Watch The Dog | TNG 6.13, "Aquiel" | T7R #370

Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and sci-fi producer, Ryan T. Husk review and react to Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Six.

Producer: Ryan T. Husk
Audio Engineer: Scott Jensen

Executive Producer:
Jason Okun

Special Thanks to Malissa Longo

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The enterprise has arrived at a communication relay station near
the Klingon border. Morag has been getting more and more
aggressive lately, and Aquiel missus muskin seed punch. Hello everybody,
and welcome to the Seventh Rule. Was siroc Lofton.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, Hello, My name is Ryan T.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Huskin. Today we are doing a review of Star Trek
the Next Generation Season six, episode thirteen You Guessed It
Aqwiel story by Legendary Group, story by Jerry Taylor, Teleplay
by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore, directed by the
guy they named Bollians after Cliff Bowle. This was January thirtieth,

(00:42):
nineteen ninety three. How where were you and how are you? Sarak?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
You said, January thirtieth.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, nineteen ninety three.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
I think we were like DS nine was just hitting
the air. I think right, yeah it was.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
You guys were just dropping your fourth episode. Actually yeah, yeah,
I'm just hitting the wave.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
So yeah, that's where I was. I was in, you know,
watching the response to the work that we kind of
put in. That's cool at that point.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Everybody, please make sure you like this video, subscribe to
the channel. Hit the bell icon for notifications If you're
listening in, give us a five star rating and a
nice review. We'd really appreciate that, and visit us at
patreon dot com Slash the Seventh Rule. That's Patreon dot
com Slash the Seventh Rule to support the show and
help us out be our pals. All right, So, Sirocloughton,

(01:41):
you've never seen this episode before, but I'll tell you
it's kind of legendary in a lot of ways. But
before we get into all that stuff, SOROK, what did
you think of this particular episode?

Speaker 2 (01:59):
You know what, I actually was happy that Jordie was
getting an episode, so that was one of the first
things that I was happy about. It was a Jeordi episode.
It was also a murder I knew right away we're
going to get a murder mystery kind of who done
it type of you know episode where we have blues

(02:22):
and we're trying to figure out things. So that's another
kind of template of Star Trek episodes, you know, these
murder mystery kinds of episodes, So which which I'm you know,
a fan of I enjoy because I like a good mystery,
a good who done it? So that was that was
the initial feeling. Plus we had a dog, you know,

(02:46):
and I was like, oh, that's cool, we got a
dog in this show, you know. So they opened with
the pooch, and I also kind of have a warm
spot in my heart for those so that that just
kind of softened everything up and made me feel like, Okay,
I'm ready for whatever this journey is gonna be. This
is I'm ready for this.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Cute dog too. I actually thought of you a lot
in this episode, siroc Loften, because I have a poster
of you on my ceiling and I just kind of gaze.
Uh no, but because I know what you were thinking,
like when it first started out, you're thinking like, oh, no,
is Jordy gonna fall in love with another fake person again?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Because like this Moore, Jordy can't catch a break, because
it's like we've already it's all well documented what his
situation is. We're now into the sixth season, maybe things
are changing, and here he is snooping around somebody's personal
logs again and falling in love and calling her by

(03:46):
her first name, and Rikers like, why are you calling
this person by.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
Well, you know, she's really she's quirky and cute, and ah,
she makes the best hot cocoas or what or like, oh,
Jory Man, come.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
On, Jordy, find a real girl, because you know the
last time he was in love with that scientist whose
programmed he kept running, Leah Brams, Yeah, Leah Brahms, And
then he got exposed for that because she found the
programs and she didn't like that, right, So he looked
like such a creep going through her, you know, kind

(04:23):
of putting her up in his personal program profile. So
he already has that history, right, and we've already seen
that before where it didn't end well. Plus, you know,
we've seen him on that date with in the hollow
Deck one time. I think he was on a beach program.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah with the Yeah, and and that didn't work out
well for him either, which by was like stealing his
woman his program.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Exactly exactly. I mean, it was so bad that even
Wesley was like clowning him, so like this is.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
That's right, I forgot about that. He's like, at least
my idea of a good time isn't a good book.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Or something like that. It was even Wesley was clowny,
That's how bad it was. So so you know, we've
talked about like Obrian must suffer episodes. But in the
category of love and relationships, Jordy is the it's Jordy

(05:33):
must suffer. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Now the other side of that, though, is because while
you're saying that, I was sinking, well, what about Barkley.
Barkley is so bad. He creates like fantasy programs just
to have people like him and women caress his hair.
But I was like, but you know what, at least
Brock Barkley, Barkley knows what he's doing. He's like, yeah,

(05:56):
I can't get any ladies, so I'm just gonna and
my friends don't like me, and my coworkers whatever, so
I'm just gonna go on this fantasy thing and accept
it and whatever. Whereas Jordie he's still trying, he's still
giving it a shot.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, and it's it's just like, uh, it was. It
was a little bit sad to watch in the beginning,
like when he was just watching the replays and whatnot,
and he's talking to the screen in some way. You know,
when you start watching a movie or something and you're
talking to the screen.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Sports I'm the assistant coach.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
And he was talking to the screen. I'm like, oh god,
he's already gone. Got so yeah, that was like and
then you know, it also made me think just you know,
just this is a random tangent, but it's still relevant
and that is uh the extent to which personal laws

(06:59):
are per Yeah, like totally. It made me think like, oh,
how personal of a personal law would some people create
under certainty if you think that this is not going
to be seen by anybody. For example, I don't know
if all your communications are subject to scrutiny, like if

(07:24):
you work for the government and you got you know,
accused of uh, you know, espionage or something like that,
they can go.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Through all of their your even now, even now, if
somebody gets killed, they're going to look through their phone,
right If if you're a suspect in something, they do
what is it called discovery, They look through your phone records.
They do like so we're we're there, like Startrek was
not there, Star Trek was not far off there.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
But then but then, just like you just mentioned, so
you know, you're in an investigation, you're under investigation, and
they're going through your personal pictures and phones. Right, there's
a lot of people with phone stuff in their phones
that personal stuff like photos and things of that nature
videos where they may not want anybody to see. Right,
that's like literally they're you know, personal personal, personal stuff, right.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
And also because if you are looking through somebody's personal
log even if they're deceased, you might be invading someone
else's privacy. Like what if somebody else was messaging them
some personal private things that they could only tell them,
and now you're reading about them and they're like, hey,

(08:43):
leave me out of this. So there's there's definitely something
there where it's like it's not just the person whose
logs it belongs to, whose logs it is that you're
invading their privacy, it's everybody they've ever messaged or has
messaged them.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Which is why you can see that the angst on
Lieutenant what her name? What was her named? Aquiel? You know, yeah,
when she was just dealing with the whole realization that
Eve just went through all of her personal loves. You

(09:20):
saw that moment. There was like a good ten seconds
of you know, pause and reflection and like, oh wow,
this is and I think she actually said the words
I feel exposed, you know, And and so I'm thinking
what other personal things were also, you know, not in

(09:42):
the episode, but would be included in this kinds of
forensical analysis of your data.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Right, what if her sisters What if he's watching this
and it's her sister going, hey, so that rash on
my butt. I tried putting that, you know, or.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Maybe And Jordie's just there with popcorn.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
He's making himself comfortable on her bed, pat and her dog,
wearing her slippers, watching her stuff rewinding like, dude, obviously
we're making we're making a joke or making light of it.
He was doing what he had to do. But it
is it is an interesting situation. It is something where
you go lia it's kind of uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, it is uncomfortable. And the funny thing is they
had a line there with Riker Jordie Jordi's Riker's like, well,
how much you know? How much do you gotta go through?
And He's like, I still got three days. There's three
more days worth of stuff, right, and you could sell
He's looking forward to it like big watching and that.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Like I'm on season four, I got three more seasons
to go. It's really getting good. Man, don't take me
away from this, please.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Please, don't take me away from this. And then it
made me think Jordi would be the last person assigned
to this kind of thing. It would be data you
would assign to this.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Oh you're so right, because he could just put on
like times one hundred speed and just say, Captain, I've
got it all.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I understand yeah, and he and not be emotionally attached
to it, right, so he would be like, oh, I
know everything I know about this. I know about this.
There was a there was a kling on named this
there was, and he would be the person to actually
go through it. At Supersonic three more days, We're gonna
watch Jordi sit there with his popcord like did he imaguree?
He gets a riker or the captain walking on him

(11:28):
while he's watching it, and he kind of jumps up
like nope, you caught me doing something. I mean, it's
like Jordie chill.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah. But that's a good point about data too, is
that he wouldn't get emotionally invested. Also, it would feel
a lot less like invasion of privacy if you have
an AI just going through looking for keywords basically or
deciphering things, because it's not like an actual person or
somebody with emotions that you know that that's a really

(11:58):
good point and I hadn't thought of that, but that
would pretty much end the episode in like three minutes,
so that it would end the episode interesting, like we've
assigned commander data to this and then commercial break. He
comes back. He says, Sir, I suspect I know who
the real killer is, the dog.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Exactly. It would be a very short episode, but you know,
in the interest of I thought for for Jordie's sake,
you know, just filling out his character, giving him some
some some actual you know, this is for okay, So
this is what I noticed about this. This is actual

(12:37):
romance with chemistry. Mh. So every time we've seen him,
he's had zero chemistry with the other person who's always
either combative with him or not receptive to him. They
just not feeling him, you know. And it's like trying
to approach somebody who's completely not into you or doesn't
want to be talked to. It's like pushing yourself. Yeah, yeah, sure,

(13:02):
sounds uncomfortable, but it's like if there's no reception there,
if there's no reciprocation, then you're just you're you're making
yourself look like an idiot, right, You're just digging yourself
the deeper hole. If you're walking up to somebody who
doesn't want to be approached and you force yourself, you
try to continuously force yourself on them, then you're gonna

(13:25):
look really abrasive and aggressive, and it's becomes less and
less attractive. You just continuously become less attractive, which is
what Jordi has. We've seen him in that situation, you know,
where he's always in. It's either he's in a situation
where you know he likes somebody, they're not really feeling him,

(13:46):
and he's trying to force it even more and the.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
More dig yourself out of the hole, but you're digging
in deeper.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
Yeah, but in this case, actually, yeah, the good news
is this was actually smooth, the smoothest la Forge I've seen.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
He didn't he was even digestive a couple. They were
very suggestive with each other a couple of times there.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
And what I liked about it was he was genuine
in his like trying to understand and defend her. I
thought that was that came across in his performance. And
I also felt like he wasn't overtly, uh, you know,

(14:38):
fawning over her. You know, I think that's also kind
of an unattractive thing when people just become too much
of a fawn or too attached. And so he was
actually very casual having conversations, being honest about going through
her files and saying I had to do it, you know,
it's my you know what I'm as to do, and

(15:00):
you know, just just having really genuine conversation with her,
trying to get to know her perspective in her side.
And I thought this was a very natural, believable progression
and relation shift for them.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, and also this was also give credit to her
as well, because it's not just that there you know,
sure there was chemistry, which thank god Geordie had that,
but also she was willing to kind of look past
the awkwardness. A lot of times, if something awkward happens

(15:35):
with us upon first meeting somebody, it just you can't
really recover from that. You're just like, you know, I
just don't feel comfortable around that person. But she took
a moment she was like, you know, what is the
first mostly normal guy I've spoken to in a long time.
Let's talk it out a bit more. And he turned

(15:55):
her around real quick, or she turned around real quick.
On him suddenly. That you know, that's always the toughest
thing is convincing us that the two people basically fall
for each other in forty three minutes, because this was
even faster. This was like six minutes. She went from
like I don't know you to like touching his face
and stuff. I was like, whoa, Helen's don't mess around

(16:16):
like she was. She was like, all right, this guy's cool,
this guy's nice. Uh Well.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
The thing that was believable about this situation for me
was this clearly she had been in a traumatic situation
totally that that traumatized her mentally because she actually she
admitted to having blocks of memory missing, right, she didn't
know certain things. So that's an extensively traumatic situation causes

(16:48):
that where you have this amnesia or this blockage of memory.
So that was one factor. The other factor was her
being accused of this murder. And so now she's a
suspect and people are suspicious of her, and she feels like,
you know, everyone is against her.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
She needs a friend.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
She needs a friend, right, an advocate, a friend, somebody
that she believes believes her. And I think that's where
I believe the switch in the tone. That was believable
for me was when she said to him, you know,
do you believe me? And I thought he gave an honest, yes,

(17:33):
I do believe you answer. That's when she realized she
had somebody who she can trust, or have somebody she
can confide in and have this kind of because she
was very forthcoming on everything. She felt like either she
knew or did it.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
No, that's a very good point. That's a lot of times,
in a lot of ways, the number one most important
thing is do you believe me? You know, whether it's
a traumatic experience, whether it's you need to be defended
about something, whatever it is, the number one thing is

(18:11):
do you believe me? And man, does that ever change
a situation if somebody believes you or doesn't believe you.
So that's that's I think that's a really good point.
And of course Jeordi did believe her, and thank god
he ended up being right. Wouldn't you like if it
ended up being It looked for a while like it

(18:32):
was going to be her that did it, and we
start thinking, mad Jeordy, God he was validated this time,
you know.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yes, yes, thank god he was, because he started to
like turn on Riker, Oh yeah, right, like he was
like he.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Was getting in between them. Yes, yeah, I have to
get through me bro.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, he became Johnny Cop when all of a sudden
he was like, I'm defending my client. This is this
is my case. And so Riker's like, yeah, you know,
I think you've been a little bit too emotional and
maybe you want to stop seeing her on a personal level.
This is just as a friend, I'm telling you because

(19:19):
you're getting emotionally attached. And then what was Jordie's response
to that? He says, I'm not the one making judgments
or something to that effect.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, that was actually good, you know, because but that
was also like the most childish we've seen Jordi react
since him fighting with Wesley Crusher. But we felt it,
you know, because he's like, you know, he said, you know,
she may be impairing your judgment or Riker said something
about it. He's like, well, I'm not the one passing judgments.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
It seemed kind of a little child but I'm like,
but I was there with him, like I felt I'm like, yes,
you let him know. He said, drop the ranks, so
you're allowed to say whatever you got to say, doesn't
have to be professional, it doesn't have to be perfect,
and he threw it in his face and Riker ate
it and maybe had something to think about because he.

Speaker 6 (20:08):
Was right well, and also, to Jeordie's credit, just before
he made that line to him about the judgment, right,
I'm not doing making judgments, he tolds Riker.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Riker's like, hey man, I think you're like trying to
like you're taking her side or something. And he says,
you know, if she's innocent, I want to help her
prove it. Yep, that was it, and he said it
very calmly. Wasn't even like I thought the tone was
perfect in the delivery. As far as the way he

(20:44):
delivered that line, it was it was really a heartfelt
It was a perfect tone. It's actually, to me, sounded
like he was talking to a friend, you know. It
was like it wasn't a rank thing. I felt a
friend vibe there. So yeah, I did like the way

(21:04):
he delivered that. But essentially he's saying, if she's innocent,
I want to help her prove it. And there are
several moments in which Jordi confronted her about truth telling right,
and I felt like she gave truthful answers because when
he you know, kind of probe even farther, she just

(21:25):
kept being more truthful. You can kind of tell when
somebody's lying. And the example of that is when he caught.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Her out, you can.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, yeah, we could.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Tell right every time.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Not every time, but but yeah, when he caught her
deleting the lungs. You know, when he caught her deleting lungs,
it looked real bad. I was like, oh god, she's
definitely playing him and covering her tracks at the same time.
And uh, but then when he confronts her, she she

(22:03):
gives She's like, yeah, I did delete. Like she didn't
run away from it. She said, yeah, I did do it.
And by the way, that was the great way they
did this. They used obfuscations, so we kept everybody admitted
to the thing that they did. The klingon that they
brought on and said, hey, when Data questioned him and said,
did you did delete the file? Did you take the files,

(22:25):
you know, the codes, the messages, He's like, yes, I
did take the messages, but nobody was there, Okay, So
he admits to that.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Event eventually. Well that's also that's also what you know,
the guilty people do. The ones that end up they
go like were you there? No? Or they go were
you there?

Speaker 7 (22:46):
No?

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I don't have to answer to you. Were you there?

Speaker 2 (22:48):
No?

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Okay, we know you were there. Okay, fine, I was there,
but I didn't do anything. Well, we know you were
there and you deleted the lug. Okay, I was there.
I deleted the lug, but I didn't kill him, you know. Yeah,
but at least they were willing to say. And and
that's that just makes us again flip flop on who
we think it really is. So that that's really good

(23:12):
because we think, okay, it's probably it's probably her, and
then the Klingon says a couple of things, we go, oh, well,
maybe it was the Klingon. You know, he admits to
what he did. He's like, I was just checking up
on it or something. Come on, bro, nobody believes that. No,
you weren't concerned, but you know.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
What, yeah, yeah I did. I thought that was great
writing for keeping us guessing, because I was guessing. I
was more leaning towards this girl because I was like, Jordy,
you're getting played. It's just it's just.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Because the Klingon felt like it was too obvious of
an answer.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
You know, now, Jordy's poor choice choices is the reason
why I thought it was going to end badly for him.
I was like, this guy, he makes the wrong choice
all the time, and the women. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
So also on that note, we've got to jump to
our break here. But there was somebody else that was
suspiciously absent that could have made this a three minute
episode two. But we'll get to that in just a second.
We'll be right back on the Seventh Rule. Hello, everybody,

(24:27):
Welcome back to the Seventh Rule with sarak Lofton. Is
time for where they go the trivioids of the week.
The Enterprise has arrived at a communication relay station near
the Klingon border. Jordie likes to start by repolarizing the interface.
Lieutenant Roacha and Lieutenant Unari have rigged a memory module.

(24:49):
Lieutenant Rocha is rude, arrogant, and condescending theoretically more ag
has been getting more and more aggressive lately. Aqueel it
to autocorrect it to squeal, but I'm sure that's Aquael
missus muskin seed punch war fines Klingon DNA. Keith Roche
had two decorations for valor and three outstanding evaluations from

(25:14):
his previous commanders, and there's an opening for a level
two specialist. All right, so data would have made this
a three minute episode. Yeah, Counselor Troy would have made
this a three This is another time where she was
just and she looked really good in the one scene

(25:36):
she was in, Like she got like one line, but
like I honestly, sometimes you just kind of watch one person.
Somebody else was talking, but I was still watching her
and she was giving really good looks and doing her thing.
I'm like, wait to not take a day off, you know,
like she only really had one day that week to
work one or two lines. It would have been forgivable

(25:57):
in a way for her to just kind of phone
it in, but she didn't. I was actually really prouds like,
oh way to just show up and say, all right, fine,
this is I'm still gonna nail this episode, even if
my role is diminished. But of course, if it weren't diminished,
she would say, Captain, I sense they're both telling the truth,

(26:20):
but I don't trust the dog.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
And credits yeah, and credits yeah, I mean like this,
you know, we can find the ways that they can
solve these a lot easier. Definitely choice an underutilized character. Yeah,
and really I would like to see her, you know,
the way they used the therapist and the sopranos, I

(26:44):
thought that was that would have been a better use
of her in this show. Essentially, let her be somebody
that different personnel come and confide to every once in
a while, just like they have a captain's log, they
can have a moment a scene dedicated to mental health
of one of the Startfly personnel or guests on the ship,

(27:08):
and that way we see her dealing one on one
with people and individuals and we get to, uh, you know,
reveal things about the character that we didn't know because
they're sitting on that sofa with her, you know, kind
of bearing their soul. So I think I would like
to see sessions with Wharf in therapy. You know, I

(27:30):
can't believe the captain would do, you know, just like
just whatever it is, every.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Time I suggest to destroy something, they just say no.
But they never tried destroying it first and then deciding.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yes. And that would be funny to me, just like
just a small clips scenes like that. But but yeah,
you know, you know, we get what we're what we're
dealt with. And you know, another person that was suspicious
to me was the other quing on because you know,
again he comes on really you know, defiant, and I

(28:05):
you know, I will not cooborate. And then Galron's name
gets flexed. Great Galon, you know Galon, and.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
He's like, no, no, but don't even worry about it.
It's totally fine. We'll just go talk to you. Well
what well Notalon, don't worry. Thank you so much, we
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Don't worry.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
We'll go talk to Galon. Picardo was such a little
snooter about that, and I love that. I loved being
a dick to that guy. But it worked.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, he was purposely playing poker with him and he
was like, no, that's fine, I'll just talk to Galon.
And there was a look that he gave Riker as
he had his back face to the monitor, and the
guy's like, well, no, actually told you got him. So
I love those I love that writing. It's just it's

(28:53):
fun for me. It's good writing for the Captain.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
So here's something that makes this episode somewhat legendary. This
is an episode that I feel like I've only watched
once a long long time ago. Maybe twice doesn't really
stand out in my mind. I remembered the solution. I

(29:16):
remember that the dog changed into something. I remember that
the dog was was the villain in a way. You
know that the key character. Oh, by the way, the
Klingon was Governor Torak. But here's what makes it kind
of an important episode in Star Trek Lower number one

(29:37):
is she is Heleian. And we have seen other Hellians
in Star Trek. We've seen one a bunch of times
in lower decks, you know, because they got like the
the bumpy things on their head. We also had the

(29:58):
Uh there was like a helms officer on Star Trek.
Picards season two or three, there was a Halian as well.
I'll look that up. So we've seen Hallens a couple
of times, and then there was one. And people in
the comments correct me on this one. I'm trying to remember.

(30:22):
I think it was yeah, and I think it was
like Discovery season two or Picard season one. It was
something that came out a few years ago. Uh, and
he was It was a guy playing somebody's like boyfriend
and they were like in an apartment and they were

(30:44):
trying to escape from something he died or something like that. Anyway,
I don't remember it too well and I need to
brush up on my recent Star Trek history. But a
lot of people theorized that this guy was a Halian
because you know, he looked similar. I don't remember if
he had the forehead things. I think the verdict ended
up being that he was not Heleian. But that's but

(31:06):
he did have like telepathic abilities, So everybody remind us
in the comments below who was that. It was like
he was only in like one episode or like two
scenes or something. But that's another Helen. Another thing that
was big with this one was Picard's season three Jordie
LaForge has two daughters, but they don't mention who the

(31:29):
mom is, a lot of people said they think it's
Aquiel Now, in order for it to be Aquieel, the
daughters would have had to have little bumps on their forehead,
so probably not her, So other people thought maybe it
was Leah Broms maybe ended up hooking up with her finally,
but Picard season three intentionally never divulged the information on

(31:52):
who the mother was, so we don't know. But that's
just a tie in to Picard's season three. In this
so many people kept thinking, Oh my god, what if
it's Aquael, What if their mom's Aquiel, you know, but
we never got that answer and we never will.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
I think it is. I think it is could be
because we don't know that if they were to have
kids that the kids would definitely have the bump.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Totally, you know, like this recessive gene or something like that,
right where it just comes out, you know that they're
full blooded or whatever.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, I think so it's possible. There was a moment there,
you know, when Wharf says, have the courage to admit
your mistakes. I thought that was hilarious what he said. Yeah,
because they were going back and forth, him and the
other guy, and he says, you put talk, which is

(32:44):
hilarious when they do that.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
But when they try to cuss each other out and
cling on, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
I love the klingon cuss outs. But yeah, I also
like the way Governor Torak kind of showed us in
the moment of his own character when when Commander Morac
was being you know, grilled, and they said, yeah, you

(33:11):
did take the codes and he admitted to doing that.
Picard asks he requests to Governor Torak that Morac stays
on the ship, right. He says, I'd like him to
stay on the ship while we investigate this matter. And
Governor Torak reveals his own morality and says take him right.

(33:36):
He doesn't say no, he's a Klingon and I you
know his rights and you know this is this is
not fraank. You know it's not fair. And he didn't
do anything. He was like, now, you know what, based
on what I've heard, is enough reasonable suspicious there that
would qualify this man to be a suspect. And he

(34:01):
did the right thing by saying the card I allow
you to, you know, hold him while you investigate. That
to me showed cling on class in.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Oh, I like that with the k clingon class.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, that was cling class right there.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
You know, there's something I wanted to bring up too,
and it's way off the beaten path here. But yet again,
a character's name was pronounced differently at least three times,
at least three different ways. First, Riker says Morag for
that klingon. Then uh, I think Warf, No, I think

(34:45):
Then the governor guy Torak called him or Warf called
him Morog, and then the other Klingon Governor called him Morag.
I'm like, dude, you guys, it's it's like five letters,
you guys, their need isn't I know for a fact?
And Strok you can back this up that there's a

(35:06):
pronunciation guide in the back of the script. How did
three people call him pronounce his name completely differently within
like five minutes and then Riiker even changed the way
he pronounced. At first Riker called him morag and then
later on he called them morog. You guys kill him,
But they're like, whatever, you're making up words. We don't

(35:28):
freaking know how to pronounce the lead.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
And it's funny because I wonder one thing I've never
really heard on this show is somebody correct someone else
for how they pronounced their name right, So like it's Morag, right,
and then somebodys morog and you're like, no, actually, it's
a barag like it just correct them, And that would
be a real kind of like natural flow of a

(35:55):
conversational kind of feel to it, right, because everybody's like,
just let somebody mispronounce the name and just butcher it. Right.
If I called you Rion, hey, Rion, you would say, actually,
it's Ryan.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
Sounds like a Star Wars name.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
I like it. I'd like, oh, sorry, I misread it.
I thought it was I don't know. You know, Grindo,
you would correct naturally, you would correct somebody, that is
what I'm saying. You know, you would just naturally.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Oh, it's right, and it's I get the Brian thing
a lot, and if I I go the best is
when they go, oh, what's your name Ryan? Oh, hey Brian. No, No,
it's it's Ryan, Brian Ryan. Okay, Hey Brian, Like, okay,
I'm moving on. Fine, yeah, I'm Brian. Oh I gotta
move on. But there was one thing along those lines

(36:46):
that was done for what feels like the first time
in Star Trek, and it was actually refreshing to me.
It was when Bev Blazon Bev Beverly Crusher says to
a card like, oh, it's a coalescent organism. Do you know?

Speaker 3 (37:03):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Do you know anything about coalescent organisms? And in Star Trek,
what do they always say? They always say, oh, weren't
those outlawed in the twenty sixth century, or they say oh,
yeah a little bit at Starfleet Academy, or or yet
they always have something it's like, we get it. They're smart.
Doesn't mean everybody knows everything about everything. It was refreshing.

(37:25):
She said, do you know anything about coalescent organisms? The
card says no, thank you. It's okay to say no.
Sometimes it's okay to say I don't know. And when
he said that, it immediately felt refreshing to me. I'm like, yes,
thank you, just say I don't know. And it also

(37:45):
makes it a lot easier for the viewers because or
you know what it is a lot of times like
Picard or someone will say yes, of course, and then
Warf will be like, I do.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Not know that.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
You know, they're like got the security officer bone head
over here. But it makes it easier than for us
to know what it is, because then Beverly tells him, oh,
well it's this this, and that. They were like, thanks
for a card, that's all we needed to know.

Speaker 6 (38:13):
That was nice, Yeah, it was, it was It was
pretty good.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
You know. I thought Beverly Crusher was good in this
episode too. She had some good moments in this you know, uh,
kind of really good believable stuff. Uh. Yeah, there's some
good moments in here.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
I'll tell you a few of the good moments on
my end here. Number one. First of all, a bad
moment something we all wondered about and it finally happened.
Jordi kisses a girl and his advisor is like smearing
all over and I'm like, because I wondered when they're

(38:54):
coming in, I was like, I was like, how is
she gonna are they? Is she gonna bump that? And no,
she just went right and that visor is just like
scraping her fucking eyebrow and makeup off, and I'm like, Okay,
I guess I guess that is what they work with.
I feel like at some point they must have asked,
like the director like, do I just and the directors like, yeah,
just go in and you know, give butterfly kiss to

(39:19):
his visor? Why not tilt your head just kids, I
don't know. I feel like it would be weird. It's
like if you wear glasses and the person you're kissing
also wears glasses. Sometimes it's like clink clink, You're like, oh,
let's take our lightsabers off or whatever, and like, you know,
but anyway, that was just kind of a I was like, oh's.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
First kiss, so he doesn't give him some time?

Speaker 1 (39:44):
That's what I'm saying, like, oh no, poor Geordie. Man,
you just this girl, and you know she's gonna go
back and tell it friends. Yeah he was cool, but
I don't know what is it?

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Girl?

Speaker 1 (39:53):
You could tell us his visor was always scraping my
forehead every time I tried to.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
It's just, you know, anyway, that's too much, man, that's crazy. Yeah,
I give him some time. He's just getting used to it.
He hasn't, you know.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
And then and then I also thought it was crazy.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
That's also that I had that one I had. I
had a text to Sarah because I like saying that one.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
But anyway, go on, No, she pulls out the knar.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
I know that was the part that I said was suggestive.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
There we go with the knar and she says it
will help deep help deepen our love connection, like viagra.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Worse than that, you know what he said. And he says, oh,
I was wondering what that was for. It's like, whoa,
everybody just relaxed. Star Trek. This is star Trek. You
need to you need to say that line in a
different way. You need to be like, I was wondering

(41:05):
what that was for. But I was wondering what that
was for. I was like, everybody, cold shower right now,
director Cliff Boll, you need to.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Read. I was like, this is this is really this
is a this is a Jordy episode.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah. No, of course. Actually, maybe I'm being too harsk.
If that was Riker that said that, we would just
been like, that's Riker being Riker. So I don't know
why I'm being so hard on Jordy for talking like that.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Well, because he watched all our videos and kind of
was like he was like really microscope invesigating your life.
So it kind of looks a little bit strange that
he's even like what's this and what's that? And you
know he was going through her drawers and everything, so okay,

(41:53):
yeah crazy.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Also I wanted to point out what did you think
about their outfits in the final scene, because I always
am fascinated by like the styles where they like when
it's early next generation, it's like eighties version of futuristic styles.

(42:15):
You know Deep Space nine, I mean you know all
about it. It's nineties versions of futuristic styles, but this
one didn't really feel nineties what they were wearing. You know,
sh had like the snakes around her arm stuff and
like a little side that kind of popped. It didn't
really feel very much like nineties. In fact, it kind
of reminds me a little bit of what we see

(42:36):
on like strange new worlds and new things like that.
And Jordi was was pimping in his h army green.
I think it was yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Have that outfit. Yeah, I was like, Jordy's wearing a
Jake outfit. That's what I thought. Yeah, I was like,
this is a this is a Jordi Jake outfit.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
You gotta hand me down.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah, he's got one. I didn't know he shocked at
Garrick's too, but nice. But yes, no, I thought that
was pretty cool. I like the outfit. I wrote it
down in my notes. Is something that was interesting because
it stood out. I thought hers looked more like uh,

(43:18):
I think it looked like some like a Bajorian. I
think I think not wear something similar with the arm
wrap type thing, maybe as the intended she was wearing
something similar to that or something. But you know, I
liked it. Did you did you get? I also got

(43:39):
vibes and we didn't talk about this, but I got
vibes of the change link I thought this was completely.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
I thought I thought you would too, because that looked
like a changeling. It looked like an early you know,
if they can change the trill completely, they can change
the color of the changeling a little bit, and it
acted like it looked like it. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
I was like, Oh, this is the same time as
DS nine. Maybe they're trying to introduce change Link as
a species, so just to get people familiar with the
idea that there is, you know, they exist in the
in the world. I thought that's where they were going
to go with this because the way it was morphing
and the way it replicated Beverly's hand, Like, well, how's

(44:25):
that not like change Link type attributes, And so it
would have been interesting if they did go with that
kind of early early introduction to the change Link and
just slip it into this episode. That would have been
some real like deep dive kind of like you know,

(44:47):
three D forty Chess for a star Trek.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Been pretty impressive.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Yeah, yeah, because it would have been a real early
nugget to plant a seed this early before we actually
get to see the dominion and all of this other stuff.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Absolutely, but it would have it would have.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Foreshadowed Odo's kind of background and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah, maybe it would have been really cool. Uh, we
got to get to the home run of today's episode. Also,
I wanted to mention just kind of popped in my
head early on in this episode. We haven't seen Nursogawa
in a while, and I kind of missed her. It
would have been cool to see her in this episode. Okay,
who gets.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
There? Is?

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Who gets the home run of the episode today?

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Sir rock Lofton, I'm gonna I think the home run
goes to LeVar Burton and his performance as Jordie LaForge.
There were moments there that I thought were great for
his performance range and got to show me something that

(45:52):
I kind of don't get to see out of Jordi.
One is the defensiveness that he had with Riker when
he kind of stood up for her and said, hey,
I'm not the one that's being judgmental, and also said
that you know, he wants to prove her innocence. If
she's innocent, he wants to help approve it because he
doesn't want to see somebody who's killed innocent go, you know,

(46:13):
be charged for something they didn't do. And the other
moment there was when he caught her in the moment
when he caught her deleting the files and she kind
of admitted to it, and he raised his voice with
her or his temper just slightly and he says they
were then explain this and the way he said it,

(46:33):
you know, I thought was fantastic. It was a great delivery.
It was super He wasn't playing around and it was
just well delivered. So yeah, LeVar Burton is the home
run hitter of this episode.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, I have to agree with that. LeVar Burton home
run of the episode for me. Uh, you know, they
didn't give him a ton to work with, but this
was a Jordy episode. He had very little uh technobabble,
so he couldn't impress us and wow us with that.
He had to just kind of be a genuine guy

(47:06):
with faults, with beliefs, with weaknesses, with uh integrity, you know,
like you know, he was a person and it felt
nice to see him being a person rather than just
a guy that's really good at technobabble and solving problems

(47:27):
and uh and this time he hit the home run
instead of struck out. Actually, so that's pretty good. Okay,
good stuff. So here are the trivioids, not the trivioids,
the people that we want to thank, and they are
not trivial. Their names are doctor Anne, Marie Siegel, Eve
England out in Wales, You've at Blackman, Tom t J. Jackson,

(47:48):
be Out in Missouri, Titus Mueller, doctor Mohammed, Nora and
Niel oh Palatte, Joe Bouceeradi, Mike Gou, doctor Stephanie Baker,
Carrie Schwent, Faith Howel, the Matt Boardman, Chris McGee, Jake Barrett,
Henry Hunger, Allison Leech Hide, Julie Manosfi, Jed Thompson, doctor
Susan V. Gruner, Glenn Iverson, Dave Gregory, Chris Sternet, Greg

(48:11):
k Wickstrom, Cassandra g chuck A, Chris Garris, and of
course Jason m Oaken. Quite frankly, all right, everybody stick around,
We've got the Free for All up next we will
be right back on the seventh Rule. Hi, everybody, welcome
back to the Seventh Roll with Sarak Frick and Lofton. Hello,

(48:34):
the Free for All with Melissa Alongo.

Speaker 8 (48:37):
Hello.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
And Carrie Schwent aka Crafty Baron. We also have Chris
Garris out in southeast Texas. Hello, Alison Leech hide in
the heart of New Mexico. Chris Garris is the dark Lord.
Chris McGee is the dark Lord. And I was just like,
you've had that you main flag on you every single time.

(49:02):
Good commitment there, Brian and the Matt boardman is here
wearing his family shirt. Hello, Hello, Hello, all right. Jake
Cisco guesses the IMBB.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Score probably like a seven five.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Does anybody else have any guesses that doesn't already know?

Speaker 9 (49:29):
Um, I'm gonna say a six point one.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
I was doing six point six. Does anybody else have
any guesses that doesn't already know?

Speaker 2 (49:50):
All right?

Speaker 1 (49:51):
That's everybody rolls sah, I'm sorry to tell you six
point Oh. I was so close. You were very close.
You were very close. But when I was very surprised
by this too, and I had a feeling. I was like,

(50:11):
I'm not gonna say anything, but I have a feeling
Sarrock's gonna guess higher than it is because I guessed
higher than it was by a long shot too.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Not appearance mentioned I got one galron? Of course? Were
there any others?

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Right? No? All right?

Speaker 9 (50:31):
That I can think of it so weird.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
When it gets so quiet here, it's like a I
lose my place. I don't know what to do, all right,
any some kinds of or some sorts of Chris McGee
or the third time in a row. I think No,
I didn't catch any that's some sort of record. Malise

(50:54):
A long you please get it started off on the
right track by telling us what you thought of this episode.

Speaker 8 (51:00):
I give you a hand. I just anyway, it didn't
It didn't work. I was trying to do jokes like
Ryan did, but it didn't work. Oooves, What did I
think of this episode? You're gonna be honest. It's not

(51:21):
a favorite of mine. I don't remember seeing I don't
remember this episode until I watched it, and maybe I
needed to watch it two times. I didn't have time
to watch it twice. But I will say some a

(51:44):
positive note. I really enjoyed when how Jordie says pooch,
Hey pooch, Hey pooch.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
I love.

Speaker 8 (51:55):
Hi pooch, Hi pooch. But I will I'll tell you
the main problem that I had with this episode, and
it was probably it probably had to do with the
dog and how it was used pretty much just as

(52:17):
background for the whole time, and it was kind of
obvious why at the end they used the dog, very obvious.
And I have a bone to pick with Aquael because
she left the dog behind. It saved herself and any

(52:42):
pet owner cat dog doesn't matter what kind of animal
it is. Those pets, animals are part of our family.
If we bring them into our home, we're accepting the
responsibility of their safety and wellness just as much as
our own. The dog didn't choose to go into space.
The dog didn't choose to be on the space station.

(53:04):
The dog didn't have any choice in its location. It's
like bringing a child onto a station. You're not going
to leave the child behind because you're you are in danger.
Of course, the dog's going to be in danger just
as much as you. So I was like, why are
you going to leave the dog behind? Any owner would

(53:27):
not think twice about running into a burning building to
save their pets. So, and maybe I'm crazy, but as
an animal lover, the Mochi's coming with me doesn't matter.
Mochi is coming with me, she is being rescued. I'm
not going to let her get slaughtered by this wacky,

(53:50):
wild monster that can replicate me, so, yeah, it's just
and so that just dissolved the whole episode for me
because it was just. And then she did. Jordie says, oh,
your I have a you have a friend waiting to
see you, and she's like, oh really who who? Of

(54:17):
course it's the dog. I mean she didn't really care
about the dog one bit. And then it's like, yeah,
I don't know. It just frustrated me. This this episode
frustrated me. And I usually like a good mystery, but
this one frustrated me a.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Lot mystery more like mistreatment of animals. Thank you very much,
Melissa Lungo, Carrie Schwent crafty bear, what's up? What do
you think of this one?

Speaker 10 (54:49):
It's it's an okay episode. I don't I don't hate it.
It's it's it's okay. There was a decent amount that
I did enjoy. Specifically, Renee Jones, who plays Aquael. I
grew up literally grew up watching her on Days of
Our Lives, where she played doctor Alexi Carver for three decades,

(55:14):
a grand total of one thousand, seven and fifty two
soap opera episodes. She was awesome on that show. Once
her when she left Days of Our lives, but I
guess she retired from acting at that point, which when
you've been on a soup for thirty years, you've you've
definitely earned earned your earned your retirement. I enjoy her

(55:35):
a lot by the by the end of the episode,
with her with her and with her and Jordy, I
came up with a revised head canon that it is
my head canon that she is Sydney and Alandre's mom,
not not Leah Brown's. I believed how cozy they were
with each other and ten forward at the end, so

(55:57):
I decided to up to update my head canon. She
she is the girl, the girl's mom, even though we
never hear what mom's name is. But that's my head canon.
Feel free to join me, join me there if you
like the dog. Actually, when I was looking up on
I am an I m dB is also a soap
opera veteran. Friday is the dog's name, and she was

(56:19):
on a few episodes of General General Hospital, which I which,
of course I love, you know me, you guys, I
love I love, I love my soap, so knowing she
was on General Hospital for a while is very cool.
I don't have a specific memory of her on that
the way I do with with that with with Renee,
but still very cool, so very cool soap opera connection.

(56:42):
One other, one other thing. I have a tiny bone
to bone to pick with with Commander Recker. I realize
that you think she's not there like the real Aquhale
and you gotta go rescue Jordy and whatnot. But if
you're going into somewhere that is you know, someone's home
her Akahel's quarters, knock first completely interrupted her her majority

(57:06):
the good thing. None of that had gotten an any
further along, get knack first. And on a related note,
which will come up again in season seven, if you know,
you know, if you knock first, make sure someone answers
the door before you go inside. More more on that
next and more on that next season. But for the

(57:28):
for the Limerick, I struggle with it a little bit,
trying to decide where to come from from it. And
then I was watching it again and the the klingon
guy that would stop by the the relay station and
harass them once once a week. I love, I loved
his whole I didn't do it. What do you what
are you picking on me for? So I decided to

(57:49):
make make the Limerick about him. I demand justice. I'm
falsely accused. Klingons are not so easily abused. I did
not kill that guy. All I took with some files.
I'll just sit on the brig and tell him excuse.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Thank you very much, Carrie Schwent aka Crafty Bear, number
one Cubs fan.

Speaker 10 (58:16):
Chris Garris got to go back to the against See
you guys, Dad.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Good luck since the giants are oute all right, Chris Garris,
what is up? What did you think of this one?

Speaker 10 (58:32):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (58:33):
Now, I remember why I don't usually watch this episode.
It's not the best. I'm trying to think what I
want to say here versus things left unsaid. But I'm
just going to say this. I don't think the writers
knew how in the world to write for JORDI. Why
do they have to always give him the every now

(58:55):
and then the ick factor when it comes to relationships.
But you know, I was looking at this image behind me,
and I was, actually I was. I was kind of
curious about It's like, wait a second, when did this
would come out and why it looks so much like
a changeling Because this episode came out January thirty of
ninety three, and Emissary came out January third, so I

(59:17):
was like, okay, but you know, it's it's not the
best episode. Yeah, that's what rock. Yeah, I just it's yeh,
it's got a lot of inck factor. Trying to think
of what to say positive about it. I'm just having
a hard time.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Thank you very much, Chris Scarris. Well, you can close
out by saying January third was a great day, right,
believe it was. It was a great day.

Speaker 9 (59:49):
It was a great day. But yeah, it's something I
would if you don't. It's definitely when I will skip
every now and then.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
Mm hmm. All right, So basically what he's saying everybody
is check out things left unsaid is going to be
real juicy. Thanks very much, Chris Garris, Alison Leech hide
cool shirt. What's up? What'd you think of this one?

Speaker 11 (01:00:12):
Yeah, it's not a favorite either. I have a hard
time when they have Jerty fall in love with representations
of women and not the action and like he's smarter
than that, Like he would still need to like actually talk.

Speaker 10 (01:00:29):
To her, and here he is.

Speaker 11 (01:00:31):
You know, she's supposed to be dead. He's going through
her personal logs and letters. That's again, I mean she
reacted correctly too. There was a bit of an invasion
of privacy, understandably done, but still like, oh yeah, no,
I was dead, you know, like that's everyone thought it
was said, So you know, that's that's hard, you know

(01:00:52):
that they keep doing that to Jordie. I understand that
the writers were trying to bring in a new like
love interest for a character because Miles and Kiko we're gone,
so now the this ship is populated by a bunch
of single people again, So I understand that I'm glad
they did not continue with this particular character for that.

(01:01:14):
And I'm also sad that Jordie didn't get the dog,
because that was actually the first story idea was that
he was and that would have been great because then
he'd have a puppy and Data would have a cat,
and then they could try and make them friends and
it would be great TV to watch those all interact

(01:01:34):
that way. So yeah, it's it's not my favorite. Also,
Riiker kind of makes me mad in this episode, Like
she was attacked. Can you not be so like mean
to her? Yes, in the end, we're not sure if
she's human or this coalescent micro being thing, but still

(01:01:56):
you're being kind of a douche, like, let's let's be.

Speaker 8 (01:02:00):
A little bit here in this situation.

Speaker 11 (01:02:03):
So I understand they were trying to go for like
a film noir Laura mystery, but I think they could
have been a little bit there, could have been a
little bit more like finesse in making this story more
enjoyable to watch for some of us.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 11 (01:02:26):
Oh, and Deanna should have been talking to Aquiel a
lot more like she doesn't remember anything? Yeah, like where's
this is? Where she would shine? So again, maybe having
her more involved in this story. So yeah, that's that's
how I feel about it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Unfortunately, mm hmmm. Good stuff. Thank you very much, Alison
Leech hide more on that later as well. Chris McGhee,
what did you think of this one? Did you love it?
You probably did, right.

Speaker 12 (01:02:56):
I'm sorry to disappoint you, Ryan, Chris, Harris, and Allison.
It's not a favorite. It's the midway episode of the
season and is widely regarded as the weakest entry. Now,
I think the premise is a good one. It has
all the hallmarks of a great mystery story. On an
investigator gets personally involved with one of the suspects. There's

(01:03:18):
a surprising twist at the end, etc. But at the
risk of upsetting the mat. I think where this episode
falls a bit from it is the lackluster effects at
the end. CGI was still in its infancy at the
time and directors were limited in how they could shoot
the clean plates for it, so it comes off the

(01:03:40):
red rigid and static rather than dynamic and tense. Even
in the HD remastered version, it isn't improved much, and
that's not to slight the team who worked very hard
on it. They only had so much to work with
in terms of the footage that was shot twenty years earlier,
and to keep as close as possible to the original.

(01:04:01):
All that said, I do still think it's a decent
enough episode. Of course, I love any episode featuring Jeordie LaForge,
and this one is well acted. If each here's some
unique cinematographic choices, that's a big word. The plot even
reminds me a little of one of my favorite horror
films of all time, John Carpenter's The Thing, which also

(01:04:23):
features a coalescent organism and by the way, still holds
up incredibly well today over.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Forty years later.

Speaker 12 (01:04:31):
Now, if only they had used practical effects on this episode.

Speaker 7 (01:04:36):
But my one nitpick is that I know the story
really only has an impact if Jordie befriends Aquael and
becomes intimate with her. But after what she's been through,
I really think she would have spent should have spent
at least some time with counselor Troy, like Alison said.
As it is, Troy is barely in the episode with

(01:04:57):
only one word of dialogue. I mean, she may not
be a a criminal psychologist, but I'm sure she would
have had some useful insight to give if only someone
asked her. For my memorable quote of the episode, it's
basically Jordie. It's a strange one, but it's Jordy. When
describing Aquayel said she had questionable taste in literature.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Yeah, great stuff, Thank you very much, dark Lord. Chris McGhee,
The Matt Boardman, Welcome back the Matt. What did you
think of this one?

Speaker 13 (01:05:32):
Well, you know, I gotta be honest, I have this
one repeat daily, so I'm just kidding. I don't. But yeah,
it's it's interesting to go back and when you start
to watch these episodes with a more I don't want
to say critical eye, but maybe a more objective eye
as to what works and what doesn't work with it. Unfortunately. Yeah,

(01:05:55):
this is kind of one of those episodes that had
a lot of potential but maybe falls a little shit
in some of those areas. To Chris's McGee's point about
the visual effects, Yeah, it's interesting when you go in
and you do a remaster of things, because there is
a very fine line. And this is actually a discussion
that I've been having a lot lately, is where when

(01:06:17):
you're remastering something, where do you improve it and where
do you keep it the same? Because especially when you're
dealing with something like the Next Generation, which has effects
that people have been watching for well decades now, right,
And so do you improve it in the sense that

(01:06:38):
we're going to we're going to stay true to what's there,
but we're going to fix maybe some things around it,
or are we going to completely change it, because, as
as Chris pointed out, the technology at the time was
limited as to what they could do. But now we
can do you know, we could handle that kind of
stuff better. And I think they aired on the side
of let's just keep it the way people are you

(01:07:00):
used to seeing it, even if it is from a
standpoint of a visual effects artist, you watch and you're like, oh,
I get what you were going for, and I know
that you meant well, but it didn't necessarily at the
time work, you know. So that's always a challenge when
whenever you're mastering something. As far as the overall concept
of the episode, I'm always just amazed at Like, by

(01:07:22):
the time we got to Deep Space nine, it feels
like the writers kind of understood more how to write
for individual characters than they did on the next generation.
And I always felt like they always kind of do
Jordy dirty when it comes to relationships, because the character
Jordy just seems like he is a very compassionate and

(01:07:44):
caring person, and I think that he would be great,
you know, in a relationship.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
I really do.

Speaker 13 (01:07:51):
I just in my heart, I feel like Jordi would
be good because he has those qualities, but the writers
could not latch onto that and find a way to
tell those stories that brought that out without him having
the the the ick factor that people have said. Right, So,
but I do like the idea of falling in love
with the idea of someone you know that he got

(01:08:14):
to know her through her personal logs and everything like that.
But anyway, so just wrapping it up, you know, it's
it's an okay episode, but definitely there was room for improvement.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
I had so many follow up questions that VF stuff,
but we'll have to save it for things left unsaid
because it seems like some long answers would come from them,
but lots of ask in a bit. Jake's final take, well,
I really.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Didn't mind this episode so much like everybody you know,
I didn't think it was that bad, but I did
think there were certain things that they're unfortunate about how
they wrote it, like Jordan always kind of not getting
off to a good start with a relationship. I thought
I thought LaForge had a Jake Sisco outfit on in

(01:09:11):
the last scene at ten forward when he was doing
that date. I've seen that. I have one of those.
It's it's it's really cool tough, but I went for
nighttime stuff as well, so he's wearing it right. Uh
did all have a glass bone? Because you know, I
want to know where you get those, And I don't
know if that's a really smart thing for a glass

(01:09:32):
bone and a dog, but I don't know, I don't know, Uh,
plastic I got it was a plastic Okay, I got
a little upset when, uh, when I saw Jordi kick
the dog, I was like, there's like a moment he
kicks the dog, like get off of me or something,
and I thought, I was like, well, that's a little
bit aggressive in that moment. The book Cold Moon over

(01:09:59):
Black Water, which is a Gothic fiction book, has a
sequel which is Hot Sun Under White Fire. You guys
should read it. Every time I see the Klingons, I
think of Show Enough from the Last Dragon, and if

(01:10:22):
this particular Klingon in this episode, Morag, Commander Morag. He
really reminded me of Show Enough from the Last Dragon.
And many of you who know this like it's kind
of like a childhood movie came out in the nineteen
eighty five. I think it was, so I'm pretty sure

(01:10:43):
it came out before Klingons. And there's some inspiration there
about stylistically, wardrobe and hair if you look at it,
those of you that know. And then I was also
thinking who would be perfect girl for Data? And I
think I mean for Jordy, and I think it would

(01:11:04):
be Data, a girl version of Data. He needs to
ask doctor, assuming if he can just make a girl
data and that would be perfect for Jordie. He just
they could do science together, they could talk about all
that kind of stuff. And then I also thought about
today's the world that we live in, where it is

(01:11:24):
similar in some ways to what Jordie was doing by
looking at personal logs, because now we post our personal
logs on social media, and so somebody could just go
through all your personal logs and see who you are,

(01:11:45):
what your ideas are, where your stances are on things,
where you travel, to what you eat, and so how
you dress. I mean, all kinds of things could be
learned from your personal logs that you post online. So
it's not as intrusive now in this generation, this day

(01:12:07):
and age as it would have been in nineteen ninety
three when they made this, and you know, didn't have
people having all kinds of access to data and being
able to Google and this and that about every single person.
So I just think that we actually live in a

(01:12:28):
less private world now where it is you know, it's
it's more along the lines of everybody has read your
personal laws. So you know, Having said that, I actually
felt bad for LaForge at the end, because here he is,
he fell in love. It seems like she has reciprocal

(01:12:52):
feelings for him, but yet she wasn't willing to take
the one tiny step to like tried to advance this
relationship one step farther by saying, hey, you know, why
don't you pull a couple strings for me, like you
said you were going to to get me over here.
She was willing to go so many other places and

(01:13:13):
had so much other ambition for herself, and she was
actually headed to a cling on jail or something to
that effect. Right, So he's offering her a whole life
on the enterprise and in the profession that she likes doing,
the field of studies she likes. I felt like she

(01:13:33):
just really walked away from an open invitation, you know.
And it felt like Jordie got his heart broken again
at the very end, because it's like, man, you finally
found somebody. It took you all this time, And it
was a very flippant kind of now I'll do it,

(01:13:54):
you know, on my own merit, you know, one day,
and it was just too casual for something that you
would think if they went that step to go through
the ritualistic performance that they went through of you know,
making this emotional attachment. I felt like, if you're going
to take it death far, you pretty much are like
mine melded or you know, you're locked in into an

(01:14:17):
ancestral ritual and all of this other stuff. It seems
like it's serious, you know. So I just felt like
her walking away at the end the explanation wasn't good enough.
If she said, you know what, I want to go
back and visit my sister. I haven't seen her in
all this time, and I need to be back with
my family and and you know, go through some healing.

(01:14:40):
Because I've been through this trauma, I don't remember stuff
and it's just too much. I can get that that
would make sense to me, she says, you know, I'm
just going to go back. This is my sister. I
need to be with my mom and family, and this
whole situation has been too much. But I'll come back
and take you up on that offer. Can I get
a rate check? That would have been likable, like you know,
nice little We could have never followed up on it,

(01:15:01):
but at least you don't leave the guy with a
with a solid door closed in his face with a
hard no. You know, you leave the the light open.
You kind of leave the hope there, and it makes
sense she would want to completely like get away and
just like, yeah, I know everybody here as accusing me
of murders, so I need to go somewhere I looked

(01:15:25):
at like a sibling or a child or a friend.
So anyways, yeah, Acielle did not actually yes, yeah so
yeah that that that ending left me. It was just
too light and it was to throwaway and too casuals

(01:15:45):
like one one word like no, not really, it just wasn't.
That's that's my final thing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:54):
Maybe suffered from the mid season writing blues, just kind
of power through. All right, Well, thanks very much the
map Boardman, Chris McGee, Alison Leech Hide, Chris Garris, Melissa
Longo for myself, Sarak Melissa, mister Aaron Eisenberg. That we

(01:16:15):
always remember stick around for things left unsaid. If you
are a patron, if not, become one on patreon dot com,
slash the seventh rule. Otherwise we will see you next time,
and until then, always remember the seventh rule.