Life Lessons | With Christopher Halstead | TNG 5.20, "The Cost of Living" | T7R #347 - The 7th Rule -- A Star Trek Podcast with DS9's Cirroc Lofton

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
An asteroid Core is on a collision course with Tessen three.
Alexander likes to go to the Holidack to fight his
alien monsters, and Walksana Troy got Petrochian sausage when all
she wanted was tea. Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Seventh
Rule with sarrock lofton.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello, My name is Ryan t. Huskin. Today we are
doing a review of Star Trek the Next Generation Season five,
episode twenty. This one is entitled The Cost of Living.
Written by Peter Allen Fields, directed by Winrick Colby. This
was April eighteenth, nineteen ninety two. Where were you? We've
got a very special guest today, everybody, this is going

(00:40):
to be a fun one. It's going to be a
deep dive. Our special guest today, can you guess? Can
you guess? It's Chris Halsted. How are you today, sir?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I'm great. It's such a pleasure to be here. It's
beautiful weather, in a nice day. To talk about something
that happened a long time ago. But it was a
fun experience.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
I hope you remember it well.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, I remember it was a long time ago. What
do you remember about it?

Speaker 5 (01:06):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
It was actually a really unusual shoot. It was the
fourth day of probably the heaviest rains that La had
had in twenty twenty five years, and the Airmount lot
was flooded an easy day to remember, you couldn't get
in the lot off of Melrows.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
There's two feet of water everywhere, and so this mud
bath was actually in the parking lot.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
They built that all up elevated because everywhere else there
were times walking around you were walking through the decks
hallways of the Enterprise and there was three inches of
water everywhere. There were rivers running in the sets of
the ship. They had apple boxes and sand bags and

(01:48):
were sand bags holding up cabling. And I remember coming
around one corner and looking down a hallway and seeing
kind of this river of water floating on a starship
and thinking, well, that isn't good that that are in
outer space. That is just such not a good thing.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Wow, they were going through a real life Star Trek
episode while they're filming a Star Trek.

Speaker 6 (02:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
And I remember arriving and I was going in and
what Marina and John Franks were heading out, and you
could tell it was it was a rough set in
that in that uh, you know, we're rough to getting
on there rough tough, and they were I think they
had done all their filming and were heading out, and
you got the feeling you get there sometimes when the

(02:34):
sets really congested and rushing, that the rain had put
them behind and and it did a lot and you know,
I I this this. Uh, this episode gets comments a
lot of times that people say, well, it's a little
disjointed or I and a lot of we ended up
on a long shot there or whatever. And Jump seemed
to cut this and they were cutting a number of

(02:56):
scenes as they were going, as they were running out
of time because we're flooding, and uh uh. When when
Rick I think you know he was the director, he
did things like cloud and movies of the week and
kind of standard stuff, you know, big establishing shot, tight shot,

(03:18):
two shots, the close up kind of by the book,
and when you're running behind on time to buy the book,
all the tight shots go. You just you just stick
to your two's and the wider shots. And you can
see that on this episode. If you think you're still
you're usually you get tighter and tighter as you go
in and back and forth, and you'll end up all

(03:38):
these scenes where you're kind of on two shots with
someone in the background, and then you cut to the
next one. You think they were pushing it, and and
you know, it says a lot for him that he
was able to get this whole thing shot as the
set was flooding. He's a problem, yeah, and then you
can tell, uh, it was a tough day for that.
I came on my character. There was a whole dialogue scene.

(04:00):
It was like the Roles first learner, but they call
our group the Bickersons because our group just argued a lot,
very pleasant thing. But that scene was supposed to film first,
and they said, no, we're running late. We're just going
to go right to the Holidack. And we did the
mud bath in the Holidack, and I think originally all
of us were supposed to be in the mud bath
a great deal, but they hadn't done the previous stuff

(04:23):
and they didn't want to get the costumes all muddy,
so it just pass out. And then they were running
so far behind on things, they said, you know what,
we're cutting this section here. And that happened to a
number of characters and scenes.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I understand, you know, Christopher was actually before we get
too deep into all of this, because there's a lot
going on here and it's all very interesting. But before
we go into that too deeply, I want to get
a little bit of background on you, because you told
us something right before we recorded, to let people know
you know who you are and where you come from.

(04:56):
You were originally up for the role of.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
U Chickote.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Were you already a Star Trek fan? Did you know
anything about Star Trek?

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, my dad was in rocket design. He worked on
the Redstones and Friendship seven programs. So in enterprise, when
those rockets are going up, I always go that's one
of my dad's projects. I had a big Friendship seven
logo above my crib when I was born, which we
would we'd watch the original series together because Laughing came on,
and then Star Trek after that, and if you didn't

(05:26):
bug my dad, he would like to let you watch it,
but he would always shut up up commercials. He would
turn towards you and say, Okay, did you see what
that laser that phaser did? They fired it and it
went slow. Let's talk about relative general relatively right now,
because that shouldn't happen. And he would lecture about the
physics of what was going on things would bug him.
But that was the kind of a way we bonded.

(05:48):
And then I went I was a chemical engineer in
college and in the first three years, and I always
liked science and always a big trecky And then this
was constant living. Was my first time on the Star
Trek set.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
And what was it like auditioning for Chacote real quick,
because that definitely piqued my interest there.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Well, it was very fair. Junior Lowry Johnson was great
and I had worked with her. I played the Gemhadar
first for What You Leave Behind earlier number of episode
of Night Yeah, last couple yeah, and uh, she called
me in and I have a great grandmother Roses off

(06:31):
the reservation in Arizona, and which put me in the
running for this. But that was they had a lot of.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
So the Native American background was a big, big thing.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Was a necessity, and I was I'd never have I've
done a lot of I stunt ride. I grew up
riding trick riding the horses, and I've stunt ridden for
a lot of Native Americans. Ah, And there's some very
kind of strict rules in those so throws. The Mexican,

(07:04):
American and Latina group of what you should be genetically
passed ancestors and stuff to work, and Star Trek was
very very upfront about that. Uh and uh. Although I
have time I've spent on the reservation and I have
a mixed growing up in different, very different cultures. I

(07:29):
tried to be really upfront on that, and I was
glad because understanding how they wanted to swing this and
how they were going to very very strict influences. I
think I recommended them that it could be a difficult thing,
and I and I I think it was. I think
the the concept of some of the my key was
a difficult thing for Star Trek.

Speaker 7 (07:49):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
But I think it was my third audition that I
didn't get a call back on the first time we
went to producers, and those things that that happened that
could have gone one way or the other. I still
enjoyed watching all the series very very much.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
There are not auditions pretty good though you got pretty far.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
I did.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
It was good.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
It was good.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
First time I came in. I do a lot of
work up into high school. I had really long hair.
When I finally my folks said time to cut that
off and whatever, so I had it saved, and my
agent was said, you know what, at least show them
what you do, because most of the pictures you have
were culturally say I say, antique styling, what was eighteen nineties,

(08:39):
eighteen eighties for most of the horsework. And they said,
you know, for a futuristic thing, go ahead, bring show
them what you have, but truly try to listen to
what they want, which was really out of the ordinary
if you think about it. We're talking about a futuristic
Native American. How do you tie those together? And I'm
not sure they exactly knew themselves, but they were very

(08:59):
intent to try to make it work, and I wish
them well because that's still a difficult thing to do
in mainstream America.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, that's very interesting.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
I can see a lot of the things that the
elements of you know who they actually ended up going with,
which a code date. I can see some of those
traits in you. And you have a very signature voice
as well.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
You know your voice.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
I was going to ask if you've ever done radio
or or or voice over work, because it's so easy
to listen to.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
If I stop drinking water for a few days, it
all gets like.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
This and then it all, don't stop drinking water. So
we sidetracked you a bit from talking about this episode.
But now I just wanted to make sure everybody knew
kind of you know, who you are, what you do.
But let's dive into this episode. I remember seeing it
a couple of times before. This is Srock's first time
seeing it, and I remember the first thing I thought was, Oh,

(10:00):
it's the mud bath episode. So let's take a deep
dive unintended into the mud baths. How did that? Was
there an interview process? What or can you tell us
about like the makeup and the wardrobe? Because it was
nominated for two Emmys, uh for one for makeup, one

(10:23):
for wardrobe, and you're one of the people in makeup
and wardrobe, can you tell us about any of that?

Speaker 3 (10:29):
And the wardrobe that I wore, which was this wonderfully
intense lavender orange skin tight revealing everything in the world.
They they and they said to you, you know, come
in on a unitard and I and I happy for that.
Uh and I guess I guess the words. It's in
some Star Trek museum. Now someone sent me a picture.

(10:50):
It's like, oh, it's your outfit in a museum. Somewhat,
I've got I've got it somewhere. It's it's it's it's
very dramatically lit and everything. Uh but uh, yeah, they
went out and I know that eventually originally tied in
during the bickering, they asked if I could juggle, which
I could, which is what I came in on. But
they didn't end up filming that scene. They ended up

(11:13):
using the same outfit in a different episode later on.
He's the World Juggler, so they since they didn't film
it for the cost of Living, they used that for
a different episode. I couldn't often say what it was,
but they didn't have a.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
World Juggler in this episode, but it might have been
a different kind of situation. And by the way, I
need to correct myself, it wasn't two Emmy nominations. It
was two Emmy wins for this episode, so sorry, please continue.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
It was an interesting episode in that there are you know,
Star Trek, especially TNG could be you know, high minded
stories of moral guidance and intergalactic turpitude and what is
the question of right and wrong? And I'm not really
sure sure that this episode is that one. This is yeah,

(12:04):
and you think about it, I mean, this is this
is Majel Barrett having lost her husband just a few
months earlier, right and A I did get to watch
her deliver her kind of her speech on loneliness in

(12:25):
this which I think is a highlight of it. I
happened to like that speech very much, and and it
really dealt with what Alexander was going through. So it
was not science fiction high and mighty Let's solve the
great problems of the world. Was this was kind of
intimate characters, what characters are going through. And you know,

(12:48):
let's wanna try TROI love her or hater. She's an
incredible character. You don't have many that was written in
the world. And very much like you mentioned coming on
at the mud bath. You come into the mud bath
and there was the whole group already in the in
the bath, and it was great because Major Barrett was

(13:11):
kind of holding court. She was talking away and she
was delightful and everyone was having kind of a rough afternoon.
And uh oh, I remember her comment. She said, I
love this mud. It'll be great for my skin. I'll
look just like Number one. And it was a great line.

(13:32):
You know, it's just you know, and and someone said
Number one. What's that one of the other characters, and
she said she was kind of this pause and she went,
it's another character I played, and to which the other
person said, oh, you've been on this show before, which
was just kind of silence and just in classic major Brett,

(13:54):
she said yeah. A couple times she said, she goes,
they keep me around, which was just just you just
you just want to go what class?

Speaker 4 (14:03):
Uh uh, well, stay in that mud long enough because
it looks like a number two more than.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And everybody. She said, yeah, they keep me around. And
besides that number one. Then she was it was just
a pilot, which was just great, which was like it
was perfect when you realize that that was their pilot
for the show that she played that character.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
So you know what was her demeanor? Though you said
she was holding courts, so was she?

Speaker 4 (14:35):
She wasn't as down as everyone else was with the
weather and whatnot, and in the circumstances you kind of
are depicting her in a more uplifting, positive way.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Positive way. She was upbeat. She was uh sitting in
the center and enjoying making the most of everything. And
it was it. She made it very pleasant, uh, talking
to everyone and asking people questions and uh, keeping the
attitude up. And I remember she had a cup. They

(15:11):
didn't with the cup dirty. They didn't want the lines
to go above certain levels. That was why they didn't
put us in the mud as well, because they had
to clean costumes later on if they were going to
reuse them. But so a lot of technical stuff when
you're dealing with a three foot deep mud bath. And
she was a professional the whole time. She kept things,

(15:33):
just talking away. And of course she had been for
that group. It was the group coming on the set there,
but she had been there for days. So for someone
who could have been had enough with all the rain
and the flooding and stuff, she kept upbeat and was
absolutely marvelous.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
It was me wow.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
And I wonder about the mud as well, because usually
when you're and you know, in between takes and they're saying, Okay,
we're going to get this shot, you've got to dip
yourself into that mud, into the heighth level that the
camera wants, and then we've got to get multiple takes
going right, because we're gonna, you know, try to get

(16:14):
a printabal take, and then at some point we are
going to change the camera angle for different coverage could
take you, Yeah, are we staying in the mud? Are
we coming out and getting ring.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
In the mud?

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Staying in the mud the whole time? It was our
hitting in the mud? Yeah? Yeah, and uh yeah. It
was one of the you you think to a writer,
just right, you know they are in a mud bath.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
It's just a simple yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
But there is a lot that's like, that's like four
hours in the mud.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
You know, that's not it's not like thirty fifteen, twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
You know that's hours.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
I mean you could potentially be you've just made something
very difficult, and it's not like I seen where you
could walk around and shake out and you know you
are stuck in the mud.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah. I was also thinking about bathroom break like at
some point, I mean I would be like I would
be like, are they just using outhouses because they don't
want to like take mud with them, you know inside,
or like what's going on there? Don't need an answer
for that. It was just and I was also thinking

(17:25):
about like the blocking initially, like how do they know
the hype for Alexander? When you said three foot deep?
I was thinking they probably had the stand in sitting
in there before they added the mud. It would seem
so that they could get the right apple box for
Alexander to sit on the you know, like the right
levels possibly and then they go, Okay, here's our line.

(17:45):
I was just trying to figure that out. I don't
think you were there for any of that, but did
you get any impression of, like, logistically how they kind
of worked all that out?

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Well, I know that the whole scene was elevated. Although
it might look as if it's a mud in the floor,
it was. Everything was built three or four feet off
the surface of the studio set, so it probably made
it fairly easier for the cameras to be right at
that level where they wanted. I'm sure if they hadn't
used all the apple boxes in the in the hallways

(18:17):
to have people think the place to walk on in
the rain, the spare ones were probably underneath them to
get to be just the right height in that mud,
which was very exact, and they didn't want a lot
of you know, the old thing. If you have a
drinking glass with a certain amount of liquid, and please
don't make it go up and down. Look, please don't
dip arms and limbs into the mud, please, you know,

(18:39):
keep that straight. We have to shoot through this.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Poor guys had.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
A lot of arms up on the kind of the
benches around this. I want to put them down here
or don't like rub your face or things like that.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh my god, this is a mud disaster. I do
have a question because this uh episode one the Emmys
for Makeup and Wardrobe, and I wanted to ask you
about your experience working with you know, the legendary Bob
black Men and also Mike Wesmore.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
Both Bob and Mike were there when I it was
the gem Hudar first because I remember them. They had
a great talk on They were like, you know what,
let's let's give them a bunch of forehead stuff. Where's
our box of foreheads? I don't think they used the
word stuff, but they ended up going bringing a big
box of former gem Hoodar horned spike thing pieces and

(19:38):
they went bigger all in here on all the crusting
and they were like, yeah, I think that's good. And
it was a very kind of enjoyable.

Speaker 8 (19:47):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
They were both in there working. It's it's it was
a more developed makeup than usually was done for the
gem Adar. They said it was the last big episode thing.
And if you look, there is a trading card for
some game. My one of my younger sons gave me
as a birthday present, and the gem Hadar pictured is

(20:10):
my character.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Wow, really kind of fun.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
It's like, thanks, that's a good one. And then there's
a big book on all the Star Trek characters listening,
And I just think it's because they use that particular
that Gemhdar first, because it's got They did a good
job of really doing all the detail and crestwork on it,
so it was other than this. All the difference was

(20:35):
all the cresting, So I think that's.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Why all it So before you did that role of
gem Hdar, you didn't drink water for a few days.
I guess.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
I want to ask you because I can't help but
notice it. You know, Captain Piccard, I'm not mistaken. He
keeps a model ship somewhere in his office or quarters,
and I see you've got some model ships behind you.
So I wanted to, you know, to get into a
little bit about your experience, you know, chee Chi, you

(21:12):
know tall ships sailing as you called.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
It, and I've always sailed. I had an uncle who
introduced I would think I was six or seven, and
he had a little wooden boat, a little called a flatty,
a flat bottom that you could go among beaches. And
I fixed it all up, and I re rigged it
from a simple sloop into a big top, squarestle cutter
of all sorts of extra sails I put on it.

(21:37):
I'm already lost. This is such a science, and I
loved it. I always loved sailing wooden ships. And I
would go out up in the Oregon the area, sail
on the rivers and across lakes, and I loved star lore.
And I am fascinated the fact that you can look
up at the sky and see where you are. And

(21:59):
I teach navigation at the Los Angeles Maritime Institute, and
I can teach nowadays everything can be handled with GPS
and a sex and if you need it, and simple work.
But I love what I call. I call it navigation
without numbers for school kids. Although I work it into
the world of trig they just don't know that in

(22:19):
the very beginning. But to teach kids on when you're voyaging,
that you can be on a boat, and whether it's
daytime with sun angles, water swells, water refraction angles, or
at night time what we call I call, you know,
the vault of the heavens where you can spot everyone knows,

(22:40):
you say, the North Star, but where what are the
other stars doing? And how are they rotating over? And
if you understand how that happens, you can be in
the middle with the ocean with no land and you
know your directions. And it's a marvelous thing to teach
someone because it gives you a sense of how you
fit on this planet and in the Solar System and

(23:02):
in the universe in general, which is an awe inspiring thing.
And the fact that that through thousands of years sailors
and navigators have figured out how to use things, you know,
whether it's something as simple as a compass, or.

Speaker 9 (23:21):
This is.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
This is a it's a Viking sunstone as Sonstein, and
it's it's Icelandic felspar. And for the longest time we'd
read about these things and the Nordic sagas, and we
didn't quite know what they were. And then a couple
of them were found in the wreck of the Merry
Rose when it when it sunk during the reign of
Henry the eighth. And it's a biriphractic crystal so I

(23:45):
don't think the camera show. But if I show here,
So I put a single dot, it's a little little
bit of pine tar on the side. But if I
hold it up here, you'll see two dots. Oh yeah,
So it splits. It splits light into two at ninety degree.
And what that means is I can go out in
a cloudy day in the morning and I can, especially
if I wrap it in leather, keep it here and

(24:07):
wrap it, bring it up and look as I go
to one side of the sun, the inner dot gets
darker and the further one outside gets lighter, and I
can go and I go, there's my sun right there. Boom,
there's east. And that there are these techniques that people
learned to be able to navigate, and usually with different devices,

(24:28):
different things that culture has developed, and oftentimes languages and symbols,
which is one reason I love Star Trek because Deep
Space nine, especially when we're dealing with Bajoran culture and
an archaic throwback, whether it's stones or things from the temples,
that cultures develop these things to explain their culture, and

(24:51):
in terms of navigation, that's where it is, that's what happened.
That is every culture has developed stories, to explain how
to get from one place to the other. Oftentimes they
simply become stories and people forget that it's a story
to navigate by. And oftentimes by explaining what the figuring

(25:11):
out what the original story is, you suddenly it opens
your eyes. Oh, that's how you use this particular device
or how you get from here to there, which sometimes
is a very difficult thing. But cultural navigation, whether it's
Polynesian sailors heading across using star triangulation or odyssey is

(25:35):
trying to get home to Ithaca.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
You know, this reminds me a lot of my favorite
Deep Space nine episode Explorers, because Sorak and Avery they
basically did that. They they read about this lore, these stories,
and they said, can we do this? Can we replicate?
And this is kind of what you're talking about here?
That's really cool?

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yeah, absolutely exactly, And I've always that is one of
my favorite episodes because the bonding that occurs in that
episode and the fact that you you rediscover something that
was lost and that feeling of being tied into something bigger,
that is what to me on an old wooden ship

(26:22):
is what it's all about. I love that episode without
it's my favorite Deep Spaceline episode.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yeah, we also to tie in a little bit more
what you were saying, just to put a bow tie.
You know that artifact that you just showed us, this
Viking artifact, you know that basically is used to separate light.
Somebody had to find out and discover that that was
the case that this piece of stone, this this crystal

(26:52):
has that ability to break the light that way and
then to use that particular thing, as you know, as
something to help navit gate. So all of that talks
about problem solving and ingenuity, which is another theme that
you see in Star Trek. You know, how do we
solve this problem in front of us, and in a

(27:13):
simple case of just figuring out how to reflect reflect
light and you know, refract light, you're able to problem
solve and say, oh, this is how we can do it.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
And I just think it just speaks to.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
How, you know, throughout time, whether you know it's the
inventions of all of these different ideas and principles of
gravity and mathematics and how we've advanced ourselves, We've always
gone back to these simple ways of discovering, you know,

(27:44):
problem solving tools to get past whatever hurdle we have
at that immediate time.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
You can figure it out, and then someone finds a
way to display it, to teach it to someone else.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
And again to.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Speak to you, the rediscovering of that. I might find
that little.

Speaker 4 (28:04):
Piece of crystal and not know that that's what it's for,
but to rediscover that is that, that is the purpose
behind it gives a whole another meaning to the generation
that has that knowledge, that understands the history of that artifact.
To also speak to your point about rediscovering becausuor artifacts, and.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
You see you because you mentioned that we bring a
lot of old tools on our ships with us and
kids work with them and they work sometimes for a
week with things. And there was one there was one
that found it was a stone like this, and they
found it has a refraction index. It's different from the side,
and they were showing that you could see the refraction

(28:44):
index on the water, which is the Polynesians would use
that refraction index as well. And suddenly we found out
that one of these and it would if you on
the side of the stone, that little cross line. We
started putting those on there because it shows from the
horizon where the refraction indexes. And it was a nine
year old kid who showed us that just because working

(29:06):
with these for like one of four days, and he went,
it's a rainbow thing that keeps showing up there. And
you're like, so, it's it's bringing it out there, getting
it out there and experiencing it and and and when
you do, suddenly you notice something different that.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Is just absolutely fascinating. While Christopher, thank you so much
for hanging out with us. By the way, the Los
Angeles Maritime Institute is in San Pedro, California, right at
the southern tip of of LA basically in between Palace
Vera Days and Long Beach. So definitely, everybody, I'm practically

(29:42):
signing up right now just hearing you talk. Everybody, you
gotta go if you're in the area. Definitely, this sounds
like it's something. Do you do any online courses?

Speaker 3 (29:51):
I yes, we do. We have, uh well, most of
it's for school. We started it all during COVID when
we went off one went online. We we have a
every month their crew volunteer training. There's one this Saturday
where in the beginning you learn how to coil lines
during a call, tall climb maasts. You'll learn calls and
response and then we have navigation enginemen. You're building sail

(30:15):
repair by the end. If you went through a full course,
you could finish. We have options with the Port of
Los Angeles. Uh, we had. It was a great big
carrier that came freighter that came in about three months ago,
and someone with a bullhorn on the catwalkale you'd oh,
I actually returned from Singapore, you know, Maritime Institute class
of ninety seven, and it was someone who now hasn't

(30:36):
made on a boat and travels and sales around the world.
So it's a wonderful experience, doesn't cost you anything, and
you can go sailing need any time you want.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
That's incredible. All right, Well, uh, everybody at home check
it out. Los Angeles Maritime Institute. Christopher House said, thank
you so much for hanging out with us. This has
been awesome. So glad you made it for us. Really
appreciate it. Everybody stick around, you know, we've got way
more to review on this episode. Will be right back

(31:06):
on the seventh Rule. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the
Seventh Rule with so Rock Frickin' lofting Yellow. Hey, who
did you play on Street Fighter? Who is your guy?
I use he seemed like a Blanco guy.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
I did everybody though, because I was I would use
ryu and ken obviously those were the basics I did.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Uh ZANGI Oh.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
He was fun. He was like the toughest one to master,
but somehow like once you did master.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
It, Yeah, used all their move Yeah yeah. His move
was to grab you.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Spin a three sixty's crazy.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
And did a circle.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
But that's when you got it.

Speaker 7 (31:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Cool too. You'll got flame, you'll fire Yeah. All right. Anyway,
that was such an awesome interview, very big special thanks
to Christopher Halstead for that. Here are the trivioids of
the week. An asteroid Core is on a collision course
with tests and three. Alexander was supposed to put his
soiled clothing in the garment reprocessor. Alexander likes to go

(32:19):
to the Holidack to fight his alien monsters. Life's true
gift is the capacity to enjoy enjoyment. Agreed. Loxana Troy
loves the Parallax colony on Shirolea six. I think it
was Loxana Troy exposed Deana to all sorts of mixed
messages when she was a child. Loxana got Petrochian sausage

(32:40):
when all she wanted was tea and that one guy
wanted a little a. Anyway, So what do you think
of this episode? I'll be honest. You know, I told
you I'd seen this a few times before. I was
never a big fan of the Alexander episodes. I was
never a big fan of the walk Laxana episodes.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
So you can.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Imagine when you know, young Ryan was watching this episode,
I was like, Eh, it's they're sitting in a mud bath,
Loxana is getting married. But I'll be honest, ha huh.
But then watching it today, I was like, this is
actually a really fun episode, and I really enjoyed the
dynamic between Alexander and Laxana. It felt like the dynamic

(33:25):
of grandson and grandmother to me, which is such a
special relationship, and it reminded me of my grandmother in
a lot of ways. But this was your first time
seeing it. Where were you on that spectrum of love
to hate?

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (33:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, you know, I'm not the biggest Alexander
episode guy myself. And you know the problem with l
Waxana's character is that the way the writers wrote her

(34:04):
and the annoyance that Picard has with her and therefore
and subsequently how Troy feels about her that.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Trickles down to the viewer.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
If Picard the Captain can't stand there, isn't annoyed, and
her own child is like, oh my god, my mom's here.
I can't deal with this.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
So for me, like, how am I going to be? Like?
What's the problem? Like it's all good with it, you
know what I mean. I'm gonna have the same energy
as them, you know.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
And it almost sets me in that tone too, unfortunately,
because I'm like, I'm cheering for my main characters in
this show.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
So I'm cheering for.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
Picard and Troy and Wharf and everybody.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
So when she comes in and everybody that I.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
Cheer for is now like, oh God, I got a
headache and a burden to deal with, I feel the
same burden myself now. Having said that, that I believe
is the writers putting that on her. That has no
that's nothing to do with her performance and how they're
writing her character. She is performing it the way they

(35:09):
ask her to perform it, which is the annoying kind
of mom, the pushy, the very sexually promiscuous, flirtatious on
Picard and so those characteristics going to you know, ignite
those feelings of nagging and annoyance. Now having said that,

(35:36):
I think Angel is a fantastic actor when giving the
right material when the opportunity comes to be vulnerable. She
is amazing when she shows a weakness, when she shows
that she's not the tough exterior that she pretends to have,
which is, you know, in control of every variable in

(35:58):
situation and always you know, in charge. I think that
when she is able to get into this mode and
in this moment in.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Which she's showing a side of herself.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
That's vulnerable, so wearing a side of herself that is
afraid and mostly afraid of aging.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
And getting old and.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
Not having the same kind of appeal to people that
she feels like she has grown up her whole life having.
So I think with that opportunity, she nailed that in
this episode.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
I thought that was great about it.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
The part that I didn't really get with that much
is the Alexander part. And I guess what I don't understand.
What I don't like about the Alexander part is when
you as a parent are dealing with issues with being
a parent and trying to raise your kid and do

(37:01):
the best you can, and then you see counseling, which
is what he did in this particular moment from Troy.
You seek counseling, you're trying to rectify this situation. And
then a third party comes in like she does, without
any real background knowledge history what's going on. You know,
she doesn't know that this kid, this boy, lost his mom.

(37:24):
She doesn't know that his grandparents basically gave up on
the responsibility.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
So there's a whole lot of stuff there that she
doesn't know. Yeah, and she's.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Like, hey, come with me and we'll just go do
whatever I want in this policy program. Now, I think
that's where I have a problem with it, because as
a parent, you want to know what your child's going
to be exposed to, right And I think that place,
that that particular location that I saw with half naked

(37:55):
women walking around, and it didn't seem like the hield
friendly place that.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
I would want you to take my kid.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Lady wasn't even half naked. She was basically just paint
with naked.

Speaker 7 (38:08):
You're right, she was.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
She was naked, And I paused it and rewinded.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
And by the way, that's probably what they won the
NDY for because the makeup job on her was I
was unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Side actually, the pink and purple and white were pretty
freaking amazing, like the color scheme and like all joking aside,
I was like, wow, that's really good.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Actually, well, I think they had she had some clothing on,
and the the some of the fabric from the clothing
that she had on was camouflaged into her skin texture.
So they actually put pieces of this kind of mermaid
textured you know, I forgot with an iridescent you know,

(38:51):
kind of looking textured.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Check out the five dollar word on Sorokra here iridescent. Yeah,
a good one.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Yeah, So, I mean I thought that was fantastic. The
makeup job on her was fantastic. It was I mean
literally from head to toe.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
And the guy, the guy with the kind of the
ring around his head too. It looked kind of almost
bony or cartilogy.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
But the question is is Alex Sander is this age
appropriate for him? And I don't know that it is.
And based on my experience, that's something. At least you
get permission from the parent for our and say hey,
I'm going to take him to the you know, Disneyland
place that we go to you know that place right

(39:36):
where the with the guy with the bubble and then
he can decide, you know what, I don't want my
kid going over to take mud basket with a bunch
of you know, weirdos that I don't know, and so okay,
but still it was it kind of gave me like
Charlie and the Chocolate factory vibes, I don't know, you know,

(39:56):
Willie Wonka type bible. And she walked in there, I
was like, oh, this place, like the candy canes growing
on the trees and stuff.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
You know.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
So I did get a Willy Wonka vibe when she
took him there. But the problem was Willy Wonka had
a fun, playful kid vibe. You know, there's little uh
those those dwarves were walking around, and they were the
oplopas were there, and you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
It was and blueberries and chocolate everywhere.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
Chocolate rivers and bubble gums and gobstoppers, and it was
more of a kid friendly place to say, Okay, this
is a cool place to take a kid. Now, if
there were strippers walking around, like, hey, whoa what this is.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Not and you're right, then it doesn't seem like Luwaksana
Troy is the kind of person that asked for permission.
She maybe she just doesn't know much about boundaries, because remember,
like that's her problem with is boundaries. She reads people's
minds without their permission, you know. She she dips into things,

(40:54):
She shows up uninvited. She takes somebody's son even though
the son doesn't have permission from the father or the parent.
She's inappropriate with her daughter in a lot of ways,
just kind of talking rudely to her or you know,
so she just has a problem with barriers. Now I
can see what they were doing with this, you know,

(41:16):
making her charming and she's fun and she has so
many great likable qualities as well. But I see what
you're saying, which is, if you make a character that
isn't good with boundaries and it's kind of rude and
inconsiderate and inappropriate to our main characters, it makes it
tough to like them, even though you absolutely love the
actress portraying the character. And so that's kind of where

(41:37):
I've been in my whole life with this, which is
like I love Majel Barrett, majorl Roddenberry, I love this,
and I love that they made a character for her
so that she could keep coming back, and they made
her the ship's computer and she's just amazing. But it
was I just the episodes with the character kind of
grated on me. Sometimes sometimes they were great, sometimes they're cool,

(41:58):
but you know, it was tough.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
You know, it.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
Would have been better the other way around, to be
honest with me, It would have been better if Picard
liked her and it got out that he liked her,
and he didn't want to tell her, but he got
it got out somehow.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, and then now.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
She knows, but he never came forward with it, and
there would have been a big, a nice playful thing
between there where he gets he gets embarrassed because you
know what I mean, she's kind of playing hard to
get as opposed to you know, it would have been
better she's playing hard to get now.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
At the same time, though, oh, sorry, were you still
going sorry? No, no, no, that was at the same time,
not to bash too much myself, because you know, I've
been kind of bashing on it for thirty years, but
about these episodes, but like this time, I did notice
something that I found to be super charming, and I

(43:05):
touched on it before, which is the relationship between Alexander,
whom she called little Warrior, which I thought was cute.
I actually I didn't catch that before or I didn't care.
I was like, oh, they're trying to create this kind
of relationship, but I don't care. I want to see
klingons and laser beams when I was a kid, you know.
But now again, I saw my grandmother, my Spanish grandmother

(43:25):
in this that would all be like, oh, let's do something,
let's do something fun, let's go oh, let's go play tennis,
or let's you know, grandmothers a lot of times, or
grandparents just in general, they're the ones the word. They
can kind of break the rules, like the parents got
to make the rules, but the grandparents are fun. And
then when the kid gets fussy, they go here, take
your kid back, you know whatever. And so I really

(43:46):
I saw that relationship and I'm sure that's what they
were going for, and shockingly to me, it actually worked
for me. I was like, wow, this is a really
cute relationship. When they were talking and when he was
saying like, why how are you getting married? Boy? You
must really like him and they're kind of learning from
each other in a way. Now obviously she's wildly inappropriate

(44:07):
and he's a bratty kid. But but together their relationship
was actually very nice. I thought, you know, not their
relationships with everybody else, but with each other totally worry
with me.

Speaker 4 (44:19):
Well, that's that's because you have finally two characters that
you actually have a slight dislike towards now actually finding
common grounding.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Like, actually, I like their relationship because you know.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
That that makes sense to me, you know, the two
of them, because you know, one's braddy and the other
one's kind of oblivious and I'm just kidding. So so yeah,
I think that I think you're you know, there's some
elements of this relationship that do work. I did like
the honesty when the kid said to Alexander says to Luaxana.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
She says, are you very old?

Speaker 4 (45:02):
And it was it was it was funny, but it
was also like, there's an innocence when kids say stuff.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Okay, he's not trying to say anything.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Bad out of the mouths of babes.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's just a very it's a very innocent
question that he, you know, genuinely is asking, not like
trying to be some kind of you.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
And it's set up. It's set up the moment that
I pictured when you were talking about when you were
saying earlier how when they give her something great to
work with, vulnerable and all that, she's really good. When
you were talking about that, this was the moment I
was talking about because they gave her the close up
and she didn't just throw the line out. She paused,

(45:49):
She felt it. We felt it with her. There was
a lot more than just am I getting right? There's
a lot more than just am I getting old? Going
through that head. There was a lot going through there.
And yeah, just to your point, that was that's where
she had her magical moment.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
I thought, absolutely, And she her line was, I am alone.
When you do get older, you can no longer pick
and choose what comes your way. And we you know,
as I get older and all, you know, people get older,

(46:29):
they'll learn for themselves and what that means for them,
you know. But yeah, when you're young and everything's coming
your way and job opportunities or or relationships, you know,
you're like you're in one relationship or in another, you're
just you're flying all over the place and you feel
like you have unlimited options. Right, You're getting letters from

(46:50):
different colleges, whatever the thing is where it's just like
you have a choice, and the older you get less
that joint becomes available to you, and you start to
become set in your ways, You start to become judgmental
about certain things or whatever the case may be, which
limits and narrows your scope of potential candidates, of opportunities,

(47:14):
whatever they are in front of you. Right, you can
no longer just be anything. You can only be really
a data technician or a lock you can know what
I mean, whatever you put your life into.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Yeah, and you know, so they did cut out the
line where when he said, you know, when she was saying,
you can't really pick and choose, she says, really, all
I care about is that he puts the toilet seat down.
That was but they they could they ran out of time.
She's like, at this point, if he just keeps the
toilet seat down, that's that's a winner for me.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
That's all.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Okay, So we're already out of time. We talked way
too much because this is way too much fun. But
it's the time for the home run of today's episodes.
Srock Loften.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
Okay, the hands down best moment of this episode is
Luaxana Troy's speech when she has that moment, and that's
when I think she gives her best performances.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
I don't like the whole everything's happy.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
On the exterior or bouncing around stuff that she does
in her normal I like this version of her when
she tunes into this really serious version of herself and
takes things seriously.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
So I'm going to say.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
That Mangel Barrett roden Berry deserves the home run. Now
I'm going to give an honorary home run for the
guy who I thought really blew my mind how well
he does this, and that's Jordan and the Forge. LeVar
Burnon and his technobabble. This was this was high level

(48:49):
technobabble in this episode.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
We could he was talking about it neither.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
And at some point I was like, he's got to
be reading. There's no way he's memorizing this. He's got
to be read it. It's hard to even read it
on a piece of paper.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
If I were to just write it down and say,
recite this, it's not easy to get it out naturally.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Tongue twisters.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
Reading tongue twisters and stuff.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
You're like helium Locke compressor valve it's not natural in
your brain to know what your hell you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
And he spits it off like such golden magic. It's amazing.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
So yeah, he gets the honorary home for technobabble. Major
gets it for the most poignant moment.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, that's my guy right there. I agree with you.
For me, it's Major Roddenberry for the reason that you mentioned.
I hadn't even thought of Jeordi because to me, I'm
always like, that's my guy, that's my guy showing.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Up being amazing. Yeah, there's nobody better.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
It's yeah, I'm with you there forever. Okay, here are
other people that are with us forever. Doctor Amery Segall
Eve England Out in Wales, TJ. Jackson, Bay Out in Missouria,
Vette Blackman, Tom Tita Smaller, doctor Mohammed nor O'Neil o Platte,
Joe Balserati, Mike Goo, doctor Stephanie Baker, Carrie Schwent, Faith Howel,

(50:07):
Edward Foltz aka Crewman Guy, the map Boardman, Chris McGee,
Justin Weird, Jake Barrett, Henry Hunger, Allison Leech Hide, Julie Menasfi,
Jed Thompson, doctor Susan V. Gruner, Glenn Iverson, Dave Gregory,
Chris Sternet, Greg Kay, Wickstrom, Cassandra Gerard, Chuck A, Chris Garrison,
of course, Jason m oakin I tried to rush through those.

(50:29):
Here we go Free for All up next we'll be
right back on the seventh rule. Hey, everybody, welcome back
to the Laughing Hour with Sarak Lofton. It's also the
Free for All with Melissa Alongo of course, ah and
Jason m ok Professional giggler Alison leech Hide has her

(50:54):
disco shirt. Cassandra Girard has the coolest name in showbiz.
This is this show biz?

Speaker 10 (51:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 11 (51:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Greg Kenzo's out in Hawaii. Chuck A has cool stuff
on his wall. T J. Jackson, Bay and Faith Howell
are on the bridge of the Enterprise. D Carrie Schwent
is in Iceland.

Speaker 12 (51:15):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Did I get that really?

Speaker 10 (51:20):
Man?

Speaker 13 (51:20):
He did good?

Speaker 1 (51:22):
The Land of Ice and fire. Mark Zuttkoff is here.
He's got some cool pictures in his background. Chris Garris
has that one guy. I forgot what the guy's name was.
The checkerboard head, so does the Matt Boardman. And Chris
McGee has the cool isolinear chip shirt. Jake Cisco guesses
the IMDb score.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
Uh, I'm gonna say, like, uh oh, six point four?

Speaker 1 (51:55):
What does anybody else have any guesses? That doesn't all already?

Speaker 14 (52:00):
No, I'm gonna say six point nine six?

Speaker 15 (52:08):
Yeaes six six nine seven seven three?

Speaker 2 (52:15):
What is base?

Speaker 3 (52:19):
That's not a ten?

Speaker 1 (52:20):
I think that was for William Shatner impression. All right,
I'll bets are in the answer if I remember correctly,
and Melissa will correct me if I'm wrong. Six point one?

Speaker 14 (52:36):
Wow, I mean everybody overbid?

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (52:42):
Five eight?

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Okay, you said five eight. I missed that. That's a
good one.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (52:46):
I missed that too.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
All right? Uh did we get any non appearance mentions?
I didn't.

Speaker 12 (52:52):
Wait, I got two.

Speaker 7 (52:57):
Doctor Crusher. Was she was there?

Speaker 17 (53:01):
Yeah, she's.

Speaker 7 (53:05):
Okay at the end, at the end?

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Okay, okay, right right, okay.

Speaker 12 (53:11):
Then I got one Kayler. Yeah, Alexander talked about Yes.

Speaker 14 (53:20):
He says, I misses his mom.

Speaker 7 (53:23):
No.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
I had an almost one, which was when they see
the Chalice of Reeks, even though it's Rix, I think
because I'm like, well, there was that captain Rix who
was like a bollying guy. But I'm like they can't
be the same guy, so I guess that doesn't count.

Speaker 11 (53:36):
Uh mister, yeah, Well they said Bussard collectors instead of
well they say Boussard Bazard, right, and every other reference.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Is that a character?

Speaker 15 (53:49):
I don't know who that's her.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
It's just what you're talking about. I have no idea what.

Speaker 9 (53:56):
There is a certain technical aspect of said said pot
of a ship which is not putting into our discussion today.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
I do declare Matt's drunk Chris sound of a gun.

Speaker 9 (54:13):
It is Friday.

Speaker 16 (54:14):
Do we have any some kinds of or some sorts
of I think they were making it up for the
last few episodes. We got three of them today, First
Jeordie saying some kind of intermittent em field pattern when
he was standing at junction in the quarter. Then Ryker,
when looking at that orange group, said some kind of corrosion,
and then later Jordi, again explaining to Picard, says we

(54:38):
must be dealing with a metal parasite of some kind.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Awesome, all right, Malise Alongo, we just had a lot
of warm stuff. Can you get us started off on
the right track by telling us what you thought of
this episode?

Speaker 13 (54:50):
Please?

Speaker 18 (54:51):
Yeah? I interestingly enough what looked at IMDb before I
watched this, so I wasn't expecting much, but I actually
enjoyed this episode and for and it's no surprise that

(55:12):
the Watson has not been my favorite character in the past.

Speaker 19 (55:16):
However, I really enjoyed her in this episode. I think
that she stole a show in this episode. I loved
her relationship with Alexander and how affectionate she was towards him,
and I don't know there is I feel like she's

(55:38):
grown quite a bit, even though she's not here very often.
We don't get to see her very often, but her
character has definitely had some growth, which I really enjoy
and she's not wasting herself for thrusting herself on people
in this episode. She's she's going through discovery, just like

(56:01):
Alexander is. And one of my favorite lines in this
episode was the great secret is not the variety of life,
It's the variety of us. And I love that. I
love that. Yeah, that it's not a perfect episode, and yes,

(56:24):
so there are some nitpicks at the end, but I yeah,
I enjoyed little Oxana in this episode.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
See thank you very much, Melissa Longo. And of course,
your favorite quote matches your shirt. D I see, very cool.
You could get that at Walking art made by Melissa
Jason m oakin What's Up? What'd you think of this one?

Speaker 17 (56:46):
Well, it's kind of interesting when I look probably in
the entire season, you kind of see the peaks and valleys.
You can look at it as a roller coaster, and
for a couple of weeks or for several weeks, we're
sort of on the high and it seems like we're
kind of going down in the trough here. This maybe
it's my personal bias. It's never been one of my

(57:06):
favorite episodes. Sometimes, I you know, whenever it comes up,
I cringe a little bit when I when I have
to watch it. There are certain parts of it that
and again that's just a personal thing I don't stomach
very well. I was not a big fan of that
whole Holidack scene backwards and forwards. I think it was
a little too silly all in all, I guess, you know,

(57:29):
you have Enterprise Menace by Pixie Dust, which is probably
not the most appealing of villains or adversaries. It seems like,
I know, it seems like I know what they're going for.
They wanted to have a lighthearted episode, some sort of
you know, character development of personality or show warfor what
have you. But they needed to have the sci fi element,

(57:49):
which I think drags the episode down quite a bit.
It's just not interesting. It starts out with somewhat of
a bang. I mean, it's I think it's shot very well.
That's one thing that sort of saves it from me
a little bit. I think rick Be shot it very well.
I think it's you know, acted pretty much well. Again,
there's a lot of humor in it, and I'm not
sure that timing was exactly right for the humor. Something
didn't quite work the lines for you know, the certain

(58:11):
you know, parts of dialogue, the dialogue that are interesting
that do make sense. Those lines make sense. But overall,
I think, frankly it falls flat. There are a lot
of things here that I can say, but it's certainly
not at the top of my favorite episode list.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Okay, thank you very much, Jason m Okin. All Right,
Allison leech Hide is here spartan her cool disco shirt.
What do you think of this one.

Speaker 12 (58:42):
It's a cute episode, you know, it's a lovely relationship
between Waxana and Alexander, and they're both kind of going
through the same thing.

Speaker 20 (58:51):
Like what are expectations and how do I live with
the expectations my own or somebody else's. So I liked
the juxtap juxtaposition of putting those two characters together, since
one's so young and one is in the you know,
on the other side of middle age in theory, and
so I thought that was nice.

Speaker 21 (59:11):
And they were so sweet together. I mean, you can
just see that Majel really really liked acting with Brian,
like that was really sweet, and I love, like, you know,
all the hugs and things like that, like she's like, oh, no,
I have to protect this child because their father's Wharf
and he's yelling.

Speaker 22 (59:29):
At like he's a kid, so silly, and so, you know,
I really liked that. I also really enjoyed Deanna calling both,
like calling both Wharf and Alexander gentleman, like putting them
on like she's treating them the same and they have

(59:49):
the same value to her and in this situation and
not like going the dad's more important on the kids
more important. They're both equally important in this relationship. And
I thought that's what she was also trying to convey
to Wharf about, you know, having a contract as it were.
It's like you are both important in this situation and
you have to both equally want the other to succeed

(01:00:11):
in what's going on. So, yeah, is it silly, Yes,
we're the ears on Minister Campo kind of gross.

Speaker 12 (01:00:18):
Yes, you know both got me whenever he was on
screen staring at him like oh so. And as always,
Picard has really bad luck and turbolifts. You should not
get in a turbo lift with Picard when something bad
might happen or is happening because you're gonna get stuck,

(01:00:39):
or the walls are gonna melt or yeah, it's it
could be bad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Thank you very much, Alison leech Hide. I also heard
you're not supposed to get in a turbo lift with Riker,
but for different reasons. All right, Cassandra Gerard is here.
What did you think of that this episode, Cassandra.

Speaker 6 (01:01:00):
I thought it was fun. It's not one of my
favorite episodes, but it's definitely not the worst either. I
always do a deep dive for some reason these Star
Trek episodes, and so with the title cost of Living,
I broke it down to three sections in terms of
you have these alien parasites who survived after the Enterprise

(01:01:21):
saved Tests and three from the Mausolina system. So they're
just living their lives in space. So they just latch
on to the nearest thing that they think is maybe
an asteroid and it's a ship, so they're fighting to survive.
And then you have the compromising that's going between Wharf
and Alexander. You know, Alexander is doing everything verbatim that

(01:01:43):
Wharf says, but he doesn't know how to read into
it because Wharf is always so strict. And then also
in the same sense, Warf doesn't know how to parent
as yet he's still learning that aspect. So you have
that struggle between the two of them, and then there's
a settling that Alexanna seems to be doing and it's
almost like back in the like I guess now it

(01:02:04):
would be internet dating, right, like you don't really see
anyone until later on and sometimes you get catfished. But
at the same time, Alexan is so much older and mature,
and you thought that she would have done some research
into their history and their marital customs, and she didn't
seem to do any of that. She was like, listen,
I'm older and I'm lonely. Let's just make it happen,
you know. And there are some cultures even today that

(01:02:26):
don't meet anyone until the day they get they get married.
So but I thought that was just interesting because Luksana
is such a sexual person and human being, and that
as she's at this point in her life, she's like,
I don't care what he looks like, I don't care
what his customs are. Let's just get it over with,
you know. And so I thought that was interesting. But
I loved how and I'll say this for later, but

(01:02:48):
at the end when she came through and she's like,
and everyone was basically like, you know what, We're just
gonna everyone's just gonna settle. Everyone's just gonna not really subtle,
but everyone's gonna live up to with their expectations of
who they are should be. And so I love that
about this episode. At the end, everyone got their their
due diligence.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Mm hmm. Excellent points. Thank you very much, Cassandra Girard.
Greg Kenzo is nodding his head. I bet we will
too when he tells us what he thought of this episode.

Speaker 15 (01:03:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:03:21):
Oh, so when I first started watching TNG, I think
my first and only watched through was about seven years ago.

Speaker 15 (01:03:32):
I don't remember a lot of this. I remember this episode.
I remember not really liking it. Maybe I was more
like Wharf where I didn't know, like I maybe had
to have fun or I just automatically judges. I was like, oh,
doing the normal stuff they do, and but this timmer around.

Speaker 13 (01:03:50):
I loved it.

Speaker 15 (01:03:52):
It was just luaxano was I mean, first off, it
was a cool way to start the episode. The only
thing I really didn't like was, like Jason said, the
b story, which was the main crew or like, yeah,
just the main except for Crusher for some reason, just

(01:04:12):
not really there. And I guess they had to do
that because there were people that loved TG so much
and they wanted to see the main group, so they
kind of feel like shoved into this episode, Like it's
not really didn't need to really be there, but yeah
it's It's another in the long line of episodes that

(01:04:34):
have an energy being takeover cause damage to the ship
to allow for Hallo Deck episodes to happen. I felt
closer to Walks on it in this episode. Her care
for Alexander was endearing. Let's see, there was no mystery
really to solve or objective to achieve, and I think

(01:04:57):
that's why it has such a low score on IMDb.
The much more of the episodes after this, I mean,
before this, we're like, here's an objective to achieve, we
got to solve it. This one sets the example for
so many of the future episodes that I love. Let's see,

(01:05:21):
it's only a paper moon Aaron Eisenberg and Vic they
really don't do much in the uh, it's not a
hollow deck, it's a hollow suite, but there's so much
character development that you love it. Then the less and
they got rid of like I don't think there's really
a B episode that's like the main focus of that

(01:05:44):
episode and this, so they did it right, but I
understand that this had to come first. There's also, I
mean a great the philosophies. I got a couple of them.
I wrote this note right before the guy said the
line every moment requires a purpose. It's yeah, so there's
no mystery to solve or objective show chief, And then

(01:06:05):
the orange guy was like, every more moment requires a purpose.
And then Losana says, the great secret is not the
variety of life, it's the variety of us. As she
gestures to everyone around her, And it's such a profound
statement that I missed the first time because it's easy
to judge people based on their profession or something similarly superficial,

(01:06:26):
but to remember that everybody has hidden depths and it's
not just one or two things that define them. But
she says, we're made up of a thousand little people.
I love that. It's amazing, wouldn't it pick I'll be
real quick because I'm going over our little limit. But

(01:06:49):
I think that Loxana would have dish this guy way
faster like she's She's such a feminist in my point
of view before these episodes that it just seems so
out of character for this beautiful woman with a lovely
personality being like hard on her luck and like accepting

(01:07:11):
really just the worst person for her. And but I
understand that it's a plot device and it had to
carry her to the like through to the end. But yeah,
I love this episode and worse reveal it and tagline
behind Melissa. It was a perfect perfect buttons of this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
Good stuff, Thanks very much, Greg Kenzo. Were all made
up of a bunch of little people like Voltron chuck A.
What did you think of this episode.

Speaker 10 (01:07:46):
Mixed up feelings about it. I liked it a little
more than that I had remembered in my earlier viewings.
The Holodeck scene was not real good. I thought it
was a little overdone. H Alexander and Warf arguing back

(01:08:08):
and forth. It's been you know, played out in a
few episodes already, uh, getting a little tiresome. But Wharf,
you know, has had being said to be not so
good a father. He did seek out, you know, Troy's
assistance again, which was good. Lawaxana had the one scene

(01:08:35):
again like in the episode man Trap, where she talks
to herself with the computer before she went to the holiday.
I think that I don't know, I know twice they
did that. That was cool, like what Melissa has in
her background with You're just supposed to sit here. I
just burst out in laughter. That was and it was

(01:08:56):
just his head sticking out of the mud on the
And the last scene where la Wauxhana comes in, you know,
into the for the wedding. It could be considered a
sequel to the TNG episode The Naked Now for his
obvious reasons. Like like I said, I loved the episode

(01:09:18):
a little better than I remembered it, but still I
consider like on the mediocre side.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
M h, all right, thanks very much, Chuck A. He's
very honest.

Speaker 7 (01:09:31):
T J.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
Jackson Bay, what did you think of this episode?

Speaker 11 (01:09:34):
Though?

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
You loved it?

Speaker 14 (01:09:35):
Right?

Speaker 8 (01:09:36):
I absolutely loved this episode and it didn't have to
grow on me for me to to love it. I
always loved this episode. It's so endearing to watch law
Watxana and Alexander together and and really watched the emotional
journey that they're both going through. Alexander, you know, feels

(01:09:57):
so held down and he feels like, you know, warf
is so strict and and uh. And then you know
he goes to the counselor and it's almost like, you know,
Counselor Troy is on his side, even though you know
she's trying to, you know, put them on that equal footing.
She's it just feels like he doesn't have anywhere to turn.
And incomes La Wauxana and she just really kind of

(01:10:20):
frees him, you know, from that situation, gives him a
little bit of relief. And so that's enjoyable for me
to watch. And on thea Wauxana's side, you know, she's
also you know kind of going through an immer emotional
journey of her own. And and we've seen this developed.
Someone talked about her character development even though we don't

(01:10:42):
see her often, but this is one hundred percent Lawuxana
because she's always chastising Deanna about being married, so we
know that that's very important to her. And you know
the fact that she feels so lonely that she doesn't
even here who this guy is. He's a warm body

(01:11:02):
and he said yes, and she's going along with it
and she's willing to give it a shot just really
kind of shows where she is emotionally, uh, and you
know the fact that it takes, you know, her relationship
with Alexander to just kind of bring it out of
her that you know, hey, you know, I'm like, I'm

(01:11:24):
gonna be sad and miserable for the rest of my
life like this. And for Alexander to see that and
say something I thought was just extremely beautiful. There were
a couple of funny lines for me. One of those
was in the quarters when I think Deanna is like
chastising on Loaxana and Waxana calls her deadly dull. That

(01:11:50):
was just hilarious. In the other line, It was in
the Holidacks scene, which seems some people didn't enjoy. I
loved the Holidack scenes, every last one of them, and
so was the guy that was juggling he It just says,
if you ever have a world plan.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Ahead, don't eat it.

Speaker 8 (01:12:14):
I've never forgotten that line since the first time I
saw that at this episode, and it's always funny. So
I mean, I could talk about this episode all day,
but I won't. But unless you come to things left unsaid,
and then I'll talk about it all day probably, But yeah,
this episode to me is just fabulous. I love the

(01:12:35):
immerse emotional journey. So I don't know if you felt
that way about it, maybe look at it again.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
This guy gets it. T J. Jackson Bay Out in Missouri,
Thank you very much for that, Faith Howl. All right, Faith,
did you love this episode as much as you love
all of season five? What'd you think?

Speaker 23 (01:12:55):
I definitely love this episode. I mean, as mentioned before,
I was six when this episode came out, so at
that age, what is not to love about this episode?
You get all of this sort of kitty slapstick humor,
You're getting a character who is relatable, and I mean
you get to see Wharf in mud. There we go,

(01:13:17):
that's right there. So yeah, I think some of the
most memorable things from that age are definitely when Wharf
comes in and like punches the bubble guy that was.
That was pretty awesome and hysterical, you know, Wharf in
the mud. But I also just love Lawaxana all around.
I know, you know, she's not everybody's cup of tea,

(01:13:39):
but I think she just gets better and better every
time we see her. She's just so charismatic, and I
think it was funny she didn't like the wedding dress,
and I just it's gorgeous. I don't know if my
taste or you know, the tastes of the time were
different back then, but it is beautiful. I would love
to have a dress like that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
Wait, but like the original the original wedding dress. Okay,
got it, I mean that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
Was but yeah, I did.

Speaker 23 (01:14:12):
I really did appreciate that as an adult to watching
it was a little shocking it when I was six,
because oh my god, naked people. But now I love
that symbolism of her really just taking back herself and
putting it all out there literally that this is who

(01:14:34):
I am. Take it or leave it and I'm kind
of glad that that guy in his weird ears left.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
All right, thank you very much.

Speaker 7 (01:14:43):
Faith.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
How uh Carrie Schwent aka Crafty Bear in the aforementioned Iceland,
But why uh we can't hear you.

Speaker 9 (01:14:56):
It's a long distance to travel.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
Yeah, that's takes a while.

Speaker 7 (01:15:02):
I had a neighbor lasting music, so I had it
had it muted. But no. This is the Blue Lagoon
geothermal resort in Iceland, about half an hour or so
outside of ray Kivoc. It is fantastic to visit. You
never want to leave. The water is just so warm.
It's so comfortable there. Even if it's the air it's cold,

(01:15:23):
you never want to get up because it's just very nice.
I've never done a mud bats, but they I would
give it the opportunity. I would probably try one. The
opportunity hasn't come up yet, but it looks just as
relaxing as a blue Lagoon behind me. And first we
have the space dust from the episode. And who doesn't
love glitter? I love as the crafter, I automatically, I

(01:15:45):
automatically love glitter. I don't hate it as much as
some people do because I find it useful. If it
gets everywhere, so be it. It adds sparkle to life. But
so yeah, circling back to my no to you, I
love I love this episode so so much. We all
know how much I love Botsana. Nobody is. Nobody's relationship

(01:16:08):
with their with their parents is for every everybody has
has has difficulties with it. I know I would not
have married Canpy either. Yeah, the earlobes were kind of
we're kind of gross. But I do love that actor.
He's got such a great voice. Looking at his AMDB,
like three quarters of his acting credits are voice voice

(01:16:29):
acting work, so he has done so much of that.
But I know him from in front of the camera
from Lewis and Clark. He was Lex Luthor's valet Nigel
in the first first couple of seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Of that show.

Speaker 7 (01:16:41):
He has got such a such a cool voice, and
I looked it up with Busters Too, came up three
years before this this episode came out. And when they
set the the jar of goo on the desk and
the observation loundes, I'm yelling at that. I yell at
the TV every time think pleasant thoughts, no negative thoughts,
because then that stuff's gonna start bubbling. Up. If you've

(01:17:04):
never seen Ghostbusters, stoop, go watch it. You'll thank me later.
I'm on the first two bit. I think that the
politic looks a little bit seasoned one ish, but I
don't hate it. I liked all of the people on there.
I enjoyed the art arguing adult versions of Thing one
and Thing two because that's exactly what their hair reminded me,
and the junk suos reminded me of I would totally

(01:17:27):
hang hang out, hang out at that place, and like,
like like a lot of people, I thought they walked
on and Alexander made such a fantastic pair. They absolutely
were what each other, what each other needed. She needed
someone other than Deanna to remind her that she needed

(01:17:47):
to be herself and and not settle. He needed some
kind of female presence in his in his life other
than Deanna, who is his therapist. And I love the
fact that he's going to therapy because especially after everything
with his mom, I love that he's doing that. I
love work supports him in that, and from the looks
of it, joint joins him from from time to time.

(01:18:11):
I'm absolutely with alex Alexander and the scene that he's
trying to get Alexander to eat dinner or worth trying
to tell him to trying to tell him to stay
and eat dinner. But alex is like, I made a promise,
you told me a word, doesn't keep his word, Stop
confusing me. That's a very important parental life lesson. You
can't given your kid mixed signals. Will can will confuse them.

(01:18:35):
You have to you know, work like yeah, work with
work with your child and not try to Yeah anyway,
I'm I'm bad, I'm I'm babbling.

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:18:49):
He yet he needed a calming female presence, someone to
have fun with, Somebody he could talk to you like,
like like talking to your life, talking to a grandmother.
He needed needed somebody like that because it's sometimes be
hard to talk to your direct parents, especially when that
yells a lot like workd us oh work stopping himself

(01:19:10):
from yelling just makes me laugh every time, I too,
love walks on his work rope every single time. That
wedding dress was gorgeous. If walks on it, doesn't want it,
I will absolutely wear it. And uh yeah, the her
telling Alexander about the all the people that live in
your live in your head, and some like to do
this and some like to do that. I've been saying

(01:19:32):
this for years. I even bought a T shirt for
my husband that says I do with the voices and
my wife's head telling me to get He gets compliments
on it every every single time he wears it. And
I do have like one fun, fun, fun thing and
a story for things left un said. So I'll tease that.

(01:19:55):
But for the poetry this time, I went a little
bit different, and I was sort of inspired by the
the First Learner I think. I think the IMDb credits
have him as the guy, the guy that, the guy
all in orange, the higher, the fewery guy. He sort
of inspired me and a little bit of Terry Ferrell

(01:20:17):
from from the Delta Fiers. Her poetry is a little bit,
a little bit looser. So with with with that, I
will end, or I will I will finish with with this,
all knowledge begins with wisdom, All wisdom begins with truth.
Children learn from their parents, parents learn from their children.

(01:20:42):
The bottom the end.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Nice great stuff. Thank you very much, Carrie Schwant aka
Crafty Bear, Mark Zuttkoff, what's up? What do you think
of this one? Welcome?

Speaker 5 (01:20:55):
Thank you From my previous viewings of this episode I
only remember remembered the one famous line and not being
thrilled with the story. Watching it now, my opinion of
it has greatly improved. It's funny and touching, with some
of the best humorous dialogue in a TNG episode. Originally,
I'd felt that they'd let let Roxana's character backslide after

(01:21:17):
her growth in half a Life, but seeing it now
I disagreed with myself. Now, as long as I don't
lose the argument, I should be all right. The technobabble
laden b plot was a bit annoying, but I'll save
the complaints about it for things left unsaid. It does
seem like Waxana swiped right, although actually she swiped wrong.
Majel Baron and Waxana uses a variety of facial expressions

(01:21:42):
that were so expressive Later in the episode, she switches
between humor and pathos in a single scene shot in
close up so we can see the changing expression throughout. Excellent.
I liked the line from the Waxana that capped the
famous the higher the fewer. That's a conversation stopper if
I ever heard one. And Woxana adds a beautiful line

(01:22:05):
to Alexander the mind opens and in Creeps Wisdom, we
could use some more of that in the world. When
Riker tells Picard that the honor of giving away the
bride belongs to him, Picard shows some ego by agreeing
to the ceremony when he'd be against it moments before,
but immediately follows it with a hilarious line that nothing

(01:22:26):
would please him more than giving missus Troy away. Star
Trek does the Marx Brothers a night at the opera,
famous stateroom scene, seven characters in cramp quarters. All it
was missing was somebody ordering two hive boiled eggs. Partly
through the earlier Holidacs scene, I suddenly remembered how this

(01:22:47):
episode ended with Boxana coming to the wedding ceremony naked.
But what made that scene work were the reactions of
the attendees, among others, mister Hamm's knowing smile and a
few moments later Roy's grin, and then the mudbath at
the end, My heavens, Deanna's heir not quite the humor

(01:23:08):
in this case, the higher the more, and finally, my
home pun of the episode, the Holideck sequences were Star
Trek's attempt at high Campio.

Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
Thank you very much. Mark Zutkoff, everybody. You can get
his TNNG Joke book at Barnes and Noble and Walking
Out made my Melissa dot com. Great stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:23:34):
Chris McGee is here in Southeast Texas. What's up, Chris?
I'm sorry, Chris Garris. This is the second time. I'll
never do that again. Chris Garris is in Southeast Texas.
What do you think of this one?

Speaker 4 (01:23:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (01:23:49):
It was.

Speaker 14 (01:23:50):
When I saw what it was, I was like, great,
another Alexander episode, because I know some people in this
group feel the same way at times, but I had
forgotten how it started. And okay, change my mind a
little bit. Still, you know, not my favorite episodes, but
it's not as bad as I was expecting. Because anytime

(01:24:12):
you get Lauxana on the Enterprise, there's gonna be grief.
She's going to annoy, you know, annoy Picard, annoy her daughter.
This time she decides to annoy Wharf and you know
that's always the community. She's the comedic relief at times.

(01:24:32):
But you know, I had kind of forgotten about you
know how she actually takes Alexander under her wing and
honestly just helps him out to get through this, you know,
rough patch with Warf, well, one of many rough patches
with Wharf, because this is not the only one, you know,

(01:24:53):
And I'd forgotten that it starts off with like, you know,
the way it starts doesn't even really really link, you know,
show how the episode's gonna be, because it's full of action.
They're sitting there trying to destroy that that asteroid. It's
you know, you know, it looked like it was no
mist successful, but you know that's beside the point.

Speaker 15 (01:25:15):
You know.

Speaker 14 (01:25:15):
I liked how we start off with Troy's office with
Wharf and Alexander. You know, she's actually trying to counsel them.
You know, they're sitting there talking about the miss you
know this, you know, I was thinking, it makes me
laugh when Troy asked Alexander what you know in the contract,
you know, what one thing would he like from his father?

(01:25:35):
And he says, no, young and Wharf, I do not
I do not yell, and which it made me immediately
think of I'm not a merry man, you know, I
just couldn't hear that in my head. And then I

(01:25:56):
liked also, when I've never seen somebody go from smiling
to oh whatever, as fast as Deanna when she heard,
oh her mom's on board, Oh she needs to go
to as some parents child counseling for herself. So I

(01:26:18):
just like that. And also, you know, I actually agreed
with Deanna at first, you know, when she was actually
questioning little Auxana about you know, like who is this guy?
You know, you know, because she's just worried about her mom.
Especially it does wouldn't get taken care of, taken advantage
of it, I mean, and it was cool to know that,

(01:26:40):
you know, online dating still exists in the twenty fourth century.
I wasn't expecting that. And Klingon's can definitely roll their
eyes because when she calls him mister Wolf, he just
his face, Oh my god, look could have killed And
probably the last thing I'll say for now was during

(01:27:02):
the Riker and Picard walking talk. You know, there's only
a few other times. The only other time Riker has
such a smile in his face is when you know
he's probably gonna be getting some but he's getting to
sit there and just spoon feeds slowly to Picard about Luxana.
And you know, as we all, someone else you know said,

(01:27:24):
you know, he was like, god, she's on this ship.
She can't do it, Yeah, but she wants you to
give her away. Okay, like his attitude change instantly, you know,
so you know when it was all said and done,
you know, it's just you know, the relationship between Loxana
and Alexander really helps to fix you know, Alexander or

(01:27:50):
wharfs to find a balance, which also then allows her
to you know, reconsider her marriage and and just going
back to being independent, which is the rock locksa that
we all know.

Speaker 8 (01:28:01):
Wait, I like that Rosanna Rocks.

Speaker 14 (01:28:05):
Yes, but yeah, so it has grown on me, you know,
I like everybody. You know, I won't necessarily just skip
past it anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:28:20):
Wow, you used to skip past it? Ouch, Thank you
very much. Chris Garris definitely better this time around. Chris
McGee in Cincinnati, What did you think of this one?

Speaker 22 (01:28:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (01:28:35):
I like Chris Garris. This is one of the few
episodes that I skip during a rewatch of the series.
Not due to the story in the A plot of
walks On and getting married, which is decent, or even
the B plot of the asteroids, sparkles or parasites. No,
it's the side plot to the walks On his marriage.
I might even call it filler of the Holidack visits.

(01:28:56):
It's like watching a Teletubbies show and just anyone watching
or listening who loves Teletobies. I mean no disrespect, those
Holidays scenes just don't seem to mesh well with the
tone of the rest of this episode. Like Carrie, Tony
j is one of my favorite voice actors. His acting
credits are too numerous to mention, but I've always loved

(01:29:18):
hearing his voice in some of my favorite video games.
Despite this episode not ranking Leon or All on my
list of good episodes, I do love that Majel's continuing
to be given more dramatic scenes like in her last appearance,
and through her interactions with Alexander, you can clearly see
just how good she is with children. One tiny little

(01:29:41):
nitpick all squeeze in here. While I appreciate the decision
to open the episode on an action sequence, I do
have one small nitpick. As Sarracas pointed out in previous episodes,
when you only have forty four seconds to take action,
that's really not the time to give detailed explanation.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
And a couple of brief.

Speaker 16 (01:30:03):
Moments that caught my attention of the spike bog Low
from Code of Honor is seen on display in Worst
Quarters and insignt Jay gets a nice little feature shot
as she's helped off the bridge later on in the episode.
My quote of the episode, everyone's pretty much covered every
single quote that I wrote down, so I'll just go
with my primary choice, which is walks on of course saying, well,

(01:30:27):
that's a conversation stopper if I ever heard one.

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
Thank you very much, Chris McGee, the conversation starter. All right,
the Matt boardman, what's up with you? What do you
think of this one?

Speaker 22 (01:30:41):
Yo?

Speaker 9 (01:30:41):
So again, like others, I think before this was not
an episode that was in my top like, okay, maybe
I'm going to skip this one, right, But as is
the case, a lot of times, when you go back
to it and circumstances in your life have changed, it
means different things to you. And I mean as a parent,

(01:31:02):
and I think whether you're a parent or you have
nieces and nephews that you deal with, everybody knows that
there's a precarious relationship between kids and adults, right, And
I see this in you know, and my wife, Rachel,
she is a kindergarten teacher and her descriptions of the
interactions that she has with these kids there too, and

(01:31:24):
it's I think it kind of is boiled down to
reverse hostage negotiations, because I mean, you are making deals
to try to get these tiny little human beings to
do the things that you know are for their betterment.
But they don't always agree with you, right, they have
their own independent thoughts. So I love that aspect of

(01:31:45):
it because Star Trek at its core is, you know,
is that allegorical taiale. It touches upon those aspects of
our life that in a unique way that isn't quite
hitting us over the head with a frying pan, but
but as we are tuned into that particular message, it
means something different to those of us depending on where
we're at in our lives. But I also particularly like
the situation with Losana and getting married because I know

(01:32:12):
for myself personally, you know, having having been divorced and
going through the whole dating life. Like, I'm sorry, but
dating when you are older sucks.

Speaker 8 (01:32:23):
It is bad. It is not fun.

Speaker 9 (01:32:25):
I do not remact, I do not recommend two thumbs down.

Speaker 8 (01:32:28):
It is.

Speaker 9 (01:32:31):
It's it's just not fun. It's just I mean, I
mean as we get older, we all have our issues,
but some people have full subscriptions by that point, right,
And so it's I can I can sympathize with her.
But what I what I'm more or less I love
about her arc in this particular story, is that that

(01:32:53):
for all of this advice that she's giving to Alexander,
she doesn't stop for a moment to think, hey, maybe
I should take my own advice. And as a parent
who's had a lot of discussions with my son lately
about where he's going in his life. Right, he's nineteen,
he's gonna be twenty years old this year, and he's
constantly telling me, well, I'm a failure. I'm not doing anything.

(01:33:13):
I'm like, Bro, you're nineteen years old, right, You're exactly
where you're supposed to be. You just graduated. Like if
you were off, you know, running some country or something
like that, I'd be a little concerned because already, you know,
you're supposed to have fun. And that's the message that
she's trying to give Alexander. Well, as adults, we too,
we are supposed to have fun. Just because we're bigger, older, heavier,

(01:33:35):
slower than what we were. We should always have fun.
And I love the message that this episode gives in
that no matter where you're at in your life, the
higher the fewer.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
Yep, ain't that the truth? Thanks very much the Matt Boardman.
All right, Star rock lofton Jake's final take your final
thoughts on this one. Want you unmute yourself? It happens

(01:34:08):
all of us.

Speaker 2 (01:34:09):
That'll probably work, probably sound better.

Speaker 4 (01:34:16):
So yeah, I thought it was interesting that the word
profiles was used, like, you know, there's something that we
use today when we're talking about online dating.

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
So I thought that was interesting that just.

Speaker 4 (01:34:27):
The verbiage of it is something that really caught on.
I love mister holmes outfits. I think he wears some
of the best outfits in the world. It's got so
much style. I don't know, it's kind of like, it's
just it has so many different flavors to it. I
love the fabric choices and the drapes and how the

(01:34:48):
closes like falls on it. So it must he must
be a joy to dress for Bob Blackman and those guys. Yeah,
I thought it was funny when Alexander and I thought
he had some very good moments in this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
I thought it was funny when he said you told
me that yesterday, like you know, like that just holds for.

Speaker 4 (01:35:09):
Then, like you got to tell me again today. And
I also liked it when he said I hate him
all he cares about our rules.

Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
They like, yeah, wait till you get married and so
and then. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:35:27):
I've also thought it was funny when Major orders her
tea drink or whatnot and she gets mad and she
kind of hits the thing, and I thought, we've all
done that at a soda machine at one time, where
you just test at it and you just kind of
hit it one time, thinking that that'll that'll do it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
So I like that.

Speaker 4 (01:35:50):
Walks On had a great line where she said, uh,
minister Darling, perhaps you and the.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
Jerko, the nice little is so good, right, That's exactly
how she would do it, you and the Jerko.

Speaker 4 (01:36:07):
So I thought about Data saving the day in this
episode when everybody was passed out.

Speaker 2 (01:36:12):
I'm like, did he do that?

Speaker 4 (01:36:13):
On the episode where the time loop situation and everybody
was knocked out?

Speaker 2 (01:36:18):
I was like, where would they be without this guy?
I literally dead? So they got for Data.

Speaker 3 (01:36:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:36:27):
I love the costume of the dancer woman that was
in that Holid deck. I made her body paint make
up that she was just it was just unbelievable. She
would probably win any costume contest there is, just based
on the intricacy of the way it looked to me.
I saw fabric attached to her skin a little bit.

(01:36:51):
But that's the same reason why I didn't like this episode,
because I don't think it's appropriate to bring somebody else's
kid to.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
An environment that has that kind of.

Speaker 4 (01:37:00):
Of sexual proclivity to it, and that disturbed me as
a parent. I think you need permission in order to
do that. Minister Campio had a cool jacket that also
doubled as a two pay so I thought that was.

Speaker 2 (01:37:17):
That was awesome. Yeah, that's you know, that's pretty much
for me. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:37:27):
Overall, I did like the chemistry between the two. I
thought the two pretty much characters that everybody hates or
people hate or somebody dislikes right now actually teamed up
together to be there for each other. And you know,
I've said this before, but I think Majel rodden Berry

(01:37:50):
does her best acting when she's not over the top,
and she just has to be serious, and I think
if she was written that way all the time, we
would see some of the best performances from her all
the time, because I do think she can hit those vulnerable,
sensitive notes as well as anybody I've seen. And she

(01:38:12):
kind of makes you tear up when she gets into
that kind of self pity mode that she was getting
into in this particular episode, and you kind of felt for.

Speaker 2 (01:38:24):
Her character. You know, facing time, you know father time,
which is what she's up against like all of us.

Speaker 4 (01:38:32):
So I think that was a beautiful opportunity for the
showcase her acting. I wish they did it more often
and didn't make her so over the top as an
annoyance to people, because I think when she has opportunity
to really deliver a message and give you some kind
of story or some kind of serious note, she's.

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
At her best.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
So yeah, that's it, beautiful, that's it for us, everybody.
Can you believe it? We just talked about this episode
for like an hour and a half and we had
a ton of fun doing it. We actually had you guys,
the first learner join us in the first segment of
this episode, and it was actually frickin' awesome. Can't wait

(01:39:16):
for you to see it. Thank you very much to
the Matt Boardman, Chris McGee, Chris Garris, Mark Zuttkoff, Carrie Schwent,
Faith Howl, TJ. Jackson, Bay Chuck A, Greg Kenzo, Cassandra Gerard,
Allison Leech Hide, Jason m Oakin, Melissa A longo for myself, Sarrack, Melissa,
and mister Aaron Eisenberg. Thank you all so much for

(01:39:36):
hanging out with us. We had a ton of fun.
Leave your comments in the comments section below and we'll
see you next time. And until then, always remember the
seventh Rule.

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Life Lessons | With Christopher Halstead | TNG 5.20, "The Cost of Living" | T7R #347

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Life Lessons | With Christopher Halstead | TNG 5.20, "The Cost of Living" | T7R #347