and was like, "Okay, let's see where this goes." I was like, "Hello." And I was kind of excited about that nod to like, there's definitely these things of like, "I don't know if you get these if you're watching this brand new fresh and you've never seen Star Trek before." - Yeah, I was going to, I'll post to the chat and to our listeners. We potentially might bring on some newbie trek guests in August to watch some prodigy with us to kind of be our barometer of, "Is this making sense to non-truckies?" - Sure, sure. - Which I think would be interesting to see what they think of all of it. - I do love the trope of the villain giving you the entire plan as it's talking to Zero of like, "Let me tell you my giant crazy plot of what I'm going to do." And it's, I mean, that's something that happens in adult movies along just kids. - Yeah, yeah, I'm not logging, baby. - Gotta have that villain monologue. I do, I was very like a little emotional, watching Zero like essentially rip apart their body to save their friends. - Huh, that wasn't, like I was. - I did watch it at like 10 o'clock at night last night while eating a chocolate bar. So maybe it was just. - Like for me, I'm going like, "Well, they can't get hurt." Right? - I guess that's true, they're non-corporeal. But what happens if they get like, let out of their bubble, you know? I don't know what happens. - Yeah, you do. - It makes everyone look like a crazy. - I know, and that's scary. - But I think-- - I think at a look at Zero is like a part of the crew, right? Where it's, I mean, Zero at times functions as almost a data character. And so like if Data's arm was ripped out of his socket, you're not looking like, "Oh, he's gonna die." But you're realizing that this character, who's a critical part of this ensemble, is being hurt. And so yeah, I was kind of like, "Oh, in this case, Zero's got this big old gash in the middle of her container. - Portal? - Portal. And just you're like, "Oh, are they okay?" And you wanna make sure they're okay. So yeah, I definitely felt like, "Oh, are they gonna fix zeroing?" - Maybe I'm broken, 'cause I'm going like, "Oh, it's just Data's arm? Okay, well, we can give him a new one." Like, it's a different thing, right? Like it's not, you know, if it was doll or go in. - Maybe it wasn't like emotional over the potential of Zero getting hurt, but more emotional of like, would you sacrifice your body for your friends? - If I could get a new one because it's a robot. If I was at the Harvey Mudd, you know, when I could just get a different sex bot bot. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, like, maybe I'm overly capitalistic, but like, just seems like these, I don't know. - Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I think that whole episode was mostly a lot of like, zip-stop zapping. - That is exactly how I felt. A lot, it's just like, you know, like I would be goop Star Trek together and it felt very Star Trek and it felt very, you know. - The very kids show, like you're watching a kids adventure show, yeah. - And, you know, aside from the fact that Zero's body is like, busted up, you could remove that whole episode and it's fine. Like, it wouldn't hurt the cereal. - Yeah, it doesn't hurt the cereal. That is true. That is very true, but it does send them, I appreciate, so I appreciate this episode because then I think it sets up and I'm so sorry, Clyde, that you haven't watched this episode, but is there in beauty no truth? Which I think to me was the most Star Trek-y episode of the four in the question that it poses, which I think is when Star Trek is the strongest, right? It essentially is if you had the choice of immortality and the opportunity to be able to do things you never thought you were able to do. So to recap, Zero is trying to figure out how to have a different form for themselves to kind of inhabit after the accident on our last episode and they essentially get a message from another Medusa and that's like, hey, if you come over here to Vidia five, right, oh, five, we can help you out and so they get there and they're like, yeah, we can put you in a corporeal form here on this planet and you'll have the ability to touch, to smell, to taste, eat, you can do everything like all these things so they put zero into this form. And I thought the forms and the way the Medusans were designed was so cool and very like androgynous, which I appreciated and interesting. It was some really cool character design but Paul, what did you think of sort of the, before we dive into the rite of passage kind of stuff? What did you think of the setup for the Medusans? Were your alarm bells going off or were you like, oh, this is-- - Of course it's gonna be alarm bells going off. - It's like, it's just not Medusans though, it's a Paxans and Calmeranes, all these non-correlated. Interesting they use Paxans because like for all it, Paxans are an episode in a next generation where data is the only one who knows about the Paxans because there's Enophobes and all of a sudden, these people go like, oh, Pax is all I know who they are and the Calmerane are like a non-corporeal entity who try to kill Q when Q gets turned human. So, it's a refuge for all these people who wanna like have kapora bodies. I think they look cool avatar-esque, but like it's easy to do that. Like, I think the planet and the space are designed to be beautiful and there were. - Very intriguing, yeah. Very like the mesmerized, like, you know, classic when like a Kirk and a Spock get a little too mesmerized by the locals, right? And then Ahora has to come and save them situation. - Classic. - But classic. But so essentially they have this like grand feast with the dance and all this stuff. And then it ends with this big ceremony where they're finally to have this experience where they will feel fear. And so it's just like incredible looking stingray things that like fly through the air and eat pollen, but like can essentially gobble you up if they wanted to or you'll fall off of them if you get caught by accident. I thought the running of the Nazomon is what it's called. And so the participants can experience the sense of fear while feeding and fleeing from the Nazomon, a manta ray like creature. And their whole thing though, that the Medusin leader ION did not disclose is that if you leave the planet, your body will degenerate. So essentially you can only remain immortal if you stay on the planet, which then was not communicated to zero. So then zero has to make the choice if they're gonna stay on the planet in their form or if they will leave and slowly deteriorate within their new corporeal body, which they didn't really establish. Like do you just age like a regular, regular being or is it like a rapid onset thing? - Maybe your arms are falling off like a zombie. - I'll be interested in how they sort of like figure it out, but essentially zero is like, thank you so much, but I'm gonna take the risk and I'm gonna leave the planet with my friends. But yeah, I guess my question to you both is if you were given the opportunity to live on an enchanted planet for the rest of your life, which would be forever. Or if you left and you'd had to age, what would you choose? - Is my wife with me? 'Cause since, you know. - I mean, yeah, I guess, yeah. - I mean, 'cause if she is then like, and we're happy and everything, I don't have to leave any loved ones behind, then I'd highly consider it. - Well, I guess for the sake of the sacrifice that zero would have had to make right. Like either stay on the planet, never see their friends again. So you would have to stay on the planet and you could never see your friends again, but you would live forever. - I'm probably gonna take a pass on that. - So interesting. Like, so I have this conversation and please know that I'm not making this up. I have had this conversation. So I go like, hey, be my wife's name is me or Barrington. Let's say you had the power to travel back and forth through time at will and you're immortal, but the cost of that power is that we could never be together again. Do you pick it? And she goes, probably. And I say, good. 'Cause that's what I would do too. Because if you have the opportunity to like ascend and live like a God, I'm not gonna hold you back. Don't have my little, like, corporeal, like, you know, maybe like 50 years of good and like, you know, then watch a slow decline. Don't let me hold you back. Like, you know, I'll be okay. I'll find someone else. I'll find some croissants. It's gonna be fine. But like, you know, don't do that. And don't hold me back. - I don't know if y'all thought. So there's been a resurgence of a lot of vampire content lately. I don't know if y'all have seen those brought to coming back. We've gotten you to do the vampire, et cetera, et cetera. And typically, vampire media really rises during a sense of economic downfall and depression because it is then this idealized thought of, "Oh, if you could live forever." And there's the anxiety of life and death and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, I'll try to find the article and post it in our Slack channel. It was very interesting. And so it's interesting to me, Paul, that you would choose immortality because in my mind, I'm already so tired that unless I was left with like what, 'cause what I find interesting for most vampire medium is they never really have to show them struggling to exist. Do you know what I mean? They don't have to work. They usually have some sort of like wealth already with them. Right? You don't have to go see them go work a day job to exist unless you're watching what we do in the shadows, which is what makes that show kind of funny. - They're not working at Walmart, right? - No, right. And so I'm like, oh, yeah, if you saddled me with a castle and a bunch of money, dope. But like, if I have to exist as I exist now forever, I don't know. - Okay, it's a lot of bad bosses, man. It's a lot of bad bosses. - They come out. - Okay, so he, here, I'm a little Paul insight, so I apologize. So one, a question that I ask a lot of people is, you know, and when I say a lot, I do mean pretty much if you hang around me long enough, you'll get asked this question. The question goes, what would you rather have the ability to teleport or infinite money? And well, what would you say? - Infinite money. - Infinite money, very good. - Right? - Yeah, I mean, I was gonna say teleport 'cause that sounds more fun, but it's also because then I'm like, but could you just teleport in and out of like banks all the time and then have infinite money? - Well, but you've robbed it and that's a whole nother thing. - Very good, like, you have redeemed yourself. So here's where it goes. Here, especially if they're under 35, they'll go like, teleport, because they don't know what it is to really, you know, like pay for mortgage, you know, they go, teleport. I go, oh, what would you do with a teleport? Well, I go anywhere I wanna go. What are you gonna use for money? Well, all I do is I just teleport into a bank and steal some money and take some money. And I go like, oh, so basically, if you have, you know, power, you feel like you're justified to abuse it. And they go, and they start backtracking. They were like, no, no, no, you said it, it's out there. It's trap, trap. - It's a good trap. But the other thing is, like, if I can teleport, you know, much money, I would save. - Not infinite. - But a lot. - But with infinite money, I'm not worried about how much money I can save. And I can have a-- - But I'm just saying, if we could-- - A helicopter driver. - A helicopter driver. - Here it is. - Like, I'm just, yeah. - Helicopter driver, driver. These are all things destroying the planet. This is the generational difference. If we could all teleport, we could save the planet, guys. No more private jets, no more cars. We can all just be where we need to be. - You're perfect. - Helicopteration. - And, yeah, obviously, you were right, Brian. But I've only had one person, like, ever answer it truly correctly, where you go, I get, teleport. And I go like, steal money, and they go like, so you, so all of a sudden, like, stealing is okay. And you just use it, and he goes, yes, I am now a god, and the laws of man no longer apply to me. I go, boom, that is so good. That is a good answer. That is like a truthful from the core answer. Like, you know, and I feel, you know, I feel that way. Like, I feel like if you have, like, even if you're a vampire, like a Walmart working vampire, like, the rules of man no longer apply to you. - Yeah, but-- - Like, you find your, you can find other, you could more nefarious ways to get money. - But here's the thing, if you have infinite money, it's not just about stuff I buy for me. - Yeah. - You know how many people you could help with infinite money? - Or, at least-- - Any of the people with money actually help people? - That's because the wrong people have money. - But I think because you have to be a wrong person to have that level of wealth. - And actually, and this is a good time, you know, if you enjoy these episodes, please consider joining our Patreon. (laughing) - So you can yell at us when you think about these episodes. - Yes. - $2 an episode. (laughing) - Where you two can have the moral quandaries of a Paul question post upon you. - And if you like to have more of these contacts, and feel free to subscribe to us here at Financial Podge Cash Chat. (laughing) - Hypothetical Finance Pod. - Hypothetical Finance Pod. - Sci-fi Finance. - Yeah, sci-fi. - Sci-finance. There we go. - Sci-finance, there you go. Our kind of B plot is Janeway and The Doctor. Obviously, finally figure out the holograms are holograms, which was not hard since they all got so bitty-swappied. They kind of get everyone back into their correct form, but they now realize that they must find all of these folks. - Sure. - And that something is definitely after Gwen. - Yep. - I'm pretty sure it's her dad at this point. The voice, I think, is starting to sound more and more like her dad. - Oh, that'd be nice. Sure, it could be interesting. - That's my thought. - I assumed it was essential, but. - Oh, essential? It could be interesting. The tendrils were interesting. - Sure. - I was like, is that like a murph line, like a murph arm? - It looked to me, it reminded me of the Naseem, which are the caretakers of Voyager. - Oh, that could be an interesting theory. - Yeah, like it's not Mariah theory. - It's a Paul theory. - But like, you know, like basically they freeze time and then start sneaking like this. I don't know that the scene really is freeze time, but like, I don't know. - Yeah, that could be interesting. That could be interesting. - Listeners, let us know what your theories are. You can tell us in a Apple review. You can tell us over on the Slack if you join the Patreon. You can also just leave a comment here on the YouTube. If you're watching or listening to this later, not during the live chat, we would love to know. Anything else to say about these episodes? Clyde, I'll be really interested in what you think about this once you get to it. 'Cause I think it obviously has spurred quite a conversation for us into all sorts of interesting directions. So I think it does pose something very like a big question for kids to ponder. - I'll let you know as soon as I finish it probably later tonight. - Yeah, Paul, what any other thoughts? - I don't know. I think like, you know, I think they start strong with the four. I think they need to get to the next two episodes, which would be effectively nine and 10, which is the mid-season. So I feel like these are all kind of episodic by design. You know, like the first four forced you into the cereal-- - The slot, yeah. - Yeah, exactly, the seasonal and now these four. So I had to evaluate in it, I had to evaluate it as such. - Yeah, and you know, and there are some episodics that are better than others, but like ultimately the best episodics that stand out that aren't forgotten are the ones that have a strong message and theme. Like, you know, like one of my favorites is the data trial in TNG, like the measure of a man. Like, you know, and that was like just a random episode and it wound up being like, you know, one of like, you know, these episodes that like define what the series is. And it's just a one episode as opposed to like, here's the mid-season finale or the season finale or something designed for it. And so in that way, I think maybe the last episode might be that for this, like, you know, for the zero gets the body episode. - So we'll see. - Yeah, I think it's one that I would say stands out a lot in the same way of like, I think imposter syndrome is a great one to introduce kids to. I would say, is there in beauty, no truth would be one if I was like trying to get some of my friends to watch the show, I might point to you and be like, oh, this one, I think you would like and like, let me know what you think. Yeah, I think it's a great up. Anything to plug or promote this week, y'all? - I got nothing. - I will say that I was recently in the kind of greater Chicagoland area, particularly around Indiana, Munster, Indiana and went into this coffee shop that's called the Beamy Up Brokers. And it's a sci-fi themed. And one of the things that they talked about is how much the chain way love coffee and kind of inspired them to create a coffee shop. - That's so cute. - They call it Beamy Up or Beamy Up? - Be, I think it's Beamy Up, let me think. - Like a coffee bean? - Or the laser beam? - Let me see. Beamy. - While Clyde is looking that up, I thought I would let y'all know that I am currently sound designing a really fun, wild adventure improv podcast with two really great actors, Chris Friendfro and Finn Argus. So if you want a queer comedy, improv, magical, mystical time, you can check that out. It's called One of Us with Finn and Chris, wherever you get your podcasts. - It's bean as in coffee beans. - It's bean, yeah. - That's the correct, that's the correct, the answer. - That's the correct pun, yeah. - Yes, yes. - I took a picture outside their, kind of, they've got this big wall mural. I'll post it on our Slack channel. - Cool, there you go. - Pretty good couple of-- - Sports call business. - Yes, yes, I met the owners, they're really cool, big sci-fi people, and they was like, hey, we didn't see something like this, and so they started their own business. Husband and wife team, it's great. - Wow, that's so fun. Yes, we will be back next week. I know Comic Con starts next week, we are not at Comic Con this year, sad face, but we'll see if we can go back next year. I know there's gonna be lots of announcements, lots of things going on, our friends over at Strange NewPod, I think you're doing some coverage points, giraffe is gonna be hanging out there, so you can definitely check out our pals for some more up to the beat coverage, but as news comes out and things come out from Comic Con, we'll keep you all posted as well, excited to see. There's been some more casting announcements for Academy, that looks pretty fun. I'm excited to see that trickling out lots of young, new faces, which makes sense, 'cause it is an Academy show. But I'll be excited to see what they do with that, but until next time, y'all, live long and prosper. - Be me up. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (dramatic music)
