Snow Angels | TNG 5.15, "Power Play" | T7R #341 - The 7th Rule -- A Star Trek Podcast with DS9's Cirroc Lofton

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Commander Riker is pretty sure his arm is broken. Data's
primary speech processors are experiencing a minor fluctuation, and Molly
gets in a terribly foul mood. If Chief O'Brien is late,
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Seventh Rule? Was sarrock Lofton? Hello?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Those were more informative than funny. My name is Ryan T. Huskin.
Today we are doing a review of Star Trek The
Next Generation Season five, episode fifteen. Power play story by
Paul Rubin. I don't think that's Paul Ruben's and Maurice Hurley.
That's really interesting. Teleplay by Renee Balker and Herbert Wright

(00:40):
and Brannon Braga we know him. Directed by David Livingston.
That's cool. This was February twenty second, nineteen ninety two.
Where were you and how are you? Sarrock Lofton, I'm
doing great.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
February second two two too.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
That's a good date. That's a good date. Yeah, okay,
First and foremost story by Maurice Hurley. Remember that was
like the producer guy from the original series. Yeah, kind
of came over like the first season of Next Generation.
So was this a story that he just kind of

(01:23):
helped to come up with back in the first season
that they'd been kicking around for four years, or did
he kind of come back to the show a couple
times here and there, because that's really strange. I hope
our buddy Jason Oakin joins us in the three prou
because he'll probably know he loves that old school stuff.
But I don't know what do you think that's all about?

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Not quite sure, but I can say that there were
elements of it that did feel like I don't know,
I would say originales ish. The thing that strikes me
the most is that is the whole concept about ghosts, right,

(02:12):
and you know, and being possessed. I thought that was
kind of like a theme or an episode kind of
idea that may have been circulated in there, because it
does feel like one of those subjects matter, right.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
That's true that the original series was not afraid to
tackle things like ghosts, whereas nowadays we'd kind of scoff it, like,
what are you talking about ghosts? This is weird? But
the original series was like ghosts, Greek gods, whatever. So
looking at this here. Maurice Hurley did stop producing The

(02:52):
Next Generation after season two, but he has a few
writing credits. He has a lot of written story by
credits in season one, of course, six of those four
in season two, including Shades of Gray, and one season

(03:14):
four episode and one season five episode. This week, it
was just a story by. But I do wonder how
kind of stuck around for a few months or a
few years, I should say, anyway, And then the other
one that kind of jumps out there, David Livingston we
already know in love Brannon Braga. That's interesting. You know,

(03:35):
he's kind of a newbie. Back then, I would think.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah, I would imagine that he had fully earned his stripes.
She had, especially with all these top dollars around that were,
you know, just now taking the reins of everything, you know,
you had Berman Pillar and all of these guys.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So, yeah, he was waiting his turn in, you know.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
So it looks like he joined the writer's room last
season in the Next Generation season four, and so at
this point, yeah, he's already you know, he's well on
his way, but he's still kind of the new guy.
And then as we know, he really took off in Voyager. Anyway,
So this episode, everybody, please make sure you like this video.

(04:21):
Subscribe to the channel hit the balicon for notifications if
you're listening, and give us a five star rating and
a nice review. We'd really appreciate that. And if you
really want to be cool, please go to patreon dot com,
slash the seventh rule and join our patreon. You could
be You could join as a member for just one dollar.
You know. I don't know what that translates to other countries,

(04:42):
but one dollar. I'd buy that for a dollar for
those of you who remember RoboCop. But of course, if
you want to do more than a dollar, that's also fine.
So suck this episode. I remember it, I remember pretty well,
and I remember really liking a couple aspects of it,

(05:05):
And the main aspects for me is that Chief O'Brien
got a lot of work Keike O'Brien. You know, Molly's there,
So we're expanding O'Brien's story beyond just this guy that
pushes buttons in a transporter. Room three and ens and Row.

(05:27):
This is the first time it felt like Ensign Row
was not feeling like the new person or the odd
person out where she was just part of the crew
figuring out a solution. There wasn't any weird stuff for
any new stuff. It was just she's now part of
the crew, she's talking with people, she's coming up with ideas.

(05:47):
I thought that was really cool, and uh, you know
a lot of they just used a lot of characters
and kind of expanded their cast, and that's something I love.
That's what I love best about Deep Space nine is
the rich cast that goes on for miles.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Were you looking for any any tells of the previous
episode with roll erin and Troy in that whole you know,
escapade that they had.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Oh no, I didn't even think of that, were you
I was?

Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was looking smart.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
I was because there was a moment there on the
bridge where Roe's sitting there at her you know, at
her panel, and she's at her console and Troy walks
into the frame to address Riker, and I was thinking, Oh,
let's see if this is you know, let's see how this.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Is gonna go.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
If there's gonna be any kind of residual awkwardness from
the last episode.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I didn't see it. I didn't see it. Rode the
rope kind of handled it like nothing ever happened.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
I thought it would have been funny if Troy's walking
around beaten people up on the bridge doing all this
stuff and then you know, Riker's like, oh my god,
what's gotten into them or something? Rod goes, I didn't
notice any difference, Like, I don't know, Troy's a battle

(07:16):
axe to me. I don't know what you did you
notice the difference? I didn't. But no, none of that.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, well, I thought you were gonna say that. It
would have been interesting had Row been taken hostage and
she was the one being assaulted by Troy, like this
one we're gonna kill first based on that would be
so fun.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
See but this show is so episodic. That kind of
stuff was so rare because sometimes that episode would come
out before the other one or whatever. But that would
have been so fun if we even just got one
or two lines, you know, added you know where she
takes Yeah, maybe she takes Row and she goes, uh,
I know, the body I'm inhabiting definitely is happy about this,

(08:02):
or or kind of like some thing.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
There to connect connect the touts from the last episode,
because they did leave it like up in the.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Air, like okay, well you know, all is well, you.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Know, just it's a one night standard situation and we're
just going to move on. And be adults, but it's
hard to there's always that little little flare of awkwardness
that comes on the keels of something like that.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
It doesn't always just seems to transition or what.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
About between Roe and Riker, like when Ker, you know,
like if there's just kind of something where even just
any kind of line where you know, Roe says, Commander,
you're gonna have to stop avoiding me, you know, just
any kind of little thing that just thinks that like
a dresses some little thing and he's like, I'm not

(08:52):
avoiding you. And she's like, okay, whatever, We're coming up
on the moon now, sir, you know what I mean.
Like they're just kind of like a little small talk
in there. That would have been funny, but orse there
probably wasn't room for that in this episode. But I
also thought it was cool that ough First of all,
Troy got to play something completely different, but Data got

(09:13):
to go nuts. He must have had so much fun.
He had to play a tough guy, even the way
who's standing all light m I'm as a tough guy,
and he actually played pretty well.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, That's one of the things I liked about the
episode was first of all, they used the characters very well.
This is like, you know, sometimes you only get one
character that's everingly featured, and so they get most of
the work and then everybody else is just one line here,
one scene there, and it doesn't really have any impact.

(09:47):
In this particular episode, everybody had a substantial part of
the story totally. And that's one of my compliments for
the way this was written. It seems like they had
a good grasp of every character. Riker was in charge.
We got to see him in command. We got to

(10:09):
see per Car use his cleverness, we got to see
Data to act out of character and bullied Warf. We
got to see Warf have composure and have his moments.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
You know why I think, just to jump on this
real quick is that's a great point and why this
is why I think they did it deliberately. The reason
I think they did it deliberately is because of Beverly Crusher.
They could have easily not even used during this episode
or just been there, but they clearly found something for

(10:46):
her to do that worked and that was important to
the story. So I think that's a really good point
that I think it was deliberate where they were like,
we want to use all the characters, and we want
to showcase the thing that many many Star Trek fans,
including my self, says our favorite thing about Star Trek,
which is everybody working together. You do this, you do that,

(11:07):
the two of you go here, will do this, will nod,
you figure out this shield, And they're all working together
and thinking together and planning together, and it's really cool.
And I feel like Beverly's role in this episode is
proof of that.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
So is Kko's role. The way they enhanced her role.
She was really big in this episodelled it.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah the baby was baby, and but yeah, I do
think that she was really well utilized. I thought her
performance was great because she actually the way she performed
her scenes was as if she didn't know this person
that was in front of her, and so she looked
at Miles as if, you know, he was a stranger

(11:57):
to her. And I noticed that there was no appeal
on her side to say, you know, you don't remember me,
you know, this is our kid. I thought that was
actually well done, the way she hid that from him
essentially and didn't kind of try to gain favor towards

(12:17):
him by saying, you know, how could you do this
to me. And because if she went to nagging wife mode,
I think he might have killed her right then and.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
There, like I'm not mild. Yeah, because he.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Seemed to have like he was like fixated with her,
which was which was kind of you know, it was
good and bad. It made sense because obviously they know
each other, but it was also bad.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
It was like, dude, leave her alone.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
All these people in some room and you know, like
not picking on this woman with a child, like of
all people, like you would think the lady holding a baby,
you know, I'm going to leave.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
She'll be the life as one I kind of pick on.
Now the rest of you guys need to, you know,
fall in line. I thought that was a little bit.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
It bothered me a little bit.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, I was thinking if this was written, uh since
Maurice Hurley, you know, had the story by credit or
one of the two, you know, if this was something
that had been kicking around all the way back then,
I'm thinking that. I was thinking maybe Spock, Uhura, and
Chekhov would be the three that would have gotten inhabited

(13:29):
or something like that, you know, so that they could
really show their strong differences. You know, Spock would be
like the data or whatever like that. You know, they
could really have start contrast between them.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
It's good observation. Yeah. And whoa would play the Troy
Troy role?

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah yeah yeah fun.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
So there are a lot of things and and and
again this one is I love seeing uh people all
working together.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Right.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
It was also really cool to see Jordian Roe. I
like that that is a group because that's GNR. That's
guns and Roses. Everybody knows. And when I'm right because
when I write my notes, I do shorthands, I'm like
GNR in the Jeffrey's Tube and I'm like, oh cool,
I like that crew, good old GNR. They also anyway,

(14:21):
I won't get into that, but they were. They were
really cool. And I was also noticing Michelle Forbes. First
of all, she's tall, but you always notice little things
about her that makes her like a great actress, you know,
not just that she's an ensign. She's a new character,
but she walks in like she owns the place. There's

(14:43):
no fear, there's no meekness, there's no nothing. You know,
she's there, she's present, She's unashamed, unapologetic. But on top
of that, when they were in that Jeffries tube or
whatever that was.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
And she was.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Also pretty limber, like you know when they pull off
the things the flooring of that, and she's kind of
like crab walking around it. I'm like, dude, I would
have had to do like fifteen takes and some assistant
stretches to get in that thing. It's but anyway, I mean,
those are all things that you know, you notice and
you think, oh, anyway, what do you think of Michelle

(15:22):
Forbes as an actress.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Well, I think it's pretty obvious that the camera loves
her and that she's just like she shines.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
She has an intense look on her face. It's very captivating.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
You're kind of always looking to see what her facial
reactions are and how she's going to interpret a comment
or how you know, what her you know what her
reactions are, and so I'm watching her all the time.
That's a good sign of somebody that's not only photogenic
but also a good actor hitting the notes of the

(16:02):
scene making it compelling. I think Michelle Forbes is fantastic.
I would have you know, I see why. You know,
Kira comes from the precedent that she set as far
as being a strong woman, who is just capable in
so many different ways, so much so that it almost

(16:26):
feels like she is Riker's equivalent to me.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
I don't know about I don't know about everybody.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Else, but just from my own viewing, because it's funny
because last episode, Wharf won command of the ship, right,
so he sat in the captain's charity.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
He thought he was the captain.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
But from my just outside perspective, if you were to
take all the pips away from everybody's caller and you
just base off of demeanor, I would say that she
is like a number one to me. Yeah, yeah, like Riker,
she not necessarily the full captain because I think the

(17:04):
captain has to have a certain level of.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Composure that I think she lacks. I think she's a
little bit more.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
You know, reared up, ready to go, trigger happy.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Wes trigger happy.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Well that's why I put them together, number one.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
They're Yeah, so that's the energy that for me, what
I get, what you know, what she radiates for me
as somebody who is high level command. She doesn't feel
like an ensign to me. And maybe that's because of
her life experiences. Maybe that's because of you know, we've
seen her journey and how she actually was very tough

(17:44):
with Riker, and how she was very tough with the
car when she first came.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
On the scene.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
So she actually matched them as far as energy wise,
you know, she didn't back down. And so that's what
I feel for, you know, her performance. And I really
enjoyed that Jefferies Tube scene as well. I thought the
line that was given in it was, Yeah, I think

(18:08):
Jordie says, starship designers call this easy access, right, And
I was thinking to myself, Yeah, it's funny because they
build these crawl spaces and stuff and they're like, oh yeah,
it's totally easy access.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
You know, you're.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Crawling through, you know, four by four a little thing, right,
And and I just thought that was I thought that
was funny because it's kind of, you know, it's one
of those self deprecating things to you know, talk about
Starfleet engineers designing these ships or whatnot. I thought it

(18:45):
was a fun little thing and that scene worked well.
The two of them also work well together. Jordy and
Rolleran have great working chemistry, you know, if that makes
it sense, Like they would make good working book partners
in Starfleet, as as I saw them do in that scene.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know, I I completely agree with that, and that
again is another one of my favorite things. All my
favorite things are character driven, but new character combinations and
seeing how they react to one another, what their relationship
is like, what the dynamic is like. And this was
a new character dynamic. And it's really what Roe does

(19:34):
is she brings us a new character dynamic because by
season five, you know, we've already seen Picarden data, we've
seen Riiker and Troy. We know what's up with Beverly
and Picard. We need a new combination. Well, here's Roe
and Riker. Before that it was Roe and Picard. Now
we're seeing Roe and Jordie, you know, and it's really

(19:58):
cool to see this. It's it's like new, it's fresh,
it's interesting, like we can't help but kind of like
lean in we see whoa Jordie and ensign Roe or
you know, in some tube doing something together. Suddenly it's
it's automatically more interesting to just see this new character
combination together. And they worked well together. It looks cool.

(20:19):
I also really enjoyed seeing Roe assume the tactical position
when Wharf was gone. Didn't expect that She's a pilot.
She's Helm, you know, but apparently she also does some tactical,
some security. And when Riiker and Picard were talking in
the foreground of a shot and then we see Roe

(20:40):
in the background at tactical, I got a little memory
of Tashi y are you know, standing back there handling business.
And it makes me think, you know, thank god the
writing changed from season one to season five because it

(21:02):
allows en Sign Roe Michelle Forbes to be this strong character,
this tough character, this interesting character that maybe Denise Crosby
was not quite afforded. And you know, I feel like
if she were watching this episode, she'd be thinking, I
would have loved to do this. This would have been
a great character, This would have been a great story,

(21:23):
a great episode. I would have loved to stand back
there and be tough and smart and strong and go
off on missions and do these things, you know what
I mean. Like it just felt like in four seasons
they got it right a lot more than they got
it wrong in four seasons later. Now they're kind of
getting it right a lot more often season one and
they were kind of, you know, trying, But anyway, it

(21:47):
was just nice. It was just reminiscent of her seeing
Roe back there.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, I mean she's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
I mean so far, every position that they've put her in,
every episode she's been in, she's been.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Outstanding. To me. I mean, I like watching or performance.
But the other thing is.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
O'Brien and how they widened the scope of his you know,
he went to volunteer to do something that we've never
seen O'Brien engaged in an away mission type rescue scenario.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
I mean, here he is. He pops up in the
middle of nowhere and he's like, I can do it.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
I can you know, recalibrate the whatever whatever and do
the thing.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
And I'm thinking, I like that.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
He took the initiative to volunteer himself, you know, and
and he did it.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
He did what he said he was going.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
To mist his life. Apparently Jordan thought it was just
a fifty to fifty chance, and Picard was like, all right,
you're roll the dice. He didn't even think that hard
about it. He didn't say is there any other way?
Did he say, no, I do not want to risk
another life. No, he was just like transport chief, I mean.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Fifty to fifty. Yeah, it was it like a coin flip.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, that's cool man. I mean, you know, wharf, can
you get another transporter chief ready just in case this
one dies? Snoopy, just grab anybody.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
I mean, this guy's literally married and just had a
baby like.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Like, but the car didn't fifty to fifty chance heads
and tails you call it in the air.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
I also thought it would have held a little bit
more weight if once O'Brien transported over to the planet,
we got a little moment two seconds of him going,
you know, like just a little when he transplants, he
sees it was a success. He goes like, all right,
we did it, awesome. But he was just he just
walked on as if his life wasn't in a fifty

(23:48):
to fifty coin flip. He just walked off and just
did his duty without even thinking like, oh my god,
I fucking survived, Thank god, you know nothing.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
Just as a little side from dad seed when they
all get electrocuted and they have an overhead shot and
I feel like they're all lying there in the snow,
you know, the snowman where you're laying in the snow
trying to make an angel or something.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Like. Nobody got knocked over into like a weird you
know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
They all were like, ah, so I thought it was interesting.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
I thought I thought that was kind of funny. I
looked at it a few times, like what is this?

Speaker 1 (24:26):
I feel like Michael would have gone in the fetal position.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
No, he likes missionary. But what do you mean.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Anyway? Please continue?

Speaker 2 (24:42):
No, No, you got me.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
No, I was gonna say, oh, Brian getting getting his
role expanded, you know what I mean, having his family
on the line, having a chance to really play like
this villain character.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Maybe almost his first away is that the first time
we've seen Yeah, I can't remember. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I can't remember him off
the ship.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
And it's funny because the transporter guy got transported like
he's in charge of that now. Yeah, so it is
his first away mission. You know, I thought it was
also kind of funny. I don't know if you, if
you had the kind of comic relief of watching.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Data pick on war, was that? Did you like that
or did you not like that?

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Well, it didn't bother me. I thought it was funny.
I mean, obviously the end was funny when he says, oh,
I admire your restraint or something like that and wharfs.
You have no idea, like I really wanted du boy why,
you know, But yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
There was.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
There was definitely something where he just kept picking on
wharf and Wharf is just like shaking his head at
this guy. You know, Warf is very MOPy. We know
Warf likes to pout and mope. So watching him like
being annoyed, he's like I am ready to die or whatever,
you know, like that was fun for him. I enjoyed it.
I don't know if it was meant to be funny,
but I had a lot of ha ha moments in

(26:16):
this episode, you know that are just like cute and fine.

Speaker 6 (26:20):
Ah that was a great impersonation with your arms folded
like that.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
That It was that Warf for Anne Marie.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
I mean the body language said end marine, the boy
said wharf.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, the voice is slightly lower pitch. I think with Wharf.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
That was.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
But I mean there were just moments that I liked.
I mean, just you know, comical moments, playful moments.

Speaker 7 (26:48):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
The card had its hell line there that I really enjoyed.
I thought it was great when he offers it to
exchange himself for the hostages and he said is something
to the effect of, you know, as long as they're
aboard this ship, I'm a hostage no matter where I am.
I thought that was just like pretty good sound logic

(27:11):
on like, hey, what do you want me to do?

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, well, there are a lot of good lines like
that in this episode. I agree that where they were
just like perspective lines, you know, where Picard has a
very good perspective on this, although there were a lot
of things I did have palms with and they're just
kind of like nitpicks. Like, Okay, at the end there,
speaking of perspective, we find out these people are prisoners. Right, Yeah,

(27:47):
I'm so sorry. Stay tuned to find out what my
nit mak is is. We have to hit our break right,
oh man, this is going to be so oh man,
get Grandma. We'll be right back on the Seventh Rule. Hey, everybody,
welcome back to the Seventh Rule with sarroc lofton.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeallo.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Here are the trivioids of the week. The Enterprise picks
up a weak distress call on an uninhabited moon. Counselor
Troy doesn't think that they've solved the mystery of the
Captain Schumar and the Essex whatever that means. Commander Riker
is pretty sure his arm is broken. Molly gets it
terribly foul mood. If Chief O'Brien is late, data's primary

(28:33):
speech processes are experiencing a minor fluctuation, Riker's pain receptors
might have protected him. Captain Schumar says he was absorbed
by lightning or something. Chief Miles O'Brien gave Keiko a
bracelet in Mount McKinley Park or just mckinnley Park. I guess,
all right, yeah, wherever that is? So, I think it's

(28:56):
in northern California. Oh, is either in northern California or Alaska.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I'm sure there's a few McKinley parts.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
I feel like there's a mount Mount McKinley I can remember.
Is that in northern California or is that in Alaska?

Speaker 2 (29:16):
No, I'm not good with my mountains.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Let's find out Alaska Okay?

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Got Alaska? Okay?

Speaker 1 (29:25):
And if I forget again, Alaska Okay?

Speaker 3 (29:30):
This is the second Alaska. Noam then, because we just
had one with Riker last episode.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, Riker's from Alaska, Okay? So here was the thing.
Picard was really good about the moral dilemmas. He's really
good about the diplomacy and authority and you know, kind
of straddling that line of what what's right and what's
wrong and being ethical and you know, all of the

(29:58):
things that you want in a can fine. Those people
we find out at the end are prisoners on a moon.
They've been left there for centuries presumably. I don't remember
if they said how long they've been there, but we
know the two hundred years ago they were already there
trying to get out. Okay. So in my mind, there

(30:21):
have been a lot of Star Trek episodes that had
a similar situation in which the captain then struggles with
the moral dilemma of is it ethical to leave these
people stranded on a moon for eternity one hundred years,

(30:45):
a thousand years? Who knows? Like, at some point don't
they start thinking this is cruel and unusual punishment. Don't
they ask, well, how did this happen? When did this happen?
Can we look it up? Because you know what, they
love to meddle. The Federation is like the United States
of the Galaxy. They love to meddle. They love to

(31:08):
look at other things and be like, I don't think
that's right. I'm going to insert my sensibilities and my
morals into this situation. And so I kind of almost
felt like the cards should have kind of gone along
with that theme that we always see in Star Trek
and say, you guys have been here for how long?
Six hundred years? We will send you know, we're getting

(31:29):
out of here because you guys try to kill us.
We're gonna send a research team to try to find
you a more reasonable kind of situation or you know,
something to where they're not Just like, it's so unethical
to leave somebody stranded forever. At least let them die,
you know, if nothing else, let them die. But don't
just make someone be relegated to being stranded on the

(31:53):
moon with no body, just their essence just sitting there.
They can't even like play solitary hair or poker or
chess to keep themselves busy. I don't know, it just
felt like it's cruel. I don't know, It's something I
thought of at the end there.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, I mean it is something to consider.

Speaker 8 (32:16):
I I think that was why the writers decided to
make these characters so evil, so.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
That you would already.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Predisposed to kind of cast them into eternal damnation, okay,
And so by having them, you know, picking on a
woman with his with her child, or you know, just
constantly hurting those people. I mean, how many Phasers fires

(32:52):
were shot? And actually I think I saw Dennis matt
Alone getting hit by one of those Phaser fires.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
I when I went back, I don't think it was
well be one of them, but there was one guy
that did like a flyback stunt. Ye, yeah, I thought
that's got to be him. But then when I went back,
I think it was the guy that was running with
warf remember that he was running down the hall with
that redheaded Kellogg lady. And then a second and another guy.
I think it was that guy, but I'm not sure.

(33:19):
You know, whenever we see stunts, we're automatically going, all right,
where is Dennis.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah, I couldn't tell because it is in it. It's
in the shadows, it's not brightly lit, and he's not
on tramell on camera that long, so it's you know,
it's literally a split second to be able to to see.
But I thought it was Dennis Madelone. And the reason
why I'm pretty confident that it's Dennis Medalone is because

(33:43):
of the body language of how that guy, you know, he.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Has a way to thrust himself, you know what I mean.
So he doesn't just like get hit and you're like,
like I would get hit and.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'd be like, oh, but he's like like he.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Has this like body it's like a body explosion, right.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, it's like a flare.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
It's a flaire is a style. He gets hit with
a style. And so that's where I felt. I was like,
this is that that was a Dennis mad Alone flair,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
But I thought the same.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
So that's what I think. I'm gonna stick by it.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
I'm gonna give Dennis his credit Danger in the House.
But but yeah, you know, I the music kind of
jumped out at me a little bit as being a
little bit too eighteen For me. I just felt eighteen mcgyver,

(34:45):
you know, this is this is the you know, the action,
you know.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
The gang, the bad guys are in town.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
I don't know, just it had the eighteen flavor to
me and I it didn't resonate that well for me.
I thought it was a little bit too over the top.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
I had a lot of things too. There was one
thing that really I don't think it was a nitpick.
I don't think it annoyed me. I was just very
surprised to see it. In fact, it was this scene
here and you can't really see it, but when data

(35:27):
goes behind the bar in ten forward, you can clearly,
very well see that it is just empty wooden stage
set stuff that you're never supposed to see the back of.

(35:50):
And I can't believe that. Okay, I get it. They
wanted to put show a computer that he goes behind there, whatever, fine,
that they just did zero set dressing. It was like,
I mean, you could kind of see it right here,
but you see how it was just like wood here
when he's behind there, and then under that it was
one hundred percent hollow and empty. There were no bottles,

(36:13):
there were no white lights, there was no nothing. It
was just wood and just a big empty shelf of nothing.
And I'm like, that was never meant to be seen
by the camera. And if you wanted that angle, I
get it, it works, but then you got to dress
it up. I was just shocked at that that that

(36:34):
that that passed that they're just like, yeah, let's just
do this. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
I kind of noticed that too, without actually like you know,
registering it or writing it down in my notes. But
I did notice that the way that because O'Brien went
behind it too at some point.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah, he was behind it first.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, right, and I noticed it too. I was like
the you know, it looked shabby. It did not look
you know, well done.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
It almost looked like last minute, Hey, we want to
put a computer console. Let's put it here instead of
on the wall because I want it here for the
shot or something like that. And it may have been
like something that was done more in a rush than
it was planned out, because it didn't seem like and

(37:26):
these guys are detail oriented, you know. We know the
set designers on the stard track. If they know it's
going to be in the shot and they're going to
make it look beautiful, you know, they have no problem
you know, building the back of a bar. It's not
that complex. But if there was no time or if
they were just you know, they thrown in and say

(37:49):
put a computer console right here. Yeah, it's like it's like,
you know, you're on set and they're like, oh, we
need a computer console. It's going to be here because
where else is data going to walk to? And then
now you're rushing the set designers to kind of throw
something together really quickly. And yeah, I thought at least
put like paneling there to make it look like there's

(38:11):
sliding shells like it.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
It looked like the back of a set. You've seen
that a million times, where the front parts all lit
up and this and that, and then you go the
back and it's just wood. It's just like wood, would
you know? And actually, real quick, here are your snow angels.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah? Remember the was it toys?

Speaker 3 (38:43):
I think it was the cartoon the animating toy story, right,
you know how they're all like when they.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
All played dead because somebody yeah pretend, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that could.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Be a toy story meme right there.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
That's a good one. I'm looking for the ten forward thing.
But anyway, I think a lot of it too, can
be explained by the fact that when it was shot,
you know, there was like a little extra to the
right and extra to the left that was not going
to be shown on TV. So you know, it's just
kind of like that, you know. But then when it's

(39:21):
uploaded to Paramount Plus or whatever, you see the whole
thing now. You still would have seen some of it,
and I can see how the direction was for Data
and O'Brien to really kind of walk close to each
other to kind of block what's behind them. You know,
they're just kind of like passing through like this. But
then when he stops and he starts typing like anyway,

(39:43):
it was just like clearly something happened where they ran
out of time or something. You know, it's pretty glaring.
But I was really surprised to see it because that
is not usually the case on this show. Guyan would
have never let that happen.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
He keeps a way tighter bar than that.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
But but you mentioned earlier about Picard and you were
talking about, you know, maybe not weighing in the fact
that this is kind of a cool and unusual punishment. Yeah,
but you know, one thing I did like about his
approach to this episode was one his calmness, his level headedness,

(40:29):
and also his logic train. Like he he kept following
a very distinct logic train where he was saying something.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
To the extent of like if it was Captain.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Schumar, then would he be acting like this, Like because
there is a you know what I mean, there's a
certain standard for captains and a respect amongst captains. When
they're in each other's presence, we see that there's this
kind of you know, camaraderie, this respect for the role,

(41:04):
the position, for you know, for.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Earning that rank.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
And I felt that Icard was not sensing that he
was receiving the diplomacy of a captain, that a true
star Fleet captain would have came to him with, you know,
a scenario I you know, and and actually not taken

(41:30):
hostages and went through this whole kind of you know,
nefarious way of trying to achieve your goals. The captain
would have been direct, upfront and used region logic and
diplomacy to try to find a way to get right.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Well.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
And also to add to that point, we have seen
a few times rogue captains, like in the original series,
in the doomsday device and other things like that, everyone
saw there's a rogue captain. But they do the extreme
things they do out of desperation, out of fear, out

(42:04):
of mental illness, right, And even when they do that,
they still have that level of respect when talking with
another captain. They're saying like, I'm sorry, but this is
the only way or you know, captain, I respect your answer,
but I have to do this or you know, there's
still that they don't do it out of being like
sinister or sadistic or enjoying you know, harming others, which

(42:28):
is the same as being sadistic, I guess. But you know,
like it's just even when a captain goes rogue, they
don't go evil, you know, they just they're just desperate
or ill or something. So yeah, I agree, he probably
could pick up right away. Wait a minute, this is
not a starfleet captain, there's no way.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Who was the captain for the Maquis, the that was
going to ends up with Cisco.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
It was played by Bernie Casey.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Bernie Casey what was his name?

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Ah, it's killing me now, I'll get it, like five
seconds hand.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, it was Bernie Casey.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
And and even in that particular, like you know, just
to confirm what you're saying about rogue captain's, Bernie Casey
played that rogue captain in.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Deep Base nine, Calvin Hudson.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Calvin Hudson, right, And even though they were on opposite side,
I mean, Calvin's funding, you know, you know, basically leading
the rebellion and all.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Of this stuff with the Maquis, he still had a
respect for Cisco and vice versa.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
They were even about old times. They're like, yeah, we're
just it's kind of like Lebron James and Steph Curry.
They're battling it out, but nothing but respect and friendship.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
You know, yeah, because I know what it's like to
be in your shoes and I and I get it.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
You're making a choice that I wouldn't make.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
But you know, you've explained why you've reached that conclusion.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
In a very rare way. I don't agree with it,
but you know, good luck to you.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
And we've seen we've seen captains go row, including our
favorite captains, like we've seen Kirk go robe for a while,
we've seen Picard go row.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
Everybody. Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Right, and you know where they just not they're not
listening to what superior officers say. Is so whatever their
direct orders are, and they're like, no, I'm going to
go row. But then again, even in those cases, it's
not done with this malicious evil intent of like hurting
and and having no regards for human life. And you know, so,

(44:42):
I think that's why Picard was so willing to condemn
them back to their original fate that he had met
them then, which is you showed no remorse, you show
no diplomacy, You've actually shown your criminality to be still

(45:06):
part of your fabric, and can't I can't accommodate you. Now.
I actually thought about while you were saying that, about
what Picard was doing. To some degree, it would have
been nice to entertain the idea of asylum, because this

(45:30):
is basically an ass episode, right. These are asylums seeking
sentience that got it, and and so they're basically seeking
asylum from this planet, this captivity. Had they have come
with a better argument, actually, it would have been nice

(45:53):
actually for one of them to be granted a reprieve.
I would have liked to see out of the three
entities or whatever it was that we.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Had, if one of them, O'Brien.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
Would have been probably the best candidate for that said
I don't want to do this. This is wrong, guys,
we shouldn't do this. Why don't we just why don't
we just ask them for help? You know, if he
was the one constantly being the naysayer amongst that group
of Troy and Data and O'Brien, if there was one
of them.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
That was like, hey, guys, I'm not feeling good about this. Well, hey,
you know you just shot a pregnant you know, a
woman with a baby.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
Like, what are we doing here, guys, you know, trying
to talk some sense into them.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Then that person maybe have granted, may have made the
appeal to the Card and the rest of the.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Crew that they are not this you a malevolent person,
that they actually were either wrongfully convicted of something or
perhaps they have been overly punished for what they have
done and they maybe one of them could have gotten
that asylum or whatever it was. And that would have

(47:13):
been interesting also Picard making that judgment call, like, you know,
the two of you got to go. But O'Brien because
you helped us and you were honest and people said
that you helped and you tried to you know.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Where de Troy would call him a trader or whatever
like that. You know, No, that's true. That that's a
good point. That would have given them a lot more
depth rather than just three evil people.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
You know.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
And I do want to point out a couple of things.
One is that it was funny to me that Data
when he's angry guy, he's like he walks up to
Wharf and Picard, who are talking. He's like, he's like,
that's enough. That's enough. You guys split up. You over
there and you over there, and so they go off right. Yeah,
very next shot, Picard and Warf are sitting next to

(48:04):
each other. I'm like, are you guys like best friends
in the back of class, you know when the teacher
like splits you up. But then the very next day
you guys are like back together, like all quiet, because
literally the very next shot they're sitting next to each
other again, I'm like, did data just split you guys
up for being distrusted. Also, there are a couple cool
camera shots. One was camera move in this case in

(48:28):
the shuttlecraft where like, you know, spun to the left,
spun to the right, and then did a full like
you know whatever twist and that was cool. Also, we
got a shot that I don't remember seeing before, which
was from behind wharf station but facing the other way.

(48:50):
So we're looking from the computer screen out to like
Beverly and Picard or Beverly and Riker, and then Row
is standing a tactical in the background, but then she
turned around the walks back and we're staring and then
in the background of them is the view screen. Basically
it's a reverse of what we usually see. So that
was kind of cool and interesting, and I wonder, I'm like,

(49:10):
did they have to spend all that time dressing that
entire wall just for that one shot, because if so,
maybe you didn't need to do that and you should
addressed you know, this bar here. It's just my thought,
but anyway, it was. It was a really cool shot
and really interesting and it's always nice to see a
different angle of the bridge rather than the same thing
over and over again. You know. But let me ask

(49:31):
you this, sorok, before we go, who would you give
the home run of today's episode?

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Hmm?

Speaker 3 (49:46):
There there were there was a lot of good balance
in this episode, so I think that a lot of
people showed up and got.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
On base and made runs. So it's it's hard to
just say who's the to stand out.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
But in this particular episode, I am.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Going to give it to call him Miani as chief
Miles of Brian very cool.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
I think he had an opportunity to showcase he he did.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
A great job.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Michael, I'm gonna say call him and and Michelle Forbes
for the same reason. But I'm just being a little
more Copoudy because I can't choose one, so both of them,
they got more more to work with. You know, O'Brien

(50:43):
is usually just transporter. Chief Roe is usually just you know,
the new person or the you know, conflict or something
like that. But they both were used as part of
the crew. They were used the same as Beverly, the
same as Geordy, the same as Wharf. You know, they're
just one of the crew, which I thought was great.
It showed character growth for them and I was really

(51:04):
happy to see it.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Yeah, and big honorary mention too for Marina Sirtis as
well for me as my secondary. I thought she did
a great job of doing something outside her own character,
totally getting to.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Play you know, villain and all Data switch back.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Yeah, but Data, I've kind of used to seeing Data
go into other characters.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
We saw Loure, We've seen.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
I've seen Data perform as something else, but I haven't
really seen Troy outside of Troy's characters. So this was
actually her chance to do something different, and she did.
So I want to make sure I acknowledge that I
liked her performance and her transition back to her original
self at the end of the episode, showed me the

(51:49):
stark contrast of how she played Troy and how she
played this possessed Troy.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Totally agree. Good stuff by her, also good stuff by
our friends named doctor Anne, Marie Siegal, Eve England out
in Wales, you Vet black Man, Tom t J. Jackson,
Bay Out Missouri, Titus Mueller, North Carolina. I think he
is doctor Mohammed Nor. He's definitely in North Carolina. Anil

(52:16):
O Palatte, Joe Balceeradi, Mike Goo, Doctor Stephanie Baker, Baker,
Carrie Schwent, Faith Howell, Edward Fultz aka Crewman Guy, the
Matt Boardman, Chris McGee, Justin Weir, Jake Barrett, Henry Hunger,
Allison Leech High, Julie Manasfi, Jed Thompson, Doctor Susan V. Gruner,

(52:41):
Glenn Iverson, Dave Gregory, Chris Sternet, Greg k Wickstrom, Cassandra Gerrard,
Chuck A, Chris Garris, and of course Jason m Oakin.
Here we go. It's time for the free for all.
We will see you next on that free for all.
We'll be right back on the seventh Rule. Well, hi, everybody,

(53:05):
welcome back to the Seventh Rule with Sorock Freakin' loft,
and this is the free for all with Melissa Longo
and her cat helloo gee. We also have Chuck A
A K A T and G Fanatic looks like I'm
seeing a it's a fake. Oh it's a Jake anil

(53:27):
O Palat is in Germany still yeah, yeah, Alison leech
Hide is in snow kind of, Carrie Schwentz got some
cool wings behind her. T. J. Jackson Bay is out
in Missouri probably, and Chris Magee is ruling over the

(53:49):
dark Lord World salutations. Jake Cisco guesses the IMDb score.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Uh, I think this might be like a seven one.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
H Yeah, does anybody else have any guesses that doesn't
already know the IMDb score?

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Seven six seven four.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Seven two.

Speaker 9 (54:26):
Yeah, I'll go with seven six as well.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
Yeah, boy, you guys, I felt like this was like
a dartboard and you guys were like extremely sober and
like getting right right the whole side, like just getting
all it was. It's a seven three. The great job. Everybody.
You guys like really like nailed, like the area though,
that was really good. Non appearance mentions. I didn't catch any.

(54:51):
I thought it was going to be Molly at first,
but then we saw Molly anybody, no, Chris McGee, are
we breaking the streak? Are we breaking some kind of
streak here?

Speaker 9 (55:06):
Indeed, we are doctor Crusher and describing what's going on
with the affected crew member says in Troy, Data and O'Brien,
there's an unusual synaptic activity, some kind of antiotic energy,
right O.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
Never heard of antiotic until now. Melissa Longo, will you
please get us started off on the right track by
telling us what you thought of this episode.

Speaker 10 (55:35):
Well, at first I thought there was well, no, I
continue to think that they were saying amniotic energy.

Speaker 11 (55:45):
Until you just corrected me. So it's not amniotic energy.
It's like, okay, but that painted a good fish full.
I was like, okay, I get that because amniotic fluid.
And then it's anyway, this.

Speaker 10 (56:07):
Was an enjoyable episode for the most part. I do
have some questions that I will save for things left unsaid.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
The one big.

Speaker 10 (56:20):
Question maybe nitpick for things left unsaid, So stick around
for that if you're a patron. I do like that
Troy was put in charge. I like it when they
give her stuff to do. That isn't you know, involving

(56:42):
getting busy or fluff stuff.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
I don't.

Speaker 10 (56:50):
I like it when she has more to do than
fluff stuff. I do like this that this was a
team effort trying to figure out how to defeat these
alien beings, these entities, these prisoners.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
That was fun.

Speaker 10 (57:09):
It was nice to see Troy and O'Brien in a
slightly different role than we usually see them, because you
know they're they're soft and cuddly and nice and friendly people.
I like Keiko. I like Keiko O'Brien. She gets a
lot of flak in the fandom, and I'm not sure why.

(57:33):
I don't really understand the reasoning behind that, but I
thought she was great in this episode. I feel like
that she loves her family immensely and that doesn't feel
like it's put on it. It feels true and it
feels genuine. Her love for O'Brien feels genuine. It always

(57:54):
feels genuine.

Speaker 12 (57:55):
Even through to Deep Space nine. And I also so
really like Picard. I think he's a really good captain.
I like the way he leads the ship. Yeah that's
all I have to say for right now.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Great stuff, Thank you very much, Melissa Longo. Out in
the mean streets of Los Angeles, chuck A, what's up,
chuck A, what'd you think of this one?

Speaker 13 (58:27):
Well? I liked this episode quite a bit. I like
what Belissa was saying that Troy had.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
A lot more to do.

Speaker 13 (58:34):
She was in the leadership role. O'Brien also had a
lot to do in this episode. I thought rosal and
Chow did one of her best acting performances and the
episodes that she's been in and TNG and DS nine.
I did like that Troy took out a card coming

(58:55):
out of the ready room, and then O'Brien took out Wharf,
and then Data took out Reicher. So you got a
little bit of aggression out there. I know it's not there,
they're real characters, but I thought that was really well done.
The end of the episode, to me, when they went

(59:16):
to the transporter room to uh to uh, they were
thinking of blowing the hatch out and doing that if
they had to. You knew from the start that that
they weren't going to do that because they're three main characters,
but it was a nice tactic to use. It seemed
like it was a little fast on the conclusion of

(59:38):
the episode, when they had all the aliens there, and
they seemed to agree to go back to the planet
pretty quickly instead of fighting a little more. But it
was a really well done episode. I enjoyed it quite
a bit. We got two episodes back to back that
were really really good episodes. I'm glad to see that

(01:00:00):
the fifth season going back to getting some stellar episodes
after a little bit of a lull.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
As promised, people were saying, just you wait, it's going
to get better, and they were right, Thanks very much,
chuck A, All right, O'Neil, o Palatte, how's Germany? What
do you think of this episode?

Speaker 14 (01:00:22):
It's cold, but I like this episode because it does
what a good Star Trek episode does. It uses the
cast very well, so everybody's involved. I thought that was
really really good. We get to see our actors and
our characters doing different things. There's a good amount of
drama and tension. Even though we know nobody's gonna die

(01:00:45):
of the main cast, there's still that sort of uncomfortable feeling.
You really felt like these these prisoners were very dangerous.
You really felt like O'Brien could hurt Keiko. You really
you know, they uh, we're really good at portraying that
and there's a good theme, which is I guess needs

(01:01:06):
of the many and selflessness.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
I think that all comes across really well.

Speaker 14 (01:01:11):
I also found it interesting that the O'Brien's both of
them get possessed at some point. So Keku gets possessed
in Deep Sneine here O'Brien does so in ten ten
years from now they promos, hey, do you remember that
time that you got possessed by that parra or at
that time that alien prisoner And they just like, oh yeah,

(01:01:32):
that was that wasn't fun?

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
So I mean the little one gets Molly.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Yeah, all he needs to get Wait wait, no, what
was Kia Yoshi Yoshi? I was like, no that Kira Yoshi?
Thanks very much. And Neil lat great stuff. Alison Leech

(01:02:02):
hide awesome shirt that you got at walkin Art made
by Melissa check it out. What do you think of
this episode?

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
I have always liked this show.

Speaker 15 (01:02:11):
This one has been on like it was in the
syndication loop when I was a kid.

Speaker 10 (01:02:15):
So I actually saw a lot as a kid, which you.

Speaker 15 (01:02:18):
Know, may have been an interesting one to be looping
a lot during daytime television, but you know that's okay.
So I love that we have Roe and Keiko and
O'Brien because they're great secondary characters and we love them.
So you know, you just get excited as soon as

(01:02:38):
you know we're getting the opening new credits and then
there comes they are three names all in a row.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
You're like, yes, this is going to be great.

Speaker 10 (01:02:45):
So I really love that.

Speaker 15 (01:02:47):
And again, we have all of our characters, all of
our main actors, they get to do stuff work together.
I love Jeordi and Roe working together.

Speaker 7 (01:02:57):
I thought that was great, Like.

Speaker 15 (01:02:59):
Normally they wouldn't be paired up because even though she's
the helmsman and he's the main engineer and in Voyager
they pair those two up all the time. But so
I really love that. And I was looking when they're
in the Jeffries Tube this time, I'm like, oh, I'm
glad they fixed that Jeffries Tube floor because that is
murder on your knees with all the corrugated metal and

(01:03:20):
all the holes in it.

Speaker 10 (01:03:21):
I'm like, oh, that's terrible.

Speaker 15 (01:03:22):
I hope the actors had knee pads to do those
scenes because ow, so that that always gives me.

Speaker 13 (01:03:30):
On that one.

Speaker 15 (01:03:31):
You know, I love the little bits where you know
everyone's getting shot by Phasers and Nothing's happening, And anytime
we have a good Western bar shootout.

Speaker 10 (01:03:40):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
Even in Star Trek.

Speaker 15 (01:03:42):
I love that because like all those shots and angles, I'm.

Speaker 10 (01:03:45):
Like, oh my god, it's a good Western shootout.

Speaker 15 (01:03:47):
I love the scene in Ted Forwark, so a lot
of fun in a way.

Speaker 10 (01:03:54):
So I always I have been.

Speaker 15 (01:03:56):
Waiting for this episode because I think it's a great
example of how talented Marina Sirtis is. Because I think
she is fabulous in this episode, and she was fabulous
in Conundrum as well, So I think a good role
for her in good episodes for her to show her talent.
So that always makes me happy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Thanks for looking up in tng Land. Thank you very much,
Alison leech Hide, Carrie Schwent aka Crafty Bear, how are you?
What do you got for us today?

Speaker 7 (01:04:28):
I'm doing very well. I enjoyed this episode. It's kind
of a solid eight point five in my book. It
would probably have gone on to to Night if we
had had Guynan with the with the group and ten Forward.
I think that might have kicked the interesting in the
scenes and ten Forward up a little bit more. Well,
we can't get her for every episode episode. Sally but

(01:04:50):
I'm very, very much, very much enjoy Frett Speinder was
wonderful creating a growky bad guy that shades of Lore
but wasn't Lore. He was definitely a lot, a lot crabbier,
a little bit more of a hot head, hair triggered
the whole. That whole bit with Worf with the come

(01:05:12):
at me, come at me bro energy was just made
me a laugh. Marina, of course, I like everybody else,
I will love how awesome she is, and that even
especially at the at the beginning when everybody's like, oh okay,
that's probably where this this this ship ship went down. Okay,
yeah cool, yeah, let's let's go. Meanwhile, she's walked. If

(01:05:33):
you watch her walking around, you can see on her
face that she's starting to try to figure out the
which she what, she's what she's sensing. And I love
how just it's subtle. It's very subtle, and I really
really liked it. And also poor Marina deciding to do
her own stunt the stunt this time around and ends

(01:05:55):
up breaking her her tailbone. There is a different term
for that, but I will not say that word. I
said at once. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
About that word, but the poor thing, and she was
mad afterwards. Apparently she's told the story a bunch of times.
You can't even hardly tell it's her. She's been known
to say it could have been war wearing her outfit

(01:06:15):
and no one could have been able.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
To tell that it was her face.

Speaker 7 (01:06:18):
But I thought she did grant with the with the lane,
but por thing was laid up for like six weeks
or something with trying to her her poor poor talebum
But I love there's one shot in it that I
really really liked when the group passages and all are
walking down the hallway after they leave ten forward to

(01:06:40):
the cargo bay, put card in front and everybody sort
of spread out behind him. I love how cool that shot.
That shot looks, so yeah, whoever designed that shot definitely
gets gets props, and Keiko of course gets her own
current it being current. The cool acting that that Deanna
does in this episode she does and when she's possessed.

(01:07:05):
The twins playing playing Molly were just especially that scene
at the end when you get the real close up
but we're just such a little beauty hie. And apparently
one scene I'm guessing during the shoot up they actually
use like a stunt like rubber baby, but I couldn't tell,
so they definitely did a good job, Pioneers. You can't

(01:07:26):
tell that that's not a real baby being being used
in the scene, but the cheeks. But anyway, I digress,
and I don't know if anybody noticed, but there's one
scene in the hallway. You've got a civilian that they
that they bump into who was wearing khakis and a belt,

(01:07:47):
a pretty good side belt buckle. Yeah, it's very nice
to see a civilian every now and then, but they
probably could have given him something that looked a little
bit more twenty fourth century civilian instead of nineteen nine
these civilian. But speaking of belts, the shuttlecraft, they were

(01:08:07):
wearing the seat belts. That was so nice to see
because you definitely tell the thing was on some sort
of gibble because I've actually believed them with their when
they were moving all around and Troy's braced, her impact
was just simply to close their eyes. She didn't brace
at all, she just she braced mentally. I totally he

(01:08:28):
I was gonna point that out because he that non
brace just bugs him. But the writer of the episode,
I found this out I thought it was absolutely hysterical
or not his fascinating. But the writer of the episode
went on to show run for Law and Order and
was apparently helped create Laren Order Criminal Intent, and I'm

(01:08:49):
guessing probably most of the other spinoffs and the main
Lawn Order, and I think there's like Q orders that
are that are still that are still going very much.
I don't watch those as often as I used to,
but I enjoy them. I have a mythology lesson that
involves the wings, the wings behind me that I'll save

(01:09:11):
for things left un said. I'm going to channel a
little bit of our front of the show, my my
from Tokyo a bit, but I will save that for
things left unsaid, and finish with the limerick that I
created for the episodes We've Got the You've Got the Prisoner.
So this is kind of a limerick about them floating

(01:09:33):
in the storm. We want to be free. We would
have had four, but only get three. It's been five
hundred years. Time to get out of here. That we
should leave A card disagrees.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
Great stuff as always, Thanks very much. Carrie Schwent aka
Crafty Bear.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
T J.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Jackson bays out in Misseri, What's up, TJ, what'd you
think of this one?

Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
Well, I'm still trying to figure out if it's law
and order, Law and Orders or laws in order. I
don't know. Anyway, I enjoyed this episode, and I think
it's one of the episodes that we probably won't see
much in the future with the way things go on streaming,

(01:10:19):
where everything adds to the prior story or even you know,
in the episodic format. I mean, they pretty much, excuse me,
stay in the ship and just have really good character
in action. And I enjoy that very much because I've
always felt like when they stay in the ship, like
I'm on the ship too, and I'm hanging out on

(01:10:42):
the Enterprise and I'm part of and that's fun for me.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
I think.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
It wasn't for Deanna, then they just would have flew
on by this little moon and not have it. I
had to go through all of that. She's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
there's somebody down there. I feel something, but no one
knew what it was. But you know, in true star
Fleet fashion, they scientific and they want to go and
find out what it is, and so that's what they did.

(01:11:15):
I also, like Carrie enjoyed and I wrote it exactly
the way that she said Data's time at me gros
sing with wharf uh, and it was that's neat watching.
You know how they how they film that, you know,
with the camera angle, because Brince Speiner is not quite
as tall as Michael Dorn had to go and stand

(01:11:37):
toe to toe with him and be threatening. And I
think it worked. I think they pulled it off, and
it was It was fun and funny to watch that scene,
especially since we know that with the strength of an Android,
Data would have won. So that was fun to watch.

Speaker 10 (01:11:55):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:11:56):
I thought the music when they were walking down the
corridor going to the cargo bay was good. It made
the singing feel dramatic. And all they're doing is walking
down the hallway, but it feels dramatic and you're like,
what's gonna happen? You see security offices off to the side.
Are they're gonna shoot? Is there a trap? Or you

(01:12:18):
know what's going on? So, you know, I enjoyed that
and a lot of the things that they did to
make this episode work. With all of that said, uh,
go back to the to the fact that these are
prisoners on a penal colony pretty much disembodied prisoners at that. Uh,

(01:12:39):
and that's not the first time you encountered prisoners that
like have been like shipped off or or somehow you know,
cast away from the rest of society and come back
to do bad things. So we had Armis who was
kind of like a prisoner the skin of evil. He
said that, you know, they got pretty much got rid

(01:13:02):
of all the things that they didn't like and put
them in him and sent them off. Well, that didn't
turn out well for the Enterprise crew. And we had
just right off the top of my head, it's a
botany bay wash. They shipped off prisoners into space, you know,
in the cold storage, and well, con came back to

(01:13:22):
do some pretty not good things as well. So maybe
it's a bad idea to try to try to hide
away the things about our society or ourselves that we
don't like. Maybe it's better to just look them in
the face and deal.

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
With the issue.

Speaker 4 (01:13:40):
Because when you try to look away and act like
it doesn't exist, or act like certain people don't exist,
bad things happen over and over again, and we keep
seeing that. I'll wrap this part up before things left
unsaid with a favorite quote, and I hope it's not

(01:14:01):
Chris's favorite quote, but it was the interaction between again
between Data and Wharf at the end, where Data says
your restraint was most remarkable and Warf just says you
have no idea.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
Awesome, Thank you very much. TJ. Jackson Bay out in Missouri,
Chris McGee, dark lord, did he get your quote of
the day? What do you got for us?

Speaker 9 (01:14:27):
It was one of them, but it wasn't the first
one on my short list. No, I've always enjoyed this episode.
Probably not a favorite, but pretty close. It's fun to
watch the characters who you've come to know so well
over the past four and a half years playing such
different personalities, and it's been a while since we've had

(01:14:47):
such an action pack and suspenseful episode. And the music
compliments it well. In fact, I think it's one of
the more memorable scores of the season for me at least,
which as TJ I had observed, it really hits its
crescendo during the walk to the cargo bay. I'm delighted
to see O'Brien once again given a major part to play,

(01:15:10):
not as good as his role in The Wounded, but
still does a great job. And I agree with Melissa
and Chuck that Rosalind Child did a fantastic job in
this episode, especially selling her fear of the possessed O'Brien
as he leans in to kiss her. It's something, Yeah

(01:15:32):
you didn't. Yeah, it's so creepy. And it's been a
while since we've had a meme worthy episode, and this
one delivers, having spawned the famous data gets a blue
screen of death Jeff and as Carrie had also observed this.
As the security team raced to the turbolift, I was

(01:15:53):
rather surprised to see a character walking down the corridor
in what appears to be normal street closed and then
he just wandered onto the while they were shooting the scene.
And right after this, no, not even for the street either. No,
And right after that moment, uh, is that Patricia Tallman

(01:16:16):
with worst security team? I guess Minson Kellogg had the
day off.

Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (01:16:23):
The prisoners said that they came from a star star
system called Ousmall. They might not have been so violent.
They came from ouh Max instead. Oh and as I'm
sure you already know, Alison, of course you you mentioned
that you loved Jordian row pairing up here this won't
be the last time Jordi and Row pair up. One
of my favorite episodes coming up later this season. I'm

(01:16:46):
not saying anymore, that's all.

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (01:16:49):
And of course my memorable quote of the episode is
Card saying, if the Forge and Row can attempt to
rescue in short order, let them proceed. Ever since then,
I want always memorize that in short order and used
it whenever I could.

Speaker 1 (01:17:05):
Uh. Great stuff, Chris McGee, as always rock. You remember
when we were talking about Jordian Rowe and I was saying,
they're like gn R the gn R, and that's why
I think it's great. But then I was going to
say something else and I was like, I never mind.
It was that that we're going to see a little
bit more of Jordian Row together, and it's pretty cool.
It's pretty awesome. Good stuff. Thank you very much, Chris McGee.

(01:17:28):
Jake's final take. Any final thoughts on this episode? Number
one Lakers.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
Fan, Yeah, yeah, a few things. One, I got Ghostbusters
vibes when I was watching this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
I was waiting for them to pull out of Proton Back.

Speaker 3 (01:17:47):
Yeah yeah, I was like, wait a minute, they're trying
to capture them inside of this little uh you know,
ghost track.

Speaker 10 (01:18:00):
That was the best episode ever.

Speaker 3 (01:18:05):
So yeah, I totally got I was waiting to see somethechtoplasm.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
Really great use.

Speaker 10 (01:18:16):
Cybrows.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
But again, I want to reiterate that I thought it
was a great use of the whole cast.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
Everybody had something to do, everybody was relevant to.

Speaker 3 (01:18:28):
The story, and it was great to see the kind
of interplay dynamics because it's funny how I was like,
get away from her, and that was how it was
O'Brien's you know, that's his wife, and I'm like, get
away from her.

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
Like I was so repulsed by him in that moment.
It was just like he was so creepy. But I
thought of the England and I want to give her.

Speaker 3 (01:18:53):
A shot out because there was a moment there where
Pericard got real, as she would say, cheeky.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
And that was when he comes to the point that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
He's interrogating Troy and he's like, she's like, yeah, we're
you know, once we get back, then the current will
slip us back whatever and then we'll be fine.

Speaker 16 (01:19:14):
And he's like, really, what is your scientific basis for that?
And the way he said it was so like that's
you've got nothing for that. So it was a nice
little moment for Picard.

Speaker 3 (01:19:30):
I thought that was a nice little sticky moment for him.
The idea of consciousness being absorbed by a magnetic current.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
I thought it was just a cool little concept.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
It's a small little way to throw it, but you know,
it makes you think of you know, consciousness, and you know,
what are the elements at play? I think in black
holes and how energy gets sucked into those things.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
So I always wonder, you know, what.

Speaker 3 (01:20:00):
Of anomalies exist when it comes to the universe in
some of the you know, the fascinating things that happened.
I thought it was crazy that Picard was speaking for
Troy and O'Brien.

Speaker 6 (01:20:16):
And and Data when he's like, yeah, we're all willing
to die, It's like whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Not necessarily
I'm being you know, I think O'Brien might have a
say so against that, you know, because he doesn't want
I mean, if he dies in that moment, him and

(01:20:36):
his wife die and now you know, Molly has to
be raised alone.

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
I don't know if they would totally be on board
for that, but he certainly signed them up for it
as if it was true. Also, last thing you know, oh,
this idea also brought up the idea of purgatory. This
episode made me think of being in this space of
purgatory where you don't have any.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
Closure to life.

Speaker 3 (01:21:02):
And I did see a valid argument to the idea
of bringing closure to life, even though that's not exactly
what was being done in this episode, but I did
see if that was the case.

Speaker 2 (01:21:19):
I did see some kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:21:22):
Moral argument to this idea of bearing somebody, of giving
them closure so that they can actually die.

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
I guess.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
So I thought that was interesting as far as just
a science fiction topic. And then the last thing I'm
gonna say is that if Riker served on.

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
The us essex, it would be called the best Sex.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
Alison was muted, but you got a good laugh out
of her though it wasn't just me and tj A right,
great stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:22:10):
Yeah, I love.

Speaker 3 (01:22:15):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
Also, I heard that something that was cut out was
when the entity left Troy's body. It stormed off and
was like, fine, I'm leaving. I don't need nobody, Okay.
Took me all day to I just work. I just
got it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
Anyway, I'm going back to the best.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
Yeah, that's better, all right, We're getting out of here.
Thank you very much for hanging out with us. Thank
you to Chris McGee, t J Jackson, Bay, Carrie Schwent,
Alison Leech, hide A, Neil oh a Lot chuck A,
Melissa Longo for myself, Sirah Melissa and mister Aron Eisenberg.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us. We

(01:23:00):
will see you next time for another great TNG episode,
and until then, always remember the seventh Rule.

All Episodes

Snow Angels | TNG 5.15, "Power Play" | T7R #341

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Snow Angels | TNG 5.15, "Power Play" | T7R #341