Disco Inferno 13 - "Such Sweet Sorrow"

[00:00:08] Is this thing on? Hello, hello. Welcome to Open Pike Night, the Strange New Worlds podcast where your personal logs are the prime directive. I'm your host, John T. Boulds, and we are here with episode 13 of our Disco Inferno coverage of Discovery Season 2. Tonight we are talking about the penultimate episode, Such Sweet Sorrow.

[00:00:46] And of course I'm joined by my co-hosts, as always. First off, the man who you absolutely have to greet anytime he arrives with a bowl of ice cream, Jesse Bailey. It's true, John, and I'd love to stay and eat this ice cream, but I have to leave before this whole thing starts. That's probably a good call. And the man who thinks he's just gonna take a break after covering all of TNG.

[00:01:12] You might go to a Starbase for a while or the Vulcan Science Academy, Cameron Harrison. I feel I'm gonna rue those words just as much as Stamets does in this episode. And tonight we are joined by a special guest from Green Shirt, a newbie stretch through TNG, and made in Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, Oregon. Please welcome Rob Campbell. I heard there was ice cream. Is there not ice cream? We all should have brought ice cream today, I know.

[00:01:40] Yes. I just ate a drumstick, so I'm good, I think. Nice. We're happy to finally have you on, Rob. Let me get this. I'm coming in hot. I'm coming in hot. Let me get this out of the way. Right up here, up top. Well, here, let's reenact how this went down. Cameron going, Rob keeps talking about all the new Star Trek he's watched. Hey, do you want to come talk about Discovery with us, Rob? So I get a text from Cameron that says, Rob, want to record an episode about Discovery? I just am a man who just says yes to everything. I said yes.

[00:02:08] I did not reveal at that time that I've never seen Discovery. Never seen it. Not a single episode. No, I watched the first half of episode one and then something happened and I didn't continue. Ah. Not because I didn't like it, but so I did, I had watched the first half. But I want to get this out of the way. Cameron, we have a podcast together and John. We have, yes. Green shirt. Wait, are you revealing right now that you've never watched any of those episodes of TV? Yeah, those were, I was just making those up. I read the list notes on all those.

[00:02:38] No, so that was like 2018 I started hosting that. And I, here's my question. Why didn't you tell me you had another podcast? I mean, you never mentioned this, this podcast. We never mentioned this podcast on that one. You're right. I know it's definitely been as secret as, uh, Since 2018, Cameron, we're like approaching friendship soon. Like soon we'll be like, I'll consider you a friend. Almost. Almost. Real close, but, uh, we'll get there.

[00:03:03] But, um, I did enjoy this episode of TV and I did a little tiny bit of back, you know, a little bit of research. Oh, you did. Okay. Um, just enough. Like when I had questions that I was like, just could not get over. Like I, and I, it's not the first time actually that I've Googled why, uh, why the captain's, why her name is Michael. Like that's one thing I wondered a long time ago. Um, you never worked for the girl, Michael before? I know. I didn't do.

[00:03:29] Oh, and did you find an answer to that other than like, that's the name she was given? Brian Fuller, uh, apparently usually assigns a male name to a female character in most of his works. Huh? Hmm. All right. And that was another thing that I, uh, there are, I have a list of things I did not know first year at all. And things that I knew and then forgot, like that Brian Fuller was involved. Cause I like Hannibal and I thought that Brian Fuller did something else that I liked, but really Hannibal is the only one that I have enjoyed and knew about.

[00:03:59] Um, I did, I like, I'll tell you what I don't know. I never did figure out what Doug Jones's alien race is or why. Okay. Or why they don't exist in any other Trek property that I've seen. Mm-hmm. I had forgotten that this takes place before, uh, Strange New Worlds and that, uh, Pike is in it. That was a fun treat cause I, I probably had heard that at some point, but totally did not remember. Oh, wow. Okay. That's why we're covering it right now. Yeah. It's, it's, it's good. I like that. Um, I did know, I know, uh, I don't know the actress's name, but I'm sure. I'm sure it's not true.

[00:04:28] I don't know the name now for some reason, but that, uh, I remember Michael from, uh, on like new girl. She played the, uh, prank loving girlfriend of, uh, Winston in that. And I think walking dead. I think I remember from that. Um, and that's, that's pretty much all I know. Oh. And then I did figure out that there's two seasons that take place at one time and later seasons that take place in a future time. That is true. That is true.

[00:04:55] Well, this is either, I don't know the, the worst episode for you to come in blind on or the best. Like it really is just a connecting episode. Not nothing really happens in this and it's all just building up from what happened in the last episode and leading to what happens in the next one. Well, the only other thing I had to look up was cause I did enjoy, I enjoyed this episode and I, I had to wonder why do people seemingly not like this series very much? Uh, I've had, I've heard some, some, you know, some shit talk about this series.

[00:05:25] And then I did a little reading and people just don't like all the crying or whatever. I'm fine. That's fine. Yeah. It's emotional. And you see five episodes in a row of crying. Yeah. Well, and it's got, you know, there's no way to talk around it. It has a black female lead character. Right. And that pisses a lot of people off for some reason. And, and then there are also a contingent of folks who are like, I want to know the crew. Why is it about just Michael?

[00:05:52] And it's like, well, there are other characters here. She's the main character for sure. This is Star Trek trying something new. And a thing that we always point out here is like, Hey, if discovery isn't well liked and not popular and doesn't get viewers, you don't get strange new worlds and Picard and prodigy and the upcoming. Star Trek shows like they don't exist. Yeah. They don't exist without this. But that doesn't mean it's good. Yeah. I still disagree with that. I think it's good.

[00:06:22] I like, but, but that is not evidence of it being good. Oh, I see what you're saying, but I still disagree. Okay. I, uh, well, I, people were also complaining about some dialogue and I, I did note the use of the word snarky twice, which is maybe not the best writing. Yeah. It's, uh, it does try to be a little, little too zeitgeisty for the time it actually was released.

[00:06:47] Not too much, but also I think the fact that it bugged people was like, you saw it very, very plainly in this episode of just how much the crew, how much, not just Michael, but everybody was like, yeah, they'd say, I love you all the damn time in this show. Right. And I know I saw some people complain, like, why are they always saying I love you in Star Trek? Like, okay, man.

[00:07:08] I was, I mean, the fact that she loves every crew member or he does, whoever gave the speech, like, oh, they really, there's not somebody in that room that you don't love quite as much. Right. And then somebody in there should have been, then say all of our names. Right. What's our name? List our name. Just our first name. Just go ahead. Yeah. Um, yeah, a little, I, there was a couple of lines of dialogue that I bumped on that I was like this, man, it's going to use a second pass. But yeah, I overall, I think it's a pretty solid, uh, uh, I don't know. It seemed pretty solid.

[00:07:37] So people were mad about, yeah, people on Reddit don't like that, that Michael is, is, uh, like some sort of God figure or like it's everything seems to revolve around Michael being important. Apparently she's important a lot as they kind of talk about in this episode a little bit. Yeah. That and she, so for me, like, that's not untrue about the series. Right.

[00:07:57] But I feel like the series does a good amount of character work with her to show, like, she is putting herself in these situations and she's absolutely the kind of person that would say, I'm the only one that can solve this. So I have to try. And it's like, that's not unusual for a Starfleet character, but it is unusual for a Star Trek show to focus mostly on just that character.

[00:08:18] So I think the newness, the differentness and, you know, the, the little nitpicks I think are usually what people point to. And those things are all valid and, you know, but I mean, how many Star Trek series have you ever watched where you never said to yourself once, like that dialogue could use a second pass? Yeah. The things that other things I liked about it are I, I am really attracted to the slickness of this, the production.

[00:08:49] Oh, yeah. I thought you were gonna say the actors and it's like, well, yeah, they're all beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They got me really, they really revved me up. No, the, the sets and the, the, you know, all the production is really, maybe I'll get just like maybe when I visited Italy, I was like, oh great, another beautiful building. Maybe after a couple of episodes I'll be, you know, maybe you'll be immune to it. But my first note was, my God, this is a great opening shot. And this is what discovery is, is great at is like beauty shots like this.

[00:09:18] So yeah, maybe not because I, even I, who, who crossed my arms with parts of the show, we can appreciate that part. The only other three things that I looked up or that I, not that I looked up that I didn't quite know much about. I know Michelle Yeoh was in this and I didn't know, I know that she's like some sort of antihero. Like I know that, I don't know. Like, I think maybe I read somewhere that she does genocide later or something. I don't know. Um, does it, you know, does a genocide. Well, I mean, she brings it up in this episode. Right. I didn't quite know what they're referring to.

[00:09:46] Obviously I don't know who Leland is and why he has a fleet and why he's fighting them and why his name is Leland, which I don't find it to be a very intimidating name. Oh no, it's Leland. Oh no. Um, and then I don't know why, um, this is another, like I started reading some of the descriptions of episodes later cause I was just curious about it. And so like what, they're fighting the sphere here. And then later there's the Emerald chain and the burn and the DMA. And we already met the Maquis recently.

[00:10:14] Like, there's just, why does everything have to have some cool the name? Well, they're not fighting the sphere, but we will get into that. Cameron. Uh, yeah, I actually, you bring up some questions. I want to ask you, Rob, since you're coming in blind, I do have a bit of a quiz to see how much you were able to gather about this show from this single episode. So if you don't mind, let's jump in. I think it's just five questions. I'm going to win. You will. Absolutely. We're all going to be winners at the end of this quiz.

[00:10:41] Uh, so one thing about this episode and we're going to get into it, but it, it features a previously on, which contains footage. A lot of people who watched the whole series probably never saw because it was from a short trek, not discovery, but we'll get into that. Oh, but this season also features another notable previously on which of the following reasons is why a, it was for a time travel episode and featured events that didn't happen until later in the season.

[00:11:05] B, it was factually inaccurate, showcasing the villains propaganda for an episode from their point of view. C, contained footage from 50 years prior. Or D, started glitching out halfway, transitioning into a communication discovery was receiving from Starfleet. Oh, I don't know. Which of those do you think was the notable previously on that got the internet abuzz? Oh boy. Um, but I'm going to have to take a, just a stab at, uh, uh, uh, C.

[00:11:36] C, it contained footage shot from over 50 years ago, showcasing the pilot from Star Trek as the events that happened before that were important to the episode we were watching now in discovery. Yes. It was very, it was very cool. We saw old Captain Pike. It is the greatest previously on of all time. It really is. It's super cool. When has this happened? Uh, about halfway through the season. Okay. Yeah. It's all, it's everything that happened to Pike in the cage. And so he has to go back to the planet and talk to those aliens. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's very cool.

[00:12:06] Yeah. I mean, just the, and it says previously on Star Trek. That doesn't say discovery. It's just Star Trek. Wow. Yep. Uh, all right. Which three of the following to the, what you were just talking about, do you think accurately represents who's coming to get them that they're preparing for? Is it a, so it's three of these. You got to pick three. A, space witches. B, killer AI. C, section 31, which is Starfleet spies, if you don't know. Yeah.

[00:12:35] D, mutant dinosaurs. E, one of Pike's old friends. Or F, grimace. The big purple guy from McDonald's. Of course I know who grimace is. Come on. You know, not, maybe not all our listeners. I don't know who Leland is. I don't care. I guess you know who grimace is. We've got a couple millennial listeners. Grimace, uh, Mayor McCheese, Big Mac, the constable. Uh. Well, Doug Jones played the moon guy.

[00:13:05] Oh, he played Mac tonight? He played Mac tonight. That was his first big role. Mac tonight. I did not know that. And that's good. Yeah. It's Pike's old friend. Yes. Leland. Uh, what, uh, read them quickly real quick. Space witches, killer AI, section 31, mutant dinosaurs. Section 31 is, uh, no, section 31 is not after them. They're friends with, they're, they're friendly with them right now. AI and witches. Very close.

[00:13:35] It is actually section 31. Section 30. The AI took over section 31. I got you. Yeah. Cause I, yo is 31. And then that other good beard. Oh, that's right. That's the kissy face. Well, he has to stay to try to clean up the mess. Okay. Then I would, then I would have said 31, except that I thought that since two of the 31s were on this bridge that they were. The space witches was the acolytes. The good guns. The good kind. Yeah. Gotcha. All right.

[00:13:59] Uh, let's, uh, which of the following is not true about Ash Tyler, the guy with the big beard, the section 31 guy. A, he has a secret child who is the same age as he is. B, he dated a queen. C, Jesse hates his guts. D, he secretly transmitted Discovery's position to a section 31 ship while they were undercover. Or D, he's actually a Klingon wrapped in human skin. D, he's a woman. Ha, ha, ha. Now I'm trying to guess which one is not true. Not true. Four of those are true.

[00:14:29] God, it's just, I can't, I can't imagine Jesse loving this guy, but, um. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I'll give you a hint. That one is true. Yeah. I kind of had a feeling. He hates him with a burning passion. I mean, I've only seen him, I feel like he got like 45 seconds of screen time in this episode, so. He's not in this one a lot. No, just that kissy scene. And those kissing. And you know me. Which you probably closed your eyes, so it's even less time for you. Left the room. Um, cause you know. Um, real quick, one more time, A, B. Uh, yeah, uh, he has a secret child who's the same age he is. Seems likely, okay. He dated a queen.

[00:14:59] That seems likely. He secretly transmitted Discovery's position to Section 31 while he was undercover. He's actually a Klingon wrapped in human skin. Uh, I'm gonna guess A. Uh, he has a secret child who's the same age as he is. He probably does. Yeah, he saw him in the previously on, yeah. Uh, then, uh, B. B, he dated a queen. Did he not? He did not date a queen. He did date a queen. So he did. And they had a secret love child. That's right.

[00:15:27] Because he, and it was the Klingon queen because he's actually a Klingon who was wrapped in human skin. Wow. That's true. So it's not true that he transmitted Discovery's location to Section 3. Oh. So let me just throw out that Season 2 of Discovery, significantly somehow less convoluted than Season 1 of Discovery. Even though there are 14 plot lines happening. I think it was the wording of wrapped in the skin. Like he didn't... Well, it's very... Basically, it's... Yeah.

[00:15:56] They kind of go multiple ways on what exactly he is. But they just swapped out the organs, but also the memories went with him. I don't know. I just imagine him like wearing a poncho of human skin when he's wrapped like a... Yeah. Like a burrito. Yeah. Yeah. That's why the beard's there to cover up all the extra... Yeah. All the seams are. All right. Two more. Which of the following did not happen in this season of Star Trek Discovery? Tilly got haunted by a ghost. A baby head gets thrown in lava. Burnham tries to kill Saru.

[00:16:26] Spock is wanted for murder. Or a mushroom trip brings someone back to life. Um, C. C. Burnham tries to kill Saru. She did try to kill Saru. But actually, this was a trick question. All those happened this season of Star Trek Discovery. I was... Yeah. I mean, it wasn't an obvious... I figured... I knew that the baby head must be... Must have happened. It's too specific. I would never think of that myself, right? Yeah. Yeah. But I do want to ask you, which of the crew members do you think died in season one and was brought back to life on the mushroom road this season?

[00:16:57] Um... Tilly. There were kind of hints this episode. Not Tilly, no. Okay. It was Stamets' boyfriend... Colbert. Dr. Colbert. Hugh. That was... Which one is he? He's the very good-looking doctor. The one in white, Winston Cruz, the really, really good-looking doctor who they have the awkward conversation about what's happening after. Yes. Well... Okay. One of them's an engineer, but he could have a doctorate. That's true. Oh, but they're... But it's the gay relationship. It's the gay relationship, yeah. Oh, okay.

[00:17:26] Yeah, he came back to life. That's... We'll get to it, but that's where I wrote it. Oh! It's one of them woke shows. Well, yes, that is also a complaint. I heard that they are going to go broke if they do that. After seven years of TV. I mean, they canceled it, right? I mean, it's not on the air anymore, so probably... Right. That's probably why. Well, speaking of people who complain about woke, let's talk about distant dads now.

[00:17:53] What do you think Sarek did that he needs to apologize for in this episode to Spock and Michael? Oh, you mean Beach Vulcan? I didn't know it was Sarek until very late. I just knew him as Beach Vulcan from the first scene. Yeah, Beach Vulcan, yeah. All right. So which of these was he apologizing for? Telling too many dad puns, making them smoke a whole pack of Jumja sticks after he caught them having just one. I don't know what Jumja... Do you smoke them? I don't know. It's a food. I haven't gotten that far into DS9 yet. Okay.

[00:18:22] Telling them they need to respect the authorities and turning them over to section 31, or pulling your elaborate traumatizing pranks on them to teach them simple lessons like, that's why you always leave a note. This one's C. That's C, yeah. Yeah. Easy on me there. Also, he was kind of just a distant asshole dad, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. I was surprised to learn that it was Sarek. I was surprised to learn that Spock... Again, like I said, I forgot that Spock and Pike were going to be there, and I was surprised that Spock had a beard.

[00:18:52] How long until they said the name Spock, until you realized that character was Spock? I heard him speak... As soon as I heard him... He might have even spoken off screen or something. Early on, I heard his voice, and I said, oh, there he is. Oh, I guess you'd recognize him from Strange New Worlds. But with a beard, I mean, yeah, instantly. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm excited to hear more of your thoughts on this episode. It's a Riker beard, so I called him Spocker. I'll give you all my...

[00:19:18] Since I don't know anybody's name, I will just refer to them as the, you know, like old blue eye. That's one of them. Okay. The one with the blue eye. One blue eye? Oh, yeah, yeah. And the side shave. She reminds me of the Queen Marjorie from Game of Thrones. Oh. She does, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to speak for the whole podcast, but she's my second favorite pilot. Nice.

[00:19:46] And she's in love with The Navigator. Oh, whoa. So you have seen Strange New Worlds. So you know that when Amanda is carrying this bowl up to Spock, that that bowl has got to be so freaking hot because she doesn't even need gloves for a teapot that's been recently heated, but she's using gloves here. Nice little detail that is technically not connected because it happened earlier. But, you know, that's how my brain works. I didn't notice this.

[00:20:16] We are an open Pike Night podcast. Yes. So that's the type of detail we're looking for. I mean, we do have to address this episode has more open Pike Night or has more Strange New Worlds characters than any other Discovery episode, I think. With the possible exception of the next episode. But yes. Yeah. Is Amanda in the next episode? I don't think so. At that point. There we go. I don't think she is. Yeah. But, so I have to ask, like, did you guys believe the first time you saw this, Rob,

[00:20:46] for you yesterday, that they were going to destroy the Discovery? No, because by that point I knew that there was a season three and I was like, well, they're not going to destroy the namesake. Gotcha. Yeah, I figured it wasn't. Even I figured they wouldn't destroy the titular ship. Because Michael is really trying to convince us in her log. Yeah. Yeah. This is it. No, for real. The whole opening. It was a little bit of like, hey, remember that thing we set up at the end of last episode? We're going to spend the first 10 minutes telling you why we're not going to do it this

[00:21:16] episode. I was trying to figure out which ship they were on and which one they were blowing up. It took me a second to find my bearings there. I forgot how big Discovery is. It's pretty huge. You put the Enterprise next to it, it's like, oh, goddamn, that's right. This ship is huge. And it's like probably the same amount of living space. It's just wide and flat and bitchingly cool. Yeah. And doing an unnecessarily little flipper runo around the Enterprise. Detmer's just showing off when she's setting him up for docking. Oh, yeah.

[00:21:45] She's like, look, I can do this within four meters. It's fine. I was surprised by the extending hallway connecting ship connectors. So that was a surprising way to get people from one to the other. Yeah. I'm not stepping foot on one of those. That's the space version of like the rickety jungle bridge. I am not going on that. Just you're walking on shield. Yeah. And that's got to be easily a five minute walk. I mean, that's not a three steps from between airlocks. Like you are out there for a while. A long while.

[00:22:15] And you mentioned five minutes maybe because that's in your head because there's a point where they say section 31 will be here in five minutes. We've got to get back on the Discovery and get out of here. The whole montage of them getting off Discovery was five minutes. Like they are not getting back there and getting that thing started back up within five minutes. As you say, John, it takes that long to get across the bridge. Are they not transporting at this point? I guess there's too many people maybe. I don't know. Did I see any transporting in this episode? They mentioned it.

[00:22:43] They said transporters were going to go offline in three minutes. Tillys. Tillys friend comes in on a transporter. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So speaking of Tilly's friend, right? Oh, yeah. The queen. Yes. Let's approach this. Okay. I love the character, right? Like I love Poe. She's great. I want to read Poe and Tilly fanfic 100%.

[00:23:08] But is she the single most deus ex machina character outside of Q maybe like in Star Trek history? Because there's a good chance you've never met her if you didn't watch every short trek. And then she shows up and is like, I actually have half of the solutions that you're looking for right here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could say that except for the fact that they address the fact that Pike just has faith in the deus ex michelna of what's going to happen. Yeah. And what happens? Another signal shows up.

[00:23:38] Like, it's going to be a competition for this episode who is more. They do. I guess they do address it. Yeah. And we've been with her and we know that, you know, she's working on this plan and that she's trying to do this thing. But with Poe, it's like, oh, we just happened to jump to Poe's planet and she has the thing, which, again, obviously, I know is part of the story structure.

[00:24:04] But, like, coming in cold like that, even though they put her in the previously on, I remember the first time I watched this, I hadn't seen the short treks. And I was like, did I seriously miss an entire episode of this season? I had to stop and go back. It really dates this episode and it's like, oh, that's right. This came out when Marvel was at its peak and they expected people to be okay with having to do homework to enjoy a show for it. These short treks, I've heard this term short treks.

[00:24:33] Was this on, like, CISO? Was this on Quibi? No, it's on Paramount. Just on Paramount. Hey, they definitely are Quibis, but they're on Paramount and they're actually pretty fucking good. They're not webisodes? No, they are very good. Yeah, they were a series that just came out. But they should not be required viewing for the season or even the series finale. Yeah, this is not the last time they will rely on a short trek to wrap something up in the series. How many short treks are there, roughly? Like nine? And they're short? And they're, what, 15, 20 minutes?

[00:25:04] Eh, less than that, I think. And to your point, they were not originally on Paramount+. They were on CBS All Access. CBS All Access. Which is the best streaming service name ever. Well, it's no CISO. See something, say so too. But I mean, even if you're going to use, like, it would be one thing just to use her. And then, I mean, one, they kind of, the way they deal with her, they are obviously referencing something. So I think their writing was a little rough there. But it would be one thing to just kind of include her, because Tilly does explain who she is.

[00:25:33] But to put her in the previously on, as if, like you, I had to stop this episode and do some research before I get finished watching the episode. That's probably smart of them to do so that they don't, like, aren't you glad that you saw it in the previously episode so that you could go do a little research before you actually watch the episode? Wouldn't you be more thrown by this character you've never heard of? You know, I... Just use her in a way that it would work either way. I bet we do have some thoughts on this from one of our callers. I bet. So why don't we go ahead and hear from one of them.

[00:26:02] Oh, you have callers on this podcast? Yeah. Why don't you guys never told me anything about this podcast? I could have been calling this whole time, but... We've told you to call, Rob. But you've never told me I don't have a phone. Or a television. I don't have a television. Yeah, it's here for one of our biggest fans and great patrons. Here is Mark. Hi, OpenPike Night Engineer Mark here. I know Mark. And yes, beginning and the end really does call this episode.

[00:26:30] I've floated the idea before now that these last episodes are so rushed in making a major turn in the direction of the series, and I fully think we're seeing it here. It gets so very busy. This is a high drama episode. Enterprise is back, and we do this elaborate crew transfer sequence between the two ships, and it's very impressive to see. And even though the difference is very subtle for Una,

[00:26:57] it's still really jarring for me to see this version from the one we see on Strange New Worlds. I don't quite know why. And then we get the, well, shiplash. Nice. The big plan doesn't work. And they immediately pivot to, we're going to make a bigger sacrifice and take the whole ship to where a mom is. Well, yeah. And everybody saying goodbye is very touching. Well, and Burnham and Tyler, that whole saying goodbye,

[00:27:25] it just seemed kind of off somehow. I don't know how to put it. Big rush at the end? I don't know. And then we have Leland and the Unborg and his fleet shows, and ta-da, we get to wait for next week. Okay, on a song choice, the closest I can get to something here is No Way Back by the Foo Fighters, as for as much as we can science the hell out of things on Star Trek, it's this one still looking like a one-way trip. And that's all for me.

[00:27:54] Until next time, live long and prosper. Excellent points all the way through, Engineer Mark. I think the Una thing, if I had to guess, her hair is very different. It's similar, but it's different enough. And that black collar on the Enterprise uniforms does not do her any favors. It really changes the whole shape of her head. And it's almost uncanny valley kind of thing. Did they CGI this Una in here?

[00:28:24] Yeah. But I do, I really love the term shiplash. Thank you for that. That was very well done. And as far as the pacing goes, I don't disagree with you at all, but there is something that I have brought up more than once this season, which is Discovery is definitely better if you watch it as a binge, rather than like waiting weeks between episodes. And I think the place that that's most true is the finale. Like, to me, this episode or the next episode,

[00:28:52] both actually feel like half an episode, which is not always the case with Star Trek two-parters. A lot of times it feels like they wrote a cliffhanger and then scrambled to figure out how to solve that. Whereas this is an entire story that they cut in half, like just straight down the middle, which I, you know, full disclosure, I immediately watched the second part after this. And I was like, well, now I got to watch the first episode of season three. So like I was up too late last night, but I totally hear where you're coming from.

[00:29:22] Well, now I get to decide if I want to watch part two or start from the beginning of the series. Thank you for putting me in that position. But I think I will begin this series. Like I said, I'm kind of hooked on it. We'll see. But yeah, part two, I think I'll probably have to end up watching part two, so I know what happens. And then go back. I think that's a good litmus test. Like if this is where you're coming in and you're like, I would like to know how that resolves. I think that is a good sign. And it wasn't such a cliffhanger

[00:29:50] that I had to stay up late, but it was solid enough. It wasn't like, yeah. Of course, I didn't have anybody I was tied to, so I wasn't on the hook for emotionally worrying about anybody. Yeah. What do you think, Cameron? Oh, shit. Cameron did just... Yeah, it was just... I mean, it's... I agree. The uniform, the collars,

[00:30:19] that's what it is. She's also a little more made up. Yeah. Not Betty Page style, but definitely pinup style more so than she is in... They tried to make her look 50s or 60s era. And they don't do that in Strange New Worlds. Yeah. So... Oh, yes. Una. Okay. I forgot her name. Also, she doesn't even have... She's not even named Una in this. Like, they hadn't even given her her name yet, so...

[00:30:48] Is she in a significant amount of Discovery, or is this an episode? She's in a short trek. She's in... The first episode of the season? I felt like when she arrived in this episode that it was maybe not common. Yeah, I think this was her second or maybe third appearance. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. But I could not remember her name from Strange New Worlds because it's been a while since I watched it. Yeah. They had not decided on her name. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go ahead and hear from another caller then.

[00:31:18] Here is Katie. Hey. Hi. It's Katie. Why aren't all Discovery episodes like this? They're gearing up for war, and yet I spent so much of this episode laughing. Starting out with how emotional I got at everyone's goodbyes. Gosh, there were just so many goodbyes in this episode, but I'm so very glad that they got the chance to say them. Amanda and Sarek showing up was beautiful and perfect, and the hug with Sarek included? Oh, my heart.

[00:31:46] I think I could spend an hour on Georgiou alone, but some specific moments that I loved, her distaste for the orange when she walked onto Enterprise's bridge, better him than me or you. Aw, look at her care. That moment in the briefing where she goes, I thought there were no bad ideas, and Pike says, that's a lie, and Kat immediately goes, that's a bad one. Oh, man, I laughed. So hard. And admitting to Pike that she's Taryn, and his wink. Oh, no, really, I'm pretty sure I could go on for hours

[00:32:15] about just that moment. Special mentions for Poe and Tilly being just the cutest. By the way, did Poe get off the ship? And for Reno just being a boss all the way through. And finally, just taking a moment to celebrate the fact that Kat was there! Kat was commanding the Enterprise! And Uno was piloting! Oh! Look, I love Ortega's as much as the next gal, but I really do want to see Uno back in that pilot seat. Just, oh, it made me so happy!

[00:32:44] Anyways, that's all I got. Okay, thanks. Bye. She's correct. A lot of goodbyes. Yeah. I was like, I assume every episode is just mostly goodbyes. Yes, it's a revolving door. No, I am glad that both Katie and Mark brought up the goodbyes because, like, I don't know, are they too earnest for current TV? I don't know. Like, they're not too earnest for me. They really, really work for me.

[00:33:13] And I think part of it is because we've come to expect high emotion from these characters, and we get it. But here, a lot of them are played in kind of an understated way. Like, Pike saying to Spock, there aren't words? I was like, oh, damn. Like, he is going to miss Spock so much. Which, especially after, spoiler alert, Rob, he spent so much of this season trying to find Spock, and now he has to let go of him again.

[00:33:42] It was, I love that scene. And then, maybe surprisingly, the one that didn't work as well for me was when Pike says, eyes up for Commander Burnham. And then everybody looks at her and she gives her speech. I was like, this is what we expect from Michael's character. I'm not, like, super torn up about this. But when Pike goes to leave and everybody stands at attention for him, I was like, oh, my God, I love Pike so much.

[00:34:11] Please don't leave them behind. They need you. Yeah. That's got to be one of your questions, right, Rob? It's like, wait a minute. I've seen Strange New Worlds. I know who's on Strange New Worlds. Spock is. Yeah, that's kind of a little bit of a, I mean, now I'm just, I don't mind a spoiler like that, you know, because I'm like, well, how do they get to that point? I'm always more interested in the, like, how is this going to work out? Where's Bob? Honestly, it's been so long since I've seen the next episode. I can't even remember how they get to that point. And the goodbyes are interesting because they're not, it's one thing when they're, you know,

[00:34:41] they're going to fly into battle and die or whatever. It's another thing when they're just, like, going elsewhere. They're going to survive. They're just going to be somewhere else. It's a nice, you know, it's a different kind of a theme, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice thing. It's a nice moment in all of Discovery. Like, the delivery of those, of that little conversation and just how disappointed she looks

[00:35:11] afterward. Just like, oh, fine. Yeah, I think it's, to me, like, the ensemble there works really well because everybody's playing to their strengths, right? Yes. Saru is like, excuse me? What about all these lives? And she's very much like, yes, and. Like, this would not be her first genocide rodeo, right? And she's fine with everybody knowing that.

[00:35:36] And then to have both Pike and Cornwell come down on her is like, this is probably why folks were upset that the show wasn't more oriented around an ensemble more frequently, right? Yeah. Because you get to have moments like this and they do. They work really well. Yeah. As Dr. Ian Malcolm once said, this is the worst idea in a long, sad history of bad ideas. Yeah. Don't, don't create a supernova. Don't do that. Come on.

[00:36:02] I think I remember when I learned about Michelle Yeoh committing to an agenda side that some people were like, how are we supposed to forgive her for that? And I don't know if they make that easy, like, if that's just something that we just accept. How does the crew and cast, you know, how does the crew just roll on that? So that's mostly, it's mostly handled in a different season. Yeah. So I'll, I'll give you that much, but it's like, there are people that are never okay with Georgiou, like in the fandom and on the show. Right.

[00:36:32] So I think that it, they do a good job of like, kind of not playing both sides, but like giving you semi-realistic versions of how people would feel about that character. Yeah. But yeah, she's, and Katie is right. Like she does not want her mirror daughter to go off to temporal college and she's like, can't figure out how to voice that without sounding sappy. So she's just like, here are the rules. You cannot leave. Michael's like.

[00:37:01] Well, and we get all three of Michael's moms in this episode. I mean, yes, it's only a clip of Gabby, but at least it's a really helpful clip. It was her YouTube tutorial era, apparently. Yeah. Well, when you're the only person left in the galaxy. I'm here in 90 years in the future. Like and subscribe. Smash that like button. I love that her log is like, Michael's like, well, I can learn how to do this from her logs.

[00:37:29] And then her next log is like, okay, so this is a basic Iron Man systems display combined with a minority report tactile interface. It shouldn't be hard for you. Like, and Michael apparently is good enough with that because she leaves in the middle of that tutorial. Yeah. She doesn't even finish. She's like, oh, okay, whatever. I was having the impression that was the fifth or sixth time she'd watched it. And it has to have been because her confidence level is quite high. That's right. Yeah.

[00:37:55] I didn't realize, you know, I figured out that Sarek and Sarah's right. Amanda. Are, does this make Burnham and Spock like half siblings? Yes. Yes. I did not realize that. That's interesting. Well, Michael was adopted. Right. What kind of, whatever siblings that makes them. But yeah, I didn't realize that. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. There's actually in the first episode of Strange New Worlds, which takes place after

[00:38:21] the next episode of Discovery, there is a scene where I think right when they get to the bridge, Pike says, how are you holding up Spock? And he goes, oh, you know, I'm good. And then I think the phrase is, although I confess each time I return to space, I feel the loss of my sister growing. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's kind of a throwaway line. Like you don't have to then go back and watch Discovery, but you could because you're like, what is he talking about?

[00:38:51] Yeah. Watching Strange New Worlds, I didn't catch that. Yeah. Or at least watch these two episodes. Right. Yeah. This and the next one. Because that first episode is heavily based on what happens in the next episode. Yeah. Like that's the whole inciting incident for that. Like, hey, we have a warp bomb. You know, we got this. How did they get this technology without developing a warp drive first? Like, oh, yeah. Because they see what is about to happen. The spore drive. People don't like the spore drive either. That's what I think. Yes. Yeah.

[00:39:21] They don't like it. Spore drive is very contentious. Well, and I think it's contentious because, I mean, among other things, it's because it feels more advanced than what we get later in Star Trek. Right? Like they don't have a spore drive in TNG. Right. They don't have that in Voyager and that's kind of their whole problem. But kind of what I like, one of the things I like about this episode is that the queen,

[00:39:47] Poe, is like the reason that warp drive is better in TNG than it was in TOS. Right? She invented the reconstituting of the crystals. And it's like a subtle little thing. Like if you've seen TNG, you'll go, oh, that's that thing. And if you haven't, you're like, okay, you know, space stuff. Lots. Lots of other Trek references in this single episode. Probably more Trek references. Like they're putting the building blocks in place to be like, okay, here's how we get

[00:40:17] to Kirk from where Discovery is. You know, the no more holographic communications on the Enterprise. And there never will be. I mean, he might as well have looked at the camera when he said that. Yeah. And, you know, that, the, what mirror universe winked? Like, okay, so like, okay, mirror universe is not addressed so that Kirk doesn't know about it when he discovers the mirror universe in Mirror Mirror.

[00:40:42] You know, they're moving, trying to dovetail as nicely as possible with what people expected. Because I think, you know, they wanted to try a lot of new stuff with Discovery. But I don't think they, I don't know why they didn't anticipate the fans being like, Right. What about the fact that we know what happens next? Yeah. And I'll say though that I think Discovery does the, like, okay, we'll fix some of your

[00:41:12] complaints a little more elegantly than say, I don't know, Star Wars did with its most recent trilogy of movies. Like, Discovery has a much more deft hand. But to your point, John, there are moments where you're like, they're talking to me directly or they're talking to the audience directly. There was a lot of that in this episode. And there's some in the next episode as well. Oh, yeah. But yeah, I think that that's a good point. You know, a lot of people were like, what does it look so much better?

[00:41:41] And I'm like, because that show was made in the 60s and this show was made in the mid-2010s. Yeah. Yeah. Like, this show clearly has a shitload of money to throw at production. And they did not back when Desilu was producing it. So, relax. So, this is a Star Wars podcast. Now, let's just go into the Star Wars problems for a bit. Oh, man. I haven't seen Andor. Don't say anything. I need to start on season two of Andor for sure. Oh, yeah.

[00:42:09] Let's go ahead and hear from Melanie. Hi, guys. This is Melanie, your Anson Mount and Pike fan. So, we're almost at the end of the second season. I admit, there were episodes I haven't watched that often. It was fun watching it again with you, though. Anyway, seeing how they try to destroy Discovery is brutal in its own way. I'm glad there is another way to fight Control and that the time crystal will find its purpose after all.

[00:42:38] I love the way Pike talks to Michael. And he seems so strong, but it must have hurt him so much to be about to destroy Disco. I just had a thought. Well, maybe Zahir and Poe can help Chris in the future after the accident. I'm still hoping. And isn't it adorable how he stands there and watches Tilly and Poe saying hello? That short track of Poe and Tilly was fun. I love the scene. And I admit, I love Poe. I really dig her eyes. Did you see the movement of the pupil? Awesome.

[00:43:07] So, it's an episode of goodbyes. And Chris is back in the Enterprise uniform. He just looks good in yellow. But the fastening around the neck must have been very uncomfortable. Thank you. And before he leaves, he appoints a new captain. There's a funny blooper on there. You know what I mean. When he appoints Octopus Head as captain? Oh, I love how he can't say anything to Spock when he says his goodbyes. Then George who tells him she's Terran. Did you see his reaction? Of course you did. I loved it. And he knew. Talking about the Pike movie.

[00:43:36] Well, guys, that be it. If someone could pull it off, it's a strange New World's cast. So, I guess that's it for today. Live long and prosper. So, Melanie brought up the time crystal. Yeah. We got a lot of weight put on the time crystal in the last episode. In this episode, people are just seeing the future all over the damn place. Yeah, I did kind of. When I learned of a time crystal, I did roll my eyes a little bit. I'm like, oh, no. Thank you, Rob. No, no, no, no. Rob, let me ask you a question.

[00:44:03] If they had called it a flux capacitor, would you have a problem with it? You know what I mean? Yes, because they'd be stealing from Back to the Future. My point, Cameron, is that it's the same thing. Like, my issue was less about it being called a time crystal and more about like, oh, no. I know that time travel is huge in Star Trek, obviously. But it is not always my favorite thing about Star Trek. I did think it was funny when she touched the first time she touches the crystal. And I wrote down, oh, no. Now Sauron knows where you are.

[00:44:33] I thought, yeah. I was wondering why the time crystals always, they show you the most dramatic thing in your life. They never show you like you sitting on the toilet reading the newspaper or something. Like that part of your future. Well, they might. And we just don't see it in the edit. They're actually there for like their entire life watching this. Yeah. They're just showing us the good bits. It's mostly that. It's mostly just times you were, well, masturbating. Let's say it. It's just like a montage of that.

[00:45:03] Like, oh, no. Just to watch myself in my darkest hours. I used to, you know, I used to be like, huh, I wonder if I jumped forward exactly 20 years from now, like what would I be looking at? What would I see? You know, just kind of wondering what my life would be like in the future. And I'm realizing I'm kind of at the age about 20 years from when I started asking myself those questions and wondering what younger me would have thought looking at just random things. Like, this is my backyard, me. What do you think?

[00:45:30] Or like, here's me on a series of remote video calls talking about a TV show that I finally watched. This is called a podcast. What? Huh? They were just invented in your time. Who are these little people interrupting my- Start doing them now. Now when you're 20. Right. Oh, my gosh. Can you imagine how much money you would have? Oh, yeah. But yeah, we did, we mentioned, we got another mention from Melanie of the goodbyes.

[00:45:59] And I still think the crew saying goodbye to Pike was the most effective one for me. But the goodbye between Burnham, Amanda, and Sarek I think was really good because Sarek's eyes are full of tears. Like, he doesn't drop any tears down his face, but his eyes are definitely wet. And that's as emotional as he will get until TNG.

[00:46:22] Like, that's more emotion than he ever has in TOS or any of the movies, except maybe Search for Spock you could probably argue for. But I think this is a great moment for them. And I think it's one of the strengths of James Frane, who's playing Sarek. Like, he can do muted emotion without it coming across as robotic. I think it's a great scene. Yeah. And as we've said before, it's so nice that they said, you know what?

[00:46:52] We're going to go with Amanda for Strange New Worlds. Sarek's there. But Sarek has had his time in the spotlight. Let's focus on Mom for a little while. Agree. Yeah. Melanie also mentioned Georgiou's goodbye to Pike. And I bumped on, does Pike know? Like, it was a weird moment, I thought. Yeah, he winked. Yeah. She told him, I'm from the Mirror Universe. What Mirror Universe and winked, which we were just talking about a little while ago, is a wink to the audience.

[00:47:18] Like, yes, we're not mentioning the Mirror Universe to anybody else, including James T. Kirk, so that when Mirror Mirror happens, he can be surprised. Okay, yes, I was gone for 20 minutes looking for a kitten, so I may repeat some notes. And then the other goodbye. We haven't found it yet. Oh, no? But no, everyone else stopped looking. I was like, well, I'm not going to be the only one looking. I'm sleeping in a corner. That's what kittens do. It's not my kitten.

[00:47:44] We have had a couple people mention the Tyler and Michael goodbye, which, yes, was terrible because Tyler got kissed, and we never want to see that. But it wasn't a terrible kiss, though. I think what we could have done to improve that scene is after she breaks off from the kiss, Michael looks Tyler dead in the eye, and she says, My next boyfriend is going to be a thousand years better than you were. I'm so sorry.

[00:48:12] How does Pike know about the Terrans in the Mirror Universe? Am I forgetting a moment from this season? Because he took over from Lorca. So he got briefed on Lorca. So he read everything. Okay, yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure. So he knew he was. Okay. So he got that classified information. As far as I know, yeah. Okay. It was a weird moment. He got called in to clean up the mess. Don't spoil it for Rob, Kim. Okay. That's right. Yeah.

[00:48:35] He got called in to clean up the mess after Lorca, and I'm pretty sure it was like, okay, so that's a thing. Got it. And not heavily focused on. Okay. Okay. Maybe. Yeah. All right. That was probably the most confusing part for me. I mean, I was like, oh, well, something's happening here that I'm sure this is important. It was. I still think it was kind of a weird. Because she says it with such snark, and you're like, Georgiou, why do you care? Like, you don't know he knows or not. I don't know.

[00:49:07] Cameron, shining people on is 40% of Georgiou's personality. But she's good at it, and that wasn't a good moment. That's what I'm saying. Okay. So the goodbyes. Have we talked about the crew choosing to stay? No. Not really. We talked about the goodbyes happening, but I don't think we talked about them saying, no, we're not leaving. I really liked this episode. I remembered liking the end of this season, despite some bumps along the way. And this episode, I'm like, oh yeah, this was right. It feels like we're getting up to something. It feels like we're setting up for something good. Lots of good emotional stuff.

[00:49:36] I don't know why the crew stays. The whole time I was watching when Michael's like, hey, oh boy, I get a self-sacrifice again. This is awesome. And I was like, oh yeah. But then I know that the crew has to stay. So something must happen in the battle where they need to man the discoverer. Nope. They all just decide to sacrifice themselves. Scooby-doo. It's almost as if some of this cast had contracts for another season and some didn't. I mean, I'll tell you my excuse for not knowing anything is just that I can imagine this.

[00:50:07] They all love each other. We know this because I heard them say it. They say it. This is their family. I imagine they don't have, maybe they don't have much else going on outside of this. So this is the people they miss the most. So they all want to sit together. But then they proceed to show them all calling their families. A great, beautiful montage of them doing that. I don't know.

[00:50:26] And the one person, the one person who doesn't have anything going on, who is legally dead because of all of his clandestine stuff, the one with no reason to stay and every reason to go, obviously didn't have a contract for another season because Ash Tyler decides to stay. It's like, wait, what? Why are you running into his arms, Michael? He has, he's the one person you should expect to come with you. And he's like, eh, I got some stuff to clean up here.

[00:50:50] Well, don't tell my brother this, but if it came down to like, oh, I can either go on, go away with the 13 people I love the most or stick around with my brother. Sure. It just felt like they got the contracts at the end and were like, okay, so we need these people to stay. We'll just say they stay. I would, I would say that Michael has history with all of these people, like life-saving level history with 90% of these people. Two years. Sure. So, right.

[00:51:20] But like how much time is needed if this person has also repeatedly saved your life? Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like it fits. But there is, what are the, okay, we're going to come keep you company, Michael. Like, what are they doing it for? They don't need to. Her mom is there. Her and her mom are going to figure out how to come back in time. They know that. They know that's what would happen otherwise. Like. The actual answer is in the next episode. Maybe.

[00:51:48] I mean, I just wanted to see him with Saru being like, look, yes, this plan might work, but if I stay, it has a 5% more chance of working. And then someone else steps forward and Saru's like, 8% chance. And then someone else steps forward, 11% chance. That I could buy. That would be great. Here's a question. If the TNG crew were in a similar situation and say Data was like, I am the logical choice to go into the future by myself to save all of you.

[00:52:18] Do you really believe that none of the rest of the crew would say, you know what, Data? We're going with you. That's time's error. You just described time's error except he said future instead of past. I don't know why Cameron just won't accept my answer that the crew is better than their families. Well, and the crew is a kind of a family. Under the impression. I mean, you're under the impression, Cameron, that they have some huge amount of people back home that they need to like that they care about. What if they don't? Stamish just talked about he wants to get off the ship.

[00:52:47] Everyone's talking about the things they plan to do. I don't know. Again, if it helps the mission, I buy it. If it's just to keep Michael company, if it's just to keep one person company, I don't know. Well, it does help the mission because she explains the plan. And they're I mean, it's kind of like to your point, it might be that it might be the mission. Right. They should say it. Yeah. I thought you wanted to be shown and not told. That's fine.

[00:53:16] Also, they should show Michael calling Cybok in that in that montage and being like, nobody ever liked you. Eat a dick. And, you know, it's like she said goodbye to every other member of her family except Cybok. Like harsh, man. Even Spock at least doing it. Yeah. Because I buy that she has it doesn't know him. She's probably never lived with him. Yeah. This does lead me to a question that I put in my notes for you guys, though. All right, boys. We're going to the future.

[00:53:43] Peter, you have time to record one personal message. Who are you sending it to? You, Jesse. I knew it. My wife? Why is that a question? Why did you say that with a question mark? Well, I mean, like, if it's now, then I'm probably not going to send it to my kids. Because his mom listens to this podcast, too. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Who's most likely to listen to this podcast right now? Engineer Mark.

[00:54:14] I'm sending it to Engineer Mark. I didn't say you could only address one person, but you can only send this to one person. Okay. So my wife with messages to my kids. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. John. Sorry, Mom. Ooh. Hmm. This is an unfair question. That's what makes it good. Well, the answer is obvious. You record it like Cameron. You record yourself and then you send it to Cameron and have him publish it as a podcast. Right. There you go. That's right. You have a message for everybody, for the world, and then you have Cameron upload it. Yeah.

[00:54:44] Send it to my girlfriend. 150 listeners of that message. Yeah. You know, hopefully word will get back to the five people that I talk about in that message. Yeah. I'll send it to my girlfriend, but I'll probably just end up talking about the dogs for a few minutes. I think I would send it to my child and speak to her about the rest of the people that I care about. Right. And then tie it all back to her at the end. Because you're right.

[00:55:14] If it's only one person, you're screwed. Because whoever you don't pick is going to be like, really? You went to the future and you didn't even say goodbye? You didn't even leave a note? Your daughter's going to be playing on her iPad. There's going to be a little notification that plops up in front of her game saying, Daddy. And she's going to hit that trash can and be like, no. Sorry. I got to navigate Bluey to her bedroom. Yep. Bluey, the video game, is a really good video game. Wait, Bluey's a girl? Yes. They're both girls. Bluey and Bingo. Yeah. Fine. I'll send it to my son.

[00:55:44] Great. Okay. My kid. Fine. Well, you know who I would also like to hear a personal message from, John? One of our open Pike Night callers. Well, here we go. Here's another great fan and supporter. Here is Steve. The android at the bar told me you could show me my ship, the Enterprise. There have been five ships with that designation. Please specify. Enterprise. 1701.

[00:56:14] No bloody A, B, C, or D. Ah, oh. Oh, what fresh hell is this? Did you hear the door sounds? That may have been Scotty's reaction if he had stepped on to this version of the Enterprise's bridge. But it was not mine, and hopefully not our collective reaction, because that bridge looks beautiful, and I'm glad we got to see it.

[00:56:38] I'm pretty sure how it looked, aside from how Anson Mount looks and how Rebecca Romijn looks, that was part of the reason why the Strange New Worlds that we have come to know and love so much was greenlit. This entire season has been the reason why Strange New Worlds was greenlit, but we got to give some credit to the set designers of this particular bridge, because that's why we have the show that we love.

[00:57:06] And that's why we have this podcast that we love, because if that didn't exist, we wouldn't have the boys talking about it every week and allowing us to call in. Oh, no. I'm running out of time. Such sweet sorrow that I'm running out of time to talk about it. Oh, there's part two. Stay tuned for part two. Thank you, Steve. And I have to say, we keep hearing repeatedly that there were no plans for a Pike-centered, Enterprise-based series during this show while it was airing.

[00:57:35] It took a massive campaign from fans to get it. And how short-sighted is that? He's right. This bridge is gorgeous. It is so well done as far as looking retro, but updated for modern sensibilities. It's clean. The lines are perfect. Like, all the consoles are beautiful. It's a good mix of analog and digital. Like, this is an amazing set.

[00:58:02] And I can't believe that in their heads they were like, yeah, we'll use it for three episodes. That's enough. That's fine. Tear it down. Yeah. Yeah. What are you doing? We've got to get some set designers on Open Pike Night. We've got to talk to some of them. We do. We'll have to ask somebody. Yeah. So the thing I wanted to mention is I noticed that I get invited on a podcast shortly after, like, you know, you had your Frakes interview. And I'm glad that that allowed you the confidence to invite me on. The latter. That's right.

[00:58:29] The last time this happened was my friend John's horror movie podcast where they talked to Patton Oswalt and Jordan Bloom. And then a couple episodes later, I got to talk about Texas Chainsaw. Only one man can outdo them. That's right. It's funny you should say that, Rob, because we're trying to get Patton Oswalt, who is in season three of Strange New Worlds. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. Being a Strange New Worlds podcast, it was like coming home, getting onto the Enterprise. It was very nice getting on there. It does look different.

[00:58:59] Is it just the lighting? Did they change the colors? Because at first I was like, orange? It's not orange, is it? And then I had to pull up images. I was like, oh, I guess it is orange, but the lighting's different. I feel like the lighting is different. And I think the color is more muted in Strange New Worlds. Yeah. It's not as bright. It didn't pop as much as in here. Well, like in the hallways in this? Someone made a comment in this episode, right? So is that why? They're like, shit, maybe we do need to tone down the orange. People are starting to comment. I'm not.

[00:59:26] Also, obviously, 80% of this bridge is going to be covered in blood of all the crew members on it who die during the next battle because besides Una, there's nobody that we recognize on the bridge. Yeah, I know. The bullet catchers manning the rest of the bridge are there just ready. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to have to do some cleaning up. It does lead me to wonder if there'd be total outrage if they did reshoot like a shot-by-shot

[00:59:52] remake of a TOS episode in this new, you know, in the new look, if that would just like, it'd be a fun experiment. Did you like the season finale of season one of Strange New Worlds, Rob? Yes. Because that's what that was, essentially. Like, if you go back to TOS and watch Balance of Terror, it's the same episode except Pike is not in the TOS version. Oh, yeah. What if Pike had kept the command? Yeah. Yeah. Which is interesting.

[01:00:21] Speaking of Pike, I do like when, you know, the whole crew does stay for whatever reason to decide to stay with Michael and then she goes up to the bridge and she's like, so are you staying too, Captain? He's like, oh, fuck no. Yeah. I mean, I'm staying here in time, not with you, though. I'm going back over to the Enterprise. I've got a whole show to get to. I'm going to the cool ship, but thank you for asking. And then I think you guys had already talked about the goodbye with him, which was very moving. I agree when they all stood and said, you know, there's silence.

[01:00:50] Thank you, Captain Pike. And God, someone had just ripped a fart during that moment. I'm not one to enjoy fart humor, but that would have been a moment. Oh, bullshit. Just Linus over there is like, oh, you know. He's always got body stuff going on. He does. Well, and John, speaking of killing everybody on the bridge, like I know this is jumping backward a little bit, but is this the first time we've seen everyone in the main crew

[01:01:19] of a Star Trek show killed before the opening credits? When Michael's time tripping? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was intense. Oh, whoa. I got to say, she gives some really good dead head. Yeah. No. Face. Dead face. Let's say that. That sounds better. But I was like, wow, was that, that, that wasn't a double or just a dummy. That was an actor. It was intense.

[01:01:46] They were like, well, just in case we get canceled after season two, let's really end it. Oh, no. Back to this. Yeah. I'd like to mention, I just, I'm looking at my notes a little bit and I had kind of forgotten for a moment that Tig Notaro is in this series and I love Tig and I could use more Tig. She was, she came to this episode a little bit late and had a couple of good scenes. I could always use more Tig. Every episode without her, we're like, we wish she had been in this episode. Where's Tig? Yeah. Yeah. Big Tig fan. I'm a Tig head.

[01:02:16] It's fun to watch interviews with her about Star Trek. They'll be like, so you're this about your character. She's like, I don't know. Like, I was there for two days, four years ago. Like, I don't know. I did not read my backstory. Yeah. I'm not savvy about, this is not the kind of show she would watch or understand. No. Right. Right. Which is kind of cool because she still turns in an amazing performance every time she's on screen.

[01:02:42] Like, for her to just tell the crew like, oh, yeah, I can handle temporal madness and unbridled radiation leaks. Don't worry about it. And they all believably believe her is like, wow. Like, that takes some skill to pull that off. Like, this character. Does that come back next episode? What do you mean? I think so. Yeah. Because they make a big deal. Like, okay, she's going to be the one who sees the future. Yeah. Oh, well, to your point. Or was it just to show her as a badass?

[01:03:10] I think it was mostly that. But to your point, like, three people have now touched the same time crystal and have been only shown trauma? Yeah. Yeah. I do think, yeah. I think it's great. The casting of her is great. I think it's really funny. Having followed her stand-up career for many years to have her in this, I thought it was really funny and oddly effective when she replaced Chris Adelia in that zombie movie. Yeah. She re-shot that Zack Snyder. Who? I know. What was it? Zack Snyder. Yeah. Zack Snyder.

[01:03:40] Whatever that name of that dumb zombie heist. The army of the dead. She was the best part of it, too. Right. Right. It's funny. Which is funny because wasn't she entirely shot green screen and didn't actually watch anybody else? Are you telling me all three of you watched that movie? Mostly. No. Because, I mean, yeah. I just read trivia back because of the Chris Dealey. I wanted to see Tig and also I don't think it's an awful idea. I like a heist movie quite a bit. I love a heist movie. Zombie heist movie. I'm there for it. That's a great... I mean, the elevator pitch. I was in the heist movie. Okay.

[01:04:09] The elevator pitch there is like, that's got me. Yeah. 100%. Really cool. And I mean, it was at the height of COVID, so there wasn't much else to watch. Right. Right. That's Tiger King. Yeah. And I didn't watch that. Well, let's go ahead and hear from another caller. Here is Michy. Hi, guys. This is Michy and here are my thoughts. First of all, the Enterprise is back.

[01:04:35] I love the ship and Pike is finally back where he belongs, on his ship in his golden uniform. Anson was so good in this episode again. That scene in the transporter room with Tilly was so funny and his look said it all. And it also showed again what a great captain he is. I love George's first reaction to the Enterprise Bridge. She is such a great character.

[01:05:04] And her look of innocence after her idea to create a supernova was rejected was so funny. And Michael, she had a strange interpretation of the world immediately. I don't think when Pike asked her to come to the bridge immediately that he meant for her to take her time to talk to all of her friends and then make out with her ex-boyfriend on the way. But hey, what do I know?

[01:05:33] And of course, Michael couldn't resist the temptation of touching the time crystal. But that's so fitting for a character, I think. So finally, one question for you guys. Would you touch a time crystal if you had a chance to do so? Have a great day. Bye. Hell no. Not that time crystal because we know that it's just going to show the most dramatic, traumatic moments of your future. But a general time crystal? Maybe. It's a good question.

[01:06:03] We've seen Pike use a time crystal to actually travel and project through time. Yeah, I would touch one. I would touch it if I was putting it in my glove with the other five crystals that I've collected. Is it five? Is it six total on the Infinity Gauntlet? Five. Okay. Or is there one in the middle? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, anyway. The thumb doesn't have one. I couldn't remember which... I couldn't pull any other crystals from Avengers, but whatever. Well, I'm pretty sure the time stone is the green one, so... Yeah.

[01:06:31] Well, I like that there's a lot of scenes of Pike telling people to get places and being like, well, we can walk and talk. Especially at the beginning. Like, the whole ship is free. And he goes and finds Michael in her room or the ready room, wherever she's at. I don't know. It just felt like me getting everyone ready for a road trip or even just school in the morning and going up to my room and be like, kid, why are you not yet dressed? And you're playing on your game and you're asking me questions about random YouTubers? Look, we'll walk and talk. Come on. Get moving. Come on. Come on.

[01:06:59] I definitely related with Space Dad in that moment. The difference there, though, is that you don't have the answers to the YouTuber questions and you're not going to actually give them on the walk and talk. You're just going to do more deflecting, right? Well, maybe. Yes. I won't get into the questions. So many questions from a 10-year-old. It's a good point from Mishi because it's like a forbidden fruit allegory almost, right?

[01:07:24] Like, would you, knowing that if you touch this, what you see will happen, would you do it? Like, because it is incredibly tempting. Like, it works on your human curiosity and it, you know, is a little scary at the same time. I don't know if I have an actual answer. Like, I might do it. Just to see where somebody's carrying it, like, trips and somebody else catches it and is like, oh! And they just start hot potatoing it around and all getting traumatized in a matter of, like, 10 seconds.

[01:07:53] Cuts back and there's tears streaming from everybody's face. Somebody walks in like, Troy on Community and everything's on fire. They're like, what is happening? But, you know, I... It's like, when is Deanna Troy on Community? I think... No, Troy of Troy and Abed in the morning, Cameron. It's a dangerous name to say on a Star Trek podcast. I mean, it's fair, but we don't watch TNG here. That's not what we're about. Like when Bobby was trying to reference the biblical Genesis. And we're like, you can't use that word in Star Trek. That was good.

[01:08:23] I did really like you guys' coverage of Star Trek Nemesis. More than I expected to. Probably more than I like the movie itself. But, you know, I like that question. And I think the answer for me would probably eventually be yes. Because I'd be like, dude, I talk about time crystals all the time on my podcast. That's kind of my thing. Like, if I don't take this opportunity... You got to commit to the bit. Yeah, it's a huge loss for the brand. Like, I got to go for it.

[01:08:51] But wait, I mean, what we see here isn't going to take place, right? I mean, this is not a time crystal that's... The future's not written, right? We're not going to see all these people die. Or are we? I don't know. It's... Seems inaccurate. I don't see... I don't want to spoil anything. I don't want to see the torpedo in the hole. Yeah. I thought we'd see people die. Okay. So, let's put it this way. I hear the cat. They must have found the kitten. Just so everyone can be relaxed. Yeah.

[01:09:21] The time crystal can show you a future. Which we know, and you know, because you saw Pike use it in Strange New Worlds to view an alternate timeline. It's funny that I never questioned that while watching Strange New Worlds. And I'm like, I don't know where this is coming from. I assume... I didn't... I just kind of assumed it was some TOS bullshit. You know? Yeah. I knew that Pike was in a... You know, whatever. Right. Right. That's another reason it works for me.

[01:09:47] Like, the idea of having a thing called a time crystal that functions as a time crystal is because that's TOS level camp. And I'm fine with it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, one of the time travel questions I enjoy about this is... Right. So, they're seeing all the red signals. Now, I don't know how much Rob picked up. The red signals are Michael traveling to all these places to lead them to where they need to be to solve the problem. Which means, at some point, like, she had to learn to go to those places. So, in some timeline...

[01:10:16] In many timelines, this did not work out. And she kind of had to figure out. So, at some point, Tilly had to be like, oh, you know what? I just thought if I have a friend, Poe, she could have helped us out here. When you go back in time, could you make sure we go and lead her to her? Because I bet... Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There will be... That moment happened at some point in some timeline. Yes. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about time travel a lot in all of our podcasts. And this is the Bill and Ted version.

[01:10:43] I'm okay with it in Bill and Ted, where they're like, oh, don't forget to put a garbage can that falls on death or whatever. Like, that's fine as a joke. It's kind of another thing when it's serious. It's kind of... It's a little tricky for me.

[01:11:23] Well, it's... I'm so sorry. George O does so much in this series. Like, just Michael being so happy, so eager to sacrifice herself for the universe works because George O calls her out on it at one point. and it's it just adds to my like painful real disappointment with the section 31 movie like

[01:11:48] oh my god you had gold plated latinum and you threw it in the trash like come on now i just want to watch bill and ted well instead of doing that let's hear from another caller here is abby station hey hey open pike it's abby summer from the first flight podcast here to talk to you about such sweet sorrow part one this is definitely worth splitting into the two episodes i know they weren't supposed

[01:12:18] to originally but when you look at both parts an hour and 45 absolutely we needed this in two parts and i remember the week when this ended going wait what i have to wait a whole week to find out the rest of this but this episode stands on its own it pulls together a whole bunch of threads it lets us see all the breadcrumbs they've been dropping throughout the season and how they come together it really works well it also really amps up the tension and shows these relationships

[01:12:43] i like ash and michael's moment of saying goodbye it's very real and it's very honest and i think he was a good first boyfriend for her there's a whole podcast episode on that but he opened up parts of her that we see later on come to fruition and makes her ready for what comes next in this jump to the future which is awesome i love when everybody gives pike the respect that he deserves as he walks off the discovery bridge chef's kiss and also absolutely a chef's kiss when tilly brings michael over and they

[01:13:13] see all the people that are going to go with her to the future and that's our crew that's our family that's our heart and i love that saru cuts off her speech like that's just perfect and only something that someone who knows you and loves you that well could actually do so what a setup the battle's coming next and i can't wait hope this finds you in yours well i do want to say though i didn't buy all the stakes for them staying like emotionally the scene works like the actors pull it off for sure absolutely

[01:13:42] i'm reminded now when whenever every time i hear somebody refer to michael uh my biggest sticking point is that i've known probably 30 michaels in my life not one of them didn't go by mike uh we're in women though no but i think raised by vulcans i think that every michael should is a mike i don't think there's any way around it it's interesting rob because from season three onward she goes by big mikey b and it's kind of a tonal shift but it really works she pulls out for that

[01:14:10] i'm down i don't know mike jackson mike jordan doesn't doesn't okay you're right there are the two good examples yeah when you're when you get big enough when you have a last longer name but we've talked a lot about the relationships in this episode and how they work and how they lend weight to everything i would please like to talk about hugh and paul because stamets and colber i

[01:14:37] think are one of my favorite ships in discovery obviously saru and tarina are probably at the top of the pile you know like i'm not going to pretend they're not but i really like their relationship because it is not simple nothing about paul and hugh is oversimplified it's always complicated it's always messy it feels realistic like and you have the emotional stakes here like you feel like they're

[01:15:06] about to have this moment where they're like no wait i love you no way i love you you know what you're right let's get back together and instead it's paul saying like hey look you asked me to move on i'm moving on because i think that's what you want so here you go i'm moving on and then the answer that he gets from hugh is like oh good thanks for doing that okay bye and it's like yeah no like make them happy again what are you doing to me but it's realistic it's it's well done you know it's a

[01:15:32] good interpersonal relationship in a sci-fi show about traveling through space on mushrooms yeah it's like when you're a kid and you got a crush on someone you're like so i hear you have a crush on me no i don't have a crush on you oh good because i don't have a crush on you either yeah and then one was like i've got tardigrade dna and he was like i got resurrected by mushrooms every time so you know what what stuff's complicated okay it's actually there was one time when i told the girl actually i'm gonna go spend some time on the enterprise sorry that was checked out that is true

[01:16:01] and it's fair that she never spoke to you again completely understand i agree yeah no which episode does the whole crew get the woke mind virus where this uh when does that happen that was checkoffs woke mind virus for all of you that was the episode with rain wilson in it rob yeah also i think that actually does happen yeah ash taylor room with rain i don't know why

[01:16:26] there's just no way i don't know why i wrote this i just have space gay we don't see a lot of it's days in space days in space you don't see that very often it's uh it's definitely unique yeah it might be a first it is star trek star trek first for star trek and uh when bobby blue was here way before you she actually mentioned it and she talked about how she appreciates that discovery

[01:16:50] actually was willing to just say the word gay on screen and not and bisexual i think yeah yeah and pansexual but like to not to not treat it like it was you know let's pat ourselves on the back it was like this is real life this is how real life would play out um and interesting to hear that they use the term transgendered in nemesis like i completely forgot that because i don't re-watch

[01:17:15] that movie but only invited transgender right none of the excluded transgenders all right well let's go ahead and hear from our last caller of the evening here is platy hey open pike night this is platy m3 calling in with my hits shits and giggles all right hits we did it gentlemen we made it this is the most important episode of discovery like ever what an amazing story hooked the

[01:17:39] entire time couldn't wait for what was coming next and like oh the whole astro tyler saying goodbye that was oh what a story i love it never have to see that fool again oh finally that's what the discovery is all about kicking his ass off um so also love the vulcan contra-based galactic positioning system or you know kgps it works really great for finding people when you need to and oh all that ship porn with

[01:18:06] shots of the enterprise both inside and out lovely episode yes all right shits um i guess there are bad ideas around tables like uh philip wanting to start a supernova yeah shit idea and why can't discovery just jump like far far away from everybody like just go jump to the delta quadrant for a few hours you know jump to the edge of the galaxy or something just get get away um oh ash tyler was kissing yeah shit

[01:18:31] um and hey speaking of shit control and its tactical ability i see where it needs this fear data because it's dumb as shit um hey there's two ships let's just ring around them because you know it's 3d space but you can only everybody fire uh yeah control dummy and giggles i love the uh queen and the law about not having any snark love pretty much everything about tilly's friend the queen and it's nice to know that she has non-imaginary friends as well

[01:19:05] great points platy yeah and you know me i'm a pedant uh the whole 2d space battle thing gets fixed in the next episode don't worry i'm sure platy already knows that but like they do show in the next episode like hey that's not what we're setting up here it just looks that way so i i appreciate that uh but yeah the spot uh the seric and michael katra the kgps i believe you called it was shown in

[01:19:34] season one as well so i'm i'm appreciating that in a season full of what could be argued to be deus ex machinas we didn't get another one here like this is something that was briefly already established so we don't have to worry about that although how they got there before the enterpriser real fast yeah i wrote this down cameron the answer is the planet vulcan is much closer to the planet zahia than wherever they came from like that's the only explanation right because

[01:20:02] they get there in a shuttle before a series of ships get there at warp like yeah and we do see the shuttle warp away so the shuttle has warp capability he gets the first gps ping when they're at their original location so that means in the shuttle they had to change course or at least on their way to the shuttle yeah to the new location am i the only one who wants to watch a couple episodes

[01:20:26] of amanda and seric going somewhere very far away in a shuttle together yeah like i'm here for that i think it would work like she's obviously driving and he's like backseat driving right or back spock driving oh yeah are you going to apologize to him i don't know honey i'm still weighing the logical pros and cons of that are you listening to a podcast seric no i'm meditating yeah sure sure

[01:20:51] you are it's open pike night it's open pike night yeah i mean what else would you listen to it's the only logical choice i assume that seric just that yeah you guys are talking about seric and the least the only seric i'm really familiar with is tng seric which uh if you listen to that episode of our podcast like it didn't do it for me i don't think so it's funny to hear that he's uh that you want a whole series of him in a road trip because my only knowledge of seric is uh you know the episode

[01:21:18] seric from tng oh really have you not have you not seen the tos movies rob not recently enough like so long ago that i don't really remember seric being god yeah unless you've seen him recently i mean you might remember he's in them but not really well he's in them and he's in tos like that dude has been playing seric for a long freaking time yeah and when that came up a lot in our green shirt episode like where i didn't we uh it would have been better had i known background on seric at the

[01:21:47] time do you like this seric actor better do you like this performance better uh yeah i mean yeah i liked this this actor did a good job for sure speaking of actors who do good jobs and and memorable characters who was your favorite character based on this episode who would you want to watch more oh yeah tig was great sure um i was interested in the queen just like her eye her blinking was very uh that was

[01:22:13] cool very cool uh you know i love the strange world i mean you know pike is obviously very appealing anyone from the main cast of discovery um which i know you don't know who i didn't there wasn't funny that you're not mentioning any of the main characters yeah i know i uh yeah i didn't get i mean obviously i didn't know beardo section 31 beardy guy i didn't didn't make an impact burnham i was like

[01:22:40] yeah burnham's good a lot of speechifying right um blue eye old blue eye didn't do a lot but has an interesting look i'm sure they're uh i'm sure they're good oh and you know thug jones is stands out as an obvious yeah good good right right answer yeah correct action old mac tonight you know yeah they should have just played back tonight in this you gotta watch season three you really should watch season three he's got a

[01:23:09] crescent moon for a head yep that's great uh yeah i will say this was one of the few uh michael intros uh that i didn't mind she's not referencing obscure literary stuff she's not being like when i look in the mirror is it me looking back or is it another other me it's just just kind of laying out what's going on in an emotional way but not overly metaphoric now it's interesting you say that cameron because during her narration she

[01:23:37] talks about not recognizing herself in the mirror but they show you images of colber right right it's it's thematically tied there but she does actually use those words i think that's where i pulled it from but i mean she doesn't get too deep into it she's like oh yeah rushes past that that stuff it's pretty brief especially considering that the opening credits don't happen for like 28 minutes or something only okay with because this is kind of a two-part episode but still they had points they could have

[01:24:04] put them in in the first five minutes yeah it wrote down 14 minutes yeah so which i thought was bold i didn't know that was interesting yeah yeah they could have done it the first time she grabbed the time crystal yeah my last question is do you think had poe not been in the recap did they do enough in the episode to explain the deal her deal yeah i think they did too much i think tilly was dropping too many

[01:24:33] kind of like obvious inside joke hints i think if they pulled some of those out that would have been enough like oh yeah i knew someone really you know the queen sure i've got history yeah i almost feel like that doesn't need an explanation outside of these people are in starfleet that's why i don't like it being in the intro because don't confuse me don't make me think i've missed a whole thing like just present her in a way that makes sense for the story i think i mostly agree like i love her

[01:24:59] character but i think i agree with that mechanical issue yeah i mean i feel that's how marvel usually does it when they succeed anyway well and the camera on in marvel will linger so that you know like yeah you were nudging you so hard right now you should know who this is but marvel won't bring in a cameo that it's not a you know previous movie what yeah they will yeah that's all of their

[01:25:22] i mean yeah that's how spider-man shows it spider-man's not ant-man yeah from a previous movie okay but in iron man i'm saying like they wouldn't bring in a character you've never heard of as like hey check it like spider-man wouldn't say oh hey oh you know what i know galactus and he hasn't been in a movie before like oh they always read the galactus but they'll introduce comic

[01:25:47] characters i just mean like they wouldn't i don't know like daredevil wouldn't say uh oh yeah my friend kite man and then wink wink camera yeah i guess what i'm saying is like they would bring in they always the cameos are always like oh i didn't know that hulk from the other show was gonna be here they wouldn't introduce a brand new character in that way isn't that what they did

[01:26:11] with nick fury they do that all the time well i don't yeah i mean not the big characters but all the time i'm like oh is that a comic character my comic friends have to be like yeah that's kind of a big deal in the comic well yeah so like in guardians of the galaxy they showed the other guardians team with like stallone and michelle yoke all those guys and thor that's exactly what they did yeah yeah it's like here's a here's a person like you should know them or you will soon right

[01:26:36] like it just it feels more like well i don't know what the word is for it like tongue and cheek is not correct but like it feels like they're referencing something you should already know but they know you don't right yeah yeah i don't know i mean the way they introduce this queen i like in a way that i don't know whatever so for you you it wouldn't have worked without the previously on is that what you're saying yeah i don't i don't think it's weird that they have a webisode that helps explain

[01:27:05] what this relationship is sure i'm fine with the webisode and that and i'm fine i guess i don't know i if i was into the series i probably would have already watched the shorts and if i hadn't i would see that intro and be like oh i better stop real quick i'd repose real quick and watch that 10 minute short it's interesting that on the one where they had the cage they said previously on star trek and made this big deal so you know that you're watching this old thing but here they said previously on discovery and immediately cut to footage that was not in discovery right yeah i think that's for me

[01:27:33] where the dissonance comes from luckily we have the internet also you do have to ask what episode at what point would it have made sense to put that 10 minutes in right right so that it was in discovery it's like okay you're obviously setting this character up for something like yeah yeah yeah but well okay i think we have obviously set ourselves up for the point of the episode where

[01:27:58] we pick our songs that represent the episode and this for me was kind of a difficult one so i'm not gonna start i'm gonna say jesse you get to start oh okay so this was initially difficult for me partially because i i feel like i feel like there are bands where i've picked like four songs from them for over the course of this and season five but looking at the list that's not actually

[01:28:25] true like i i think i frequently think of multiple songs per band that could fit this and then i like talk myself into one or the other uh but for me this week i am going to use a band that i have used before but it is not a song that i have used before this week my choice is a song called we stand by all that remains and it's basically about being ready to do the hard thing to make the tough decision

[01:28:53] it has lyrics like our roots are deeper than this born and bred the masters of ourselves and our hearts take the best of me watch my world fall apart still i remain steadfast in my heart walk a darkened road and we will be our own light hit hint michael burnham our foundation our core is strong stand for what's

[01:29:16] right and it has everything i love about a metalcore song it's got wailing guitars it has the rowly grungy vocals under the clean vocals it goes a hundred miles an hour and doesn't stop just like star trek discovery season two as a whole okie doke good choice yeah all right i'll go next i'm going the deepest cut the most ridiculous pick perhaps uh i've made i i don't really even have an artist i

[01:29:46] don't really know who sang it or wrote it it is the opening theme to lunar the silver star story from the sega cd version not the remaster on playstation they changed the opening theme so it's not that one it's the original one from the sega cd one of the greatest role-playing games of all time that probably just never got its due because it was on sega cd and no one bought that system except me and uh it's it's just i love the song it's got nostalgia value for me a hundred percent but

[01:30:15] it just felt like the building up to battle which is what this whole episode is is this whole episode you're watching it waiting for this battle to happen next episode and so it's got lyrics like fighting through the darkness all those evils till we must press on which is everything this crew is talking about friendship fortune battle watch your backs now take heed and yeah it's the friendships it's the battle it's knowing that this is coming and it's kind of saying all right look we're putting everything else aside right now we're just prepping for this big battle it's just

[01:30:44] it feels it's the energy i want going into the next episode i want to play that is that is that game an anime looking game cameron oh it's a it's a classic japanese role-playing game it's amazing yes i am and the first one is pretty short you can play it in a few hours but it's so good the cut scenes are great like it's it's the most tropey story but it's done so well with such fun characters and dialogue and music i gotta check this out they just released like a remaster that i'm

[01:31:13] tempted to get it's like 50 bucks but uh like you know they've updated all the battle stuff so i'm like whoo maybe next paycheck yeah i'm very interested i'm gonna look it up tonight if you play it i'd love to hear john do you want to do your uh earnest answer before i do my bullshit joke answer sure absolutely uh mine is somewhere between an earnest answer and a bullshit joke answer because like you know i have established i usually try and pick a character and pick a song for them because it's

[01:31:42] usually easy on these episodes but this was actually kind of a good ensemble episode everybody got their moments everybody got their time so i tried to figure out like okay what what thing is unique about this episode and it's like oh well there's an obvious choice for the song for this episode um because the the most obvious choice is heroes by david bowie one it fits the the you know

[01:32:07] the sacrifice it fits what's going on but also you have to watch a short trek to understand fully why i'm picking heroes by david bowie so yeah heroes by david bowie is my selection i like that i almost picked we don't need another hero oh nice yeah i've been one or we're in this together now but you already used that for season five i had should i stay or should i go as one of my choices

[01:32:34] you can pick bowie for so many space themed oh yeah we have kind of yeah um i'm not good at this kind of exercise this is not the way my brain works uh so for the last two days i've just had a song stuck in my head it is popcorn by hot butter um i will play a little bit of it in the before you get dmca and hopefully uh oh yeah hold on wait wait for the drop

[01:33:03] and now you have it stuck in your heads um if you want some lyrics you can always say this is the popcorn song and i'd like to sing along those aren't the real lyrics that's just something you can do um but you don't like oobie doobie i don't like bad lyrics oobie doobie is bad this is from our other podcast for those of you listening i didn't like oobie doobie from the from that one star trek movie because those lyrics are stupid um but this is just weird sounding

[01:33:35] it's an interesting sound yeah it's a it's a signature sound rob that would get stuck in my head because it is very chip toony yes but i actually picked my song for next week like three days ago and it has been stuck in my head like i'm talking put this song on repeat listen to it 40 times in a day because it is so absolutely perfect for next week's episode and i cannot

[01:34:02] wait to share it and it's not chip toony it's a little heavier than that but now i kind of want to listen to the popcorn song by hot buttered yeah open gangam styles that your pick for next week damn it you spoiled the whole thing that's how i felt when i picked the look jesse popcorn has been recorded there are so many recorded versions of the song popcorn if you go on the wikipedia like

[01:34:27] wow i don't know the number but uh there are numerous remakes and uh throughout the years so just like notra did it too right originally gilbert and sullivan if i'm not mistaken yeah actually rory orbinson yeah oh no actually a mashup might actually make ooby dooby work for me

[01:34:57] someone please make that happen we will record rob listening to it i'll probably enjoy it oh well rob hey we did thank you for guessing with us tonight yeah what uh what do you have to uh plug um let's see uh you can uh always go to my screen printing i screen print for a living you can always check out shirtnerdery.com i need to update it need new products up there but if you find yourself in the pacific northwest you can always stop by my retail store made in milwaukee

[01:35:26] where i have my t-shirts and uh hundreds of weird weird tchotchkes and ephemera from local artists uh green shirt podcast is still kind of going on we just wrapped up the movies you guys put plug that plenty i'm sure but that's that's where you can find me i was waiting to hear how you plug green shirt when you guest on other shows oh well i figure it's a given on this one you were in the news recently about your store yeah that's right i was it was a perfectly cringe like they quoted me

[01:35:56] uh they used you for the headline yes the the the city the suburb of milwaukee oregon that's milwaukee with an ie not not the ee like those other suckers um is kind of getting it's growing quite a bit we have a brand new brewery from hood river called preem that just opened up and some of the cool spots like we have a cool new record store so things are starting to hop down there so the news came down during our first friday art event that i was live screen printing at and the news picked me

[01:36:24] for to interview and i my soundbite perfectly a perfect example of news cringe is me saying like you know people usually say milwaukee who but really they're pretty soon they're gonna start saying milwaukee's cool it's the so laughably news well i loved like classic rob humor when you're like yeah i don't know if you know portland's just right down the road there you can get there just down this

[01:36:49] road and i was like some one person at the news station like cracked up at that and insisted they keep it in yeah yeah i said milwaukee's like portland's you know little baby brother we're kind of overlooked a lot but you know portland's right there and like you could almost see the sign because we're just pointing off screen like they don't have a shot of portland i believe it was originally pronounced millie walk hey that's right i've done that shirt

[01:37:14] means good land i just re-watched that the other day oh yeah oh man kid yes for the first time yes how did it go and it was excellent yeah so many times like that's what this that's from that's what that's from like and i'm sitting here realizing realizing like my god we have quoted that movie for almost 40 years now like that that movie really captured the zeitgeist i heard a podcast uh the

[01:37:43] rewatchables from the rigger network where they argued that that might be the single most quotable movie ever it i yeah because because yeah so i married an axe murderer was on like tubie and i was like is this where exquisite baking powder comes from like nope that is wayne's world yeah yeah anyway uh yes green shirt is still going on uh a little bit in fact our next episode will be a bit

[01:38:07] of an open pike nighty thing we are interviewing tracy coco and jay herself and we want to hear some calls so if you're a caller to open pike night call in you can do it the same way just say you're leaving a message or a question for uh tracy coco and you can send it to open pike night i'll find it there and we'll play them for her so please do that yeah we're looking forward to talking to her and

[01:38:31] jesse we had some great callers tonight how can our listeners get on open pike night or green shirt or green um you know i guess i'll allow the green shirt thing uh the easiest way to get on open pike night is to just go to open pike.com you can record your message right there all you need is a phone you can send us a voice memo but of course if you want to have a little higher quality and you happen to have access to a microphone go ahead and record an mp3 and send it to us at open pike at gmail.com

[01:39:01] great way to stay abreast of all of the upcoming guests is to join the open pike night discord server or you can follow us hang out exchange memes on blue sky at open pike all right well it has been a long night it has been a long season it has been a long break between seasons of strange new worlds but we are almost there almost there for season two so open pike night crew we gotta go uh probably put some

[01:39:29] slap some fresh paint around replace some broken light bulbs it's been a couple of years but we're about ready to wrap up our season of disco inferno so be sure to clean it up after yourselves be sure to tip your servers you can go anywhere you want but you can stay here is it true that after

[01:39:57] the next episode you're taking a 3,000 year break before you record 1,000 no that's green shirt it's a 1,000 years i actually could not remember how many years in the future they go but i was about to make a fart sound effect so thank you for making the better joke you you you you you