Exocomps! | TNG 6.9, "The Quality of Life" | T7R #365

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lieutenant Commander Jordie LaForge isn't sure if he's going to
grow his beard out to a kling on a beard
as a symbol of courage, and Reiker wants to see
Beverly as a brunette. Hello, everybody, welcome to the Seventh Rule.
Was sir rock Lofton he Hello, My name is Ryan T. Husk,
and today we are doing a review of Star Trek

(00:20):
the Next Generation, Season six, episode nine, The Quality of Life,
written by Narren Schenker, directed by Jonathan Frakes. We'll hear
more about him, I'm sure for the rest of our
lives direct in shows. This was November fourteenth, nineteen ninety two.
Where were you and how are you today? Sirock?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I am doing well, Thank you brother.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
All right, everybody, please make sure you like this video.
Subscribe to the channel. Hit the bell icon for notifications
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Seventh Rule to become a part of the team, support
the cause, have some fun with us. All right, So

(01:11):
I've seen this episode before, but not for many many, many,
many many years, maybe twenty or twenty five years or
something like that. Uh, Sirak, you haven't seen this episode
an even longer. It's your first time seeing it, right,
What did you think of it overall? Did you like it?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes? Overall I liked the episode. There were some really
good things about this episode that made it fun for me. One,
I liked them opening with the poker table, kind of
the banter between Doctor Crusher and Warph and just that

(01:55):
whole you know, talking about the beard. I thought they
brought up the beard again, so that was like kind
of a recurring subject, you know, because they they did
mention that I think in the episode either before this
or the one before that, because it was a beard
reference to Georgia, are you going out your beer? And
I forgot who said that. I think it was Data
who first said it first kind of noticed it, and

(02:19):
so that callback was good for me. The poker call
back was good for me. I just liked that moment
in general. As far as the start, It's like, as
you know, you always kind of see where are we
going with the open of this, and so that left
me in like a place of familiarity, a place of comfort, like, okay,

(02:40):
the pop they play a poker, they're small talking, they're
making side bets, you know, and you could clearly see
that none of them wanted to shave their beard. So
they were like, yo, I'm out of here. You got this.
They're like, you're the captain.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I was trying to remember that. I was like when
I when I was watching, I was like, there's no
way that Beverly becomes a brunette that I can remember.
I don't remember wharf and them being shaven their faces,
So there's something. There's a way of it. And I
would guess. I was like, oh, I'm sure they're gonna
get called to the ready room or something like that.
So that worked out. Yeah, but I do want to
ask you this, what do you think of Jordan and

(03:19):
his beard?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I like it. I like it. It makes them look
more like an R and B singer at that time
or something in a Jordie and the LaForge is, you know, something,
something really creative. But I like it. It doesn't bother me.
You know, it's okay, it's nice and trim, and it's

(03:48):
it's grown into a point right here. So I like that.
It's kind of filled in. When Data first made a remark,
it wasn't quite there yet, you know. So there's always
that in between stage when you're going on a beard.
So yeah, you know, you're always like like, oh god,
it looks scruppy right now, it looks terrible, But you
just got to kind of power through those those stages

(04:11):
in order to get to a place where you feel
like you've got a comfortable beard.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
I like it. Yeah, it looks good on him because
it's tight, because it's high and tight, you know what
I mean, it's like the one one and a half
week maybe two weeks kind of beard. It looks good
also because we've seen him clean shaven for five seasons.
It's just a little change where you're like, oh, that's interesting.
And I wonder if they wrote it in you know,

(04:37):
are you going to keep the beard or aren't you?
I think it's because LeVar himself didn't know if he
was going to keep the beard, you know, like he's
just kind of like, I don't know. But they have
to address it, right because nobody in Starfleet ever is
like two days unshaven. They either have a beard or
they don't. When what's his name? When Riker came into

(05:00):
the second season. Remember he just had that beard. He
went from no beard to beard because he grew it
out in between the seasons, and he thought they were
going to make him shave it when he came into,
you know, episode one of season two, but they kind
of didn't. Apparently Geene Roddenberry liked it, but then they

(05:21):
kind of messed with it. They tried to shave part
of it. I think the story was like Roddenberry wanted
to be more of a nautical beard, so he wanted
to kind of be like thin or whatever, and then
that didn't look good, so they had to like do
makeup to like fill it back in something like that.
Kind of like Cisco had that too, for like a
one episode for a week when it was starting to

(05:41):
grow out his goateea, so they filled it out with
like fake go tea, which was obviously fake, and then
like the next week or the week after it was
gone and he had his real go tea in because
they're like, dude, we can't have you with like four
day go tea. You know that just doesn't look right.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, he's got to be there already, So yeah, you know,
there's always this thing about facial hair, and there was
a big deal about it with Cisco obviously, because you know,
they didn't want him to look a certain way, so
they wanted him clean shaven as well. So this seems
to be now a pattern I see where they let

(06:18):
characters start off with a clean shave and then they
decide whether or not they're going to, you know, allow
them to grow in some facial hair. So you know,
this is now Riker and LaForge. Cisco comes right after this,
so it's happened a few times now, right, So it's

(06:38):
a big topic of conversation somewhere in the upper echalot
of the Star Trek universe about whether or not they
you know, a beard is endorsable or you know, authorized.
But you know, altogether, I think that was just a
good opening. You know. For me, I thought it was enjoyable,

(07:03):
the whole brunette stuff, all of that stuff. But you
know what happened though, is you asked me about this episode. Yeah,
it kind of threw me off because when it started,
I really thought this was a Jeordi episode, and I
was like, yes, Jordi get an episode. This is going
to be great. I thought that his chemistry with the

(07:28):
doctor was good, and I thought that that chemistry would
lead into.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Another failed another, Yes.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Another failed attempt. Yeah, that's his that's his Sydney group.
He just called it.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
He just another failed at attempt, like another bad creation.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yes, exactly. Uh So that's where I thought this was
going because they had good chemistry doing this. Woman was
fantastic as a as doctor Farrell Ferlyn parallel.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, I thought that was a good performance because there
was a lot of technobabble there. She was holding her
own against LeVar, which is a hard thing to do,
especially in the realm of science and technobabble and all that.
So she was going back and forth with them in
that opening scene. I thought, Okay, I sent some chemistry here.

(08:22):
They're gonna have a you know, a moment of scientific
connection and it may lead into something else. But that's
not where this episode went, and so I was surprised.
That's all. Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, Like, I'm gonna go ahead and be honest with you.
This episode I remember not I wouldn't say dislike it.
I didn't dislike this episode, but I didn't really like
this episode when I was a kid and I watched it,
you know, in the first run because I was just
kind of like, okay, so we're just doing this thing

(08:59):
with these I don't know, it just didn't work for me.
This time it's a little bit better. It's not I
don't know what it is that I don't like about it.
I think maybe it's because the exocomps, you know, Data like,
it's so obvious. You can see his facial reactions and
whatever are too. D two does his little worrying and

(09:19):
all that. These guys had a little bit of that,
but it didn't quite work for me when I was
a kid. Now more as an adult, you can just
look at the story, and the story is actually a
really good one, which is what is life? What does
it mean to be a life? And this is something
that the measure of a man?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Right.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
They talked about that when Picard says we're looking for
new forms of life or something like that, and he said,
well there he sits, you know, which is just an
amazing moment. And so now and then Data even referenced that.
He said, yes, you know, when my own humanity was
in question, you stood behind me, and they were referring

(09:57):
to that. So as far as the story is concerned,
now it totally works for me, because that's what Star
Trek's about. It's about defining things or finding out like
a new application to that definition. The definition is life,
how do we apply it? And you know, this happens

(10:19):
a lot in Star Trek. We see it all the
time with data with the exocomps. Also, well we could
talk about that a little later, but I don't know
if you remember, but the exocomps actually come back later
in Star Trek.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
I recognized exocomps. I think it turned into a bad
computer later on in Lower Decks or something.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Right, sounds like you know, so I won't tease it yet.
Who do you think it was?

Speaker 2 (10:48):
I thought it was one of the evil computers like
Aramis or whatever it was.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
It was a peanut Hamper.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Peanut Hamper, Yeah, I am I going to ever forget that.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, good old peanut Hamper. So when Peanut Hamper first
appeared in Lower Decks, that's why everybody freaked out. We're like, whoa,
it's an exocomp. But yes, here's something that I thought
I remembered. Maybe there's a Mandela effect or something, but
I thought I remembered seeing the two exocomps flying off

(11:25):
into space together that didn't happen, right, No, But for
some reason I have that memory, Like when I remember
this episode, I remember, oh, that one sacrifice and then
the other two went off to go explore space or
something like that. Like, how do I have that memory?
Maybe that was something that they mentioned in lower decks,

(11:47):
So that's why I think of it that way. They
kind of completed that arc. But yeah, what did you
think of that?

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Which part the ending? The exocomp ending?

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, the sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Look, I thought this this episode does what Star Trek's
bust to do, and that is just make us think
a little bit outside of our normal parameters and just
process information slightly differently. It gives us a puzzle that
we've seen before, but it adjusts and alters it to
a degree that allows for variations so that it creates

(12:26):
a new circuit of pathways, which is kind of what
this episode did with this exocomp. Right, they were creating
new circuitry themselves, expanding their own life and therefore thinking
and reasoning and objectivity and data collection and all of
these things that we expand through. And I believe that

(12:52):
you know, this episode hit on those notes because you
have the subject matter of something that, like I said,
we've had brought up before the idea of a computer
gaining some some sort of life form obviously happened, you know,

(13:14):
was the topic of discussion and measure of a man, right,
It's the topic of discussion in two thousand and one
Space Odyssey. It's it's it's shown up several times before
where you know, we attribute this learning AI or whatever
into some kind of uh life form that acts and

(13:38):
thinks on its own eye. Robot for example, was another
one Will Smith movie. You know that, Well, it's a
similar situation where this robot was claiming to be alive
and have you know, ideas and thoughts and dreams and
you know, claimed to be alive. And again, like I said,

(14:02):
this idea can be recycled in many ways and brought
to us in different ways. And the nuance in this
way was actually the thing that you probably disliked about
it when you first saw it, and that is the
lack of communication. Normally, in these situations, the artificial intelligence

(14:26):
is able to communicate and verbalize its position, right.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
And so just to jump on that, maybe you're right there.
But now in twenty twenty five, that's what makes this
episode so brilliant. That's maybe the most brilliant part of
the episode is that it can't speak for itself. It
can't be a voice. You know, we as humans, we
always want to be a voice for the voiceless. This

(14:53):
is why we protect children, this is why we protect animals,
this is why we protect the environment, because they don't
have that voice to protect themselves. And so this is
what made that that story so good is that you know,
Data speaking for himself. You know, that's cool, It's it's
a good episode, it works, great episode. But what about

(15:14):
something that can't speak for itself? What about something that
doesn't look cute and furry and fuzzy and doesn't make
facial reactions like Data does. It's just a little moving
trash can that makes a couple of cute little noises,
but yeah, it does. It cannot advocate for itself. So
I think that's actually maybe the best aspect of this
whole episode. That's what makes it so good, right.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
And that's what that's why I agree with then because
of that, there need to be an advocate or an emissary,
and Data is the emissary on behalf of this basically
life form that doesn't have communication skills, although I felt
there were gestures while watching it that seemed to communicate

(15:58):
to me nonverbally, because a lot lot of communication is
non verbal, and I think there's a whole lot of
nonverbal company. You can just you know, looks people's aura,
the you know, just you can see, you can sense
if somebody wants to be left alone, if somebody, you know,
is angry. There's so many things that you can sense

(16:21):
without words. You know, you can put headphones in and
observe these things. And so there were non verbal gestures
that signaled to me from my own human database expression.
So when this, for example, trial was being run on

(16:44):
the Exo comp it was performing its task doing the
lasering on the panel while they were watching, and it
appeared to turn to look over at them, and oh
I didn't catch that. Yeah, it appeared to me, I
mean it did do that. It made a gesture where

(17:06):
it kind of it was focused on the panel this way.
They were on the you know, on the end of
the tube over there. It looked over this way like okay,
and then it said, let me just focus back over here,
and it continued to do the work. And to me,
that moment was like realizing that this was a test
and that I'm not going to exit this thing at

(17:29):
this moment. I'm going to alter the results of the test.
And so through a nonverbal communication, I was able to
pick that up through movement.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, and a lot of that is going to be
credited to Jonathan Frakes. I did not notice that he
directed this. I didn't see that in the credits. I
wasn't really looking at that. I think I was taking notes.
But when I just marked it down in my notes
from IMDb, I was like, all right, yet again, the
freak strikes again. And this is why we keep seeing

(18:02):
his name pop up over and over and over and
over again. I thought this was really good directing on
his part. And those little things. Now, obviously it was
surely on the page. You know, on the page is
going to say the extra complex of each other. They
look at this right, But it's also up to the
director to convey that. When it's an actor, it's up

(18:23):
to the actor to convey it. When it's a machine,
the director's really got to get that get that angle right,
otherwise it's going to look super hokey. One not to
change the subject, but real quick, one of the things.
Speaking of Hokey is in the Orville. They have their
data character, right, what is his name, Isaac? But he

(18:46):
doesn't have a face. He's just a face plate with
two lights, right, no reaction, know, nothing, no movement, is
just a plate. And it's so funny when they say
so something to him and the director cuts to him
as a reaction shot, and it's like, it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
It's the funny.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
The Isaac reaction shots are priceless because it cuts to
him and nothing. There's nothing going on for five seconds.
It's just you're just staring at a blank plate.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
So that's the joke, right then, Right, So.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
The key is to not do that, which is hard
to do. But it was good and I thought the
exocoms themselves look like a good piece of art, you know,
put together.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Well yeah, I mean, you know it came apart, you
saw deconstructed. It had did lights, it had a little
you know, sound effect cues that were directed for it.
But you know, you mentioned Jonathan Frakes, and yeah, I
wrote some things that I really enjoyed about what he
did as far as choices he made directing this piece.

(19:58):
And one of the things I liked was there was
a shot of Jordie and Data in one of the
science laboratory areas. They just finished speaking with doctor parrel
aleran pharaoh. They just finished with doctor Farallon. She walks away,

(20:18):
and I think Data has a you know and JORDI
have a moment where they're like, you know, she's kind
of overworked or super passionate about this or or whatnot.
And as they're having that conversation, it's behind a glass
panel and Freak's is panning slowly as he goes and
they have this conversation because he kind of catches her

(20:40):
exit as she walks out down spray, and then he
slides the camera down as the two of them are
by this you know thing, this little desk or whatever
they're at, and the lights are flashing off of the
glass in a beautiful way. So he constructed some lights
to be some blue lights and red lights to kind

(21:00):
of flash on the glass as he's panning through, and
it left a very good visual as far as your
just context and depth. You know, you get to see
them through the panel, and the light reflecting on the
background actually created another just element in the shot that

(21:21):
gave it a three D kind of perspective, and so
that was a great shot for Jonathan Franks. I thought
that was just beautiful shot. Another thing that I liked
was when doctor Crusher came up to Data and he
was in the room studying. There was an aerial shot
kind of of him in that little study room and

(21:42):
she walked up and he kind of moved in. That
was a beautiful shot. It just showed the set and
how beautiful the set was, how elaborate was Data's little
office room that he was in her walking up on it.
I thought that was a beautiful shot, and.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
I like just to jump on that. I like when
we see a new piece of set and not just
see it, but feature it, you know what I mean,
Like every once in a while they feature something new.
A Deep Space nine would do that well, but it
was always dark, right. The next generation has this beautiful,
well lit set, but we really usually just see like

(22:25):
the captain's chair or wharf or you know, somebody you
know back on the computer typing. But every once in
a while we see really cool new shots of like
the the engineering room, you know, like a few episodes ago,
and in this case, Data Study got to see a
lot of engineering. But the thing is they just have
I mean, you know, you guys have access to these

(22:46):
gigantic sets that go on forever, and the art department
is spending forever building these things and making them look perfect,
and the camera's just catching this. It's so sad. I
want to see all of it, you know. So it's
nice when we can see something kind of new, a
little featured, you know.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
Well, it's a give and take thing, you know, it's
a momentary thing. I'll give you an example for example.
In this same episode, there is a wide shot overhead
of everybody in the what is the room where the
briefing room where they all get together in Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Like the conference room.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
It's the conference room, right. You know, we briefly saw
Troy in there. It was a moment where they were
getting together to talk about the problem, right, And it
was an aerial establishing shot that showed too much of
the room for me. And I know he was, you know,
doing that in this episode because he used some large

(23:49):
establishing shots that were overhead at an angular like the
one that I liked in the where Data study where
the pressure walks up on him. But that one I liked,
I didn't necessarily like the one in the in that
conference room, because I felt like it showed a little
bit too much carpet area and space that was like

(24:12):
dead space to me. I see, and that's why I
didn't like it. Framing wise, I would have chose a
little bit different because I would have actually chose a
tighter shot in that moment, because it would have had
a more of a sense of urgency to me with it.
If you have a low wide shot showing everybody there

(24:36):
and then a bunch of moving panning shots that are
close closer, that shows like, you know, we're in the meeting, this,
we're deliberating something serious. This is a more serious moment.
So you know, those are choices, you know, and a
lot of the times you're gambling on whether you like

(24:58):
them or not. I liked the majority of them. That
one particular shot, I just don't like seeing that old
style carpet and it bothers me. So I was like,
too much carpet and that set.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
I'm not touching that. But what I am going to
do is I'm going to tell us that it's time
for our break on the seventh rule, So everybody stick around.
We're going to have more hot takes on the seventh Rule. Well,
hi there, everybody, welcome back to the seventh Rule with

(25:31):
Sir rock freaking Lofton. Yeah, hell that was almost aggressive.
Sorry about that. Here are the trivioids of the week.
Jordie isn't sure if he's going to grow his beard
out to a cling on a beard is a symbol
of courage. Riker wants to see Beverly as a brunette.
The Enterprise has arrived at the Tean system. The interlink

(25:51):
sequencer is now bi directional. It compensates for the asynchronous
mode distortion arising from the resident field.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
SOCOM's computational speed is about as good as data is.
Doctor Farallon enjoys a quiet cup of tea wharf injured
Beverly rude. Recognizing new life, whatever its form, is the
principal mission of this vessel. The vessel be in the Enterprise. Okay,

(26:20):
it was a moment I liked, uh when Picard said
that is an order to doctor Farrellon, When you know
she's like, I'm not leaving or whatever. He said, no,
that isn't order, and I kind of stopped and I
was like, oh, this guy just takes charge of everything, Like,
I don't know, I kind of I'd like it when

(26:41):
a captain has to say that's in order. We've seen
Riker have to do it sometimes. We've seen uh, you
get it this episode. Yeah right, We've seen Picard do it.
We've seen all the captains do it every once in
a while. Of course, we've seen Kirk do it. It's
like a smirk. But you know, it's always nice when

(27:02):
a captain or the person in charge says this is
a decision, because it's it's like a life and death decision,
and I don't know, it's always just nice to see.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
You know. Well, it's actually a warning. It's it's like
it's like the police saying put your freeze, put your
hands up. I think it's a warning that I am
aiming a gun at you and you have a choice
to make right. And so that's the same thing. So
the captain's saying that's a direct order, is a warning

(27:38):
that anything you say now can and will be helped.
Yeah yeah, and you're going to get you know, you
will suffer consequences now and repercussions. So this is the line,
and you're prepared to cross it or not. And so
I think that's what the significance of it. And usually

(28:01):
what we see in those cases is one of two things.
A person, oh three things. Actually, a person decides to
follow that warning and honor the captain wholes. They could
disobey that warning based on a principle that is unviolatable

(28:24):
for which they will ultimately not receive consequences for because
that principle is the subject matter of the episode, right right.
And then the third is that they will disobey the
order and face consequences. So those are the three outcomes
for me.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
And every once in a while you have someone like
ensign Row that's just kind of like if I could
just have, you know, a little more time, I just
really you know, they'll they'll push a crusher. We'll do
that sometimes, Jordi.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
You know my Data has done it too.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, well Data definitely did it. In this episode. He
walked out Riker and he was like, you know, I'll
relieve you of duty and he says, well that is
your prerogative. It's like, damn, Data, you gotta.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
And I want to say something about that too as well. Data.
This is this is what I love about Brent Spinner's performance.
What he does. Data and it actually really shined in
this episode as well, specifically in the scene that you
just mentioned with Riker and where Riker tells him, you know,

(29:37):
you understand you could be court martialed and all of
this stuff, and he's like, yes, I understand. Uh, data
remains calm all the time. It's that calmness in his voice.
It is the he doesn't get angered, He doesn't raise

(29:58):
his voice. He only adds urgency to his voice when
there's a sense of urgency. So that's the only emotional,
you know, twinge that he'll put on his performances, urgency,
like Captain, we need to do this right, you know,
like it's got to do that right. Like it's he'll
put urgency on it, but he doesn't put anger, bitterness,

(30:25):
you know what I mean, like other emotions that we
carry around, you know, sarcasm, you know, just other things
that we put on. We accentuate our delivery with when
we talk, right, we always put these emotional accent points
on our delivery. Not always, but it can be done.

(30:47):
And especially when you're trying to make a point. You know,
you sensationalize, you hyperbole all of that stuff. You your gestures,
you inflate you, you pronounce certain words, you grandize the
actual language, and so but Data doesn't do that. He

(31:09):
actually remains with this very calm and even keeled, very
like I'm not afraid. I understand what you're saying. You
made a point, here's my counter, and that's it. I
have nothing else. And that is an emotional control level

(31:31):
that like like a Buddhist master, are a monk? Are
you know what I mean? It's an emotional control level
that very few people are able to reach because we
all have, you know, buttons that get pushed inside of us, right,
and we get emotionally volatile or upset about certain things,

(31:55):
and we sense tone and we feel offended and all
of these things. And Data doesn't feel offended. He doesn't see.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Love that about him. I love that, Like when the
doctor was like, you know she, I remember she was
so rude to him at first, and he was just like, well,
I'm sorry that it didn't go well for you or no.
I appreciate the way like he takes no offense. Somebody's
like telling him, oh, I think that you're just a robot,
and well, I can understand why you would think that.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
He's so good about that.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
He's so good about not being offended and just just
just being monotone in his emotional you know delivery essentially.
And that's why you could see Riker's so frustrated because
he's like, damn it, Data, don't you understand.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
He's like two of your friends are in there.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And he totally was like I understand.
And then when Riker came with a solution, I thought
that was great for Riker too. That was also a
mind that shows his mental faculties. Right, He's he's still
his wheels are still spinning. He's not going to keep

(33:06):
butting his head up against this this you know wall
that's not going to open. He's like, Okay, Data is
already kind of like he's locked in on this position.
I've already threatened court martial.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, if he relieves him of duty, then you don't
get what you want. So he's like, okay, how do
we figure this out?

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Data?

Speaker 1 (33:25):
We'll deal with you later, but how we figure this out?

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Right? How do I get the desired outcome? And that's
also part of a good leadership. That's why Riker is
a good number one because he's not trying to make
a point, I'm more superior than you as an officer.
He wants a desired outcome of saving the forge, and
that's his desire, right, that's his outcome, that's all, that's

(33:49):
what I want. So me yelling at you, are you know,
punishing you That doesn't get to the desired outcome. Actually
need you in this moment because you've locked me on
the computer and you're also the smartest person who can calculate,
you know, how much time we have left or what
positive scenarios we can endeavor. So I need you on

(34:12):
my team. That's also good leadership to build his trust
back up, to get him to endorse it. For Rikers
wheels to keep spinning and thinking, okay, well what about
if we ask them and they voluntarily yeah, boom and
Data agreed. So I thought it was a very good scene.

(34:33):
I actually I really liked this episode. It was it's
almost like the continuation of the measure of a man.
It's Data being able to do that for another life form,
and I think it was well executed. It was well executed,
The directing was good. Like I said, it threw me
off because I thought it was a Jordy episode, but
it actually turned out to be more of a Data episode,

(34:57):
and I thought it was fantastic. It had me going
love the other stuff with doctor Crusher, like you know,
with the bat List and you know those out those
Batlist outfits. I want, I want one of those.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Bad Yeah, we're always seeing war practicing in those. But
I did want to jump on what you were saying
too about Jordie, I thought. I remember, initially, I thought
it was going to be like another one where you know, Jordie,
maybe he falls in love with her, or maybe he's
just button heads with her the whole time, because he

(35:30):
was fighting her and fighting her and fighting her at
the beginning, and then she was like getting along okay
with Jordy or with the Data, and then it kind
of evens out a little bit at the end there
and she everybody's good friends. But I didn't want to
point out a great line that Data said. Maybe the
best line when she says far Lahn says they are

(35:53):
a tool. There's a big difference between data and a tool,
and Data says there's a big difference between you and
a virus, but you are both alive. I'm like, well
that's a checkmate. Sorry, you know what I mean, like
like they're just a human and a virus are completely different,

(36:13):
but they are both living creatures. So if Data is
a living creature and this thing's a tool, that does
not necessarily mean it can't also be alive, you know,
under those rules.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, and Data came up with also argument with Doctor
Crusher about fire, you know, does not fire consumes and
you know, fire reproduces or whatever. And so I thought
that was that was a very good kind of counter
to Doctor Crusher, you know, like just as far as

(36:49):
an intellectual debate. And that's what I also watch these
things for as intellectual what is the intellectual reasoning or
debate behind this episode? For example, this a lot of
this was just about defining what is life, you know,
and that that was kind of at the heart of it, right,

(37:09):
And so they talked about self preservation as one of
the fundamental, I guess core principles of defining life. Right,
It was self preservation. That's how they were able to
initially identified that exocomp was some kind of sentient being

(37:30):
because it had the instinct to preserve itself exactly right.
So that was a very good that's a good you know,
intellectual kind of thing to ponder on and discuss. The
other thing was self repair. They mentioned that, you know,
the ability for this thing to self repair. Remember it

(37:54):
shut down and then it came back and repaired itself.
And I think that's an interesting also so aspect when
it comes to defining life. It's something that would be
an interesting thing to explore because we do go through
a level of self repair in our lives, whether it's
healing from physical ailments or healing from mental ones. You know,

(38:18):
we seek to self repair. We seek to heal from
those things. We want to move on from trauma or
from injury, and the body naturally does it. Like when
you twist your ankle, you know, you do self repair.
You don't have to do anything. If you wait long enough,
your ankle is going to heal. Or if you have

(38:40):
a scat a scar on your I mean for the
most part, yeah, exactly, for the most part. You nike
yourself shaving, you know that it will scab up and
self repair, and so that is kind of a voluntary
kind of thing that our body naturally does. So I
thought that was an interesting kind of thing to discuss
and debate as far as a element, our building block

(39:01):
or what life or what constitutes like and for the
writing purposes that you know, who's the writer, Nathan Naron Shankkar.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, he's written a lot.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Good writing. Because I'll tell you another thing I liked
about this, just as far as his writing was just
great the self repair. Right on the heels of them
discussing the extra compstibility to self repair, they cut to
doctor Crusher in the sick bay, Yeah, repairing herself after

(39:38):
being wounded by a wharf in the batlift battle. Right,
So that was like just that to me, that's just
great writing, Like, oh, you have the top conversation about
self repair the boom, we cut to the doctor actually
self repairing. It's it's it's basically proving your argument through

(39:58):
the storytelling. And it's just fantastic writings for this as
far as I'm concerned. Yes, So when do you get
to use the word anthrope.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
For more answer promorphize?

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, say.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
That forty five times fast. So this guy Narron, he's
written a lot. He was either a part of or
writing directly for fifty two episodes of the Next Generation,
so he's in the writer's room. He wrote one episode
of Voyager in the first season Heroes and Demons. He
wrote two episodes for Deep Space nine, one of which

(40:33):
was the fifth episode Babbel, and the other one is
a fourth season episode, The Quickening, So he's everywhere. He's
also written for Far Escape, the Outer Limits, Grim for
all Mankind right Now, and the Expanse.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
So that's wait a minute, for all Mankind.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, he's writing.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Does n More on that?

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (40:59):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (40:59):
N More brought in a bunch of people to for
all Mankind?

Speaker 2 (41:04):
So wait a minute. He brought Narran in there, Ron Moore?
Who else is on there?

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Let me tell you? Actually?

Speaker 2 (41:15):
For all Mankind?

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, so because there's like four or five other dudes
from Star Trek that you would recognize. So Ronald D. Moore,
Bradley Thompson, remember Bradley Thompson and David Weddell, they're always
partners on Deep's face nine, Joe Minoski so that's uh,

(41:40):
and Narron. So that's five of them, plus who is
it like the science advisors and things like that, Like
the Akuda's like a whole just it's a whole slow
Star Trek people.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, wow, all right, we're all mankind. Shout out to dem.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, they are very star treky. They're very star treky.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Well, you know, it's also good that I like when
I hear guys that hire people they work with in
the past that they enjoy working with, and ultimately it
means they were good, But it also means you're looking
out too, Like those people could easily not hire somebody
and hire somebody else, but you're actually doing a looking
out type of thing by keeping your friends employed. So

(42:24):
that shows good on Ronald Y Moore.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Yeah, we also had a Tracy Coco sighting on the
transporter pad that was cool, full face, fully featured. Also
on that transporter room scene, we had Kelso, the transporter
Chief Kelso, which is just it's just a reminder that
Chief O'Brien is gone, that you guys stole them from us.

(42:51):
You know, whenever a transporter chief actually gets a name
and lines, you're like, damn, that could have been O'Brien.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
I was a little bit as the point, but then
I thought to myself, I'm pretty sure he was doing
around time.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
That's it. He's on deep space nine now, so he's gone.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah, and it's it's I was like, Kelso, who is
this guy? He's no O'Brien. No, not even any of
the lock on at three signals.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Come on, man, three metallic signals.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
One more thing I wanted to bring up, just kind
of a small, nitpicky kind of thing, which is they
were in the Tyrann System and the planet they went
to was Tiras seven.

Speaker 5 (43:38):
A, and I'm like, I've never heard an A added
at the end of I mean, like like, Tiras means
that's the star. The star is Tiras, and then there's
a bunch of planets orbiting that, and the seven means

(43:59):
it's the seven to plant it out? So what's seven A?
Is that like a moon? You know, like maybe seven
A is the moon and the BCD maybe that's what
it is. I'd love to know, do you know?

Speaker 2 (44:13):
No? But or maybe they were like they were like
when visiting Terrace seven ay ay, I don't know that one,
but that's interesting. Okay.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Oh And one more thing that I need to address
is this was another great episode that featured rocks flying
around in the Enterprise. You know, when there's like like
there's like an explosion and rocks fly out. Where are
they storing all these rocks? I know, lower decks give

(44:47):
them a second shout out. They did. They did establish
that where they're like, oh, we're storing all these rocks here,
and that's, you know, kind of their joke, because every
time there's an explosion on a ship, there's a big
old concrete and pebbles and stuff debris falling everywhere. It's
never left. It's never like plaster or you know, some

(45:09):
kind of wooden board, you know, it's always like a
long metallic thing or rocks. They always have rocks anyway.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Yeah, well I can explain that because I've seen down
there where I was down there with O'Brien looking at
the cercaitry. Yeah, we store rocks sometimes down in those
cabinets down there below, just in case there's like weapons
fall and there's all the powers out and we need
to defend ourselves. We have the rock throwers, you know.

(45:42):
There's that. And then the other thing you might be
seeing are a quartz crystal computer hard drive and it's
a solid quartz piece and it functions as one of
the internal dry.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
I see, I see, Yeah, that makes that makes sense. Yeah,
so you know what else makes sense? The home run
of today's episodees Rock. Who do you think gets the
home run of today's episode.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Wow, this is pretty hard. Actually, this is actually really
hard because there's several people that could get it. Several
people could get it. Oh my god. I'm going to
do this though, because I think the home run and

(46:34):
it's really crazy because it's oh my god, I'm gonna go.
I have several home run hitters.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
The home run for acting, I'm going to give to
the guest star who played doctor Falyn. I thought she
was awesome. I hated her a little bit, and I
think that means she was good at her performance. Did
hate her. I thought she was you know, too bossy,
too eric, and too opinionated. And that's great because that's

(47:05):
what her character was supposed to do. And so that's
a good performance. And she was keeping up with that
techno babble as good as anybody I've seen who gets
on an episode, as good as anybody, as anybody I've
ever seen guest star in an episode techno babble wise,
she was up there in the top She's in my
top five. So, uh, that's the acting. The directing goes

(47:29):
to the one for directing, it has to be Jonathan Frakes.
Love those shots. I love this directing and felt great.
And lastly to the writer, I just think it's a
great writing episode because it's a take on measure of
a man. It's its own original episode yet you know
it plays on it, but it's original. It has callbacks
a poker, it has the beer callback. It has a

(47:51):
lot of things that I like. And then it had
the moment with the card and date at the end
where Data Picard tells him that's the most human thing
you ever did. I just like that moment there. I
love what the car kind of inflates his crew when
he gives them a big pat on the back. That
to me is also a great sign of leadership with

(48:12):
the captain to be able to pat your guys in
the back and give them something that pumps them up
for the for the road ahead. So I love I
love all of that.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Yeah, I was expecting that that line too. I don't
know if I remembered it in the back of my
head or if it's just like a Star Trek thing.
You know, that was the most human thing you've ever done?
Boy oh boy. For me, I gotta say it's Jonathan Frakes.
I like the directing through and through solid everything was
great with the directing, so it's just like an all

(48:41):
around performance for him. Data was always great, you know,
as always was great.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
So secondary let me let me add to you for
the Jonathan Frakes, I want to just a co sign
on that for a second. Performance wise as an actor,
there was a moment when he says to Data, he says,
I can't just risk all of this on the basis
of your belief. The way he said it, he really belief. Yeah,

(49:09):
yeah kicked him, He really kicked him. So I thought
that was a great delivery.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Yeah, good stuff. Also, people with great delivery are doctor
Amery Siegel, Eve England out in Wales. You got Blackman,
Tom t. J. Jackson beyout Missouri, Titus Muller, doctor Mohammad Nora,
neil O Palatjo Bouceati, Mike Goo, doctor Stephanie Baker, Carrie Schwent,
Faith Howell, the Matt Boardman, Chris McGee, Jake Barrett, Henry Hunger,

(49:36):
Allison Leech Hide, Julie Menosfi, Jed Thompson, doctor Susan V. Gruner,
Glenn Iverson, Dave Gregory, Chris Sternet, Greg k Wickstrom, Cassandra G.
Chuck a, Chris Garrison and of course Jason m Oakin.
All right, everybody stick around, We've got the free for
All up next. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

(49:56):
We'll be right back on the Seventh Rule. Hi, everybody,
welcome back to the Seventh Rule of Sir rock Lofton.
It is time for the free for All with Malissa A.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Lungo.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Hello, and of course Jason m Okin Hi, everybody, Eve
England is out in Wales, Chris Garris is in Southeast Texas.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
I bet I am.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Harry Schwentz is the Crafty Bear, Chuck A is the
TNNG fanatic. Hello, and the dark Lord is Chris McGee. Salutations.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
All right.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Jake Cisco guesses the IMDb score.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
Oh, I think it's clears A eight, so I'm going
to say eight point one.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Anybody else have any guesses that doesn't already know?

Speaker 6 (51:00):
Seven four eight three? Oh, yes, seven eight, I'll say
eight point five. I have no idea, but sure.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
The answer is let me reconfirm this, yep, mark eaton
seven point three, sorry, seven point four, seven point four,
let's a little bit exactly.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Wow objects yeah, all right, wow?

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Uh, did we get any nams. I noticed Wesley Crusher
was a name. Did we have any others?

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, doctor doctor, so all.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Right, right, very good, very good.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Well, and Peanut Handler.

Speaker 7 (51:57):
Inadvertently excited to see him.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
I also got some sort of uh, the exocomp exhibited
some sort of self preservation by refusing to go in.
There was there another one, Chris McGee.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
Uh yeah, and actually it was some form of bud.
That will qualify it as well, unless you say the
other one. I don't know, but even the one that
I caught was transporter Chief Kelso near the insane. The
transporter system just went dead. There's some kind of malfunction.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Mm hmm, all right, house cleaning. House cleaning is over,
malise a longo, please get us started off on the
right track by telling us what you thought of You know,
I almost wore my lower decked shirt too because of
peanut Hamper, but I couldn't find it, so I just
put a regular blue shirt on. That's funny. So what

(52:52):
do you think of this one?

Speaker 7 (52:54):
I enjoyed this one.

Speaker 8 (52:56):
I always enjoy episodes that ask these moral questions and
get into these philosophical questions, and this one didn't disappoint.

Speaker 7 (53:10):
And I'm not going to go too much into that
big so I'll save it for all y'all.

Speaker 9 (53:18):
But yeah, I enjoyed this I but surprisingly what I
enjoyed the most, the person that I enjoyed the most
and got the most from in this.

Speaker 7 (53:31):
Episode was Beverly Crusher. I loved her in this episode.
We got some great character building for her, and she
had some wonderful, wonderful moments, particularly in this scene where
she's talking about not trusting lead and beards, sorry Sarah,

(53:53):
and and and just you know, and she tried being
a brunette when she was thirteen. That didn't go so well,
but you know. And you get a sense of her
competitive streak in this as well, in the opening scene.

(54:14):
But I also like her scene with Data, both of
her all of her scenes with Data. I love how
she's a type of scientist and she's a doctor, but
she's also a scientist who's had experience with life and
dealing with life, and she has experience dealing with all

(54:39):
different kinds of lifeforms being on a starship. And I
love that she's so sensitive to Data's exploration of this
new budding life. And I love that she's open, and
I love that she's curious, and I can't say the
same for the the creator of the exo comps. She

(55:03):
felt a little closed off and a little closed minded
for a scientist who, you know, is their job is
to discover she was less than curious at the possibility of, oh,
maybe there is new life in these exo comps. But
I think that was great and I think that's what

(55:25):
the episode needed, that diversity of minds trying to solve
this problem. So yeah, I enjoyed it. I think it
deserved more than a seven point four. Personally.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Yeah, I think it's going to grow on people. I
think it might go up. Thank you very much, Melissa Longo.
All right, Jason m okin what because I was like,
let's leave THEE out this time, but not Jason m
Oakin's middle initial. What do you think of this one?

Speaker 10 (55:57):
Well, you know, the interesting part is this episode has
grown on me over the years, and you know, you
can call it an oh the technobabble if you want.
It probably contains the most technobabble of any episode we've
seen and maybe we'll ever see. I mean, some of
it has to do with Naren Shankar's PhD in physics
and applied physics and electrical engineering.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
I mean, yeah, it.

Speaker 10 (56:16):
Has a little bit to do with that, a lot
of the uh, you know, techno terms and all that
you know. And the other thing that stands out to
me at a great level more now than I think
it did before with was Johnson Jonathan Frake's direction, because
in an episode like this, it can feel very static,
it can feel very talking, and I think you shot
it in the most dynamic way possible for what you had.

(56:38):
I think this relatively small set on the station was
shot probably from every angle you can think of. You
had the camera moving, he even has something, you know,
it looked like these were handheld shots, a little bit
of sort of tension and sort of urgency, and then
when they when it cuts back to the enterprise, he's
sort of this, you know, sort of the static camera
and you sort of feel the difference there. I think

(57:00):
it was I think it was very well done. There
are quite a few moments that I really enjoyed. Again,
too many to mention right now. I think, you know,
Melissa mentioned Gates and her performance I think was very
very subtle. If you watch the scene where she's in
Sigbay and fixes her own arm. She keeps cradling it
for quite a bit further down in the scene. Just

(57:22):
a nice bit, you know, going along there. I mean,
at some level, this is sort of a measure of
a man light, if you will. But I think it's
important to ask these questions, it's important to explore them.
I think Ellen Bride did a very good.

Speaker 11 (57:35):
Job as a as a guest star in the episode,
because it's again it's not easy to deliver that kind
of dialogue and sort of convey the new ones as
of emotion and everything else with sort of this kind
of conviction and the fact that you sort of.

Speaker 10 (57:49):
Dislike her as a character, I think it speaks of
her performance. And the bottom line is anything that has
Brent at the center of a story, he's always fun
to watch. I think he's great. Conveys a lot of
emotion without really sort of emolding out, which is a
great thing to have. There's a lot more to say here,
and I'll save that for later. But I think I
enjoy this now more than I have before, and I

(58:10):
appreciate it more now.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Yeah, me too, Thanks very much. Jason m oakin Eve
England out in Wales. Do you like this episode more
than the first time you watched it.

Speaker 12 (58:24):
I definitely enjoyed it more than all the other episodes
of season six so far, so really I was, yeah,
I was like, yeah, this is a really good episode.
I'm really it's the first one I think I watched
where I thought, do you know what? This feels like
a season six episode? And I really enjoyed how everything
kind of came together with it. Obviously, it was amazing
to say, oh my gosh, it's Peanut Humper and now

(58:44):
I get so I kind of need to go back
and watch lowerd X. I didn't have time to do that,
but that was really cute, and it certainly they reminded
me of those those little robots in batteries not included,
and I was like.

Speaker 7 (58:58):
Oh my gosh, it's so.

Speaker 12 (59:00):
So cute, and even cute than Peanut Hamper. That's why
I couldn't stop thinking about that the whole time. But
as every one said, I just it was really interesting
having that philosophical question about you know, what actually is
life and actually having it from data's perspective, so a
non human perspective, because you know, we always talk about how,
you know, the whole of staff, it's very human centric

(59:22):
in terms of the outlook, you know, And it was
really interesting how you know, Data was kind of being
judge for putting the you know, the exocom's value above
or you know, questioning that as opposed to just automatically
saving Picard and Drudie, because obviously, as humans, you know,
we put and it's the same conversations you have and

(59:42):
about you know, whether we meet and the value of
other creatures on this planet. You know, you you put
more value as a species on other humans, and particularly
humans that you care for, that your friends, that your
family are as opposed to then you know, humans who
are on the other side of the planet suffering. And
I thought that was a really interesting perspective seeing it

(01:00:02):
from Data side and actually on a much more objective level. Okay, well,
these these little creatures were worried about their existence, so
you know, but then that was he was being questioned
then by his crewmates, and I just thought that was
a really interesting kind of take on the whole argument
of what is life? And you know, we always think
that we know best about our values and our morals,

(01:00:24):
but actually do we and we're still seeing it through
the human lens. So yeah, I particularly enjoyed how they
sort of mixed that up for us as a kind
of second chapter to the Measure of a Man as well,
so it's sort of that different perspective. So yeah, you know,
I definitely agree they should have been a higher rated episode.

Speaker 13 (01:00:41):
I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Good stuff, Thank you very much. Eve England out in Wales.
First time watcher Chris Garris not his first time. What'd
you think of this one?

Speaker 6 (01:00:53):
Oh no, this is one of my I don't want
to say favorite, but I really enjoyed this episode. It's
you know, it dives again into the you know, is
this you know, sentient or not sentient? You know, I
will say I had to actually look up a word
for this one because I'd never heard of affectation before.

(01:01:14):
I was like, what is that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
And you know it.

Speaker 6 (01:01:16):
Looks too impressed basically what she was given the guys
a hard time about. I was like, okay, And I
did think they kind of took out that took the
easy way out, letting you know, when the cards is
all you know, Senior offers to the bridge. Sorry we
got to go, so we never know what those hands,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Okay you sorry dogs.

Speaker 6 (01:01:34):
He took the easy he took the easy way out
and not having to shave, and you know, I liked
how data he you know, and still he's always still
searching for like, you know, what's life. You know, by
this time, he's already you know, we've already dealt with
him trying to be disassembled.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
Yes we have go back.

Speaker 6 (01:01:51):
Into my memory for a second, and we have, and
you know, he it's again. You know, are the actual
comps really sentient? I don't think so. They're just you know,
really really highly intelligent AI and machines that are able
to determine, you know, a better way of doing something.

(01:02:13):
But overall, it's a it's a good episode and I
have never had issues with this one whatsoever. And these
are the good Peanut Hampers at this point. Still they
haven't gone crazy. But yeah, I know, I I really
I'd say it. There was really not a lot of
there's nothing really negative to really to say about this.

(01:02:36):
You know, I kind of felt like you know, the
doctor she you know, obviously at first she was they're
just machines. They're just tools, and you know, when they
start exhibiting the ability to you know, figure out things
on their own, Okay, now they they actually move up

(01:02:56):
a notch to more than a tool, and that was
hard for her to actually grapple with, and luckily by
the end she does. And now we have, you know,
some more intelligent tools that they can use and that
are not going to try and kill you, at least
not for a little while longer. But again, great episode,

(01:03:18):
highly I can I will always recommend you to watch
someone to walk this one.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Thank you very much. Chris Garris out in Southeast Texas.
All Right, ugly bag of mostly water. That's Carrie saying that,
not me. What do you think of this one?

Speaker 13 (01:03:36):
I enjoyed that he got those one. There were a
couple of scenes that were reminding me of Home Soiled,
so I couldn't resist. You change the name under there
to the ugly bag of mostly water. Stuff like that
just just amuses me. I didn't care for the doctor much,
although I can understand understand her sort of attitude about

(01:03:58):
the whole thing. If you've been working he's been working
on this project, it's been nothing but probably problem. As
her problem. She comes up with this solution. Somebody's trying
to tell her, Oh yeah, I think they're becoming sentient.
She's so hyper focused on finishing it. She doesn't have
the headspace at first to comprehend comprehend it, and so

(01:04:21):
she goes into denial mode because she wants to get
this project finished and it finally has to be like shoot,
it almost shoved in her face, like Okay, yeah, they're
they're they're alive. They deserve to make the choice about
what they're gonna do. And so yeah, I can, I

(01:04:41):
can under I can understand her, her her whole tibe.
Not my favorite of the part of the episode. I
did enjoy pre almost almost everything else. Yeah, the poker. Then,
I've mentioned it before. I'm not a huge fan of
fan of facial hair. I'm aside from my my husband,

(01:05:01):
who who I adore, he's not allowed to have facial hair.
If anybody else who wants to have it, they are
more more than welcome to. It's just not my choice.
But I am on the bed side that you know,
just like women, you know, color their hair and they
put a put on makeup, guys have the choice of

(01:05:23):
whether they whether they want a girl a beard or not.
Sometimes it might be cultural and and I understand that,
and sometimes it's just something they want to do or
something they like to do. If that's your bag, go
for it. I personally don't don't care for it. But
there there, there we have it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
I will.

Speaker 13 (01:05:46):
The other the other best thing that I that I
did enjoy. She looked so comfortable sitting in the chair
when she's wearing her a little her little workout gage
to talk and talking to Data without you'll want one
foot up on the chair, look so relaxed.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
And I kept thinking to myself.

Speaker 13 (01:06:03):
She's sitting there on the table when Data first walks
in repairing the brewis on her own. I want to
see her her and her and wharf far with the
battlest I bet that would be just one on to watch.
I would have loved if the episode was running short
and they needed to add some extra stuff, give me

(01:06:24):
like a thirty second scene of her wharf going on it,
because that would just be that would just be fun.
And of course I love the XO comps. After watching
Peanut and hamper on on Lower Decks, you can definitely
it definitely puts this episode in a whole different light,
and you can see, like the beginnings of they're they're

(01:06:47):
getting smarter, smarter and smarter to eventually what we get
with Peanut Hamper and and and her and her Her
Lovely Her lovely start.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Yeah, he's just exo. Stomps are just so cute.

Speaker 13 (01:07:02):
It's why I love RTD too, and and bby eight
and Johnny five from from from Short to Get All
of Love and an adorable and adorable robot. They're just
they're fun. They're they're adorable. But oh and a fun
fact from the hobby that he and so said, I

(01:07:24):
include they do have, according to his calculations, a top
speed of approximately forty five miles and miles an hour
because they had to get two hundred meters down down
that pipe in about ten seconds. And my my adorable
math NERD did did did the math, and he said
that means they get they're going about forty five forty
five miles an hour. So they got they got some speed.

(01:07:47):
So go to the doctor for whatever perks you put
in there. They gave them that speed. But to segue
towards the the Limerick limerick for the episode, it was
inspired by the scene with Data and Riker near the end,
and I respect the hell out of both of them

(01:08:07):
in that scene, Data sticking to his guns advocating for
for these guys that can't you talk for them talk
for themselves yet. And then Riker, you completely understand why
he comes into the room hot just yelling, yelling at data.
But then he's got enough of an open mind that

(01:08:28):
he hears data out and they eventually figure out a
way to resolve it by him turn turning the command
path let's turn the command pathways back on, and let's
ask them if they're okay to go do this dangerous thing.
And and then and they do that, and then one
of them and ends up staying behind and taking one

(01:08:51):
for the team, so the other the other two can
they've done enough that they're trying to get their their
own people away before the things explode, so all three
of them don't end up getting blown up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
And I love that scene really quite a.

Speaker 13 (01:09:09):
Lot, and it inspired the limerick that I will end with,
I must do for them what was done for me.
All sentient life deserves to be free, They should be
given the choice. I am here to be their voice.

(01:09:29):
Why don't we ask them? And we'll see?

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
Very nice, Thank you very much. Carrie schwent with Peanut
hamper behind her and the Fringi eyes on her. Chuck
A is TNG fanatic, What do you think of this one, Chuck?

Speaker 4 (01:09:47):
I like this episode more and more as I've seen
it in the last couple of years. I think it
did deserve a better IMDb rating than seven to four.
I really was impressed by how much they gave the
regular cast to do in this episode. Everybody seemed to

(01:10:08):
have at least one good scene or more. Brent Spiner
was just awesome as always, and so was Gates that
was mentioned and the last scene that Carrie mentioned was
Wriker and Data was also a very dynamic scene. Data
got his point across of why he decided to do

(01:10:29):
what he did. I thought Jordi LeVar also had quite
a few good scenes. Ellen Brye, I believe it's pronounced.
She was excellent in in in the in the role
she had in this episode. Not believing that the exocomps

(01:10:50):
could be sentient, she came around, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
A little by little.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
He did love the you know, the similarities, the measure
of the man, and then Data saying at Tibicard that
you know, he helped defind his sentience in that episode.
Really well done episode. Like I said, I like it

(01:11:18):
more and more as I see it and I'm really
impressed by the acting and the episode was really good.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
Great stuff. Thank you very much, chuck A. Something weird
happening on I assume all right, Thank you very much,
Chuck A. Chris McGee, what did you think of this one?

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
The quality of Life? I always seem to get the
title of this episode conflated with last season's Cost of Living.
I don't know why, but anyway, this is one of
the better explorations of ethics that the show portrays, perhaps
even approaching the level of the measure of a man.
In fact, it almost addresses one of Commander Maddox's complaints

(01:12:04):
from that episode, when he said, if it were a
box on wheels, I would not be facing this opposition. Well,
the exocondoms don't quite fit that description, but they still
aren't as easily anthropomorphized as data. For the second episode
in a row, Jeordie's beard sure is popular enough to
make it into the script. Apparently. I can't wait for

(01:12:24):
Sarah to see it when it's fully grown. And speaking
of Jordan, it's in this episode's opening scene that we
see the images used in the Jordi version of the
Drake meme that I'm sure we've all seen by now
doctor Farreln's assertion that the exocomps cannot be alive because

(01:12:46):
her intention was to create a tool rather than a
life form. I think is complete BS. I'm sure there's
a specific type of fallacy to describe that faulty reasoning,
because most of us know many historic discoveries came about
as an accident rather than the intention, such as penicilin
as the most well known example. This is also a

(01:13:10):
one episode that practically features the Tucker Tube device that
we've seen in so many Star Trek productions. It has
shown so often throughout this episode. And then I have
to say that I do love as me and many
have mentioned already the conversation between Data and doctor Krusher

(01:13:31):
about the definition of life, which is clearly the central
point of the entire episode. Data's hypothesis that fire could
be considered alive has stuck with me over the years,
and I've given it quite a bit of thought and
research since then. I might share my findings about the
definition of life, but it goes into some detail and

(01:13:52):
it might spark some interesting discussions. So I'll say that
for things left unseaid, it goes to the which is
Riker echoing my sentiments when he says, my beard is
not an affectation.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
Thanks very much, dark Lord Chris McGee, all right, Jake's
final take srock. Any final thoughts on this episode upon
your first viewing, but.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
Not last, Yeah, yeah. First of all, I want to say,
there is no better way to offend a life form
than to tell him that he has a micro replicator.
I'll just start with that. So, yeah, Data says something

(01:14:41):
about forced labor, and I like that. It was kind
of that was brought up. It was very you know,
it was just tossed out there, but it was talking
about forced labor, slavery, those kinds of concepts. It was
just briefly brought up, but it was I thought it
was well placed. When Picard's my favorite thing that Picard says,

(01:15:04):
out of all the words that he speaks, is when
he says, make it so three words, And I think
that is my favorite thing quote out of Picard. I
think it really summarizes his leadership, his action taking it

(01:15:28):
just it's just it's just three words, but I love
it so much. And when he says it like he
did in this episode, my ears perked up and I
get a little bit happy because I say make it so.
That is basically a mantra to live by in your
own life, like you know, not to be wishing on

(01:15:48):
it or hoping on it or deliberating on it, but
to actually make it so. And whatever it takes to
do that, that's what it takes. The exocomp took one
for his friends and did a sacrificial move basically, you know,

(01:16:09):
doing a heroic move of courage and bravery and saying
I will take the sacrifice. The juke two could live.
And that is also I believe, a characteristic or an
identity that could define life, because I do believe that

(01:16:29):
parental instincts kick in in just nature in general, and
where you will see a sacrifice happened to some degree
in order to preserve either your friends or your offspring.
And that happened in nature. So we've seen that before.

(01:16:49):
So I think that was another beautiful kind of moment there,
one of the elements I think this separates this episode.
It also is in measure of a man. Data was
able to articulate his point of view and speak up
for himself and say why he felt the way he

(01:17:13):
felt he needed the advocate of the advocacy of Captain Picard,
who had the actual you know, DNA of a sentient
life form. But still that advocacy combined with the voice,
you know, the perspective that Data has by able to

(01:17:33):
articulate how he feels about this situation. In this particular case,
you have a group of identity that doesn't have a
voice and doesn't have the ability to communicate. And so
I thought that was another important element when you talk
about speaking up on behalf of the voiceless, that was
really what we made Data's actions so brave and heroic

(01:18:00):
because he is now speaking on behalf of a group
that doesn't have an ability to do so. Forth So,
and then lastly, this is just my own little stupid stuff.
But this and this is weird because it's a it's
a kind of a paradox. If you believe that it's

(01:18:21):
sentient life then then running an experiment on it is
essentially like some kind of animal testing or experimenting. And
so there could be some debate on whether that's you know,
appropriate or you know, cool or not. And so I

(01:18:46):
wondered about that as in itself, like you know, testing
on this life form, is that adequate enough is it appropriate?
Is there you know, is that still under the guidelines
of morality, but it does fall under scientific experiment, which
is ultimately what you're going to base it on observation

(01:19:10):
and research, so that this is kind of a groundbreaking
time for them to identify whether it is LIKEE or not.
But I just thought about the experimentalization aspect of it.
I'm glad that it wasn't something that was harmful or
cool could put it in actual physical danger. But ultimately
I loved this episode. I think it hit all the points.

(01:19:31):
It was a continuation of measure of a man. It
was data able to pay forward what the card did
for him. It brought up some storylines that we had
going ongoing, you know, with Jordie's beard growth and other
things that they kind of brought into the fold. So
I enjoyed this episode a lot, and I think that

(01:19:55):
it's you know, really a highlight for the season for
me too as well. Jonathan freaks some really good directing
choices in this to make this really look good as well.
So I like this episode a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
Great stuff. Uh even Melissa put in the zoom chat
something we touched on in the review, So we'll talk
about that on the other side and things left unseid.
So everybody at home, if you don't know what things
left unseid is go to patreon dot com, slash the
seventh rule and join in the fun. Become a patron
and you'll get a bonus segment. We really battle it out.

(01:20:32):
It's you don't want to miss it. But until then,
Thank you very much to Chris McGee, Chuck A, Carrie
Schwent who hasn't changed her name back, but I'm not
going to say it a second time, Chris Garris Eve
England out in Wales, Jason m Oak and Melissa Longo
for Sarrock Lofton myself mister Roon Eisberg and Melissa a Longo.

(01:20:54):
Thank you all very much for hanging out with us.
We will see you next time on the seventh to say,
always remember the seventh Rule.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
H