[DSC412] jaQ` & Earl demonstrate the veracity of this title during their slide through Star Trek: Discovery season four episode twelve, Species Ten-C. Enjoy the episode 🖖🏾

LTAT135: Neither Of Us Can Say “Licorice”

“Let’s Talk About Treks” dissects Star Trek Discovery’s “Species 10C.” They analyze the writing, CGI, and themes of the episode, discussing Reno’s revelations, exoplanets, and energy use. Exciting for Trekkies!

Chapters

0:00:01 Dan’s Introduction to It’s Got Star Trek podcast
0:00:20 Introducing Let’s Talk About Treks with Earl Grey and Jack Dorino
0:09:59 Filming Techniques and Use of CGI
0:16:22 Underwater bases and drilling on the ocean floor
0:20:01 The perspective of humans being mostly water and oil
0:22:54 Dots and Aerosol Dispensers: A Spit Joke Segment
0:27:33 The Story of Reno and Storing Shuttles
0:32:05 Flashy Lights in the Hallway
0:36:34 The Tensei and the Bridge Language with Math
0:39:42 Vulcans’ Overcompensation and Deception
0:41:40 Being Careful with Sources and Correcting Misinformation
0:45:04 The Shape-Shifting Abilities of the A
0:46:07 The Scream Time and Saru’s Yell
0:49:47 Licorice Power and Engineering Mysteries
0:54:05 Key codes and the Kardashian Scale
1:04:03 Speculating on the future of Star Trek crossovers and licensing
1:07:33 Imagining a scenario where rating the latest episode is the only way to leave
1:13:09 Popping up messages and being careful about who does it.

Long Summary

In this episode of “Let’s Talk About Treks,” we dive into the details of the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery, titled “Species 10C.” As the hosts, we introduce ourselves and provide information about the episode, including its placement in the overall season and its release date. We discuss our appreciation for the writing and directing of the episode, highlighting the setting and plot.

During our conversation, we express some confusion about the hyperfield and its relation to the gas giant and the galaxy. We question the necessity of a hyperfield if there is already a galactic barrier. Moving on, we explore various aspects of the show, focusing on the advanced technology, the design of the ship, and the absence of Commander Reno. We analyze the impressive CGI and the interaction of the actors with it.

As the conversation progresses, we uncover the revelation that Reno is reading life signs on board the ship. This leads us to discuss the potential awareness of the Tensei regarding the destructive effects of mining the Boronite. We draw connections to drilling on Earth and highlight the prioritization of goals over environmental factors. Additionally, we mention the similarities between the hyper tentacles in the episode and the saltwater rov from the movie “The Abyss.” Warp travel and the nacelles’ directionality also become topics of conversation.

Shifting gears, we engage in a lighthearted discussion about unrelated topics such as u-turns, Kryptonians, water and oil, licorice preference, empty white spaces in shows, aerosol dispensers, and the character Book. We delve into the concept of combining characters from Doctor Who, conferences, and bribery. We reflect on Reno’s detainment and speculate about her questioning Booker’s sanity. We appreciate the story arc of Reno and Booker and question the decision to store items in the shuttle bay during the president’s presence. We draw parallels between the unidentified entity in the show and fictional creatures from various sources.

The conversation takes us to a movie scene that involves circles, smoke, and strange language. We draw similarities to the heptapods and discuss the significance of flashing lights in the show’s hallways. We explore the interpretation of lights and colors as forms of communication and touch on cultural context. The concept of a bridge language using mathematics and the Medi Institute’s messaging system are also briefly discussed.

Moving on, we discuss newly discovered exoplanets, a star system with synchronized planets, and the behavior of Vulcans and Romulans. We touch on the slow progress of Vulcans in achieving warp five and briefly touch on a questionable source from YouTube. The delusions of a character named Tarka are compared to mad scientists in fiction. We discuss a messaging system in a show and express relief that it avoided using symbols in the alphabet.

Returning to Star Trek Discovery, we explore the use of the Kryptonian language in the show, the appearance of the outer hull of the ship from Flight of the Navigator, and the potential of creating shapeshifting human forms. We make notes of the characters’ scream time, Burnham and Saru’s roaring sounds, and the correlation between Saru’s roar and Kelpians’ history. We express confusion about the purpose of licorice in powering a device and provide our own explanations.

We tackle the alarm displayed by characters in the show when someone disappears or is captured and discuss the logistic of aliens needing the same air mixture and gravity as humans on different planets. The conversation leads us to explore the Kardashian scale for measuring a civilization’s technological advancement based on energy usage. We speculate on the purpose of gathering vast amounts of energy.

Next, we touch on civilizations within the United Federation, their energy capabilities, and weather manipulation. Conspiracy theories related to weather manipulation are mentioned but not delved into. We discuss recent events in the show, including the discovery of a breach and the venting of plasma by Target. We compare this event to similar situations in Star Trek and speculate on real-life historical parallels. Klingon curses and an episode involving the Klingons and the Romulans are briefly mentioned. We touch on the concept of a TV show called “Earth Strike,” described as a CW show with adolescent characters in a Star Trek-themed setting.

In the final part of the conversation, we express our enjoyment of the episode, rate it, and discuss the upcoming season finale. We mention the next episode titled “Coming Home” as the last episode released for Star Trek Discovery. We celebrate completing the series and look forward to the next season. We conclude the show by providing contact information for the podcast and engage in some light-hearted banter about the technical aspects and potential sponsorships.

Brief Summary

In this episode of “Let’s Talk About Treks,” we discuss the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery, “Species 10C.” We appreciate the writing and directing, analyze the CGI, and explore various aspects of the show. We uncover revelations about Reno and delve into themes of environmental factors and communication methods. We touch on exoplanets, Vulcans, Romulans, and energy usage. We mention Klingons, a CW show concept, and the upcoming season finale. Concluding with contact information and light-hearted banter.

Transcript

Dan’s Introduction to It’s Got Star Trek podcast

[0:01] Hi, I’m Dan from the It’s Got Star Trek podcast, and I never listen to Let’s Talk About Treks.

[0:09] Music.

Introducing Let’s Talk About Treks with Earl Grey and Jack Dorino

[0:20] Welcome to Let’s Talk About Treks, an episodic review of today’s visions of the future featuring Earl Grey and Jack Dorino.

[0:30] Welcome, everybody. Hello, everybody. My name is Earl Grey.
My name is Jack Dorino. And we are Let’s Talk About Treks.
That’s the show that’s broadcast to you live from just inside of a hyperfield that’s just outside of the galaxy. Ooh.
Today we’ll be discussing Star Trek Discovery, Season 4, Episode 12, Species 10C.
That’s the penultimate episode of the Season 4.
Correct. Thank you. I thought there was going to be a quiz, so I studied. Ooh, cool.
Okay. The release date was the 10th of March, 2022.
It is the 54th of all 55 episodes of Star Trek Discovery so far.
Hopefully to become 65? Question mark? 70?
It is the 833rd of all 908 episodes of Star Trek.
Interestingly enough the reason it’s not direct sequential order of the last episode we discussed Picard season 2 episode 1 was released in the meantime it was the 834 second so we will get to that this episode was written by Kyle Jaro and the director was the great Ola Tunde Osunsanme who Frakesy likes to call Tunde that’s an interesting nickname I appreciate that that That would probably make it a lot easier for me to remember it.
I like how Jaro rhymes with sparrow.

[1:59] Species 10C takes place on an unknown stardate in the year 3190.
Yes, it is the penultimate episode of the fourth season of Star Trek Discovery.
Hopefully we’ll get a complete 65 or maybe even 70 episodes.
As the DMA approaches Earth and Navarre, Captain Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery attempt to make first contact with the powerful species responsible before it’s too late.
Yes. Seems like there should be a comment in there somewhere.
This is the episode where Saru carries around Zero from Star Trek Prodigy.
Ooh. Oh, yeah. You’re right. They do look similar.

[2:44] You know i wish a recap in general wouldn’t show scenes that were described but not previously depicted in the episode i don’t recall seeing this exact scene where tarka is reaching up with a device and putting it on a tube from behind the wall of the tube that he’s looking at he did that in rosetta let’s he hit a device in rosetta okay yeah but i don’t remember seeing this exact cut of the scene the way they it was depicted oh okay I could be wrong maybe I just missed it maybe I blinked or something did are you saying it happened in this episode and yeah in the during the recap they know I mean like are you saying that the scene that you’re discussing happened in this episode and thus it was less of a review and more of a preview no it didn’t happen in this episode oh it was just a different angle it was a different angle from yeah oh that sounds sounds great i i would like them to show me the old events from different angles every time that would be really cool actually well yeah because it would be like getting new content only it’s it would take a little more effort yeah on their part you know i think i would enjoy that, sort of like when we did all good things and we had similar scenes that we’ve seen before uh-huh in different ways yeah you know they didn’t just use old scenes they reshot scenes with old uniforms and that kind of thing you know what i mean yeah yeah i get what you’re talking about so every for in all good things every time they went to the past they didn’t just reuse footage yeah oh yeah.

[4:14] Well, yeah, I mean, it certainly would help me maybe pay more attention to the recap if the images in the recap were reenactments or just different angles of the same takes or different takes from the same footage or something. Okay.
There is a similarity that I noticed in the beginning of this episode to the very first episode of Star Trek’s Discovery, in that it opens basically inside someone’s pupil.
Last time it was Takuvma, and this time it is Joanna Wosikun. Yes.
Is this the hyperfield that we’re talking about? I’m a little bit confused on the hyperfield, because I thought we got into the hyperfield last episode.
The gas giant is not inside their hyperfield. That’s correct.
Okay. Gas giant is not inside their hyperfield. Weren’t they trying to get into something when they were doing the whole bubbles thing?
They were trying to get into somewhere, and then once they got there, or they were trying to get out of the barrier.

[5:08] Yeah, they were trying to get out of the barrier. Okay. When they were flying through the bubbles, yes. That was two episodes ago.
Yes. So this Dyson ring thing is just, like, floating outside of the galaxy?
Yes, apparently. with a gas giant near it and then a hyper field like somewhere off in what would ostensibly this be that same star system if there was a star there is that what i’m given to understand yeah i mean i guess it’s like a rogue star system just float in the middle of nowhere outside of a galaxy but not inside our galaxy sure yeah it would still i’m sure be within the gravitational pull of our galaxy so it’s probably yeah might as well be a part of our galaxy.

[5:54] Yeah just has like the barrier between it and you know if you have the galactic barrier why do you need a hyper field because um what does god need with the starship.

[6:05] You know like that kind of thing wrong wrong barrier that was on the inside i mean same idea though i think it’s to show how advanced this race is is that they can, build this hyper field yeah yeah i mean that for sure i get but i am just thinking about like from within the context of the show i get why they you know made these advanced powerful things i just want them to all jive together so i’m trying to i can’t figure out is is the hyperfield around a star because relic later we’ll talk about how the diameter of the hyperfield is the same size as the orbit of the sun to mars yeah the sun to mars yeah it’s 1.5 au’s yes is the is the diameter of the the hyperfield uh the radius of the hyperfield oh it is i think so yeah so you’re telling me the diameter is three au’s i would have mentioned that that’s kind of burying the lead like why talk about the radius when the diameter is so much more impressive yeah on average mars is only one and a half au’s from the sun but its entire orbit encompasses three au’s yes right so that’s what i’m saying like if if i wanted to talk about how big the hyperfield is i would talk about its diameter not its radius okay just just me just me personally yeah i i get it i mean it could be the diameter i don’t know but i it was my understanding that was more of the radius.

[7:29] But the interesting thing I just realized was the hyperfield is in the shape of an egg.
Sure. And the average orbit in our solar system is elliptical.
Sure. Not circular. So that explains why their hyperfield is also not a sphere.
It’s an ovoid. Yes. I imagine they’re projecting it from a central thing and maybe there are energies that are swirling.
It’s interesting to me how the hyperfield looks so solid.
It’s clearly not, especially by the end of the episode.

[7:59] But it definitely looks like a steel ball that’s been engraved.
Yeah, engraved or like the little swirly stuff they do on some fancy swords now that you see.
Yes, exactly that. I was also wondering, is this maybe a binary star?
Because there’s the star that the gas giant was orbiting.

[8:19] Oh, okay. Like maybe they captured the other star? And they captured the other star.
Maybe it’s got more energy or maybe they could only build their hyperfield so big.
Maybe there is a limit to their technology we may find out about the star later I don’t think we ever really address whether they did mention at some point that there were three planetoids or planets inside the hyperfield but yeah they did I didn’t hear mention of a star of any sort oh maybe that’s what the Dyson rings are for is maybe the Dyson rings around their star projects or sends the energy from the star to the inside of the hyperfield so that they can use it interesting interesting that’s that’s very interesting that’s an idea yeah well speaking of the the 10c and and the ways they are the the team has brought back these 16 different compounds the hydrocarbons yes and they decide to send back a message that basically amounts to we come in peace which is yet another reflection of the first episode of star trek discovery and to move this line we come in peace oh right it’s interesting how they tied that in or whether they intended to or not interesting that would be interesting to be able to talk to somebody from the show to see if uh that speculation is accurate although it would make sense that they would be trying to make a connection to the first season because oftentimes since this is the penultimate season.

[9:44] Oftentimes a long-running show will try and connect back to the first season like Like, all good things did.
Sure. Yeah, I get where you’re going with that. I heard a story that, I don’t know whether it’s true, but I heard a story that…

Filming Techniques and Use of CGI

[9:59] They were told during the fifth season that it would be their last season like basically like on during the filming of the last few episodes oh okay so they wouldn’t have perhaps known at this point oh in season four when they were filming season four yeah oh okay but i’ll tell you one thing they learned by season four was really really good use of cgi and actors being able to use it like and interact with it really well because you realize the whole scene when when Stamets and Adira are getting the dots ready, that none of that’s there.
Like the light that he’s shining isn’t there. The dots aren’t there.
The little screens on the dots aren’t there. And they’re just like miming everything.
It’s really incredible when you think about it. Yeah. Like all of the moving around they’re doing and how it looks like she’s touching the, or it looks like they’re touching the same panel that Stamets is touching and all that kind of stuff. That’s interesting.
I never thought about it that way. I mean, I would have thought that maybe the dots would be at least marionettes.
That would be neat. You’re right, especially knowing your fixation with puppets.
Yeah. This is the part of the episode that shows us exactly where in the ship the spore drive operations is because we go, like, up out of the spine of the ship.
Yeah. Why is there a big gaping hole that leads directly into the most vulnerable part of the ship? It’s an emergency eject portal.

[11:25] Oh, okay, so if they have to eject this spore drive. Unlike the Jefferies tubes, there’s cameras up there.
Apparently, because we follow the dot the whole way.
When Zora spoke during the scene, I was hoping that she was going to bring up Commander Reno being missing.
Oh, about something is funky, something’s going on, I don’t know what it is.
Yeah, I don’t know what it is, but also, by the way, Reno is missing and I can’t find her to help me. Yeah, oh yeah, you would have expected that.

[11:54] Sort of the towards the end of the episode it turns out that she’s actually reading, reno’s life signs as being on board yeah we we find out then yes but then the confusion would come can she she can use the communications like she could voice in on her communicator and say hey zora to captain or commander reno yes and if she didn’t respond then she could also bring up oh good you know she’s not answering her phone should i go and check on her or have somebody oh yeah Yeah, that’s true.
Good point. I think that’s sort of eventually what they did.
Is they were eventually looking for her and were like, what? She’s not here? Yeah.
Do you think that, okay, so there’s been sort of a question that’s been wavering in the air during the course of the season.
Do you think that the Tensei are aware at all of the peripheral effect that the DMA is having as they’re using it to mine the Boronite?
Like, do you think they’re aware that it’s destroying planets and stuff like that? I mean, not necessarily life forms, but that it’s having destructive effect on stellar bodies.
Yeah, they might be aware.
But when we advance to starting to mine asteroids, we’re not going to pause to do a survey to make sure there’s no microbes living on that asteroid.

[13:10] I disagree. Okay. Don’t you think we are? That’s the first thing we look for.
That’s what we’re looking for now.
Well, yeah, I mean, of course, you’re right. Right. Well, of course, we would look for microbes because we want to find life outside of this planet.
So it would be a chance for when they actually land, drones at least, one of the first things they would do would be looking for microbes on those asteroids and then start to mine it or mine it in the process.
They might be doing both at the same time. However, when you find, as the Star Trek 4 probe called it, mites living on there, well, you’re still going to mine it anyway.
Oh, are you? Once you get your samples back of the microbes that are there to figure out if they are indeed alien or maybe something that the actual lander brought itself, you might still go ahead and mine it anyway. Okay.
I would have thought differently, but I guess maybe not.
Well, if we send a drill down to the bottom of the ocean from an oil rig at the surface and there happens to be a clamshell in the way of the drill bit, what are they going to do?
Are they going to move the clamshell aside? Yeah, they’re gonna yeah, they’re gonna keep going I get it. I I gotcha.
Yeah, I I think more of humans than I guess Well, I think more of humans just not capitalists.

[14:30] Miners and oil well not the miners themselves they’re just doing a job but it’s a very capitalist point of view for tarka to think that discovery is planning to use the data to get inside the hyperfield like it’s a very like transactional sort of thing like if they do this and they’ll do this like it’s not like we’re exploring to find out what we can find out not like he thinks it’s going to be like a key you know like oh they’re going down to get a key copied i mean they do want to get into the the hyper field didn’t they find out in the last episode that they yeah they do okay it’s not like a for sure thing it’s sort of more like they’re exploring it’s like he like he thinks that it’s a foregone conclusion that whatever they get from down on the planet is going to get them inside and that’s not necessarily the case i think it doesn’t seem to me like that would necessarily be the case like it wouldn’t directly follow i see where you’re coming from just because they got some data from the planet that they can get into the hyper field Well, and plus, maybe they can try and communicate with them through the hyperfield on the outside of the hyperfield.
Yeah, I think that’s what we end up doing, right? The dots end up spraying the shell with some of the hydrocarbons. With the can-we-come-in-peace hydrocarbons.
Yeah, they’re tapping Morse code on the side of the fish tank.
Have you ever seen The Abyss?
I was wondering that myself, and you’d say that.

[15:51] I lost my chance to bring that up. Yes, I’ve seen The Abyss a lot. I own it.
It’s on DVD or something? Yeah, it’s not on Blu-ray yet. I don’t think it’s on streaming yet either.
That’s one of my favorite James Cameron movies. It is a really good movie.
I really liked the ending of the movie very much. It’s a very long movie to get through.
Yeah, especially the director’s cut.
But then when you get to the part where stuff starts happening, it’s a really great movie.

Underwater bases and drilling on the ocean floor

[16:22] Well yeah i mean the whole part with the the marines and stuff and the intense where they’re losing their mind because of the deep sea sickness and stuff there’s something down there yeah something not us i didn’t even realize that we don’t have bases like this on the ocean floor until years later after i’d already seen the movie i thought it made sense that they would be drilling from the bottom of the ocean that people were living that i guess i don’t think oh did they not have it then they do they not have that now no i i think all the drilling uh bases are on the surface and they put the they just put the drill bit all the way down no that’s unfortunate it seems like it would be fun to live down there for a few months.

[17:07] Until you start going insane and decompression sickness or whatever it was, you have to look with better eyes than that but yeah that the uh the little tentacles coming out of the hyperfield definitely reminded me of uh the the saltwater rov kind of thing yeah it does there’s uh what hyper tentacles are it’s pretty impressive that they’re able to stop a ship that is just about to go into warp or did it go into warp like the stars definitely started streaming, Shouldn’t there be some forward movement at that point?
Yeah, they’re stretching out and the saucer section is already at warp and the nacelles are not.
The thing I don’t get, why do they always have to turn around to warp?
Do you have to be pushed by the nacelles or can you be pulled by the nacelles?
I get the sense that they work in one direction.
They’re not omnidirectional. Okay. So you have to be facing in the direction of travel.

[18:08] Well the other thing that i always never can wrap my head around is they always do a u-turn instead of just a 180.
It seems like it’d be a lot faster just to turn on a dime 180 instead of you know doing a u-turn to turn around to go to the opposite direction you should write them a letter and tell them so all right maybe i will okay that sounds great with with this ship the nacelles might fly off you’re doing too quick well yeah maybe they would the whole water scene because it’s not it’s not water no but it definitely has the whole scene has like this sense of being underwater in that there’s air like water and water bubbles and waves and stuff.

[18:51] As it’s sucking in the discovery and it made me think of there’s this idea where uh you know how like kryptonians are super super dense uh-huh so we seem like we’re less dense to them and it seems like if you were like if you were a person who is dense as diamond then we would then humans would seem like cardboard water so then like in a certain sense like all things are in a certain way fluid or can be be fluidic okay so that makes it that makes it why like some superheroes and stuff can phase through objects because it’s all just water going through water yeah they’re they’re matching up their molecules with the gaps between your molecules yeah and it makes it makes transporting like beaming make much more sense because then it’s just basically like you’re just shooting this water and up into the ceiling and spinning it around in a circle and then shooting it down down to the planet and collecting it and putting it in shape. Okay.
Is that okay? Like, there was supposed to be more. There’s no more. That’s all I’ve got.

The perspective of humans being mostly water and oil

[20:01] Well, I’m trying to wrap my head around the perspective of us being like water.
I mean, we are 90% water. We’re almost all the way there. Yeah.
There is still obviously a solid component, but I mean, it’s just like everything around around us is made of oil well you know like your clothes and your car and oh it’s repelled so it’s, hydrophobic then like we’re just driving lumps of oil down the road we’re just ugly bags of mostly water driving big old lumps of oil that burn oil down a road made of oil we’re just like we’re just like a big old oil slick spreading out across the planet oh well this is oil and water spread like Like the oil is spreading the water all around the planet.
Oh, no. Uh-oh.
Do you like black licorice? No.

[20:56] Does anybody like black licorice, Weiss? I’ve met people who like black licorice.
They’re not good people.
I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. They’re fine people. I’m sure they’re fine people on both sides.
Comment below. Do you like black licorice? Just tolerate it.
Or no, no, no, no. Not anything but that. Listen, listen. Listen, listen, we’re not going to start a race war about licorice today.
Oh, we’re not? No, it is not. 1962.
Okay. I could have sworn that Reno, that proved that Reno is a Salarian spy.
Okay. Black licorice people are not bad.
I was just kidding. This is an official disclaimer that all licorice types are accepted here.
We do not yuck your yum. And if you like black licorice, that is your thing, then you do that, you do you, and I’m glad and I love it for you.
Okay. What about anchovies? What about empty white space?
Do you think empty white space is a cop-out or do you think it’s a cool idea?
Because they did it in Deep Space Nine.
They sort of did it behind the augments, not the augments.
What are they called? The precogs in Minority Report. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[22:18] I can’t think of any others. I’m sure there’s others where people are just, oh, they did Picard in tapestry.
And now we’ve done it to Discovery in this episode.
Is it a white space that looks good? Yeah, when you look out the windows, it’s just like an empty white space. Okay.
I guess I was seeing gray, but I could be wrong. Oh.
Oh, that’s right. Gray’s not in this episode, but I’m in this episode.
Okay, so.

Dots and Aerosol Dispensers: A Spit Joke Segment

[22:54] One of the things I did notice about the dots, it sure is a good thing that the aerosol dispensers on the dots are in the end of their arms and not, say, their face.
Like they’re spitting on them.
Or somewhere else I can think of that I won’t mention. Like their penises?
Yeah. That would be quite amusing if they were situated like penises.
Especially if some of them had ridges on their head and two nozzles this has been your penis joke of the day here on let’s talk about treks, it’s a segment that Earl Grey has decided we’re going to start I hope you’ve enjoyed it if you have not please comment below and let us know what you think of our new penis joke segment thank you, hey I left it at a spit joke is it a spit joke You are just on fire today.
Ladies and gentlemen, he’ll be here until the 20th.

[23:54] Go ahead, I’m sorry. Do I think what? That Book knew about the licorice.
Because it seemed like he was very willing to give her this weird-ass thing without asking, like, what’s the deal with this?
As if, like, maybe he was just confirming later that that’s what she was using it for.
Like, he knew it was a MacGyver tool. he seems like a cut like kind of a MacGyver I was thinking of actually a spin-off of Star Trek discovery featured featuring jet arena jet Reno like she’s sort of like a Doctor Who ish character only she doesn’t do regenerations she’s just saying she’s a human like sort of like a James Bond MacGyver type person you know uh but with the sort of a wacky zanyness of of a Doctor Who type but but also very flat and monotone, as Reno is. Ooh.

[24:41] That could be interesting. Maybe like a combination of Missy and the Doctor?
Sure. Okay. Do they fly around in a roadside diner? Perhaps so you can fly around with the Impossible Girl and into Infinity.
Mm-hmm. We keep having these C-suite conferences, all of the executives.
Mm-hmm. The first conference, they decide they’re going to give a bribe to the Tennessee to try to get them to be on their side.
Here have this boronite be our friends i thought it was kind of interesting that we’re reviewing this episode where they’re talking about giving gifts and cultural uh differences between giving gifts and it’s in we are right now in december and we’re looking forward to christmas and it’s just i thought it was a neat coincidence that we’re reviewing this episode this close to christmas are you saying this is a christmas episode it almost is because later on the force field that Reno is behind I swear I see a Christmas tree menorah poinsettia.

[25:44] I see i see a poinsettia star in part of the field okay i’ll i’ll give you that that that’s probably likely it seems like a bunch of fractal information sure you were asking about the licorice.

[25:58] And you know it’s hard to tell i mean he could have just said well no i’m not going to give you a specific thing but i’ll give you a uh a ration bar here’s a ration bar yeah you have something something yeah you don’t give your your prisoners what they ask for unless you’re the nice guy prison keeper you’re kind of there just because you needed a job and so you’re you know yeah plus you know the prisoners probably trying to get you closer so they can have like a quiet conversation about your friend’s sanity so you probably don’t want to open the door to that but But I wonder if Reno is also questioning Booker’s sanity to Booker.
Like, hey, are you compromised by your own griefs and you’re too close to the situation? You can’t really see what’s going on here.
But, you know, maybe it’s good to have another person here to be able to see a little bit more objectively.
Ooh, I didn’t think about that. I wonder if it was a mistake to bring Reno along because of that.
I can imagine that Tarka just kind of reacted when he encountered her.
And stunned her as quickly as he could.
So, you know, he probably didn’t think about, oh, I need to take her as a hostage, but what else am I going to do with her?
And he even says early on in the episode, well, you’re not a hostage.
You’re just, what was the phrase he used?
Like, inconveniently detained or something like that.
Temporarily detained. Yeah. By whom, sir? By whose authority?

[27:27] You have no jurisdiction here. I liked getting a little bit of a story bit of a story about Reno.

The Story of Reno and Storing Shuttles

[27:33] That was nice, you know. I did like that story. Yeah, a little bit about the wife.
More about the jury-rigging patients on the Hiawatha.
It also led directly or indirectly to booker telling his story about book of the fourth and i was kind of wondering do you think it maybe was actually his dad no i don’t i do think it was handed down i don’t think i think his dad was they’ve talked about his dad before he’s seen his dad before his dad was very much into the to the tribal whole vibe of um i remember that He was disappointed with…
So it was more like a mentor or a master and apprentice kind of thing.
Yeah, that kind of thing.
You are now a Smith. I dub you…
Sir Robin of Loxley.
They store stuff in the shuttle bay in midair? Mm-hmm. Apparently.

[28:37] Does that seem safe with the president there? Should they lower those things just for a little while while the president is the safest place for them to be right there?
Is it like, are they magnetically held in like a lock that can’t lose power?
Oh, well, I mean, that would seem to me like it would be probably the best way.
I mean, your shelf can collapse.
Can you imagine the lower deckers on Discovery? They keep having to put the shuttles back into place.

[29:06] Well, here’s the thing. What’s the thing? Why don’t they just store them in the replicator?
Why don’t they just replicate them as they need them? Oh, shuttles? Yeah.
That’s a good question. I guess conservation of power. Okay.
But I mean, they could reclaim it by pulling the matter back into the engines.
Yeah, we need more power, Captain.
Okay, dematerialize six shuttles in the shuttle bay. Exactly. Exactly.
100%. I don’t know why we don’t do that more often. That should be a new thing.
More power, dematerialize some shuttles.
Captain, I need more power to the phasers. throw in alexander oh no.

[29:45] These things look like a giant i think it looks like a giant floating brain when it shows up outside the open s end of discovery uh-huh and even on the schematic when dr harai is is checking it out it sort of looks like a deconstructed brain with maybe some like viney plant matter hanging from it almost like like like nerve like like the whole like Like it’s a whole nervous system all by itself that’s kind of furry maybe.
Kind of like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
Minus the cyborg body? I don’t know.

[30:20] Kind of like the flying brains from Futurama? I also don’t know. Keep going. Oh, okay.
Well, I mean, when I saw it, definitely, the head shape, definitely, I can see where you’re getting the brain from it.
Yes. It reminds me a little bit of the shape of the head of a Xenomorph.
Ooh, yeah. not to the horror kind of extent but I definitely can see influences from, Cthulhu which is another another Eldritch horror you know thing the same Cthulhu you brought up last episode yep are you a worshipper of Cthulhu I’m just wondering are you being paid by Cthulhu I barely know anything about Oh, yeah, I’ve never even read anything by Lovecraft. That’s what you would say.
That’s what they told you to say. Oh, I didn’t know that. What?
What? The other thing that it reminds me of, have you ever seen the 2016 movie Arrival?
With the tall white things? Oh, wait.

[31:26] Is that the one when they’re doing the circles and the smoke and the walls and the weird language that’s inky circles?
Yes, spoilers, but yes. oh yeah sorry sorry spoilers for a 20 year old movie it’s probably not 20 years old it’s probably 10 years old 2016 2023 minus 2016 it’s almost spoilers for a seven year old movie yeah sorry it was a phenomenal movie and i won’t get into the twist but you can see how there would be some influence from the heptapods in that movie sure yes like the plane the the floaty smoke space.

Flashy Lights in the Hallway

[32:05] White yeah whatever it is yeah i mean we don’t ever see the tentacles rise up and all we really see is their cranium lighting up and stuff but it does also remind me of like the flashy colors that that uh squids can do speaking of flashy colors we’ll have much more on flashy lights later but there’s have you noticed that whenever indoya goes into a hallway to talk to both in private There’s always like lights flashing and stuff. I have noticed.
Why is that about? Are they flashing all over the ship all the time?
Is this like a new setting?
They’ve put on their Alexa to tell her I guess there’s aura I do know that during the scene you’re probably talking about they aren’t red alert Yeah So wasn’t it mostly like red lights that are flashing down the hall just to kind of remind people that you’re still at red alert I think it was just regular yellow light.
One of the things that perplexed me, and I had to stop and think about it because I remembered later that the Enterprise D was like this a little bit too, but why is the hallway completely devoid of other life?
And why does N’Doye keep on just stepping out into the hallway? Don’t they have a.

[33:21] Like their own yeah that’s a good point a nice little room off to the side would be a better idea i do i may i do that’s a really good that’s a good question earl grey asked a great question, or even just a closet exactly that would be a more private place to to speak wouldn’t you think it’d be kind of weird ducking into the closet everyone’s phone i mean you could go into the bathroom he’s just behind the wall yeah i’m sure he’s watching somebody in the bathroom oh creepy i didn’t want to think about take take it to the f degree on that but okay okay i guess i went there.

[33:56] Do you think that the lights plus the carbons are something akin to the sound of a voice and a facial expression or this or like the words that you’re saying and the tone of voice well i think that’s what uh hiday brings up later yeah oh yeah because i i had been thinking that it was like the facial expression and the sound together.
Oh, okay. The tone of voice and the facial. Okay. I mean, yeah, that same comparison could be made as well, yes.
If I come in peace, I’m going to look a little bit more submissive, so I’m going to present to you my neutral face?
Yeah, I probably have to come in like, I come in peace.
Or maybe you will. I mean, Klingons would. Klingons would come in exactly like, we come in peace.
Or you might include hand gestures, you know hi or just a wave uh you know what to us is a modern day peace sign you know yeah especially if there was cultural context there that’s what they’re all constantly warning us about a gift is very cultural context sensitive they might interpret something else wrongly based on their cultural or their context yes what is a gift that you might receive that you would be.

[35:17] Alarmed by, but you could expect from someone.
Like, it’s Christmas time, and you open a gift, and your mom has given you a box of condoms.
I would hope that she would say, hey, by the way, I want you to meet this nice, person I want to introduce you to. Okay.

[35:34] I think that you’ve just made your mom into a pimp. Or a typical mom that wants grandkids?
Okay. I was going to put a culture to it, but I decided not to. Okay.
Interesting. Was it Catholic? I was going to say Italian. Oh.
So yes. Catholic. Oh, Italian and Jewish. Or Jewish. Okay. I think we just got canceled.
Um i’m not really sure but well you can leave that part out that’s something that i intentionally left yeah we’re gonna i don’t know if we’re gonna include any of the as culbert starts the search for reno the discovery team decides that this is more like music and the melodies are like, the rhythm okay and then they play holographic light bright for a little while.

The Tensei and the Bridge Language with Math

[36:34] They have to figure out, heptapod, not heptapods, are, oh, the Tensei.
Derp, I forgot their name for a second.
Yes, that is not their name. The Tensei are teaching us a basic language.
And it’s their designation.
Yes. Well, you’re right. Yes, I like this idea of creating a bridge language with math. Yeah.
Actually, so some people in the 60s liked it, too. In 1960, Dr.
Hans Frudenthal wrote the book, Lincos, Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse, Part 1.
Is that which is what they’re talking about in this episode the creating a bridge language with math they also brought up medi which is an actual institute that is it sounds like it’s a little bit of a branch off of seti and it was actually created in the 21st century in 2015 they are based in san francisco california they instead of just listening for intelligent messages they They actually actively send intelligent messages out into places where we think there could be intelligent life, where we’ve detected planets in the Goldilocks zone.
That is very interesting. I’ve heard a lot of chatter on the interwebs, mostly on my Bing homepage.
Bing, sponsoring. Let’s talk about it. They don’t sponsor us. I’m just kidding.

[37:54] But my being homepage uh yeah often tells me about new exoplanets found or new planets found or planet found twice the size of earth but with perfect have you heard about that there was one recently where it was like it’s a six planet star system in perfect synchrony in perfect synchrony yeah so like i don’t know what they’re moving around perfectly and there’s like three planets in the goldilocks zone or something oh they just kind of all stay in line together and they’re all orbiting at the same relative speed based on their distance from oh yeah isn’t that wild that is kind of wild so everything’s the same in the sky except for the sun yeah the sun is the only thing that ever moves well and the stars are around yeah well yeah and the stars but you have these things and we all just move together yeah so jupiter and mars and and saturn and stuff are always in the same yeah and one side of the planet would see some and the other side of the planet would see others yeah that would mean like uh neptune and uranus are moving faster than mercury uranus is moving faster than mercury actually it’s those burritos you had last night actually no it would be the opposite it’s all that rectus you know you drank.

[39:04] No it’s all those uh sugar-free candies yeah that’ll do it too i have learned that one that’s a quick way to lose some weight just eat a whole bunch of sugar-free candies oh all your water weight disappears damn i didn’t think about that saru has girl trouble and the girl trouble is only like based on a glance well she shot him down in the meeting i mean okay i i guess and then And this time, she just, I guess he looks at her expecting her to, like, smile back or something.
Like, hello, she’s a Vulcan.

Vulcans’ Overcompensation and Deception

[39:42] She’s doing this thing that Vulcans do where she’s, like, hard examining her own bias by, like, stonewalling at him in public to make sure that people know that she’s not, like, biased towards him or thinking anything of him.
So she’s, like, broadcasting it by doing the opposite.
This is the same thing about. So Sarek, I think, knows the Vulcans do this a lot, which is why he is so quick with the phrase of, I can hear the missing notes, Michael, because all around the Vulcans are constantly overcompensating for something and showing their hand because they’re doing the opposite.
Oh, okay. It’s sort of intricate, and it’s sort of like they’re constantly suppressing, right? And Romulans are constantly hiding.

[40:24] So there’s definitely a strong relationship there between those two things.
And the vulcans also were were also highly deceptive that was the human perspective and especially like archer’s perspective when he first met them yeah yeah is it you know how to get to warp five why aren’t you helping us why aren’t you getting there i didn’t know until recently it took them a thousand years to get to warp five who the vulcans yeah they tested and practiced and And maybe I’m getting the number wrong, but it was like lifetimes that they were spending just, you know, testing and testing and testing and more probes and more probes and never actually just going out and doing it. That is interesting.
Where does that piece of Apocrypha come from? From where does that piece of Apocrypha come, rather?
One of the Star Trek channels that I watch on YouTube. Okay, so it came from YouTube.
Yes, it came from YouTube. Always a source of valuable information. YouTube.
Sponsor of Let’s Talk About… They’re not sponsored.
Maybe they could sponsor us. My name is Jack Dorino and I don’t watch YouTube.

Being Careful with Sources and Correcting Misinformation

[41:40] You know, you really have to be careful with your sources. You have to very strongly… Yeah, before you repeat things on a podcast. Correct. Yes. Sorry.
I wasn’t sure you heard me. I… when?
Just now. I… what? When I said it like a few seconds ago. I’ll rewind and listen. Oh, okay.
So book confronts tarka about his lies and in response tarka tries to further sell book on some impossible dreams like oh maybe everything will just work out anyway even though it might be the end of everything but i think i’m starting to realize yeah that’s kind of what tarka’s been doing with himself this whole time he’s deluding himself yeah like reno is it’s good thing reno’s here to be able to highlight this weird nest that’s going on with tarka because like he’s.

[42:34] A hundred percent like in a manic state yeah well i mean sometimes that’s what we need in our real life is an external perspective on the way things are and not the way we’re perceiving things tarka is a new millennium take on the mad scientist okay because he’s just not some guy in a corner in a dungeon he’s like out actively doing stuff that’s wild like ridiculous like he’s doing ridiculously wild things like merlin or any other you any evil magician from around that time has nothing on tarka tarka’s trying to destroy everything or like like lex luther or something yes or perhaps worse lex luther never set off an isolatic weapon dark side sure yes that guy mad scientist yes so the messaging is working when we we’ve the solved equation is is into sentences and we are sent a taxi because i think that’s the message they sent was could you send us a ride please i i i audibly groaned when zora said i assigned a letter to each pheromone and i’m like Like, oh, God, are they just going to do the alphabet?
Yeah, the alphabet, the symbol replacement. Yeah, I’m glad they did not do that.
That would have been very silly.
I mean, like Kryptonian, the actual Kryptonian language that DC has invented like decades ago.
It’s literally just alphanumeric symbol replacement.

[44:02] Oh, brilliant. I like it. That makes it easy to decipher.
You know, you could leave out a cliffhanger that’s written in that, and then people have to go find out what it says.
That’s kind of cool. yeah i mean allow it makes it easier for the fans to to do that it makes it easier too for the writers they just have to write it in english say hey editor can you change this into kryptonian later sure yeah you know because when i’ve translated stuff that i’ve read in kryptonian it does actually say what they’re saying that they translated as later this is phenomenal see i like that they’ve created a another layer to the show where you can interact with the show in private without their without their uh oversight that’s brilliant yeah okay uh what also is brilliant is the outer hull of the ship from flight of the navigator again your favorite movie i take it yeah it’s i mean this this ship keeps coming back here it is now it’s landed in the shuttle bay happy flight of the navigator day.

The Shape-Shifting Abilities of the A

[45:04] Although this is very much an A. It’s like a little tiny hypersphere.
Okay, yeah. It is, isn’t it?
That’s the thing they do. That’s the shape they make. Well, and also whatever other shape they want to make, too, apparently.
Apparently, they’re sort of material shapeshifters.
So they can craft a door. Now, this may come up in either today’s episode or the next episode of Star Trek Discovery.
But I wonder, if they can make this door, couldn’t they make a human for us to talk to?
That door well and the door is exactly like the doors on the turbo lifts of a discovery discovery correct and it does come up later in the episode where they do give them an identical bridge of the discovery yeah this doubles down on the idea that uh this is a christmas episode because in this episode uh the c-suite was gifted a replica of the bridge from playmates it’s the bridge playset, including signature sounds. You push a button and it gets a little pew-pew.

The Scream Time and Saru’s Yell

[46:08] Yeah, well, so we’ve jumped a little ahead, but the only thing is we passed the whole the scream time.
I don’t want to miss talking about the whole scream. The literal scream time?
Yeah, that was important because Burnham and Saru needed their scream time.

[46:25] And where does Saru’s yell come from?

[46:30] Like what part of his body emits that sound exactly because it sounds like a lion if i’m not mistaken yes it does sound like a lion and we’ve mentioned before that he looks like a his nose especially looks like a cow okay why is a cow lying roaring like a lion oh that is a good question oh but remember previously in the past they were the predator species and the the baul were the prey no they were the prey species no no yes agreed however if you remember when they rewound the the the when they rewound the sphere data they found population changes that indicated that previously the kelpians were the dominant species a member you’re right i forgot and then all of a sudden the baul killed a whole bunch of them and then put them under the whole vahara i i think so the chicken became the predator of the fox yes so i guess maybe that’s where like it comes back from in his dna but it seems like there’s like some sort of extra organ yeah perhaps yeah do cats have like a special thing that they have or i think they do to give them like the the particular rumble that they have that they can do domestic cats have a special organ that allows them to purr yeah larger felines most larger felines are.

[47:57] The largest feline that can purr, though, is a mountain lion, which is about the same size as an African lion.
So, yes and no. Okay.
Well, thank you. But speaking of African lions, they do have really long, deep vocal cords that do allow them to make those sounds that project, like, I think as far as two miles or even farther.
Farther some wolf howls can reach I think 10 miles this has been episode two of Earl Grey’s BBC planet Earth see that’s what I was waiting for that’s what I was hoping for so basically because of the length of his body and how it’s like long and perhaps strong that that’s perhaps where that sound comes from yeah it would be up it’s still up in the throat but he does have a longer neck than than uh humans do i think doug jones would like a word.

[48:55] Well i could do it in post so okay so they finally find uh reno’s badge in engineering yes and that’s when i was confused like what was she putting the licorice on in the in the in the cell also the thing about the licorice i don’t know that i quite understand it because she picked up this device and the device was she picked up a broken device or why didn’t it just work by itself and licorice doesn’t generate power what is she talking about what is that whole thing what are they doing there what’s the point i mean she chewed it first uh-huh our spit is an electrolyte it does transmit electricity generate is what we’re looking for here because, without the licorice the contacts would be touching already because it was a device that was together in one piece so it sounds like she’s using licorice to power it like it’s does it already have power? What’s going on here?

Licorice Power and Engineering Mysteries

[49:47] You saw how she kept on tapping on it and getting it to move, too.
She had to move it around, kind of like a crank radio or a crank flashlight.
The kinetic energy is converted into electric, or it charges the battery to create.
Oh, so yes, it is generating, is what you’re saying. Yes.

[50:07] Interesting. Well, thank you for that. This has been Earl Ray’s Science Explanations, where where Earl Grey explains a thing. Or is it fixes a thing? I don’t know.
Yeah, I mean, I’m probably not hitting it directly on the head, but I think that’s maybe where they’re coming from. Yeah, I think you got as close as you can.

[50:27] I do why are they so alarmed whenever he poofs into the like you know when the the flight of the navigator ship moves up and then it poofs away aren’t they used to people poofing away like it that’s how the transporters work right yeah i mean you you would think so and and they’re trying to get in why are they alarmed when they capture the ship and bring them in you know what did they expect like i mean i think it was the way they did it because they didn’t know what was about to happen well how are they going to warn them hey brace yourselves we’re going to bring you in with this where do they expect a welcome mac and a giant doorbell a big mac and a treadmill that would be a welcoming situation like a carrot on a stick for a donkey correct.

[51:10] Like a like a endoye spurring the plot along by playing right into tarka’s mania like she’s far enough away that she can’t even see that she’s actually just contributing to the madness of a madman when they’re all together in this shuttle bay why why doesn’t anybody notice when she sneaks away i mean she’s oh i’m sorry did she just go to the bathroom no no she said she said she she said she wasn’t she wasn’t leaving she wasn’t leaving with them so that was the thing like everybody else had left everybody else had gotten to the ball and flown away so she was just left by herself to wander about the ship and plot with madmen literally i thought it was a really inspired idea for them to think of using the particular mixture of the air to describe us or to describe them.
Yeah that was very creative yeah it did make me wonder about aliens a little bit more though.

[52:08] Because they have to have the same air mixture right just like they have to have the same gravity like they have to have the same air mixture right like so to come here you would need like a space suit or maybe something to help adjust for the gravity and adjust for the air because unless it’s the same size and this very same composition you’re gonna have a little difficulty breathing or a little difficulty standing yeah there there was the one race in ds9 that they tried to represent uh people in in wheelchairs and stuff yeah malora paslor i don’t remember the name where her the gravity on her planet was like one elysians they were elysians sorry okay.

[52:44] One half or even less of earth so yeah and they had hollow bones they could fly around like birds i’m like a bird and i wear clothes with no feathers how do i make my arms black enough up to hold me up i don’t know let’s not talk about it that’s not the point this is deep space this is 90 science instead they’re flying wait so they’ve been flying for presumably, thousands of years at least right and they don’t have any sort of feathers or, wings or nothing they’re just just their arms just flapping their gravity is lowered so like Like, when we go to the moon with 1-6 Earth gravity, we just bounce around. Get out your seat and jump around.
If it weren’t for the spacesuits holding us down, we’d probably… Float right away.
Yeah, we would just kind of bounce around even more. That’s why we can’t use the spacesuits they had in the original animated series.
Why is that? Because it’s just sort of like a field. Oh, right.
Yeah, it was just a force field that just went around you. No protection.
Try wearing that on a moon.
Are they communicating in emoticons, basically? Like, smile plus boom equals sad.

Key codes and the Kardashian Scale

[54:05] Well do you have to send a key code to everybody that you’re talking to or is it just for us, a key code well you mean the two plus oh yeah oh oh is that what that is that’s like their key file, yeah the the lights are the key codes that tell you what order to read the message in oh yes okay which hydrocarbon to read first then which one to go to i mean i guess they’re just basically saying yeah we read left to right instead of right to left or down the page yeah i guess you would need to send at least some explanation you have to kind of or you could just take them and line them up every time just line them up every time it’s fine when her here i hell i you you can just call him herai if you want here right when herai talks about the kardashian scale did you know what he he was talking about?
I didn’t, do you? Can you tell us? I can.
Great. Welcome to the first inaugural episode of Earl Grey explains the something.

[55:06] It is a method for measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it can use. What’s the name of the scale?

[55:16] Kardashev? Kardashev. Kardashev, yes. Okay, there we go.
Yes, I have heard of something similar. Not this one, but I’ve heard of… What’s the other one?
There’s another one where it’s like… Basically, I think it’s like eight levels.
One of the levels is being able to harness all the energy of your star.
That’s like a really high level. one level is being able to like exist on having a stable civilization on two planets one is like exploring the you know exploring beyond your planet you know what i’m talking about yeah okay i don’t know that that i’ve not heard of that scale because you were mentioning two of the types that were three types that are mentioned oh maybe that was the skill because type one we’re not even at type one yet type one we can harness all the energy of our native planet yeah Yeah, we don’t have that.
And hypothetically, we would also have to have control of natural events like quakes and volcanoes. Yeah, I was thinking about that.
I was thinking that maybe some of the ones after that might not require the first part to happen.
Like, what’s the second one, for example? The second one is the civilization can directly consume a star’s energy in the form of a Dyson sphere.
Okay. And then the third one, you can directly consume the entire energy of an entire galaxy.

[56:39] So I guess a Dyson sphere, but it’s around your entire galaxy.
Okay. Is there more? Is it the last one?
That’s the last one. Okay. Why would you need to? What would be the purpose of that?
I don’t. What would be the purpose of gathering all the energy of a star?
What would you do with it? Because you’re at the technological level that you consume that much energy on a regular basis. Wow, what would you do with that?

[57:08] Well, they’re at a level that is beyond our comprehension.
I guess if we wanted to build an ivory star base that’s separated into 15 sections and then could fly around independently at warp, then sure.
Yeah, I guess we would need that kind of power.

[57:24] It’s my understanding that presumably most civilizations of the United Federation are type 1.
They can use all of the energy that their planet creates, and they can leave their system.
Them i mean we don’t see dyson spheres everywhere in star trek correct so they’re not using all of the energy of their own star yes but we’re at the level where we can you know transport and turn ourselves into energy and back into matter yeah it’s a lot of power you know and they talk about how on earth they can control the weather so presumably there’s no earthquakes there’s no volcanoes that are going off without our say so there’s no flash floods without design on earth in the 24th century all right commander trigger a flash flood in france these kind of things that we’re doing these days on earth in the 24th century well we’re actually beginning to experiment with it break you know like bringing uh uh thunderstorms to the desert so that they can actually have the water that they need.
Yeah, one day we’ll have to talk about conspiracy theories and hurricanes.
We have seeded clouds with silver iodide. And it kind of works.
It’s not perfect yet, but we are getting there. We’re beginning to experiment with controlling the weather.
I’ve heard there were hurricanes that we made much worse through our intervention.

[58:50] Well, I don’t think it’s like we’re directing it with a weapon, but I think I think there are some people that saying that our effect on the climate is changing our weather.
Oh, no. I mean, like they drop something into the middle of a storm to make it react a certain way.
Yeah, I don’t believe that’s the conspiracy theory that we’ll have to have.
Sometime we’ll have to have a conversation, maybe on segment 31 about conspiracy theories.

[59:20] I’m surprised you went on that show i i wouldn’t give them any but the conspiracy theory show yeah crackpot yes i was for our listeners out there i was on an episode of the podcast crackpot, where i talked about experiences with other worldly realms of course the title crackpot kind of indicates that they don’t necessarily take these conspiracies as literal truth yeah Yeah, the idea is to explore them, but not to, like, really believe in them or, like, talk about what to, you know, to crusade after them.
But just to talk about the interesting things that, you know, people have thought or believed in.
Yeah, so, like, I enjoy watching ancient aliens, but I don’t necessarily believe the ancient astronaut theory.
Yeah, same idea. It’s fun stories. Oh, okay.
So Zora finds the breach, I guess, by reviewing some security logs previously.
And then Adira finds the patch based on Zora’s information.

[1:00:15] They are able to locate Janet Reno just as she’s starting to be able to get a message out to them.
So Target succeeds in venting the plasma, which is actually a really cool effect.
I thought it was pretty cool. And I thought it was a pretty cool idea to basically, like, lance this fire through the edge of the hyperfield and then use it to burn a hole in the hyperfield, which is going to repair itself, right?
So then you just use it to burn a big enough hole and then pop yourself through. i thought it was a really cool idea actually yeah i don’t know i don’t agree with tarka for doing it and i think it was devastating that it made the 10c then return our people home because it seemed like we were being deceptive but i thought it was a cool inspired idea and a great effect it’s definitely mirroring other things that have happened in star trek and i imagine mirroring other things that have happened in uh real life history as well tell me some uh it seems Seems like there’s been other times in Star Trek where that’s happened.
I can picture scenes like this where they’re like, oh, you betrayed us.
You’re going home. And they’re talking to the Klingons.
You know, when all of a sudden the Romulans show up for no reason.
You invited the Romulans. How dare you? Or something like that.

[1:01:23] Wait, that was the chase. That’s the episode you’re talking about.
Was it the chase? Where it ends up with, like, the founder at the end, who’s not a founder, but a preserver.
Oh, right. Yeah. That’s where I learned the Klingon curse. Kame da.
Which is food in spanish strangely it’s food in spanish yeah yeah he used you worthless really okay person going on that’s okay the uh the one curse that uh wharf uses most often, is klingon for like little animal it’s like you little mouse what like patak is that the one yeah patak okay yeah you’re just calling him a mouse are you a mouse or i mean rat’s pretty bad.

[1:02:08] You dirty it’s more like a rat yeah yeah okay you dirty rat so we’re in they got sent home there’s four hours until earth strike which would be a great tv show i think you could do like a six part episode of just like you know it’s like a cw show right it’s a starfleet it’s a it’s a star trek branded cw show right and it’s just like and it’s called earth strike right and it just It’s the story of maybe some adolescent kids, like Riverside, Riverdale sort of age.
And they’re just living their lives with their general social intrigue and stuff.

[1:02:45] And the first episode, they learn that, oh my god, the DMA is sending debris our way.
And then halfway through the season, they can see the debris in the sky.
And then at the end of the season is whatever happens at the end of this season.
Yeah either the debris hitting their town and you know they’re dead or perhaps somehow not yeah do you think it would have been interesting to have intercut or maybe an episode or maybe a teaser of an episode where you do go back to earth and or navarre and do see the indeed things are starting to look really grim yeah short tracks would be cool i would like short tracks to be an anthology of miniseries oh okay like like like this star trek earth strike would be like a cool one though you could do like a six-part series you know uh-huh you do a six-part series from calypso oh the six-part series of earth strike could feature some of the people from the oh no i couldn’t i was thinking the people from the remember the picard episode where they were at school on the moon or on mars yeah the uh the card lead-in episode yeah the short with the little girls yes correct yeah i don’t remember the title of that one yeah all i can think it was imaginary friend but that’s just because it’s little girls two little girls imaginary friend so there’s that one oh then there’s the reno spin-off.

Speculating on the future of Star Trek crossovers and licensing

[1:04:03] Where it’s jet reno it’s another like six part six part series maybe four parts for hers you know just like section 31 could be a short track so that would be like a two or three part series, yeah oh oh i’m sure oh i’m sure that’s back in production do you think the uh section 31 movie yes or long trek or whatever they’re gonna also starfleet academy oh yeah that could be because, are we gonna get something between now and april i see okay so here’s the thing that i’ve been been worried about is i don’t know what’s going on with the licensing per se but they clearly pulled prodigy off of paramount right and they’re supposed to put it on netflix so does that mean they’ve split the license now and prodigy won’t be able to like continue to do crossovers of regular star trek characters because they don’t have license to them or yeah like is it a split off thing or is there going to be are there going to be issues because we’ve had issues in the past where you couldn’t talk about this thing or you couldn’t feature this thing well maybe that they just licensed janeway and then there’s always a thing where they haven’t shown much of chakotay anyway yeah but they’ve shown beverly crusher they’ve shown scotty you know they’ve referenced other you know other crew members and stuff from other ships right yeah you showed uhura and odo, yeah so it makes me worry about that and it also makes me worry so does that mean the schedules aren’t going to sync up because they’ve been really good to us in only releasing.

[1:05:27] One Star Trek at a time usually.
I think they may have done Discovery and Picard at the same time, which was difficult, but I don’t think you and I were regularly producing shows right then or we were maybe still working on older shows.
As I indicated at the head of the episode, season one started just before this episode, so they had two episodes left in this season.
There was obviously a two-episode crossover and that’s it yeah and i don’t remember if there was any episode crossovers with uh picard season two and, uh stranger worlds yeah but you know point being that i don’t know whether we’re gonna have to do double up episodes at some point and figure that out here coming soon because i don’t know when prodigy’s coming out i’m hoping maybe it comes out in january february and concludes by the end end of march so that we can what did they say what did i say may april i forget april okay so if it started in february it would not end by march so let’s maybe started after discovery i hope actually what i remember i think i recall if i recall correctly they did part one of prodigy then they did a part one or yeah part one of discovery they did then discovery took a hiatus hiatus and then uh prodigy part two came out and then at the end of their season discovery.

[1:06:56] Finished yeah that’s that’s the sort of structure that i would like i think that would be that would be great yeah because i think at the end of like the third episode or the eighth or something of last season or this season there is always a trailer even to to this day that says yeah in three weeks or whatever uh join us for the next you know episode of discovery and it’s like oh yeah there was a hiatus why was that oh yeah it was partnership so that’s a there is a lot of of Star Trek coming up to look forward to and there’s some being made right now I’m sure now that things are over and things are getting back to normal. Yes.

Imagining a scenario where rating the latest episode is the only way to leave

[1:07:33] Yep. So let’s say that the 10C came into your parking lot and landed there and they opened the door and when you got in it was your apartment again, and they came on the TV in your apartment and they said you can never leave this place and you’ll never speak to anybody ever again unless you rate the episode of Star Trek Discovery Season 4 which is called, Species 10C on a scale of 1 to 10 what would you tell them?
Would you stay in that false apartment or would you go back home?
I’d say take me with you. Okay.

[1:08:16] Doctor, can I see the rest of time in space? Yeah, that would be cool.
I enjoyed this episode. you might have could have left behind the, B plot and the B and a half plot with the earth present earth general yeah did we need her to turn traitor, was it really required yeah that’s what I was going to say is I hope that she kind of realizes oh I didn’t really mean to do that but I was kind of between a rock and a hard place I would hope for her character and her character development the way it’s been going that she would turn herself in okay just to prove and say yes i’m sorry i did this i shouldn’t have done that and she’s not a you know another tarka but to get back to the question at hand i did enjoy this episode i always enjoy meeting a new species especially when it’s a species that is not just a person in a mask or a person in a suit yeah i enjoyed meeting species uh eight four seven two and stuff like that mm-hmm I think I would go with maybe an eight point something on this episode.

[1:09:28] Okay huh interesting okay so the reason i say interesting is because my plan was to rate this episode in 8.5 i enjoyed it a great deal i like the idea of you know figuring out the communication this is also another like solve the mystery episode and things are sort of looking into place it’s also an episode where they’re doing a a mystery hunt to find out what’s going on with zora, stretching all the way to finding the thing at the end and realizing that reno’s not here and also trying to figure out what it is that Tark is, doing, like what is his point and what is he doing he’s clearly doing something secretive on his screens where he’s shifting things around, though trying to figure out the mystery of what the hell is going on with that too, I thought was kind of fun.

[1:10:15] Also the vastly different alien where yeah, it wasn’t just they just formed into, a humanoid as is you know kind of typical yeah they set the humanoid hologram yeah an avatar yeah so I stick with my guns and I’m rating this episode an 8 point.

[1:10:40] Interestingly, I was thinking I almost said 8.5, but then I needed to feed my fixation with pairings or something or sequences.
So I went with an 8 or a .8 instead of .5. Sounds great.
Do you know what the next episode of Star Trek Discovery is? Isn’t it Going Home?
The next episode of Star Trek Discovery is called Coming Home. Coming home? Yes.
With evacuations underway, Burnham and her team before the USS Discovery must find a way to communicate and connect with a species far different from their own, before time runs out.
Excellent. It’s the season finale. Ooh! It is?
Already? Yeah. It’s the last episode of Star Trek Discovery that exists, and you and I, my friend, at the end of the next episode will have completed Star Trek Discovery up until what has been released.
Hooray for you and I. Yay! Pat yourself on the back.
And then be ready for the next season which comes in April alright everybody that’s our show yes it is until next time dream big stay positive and you’ll hear from us again soon.

[1:11:55] Like the little when when they shot the Q man that’s where that works of Paramount CBS’s Star Trek team, of whom no copyright infringement is intended.
You can reach us via email at email at letstalkabouttreks.com.
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We record on Lenovo computers with Zoom, mix with NCH MixPad, and master with Kako 3P. Our intro, outro, and interstitial musics feature samples from Awakening by Waterboy from Pixabay.

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135: Neither Of Us Can Say “Licorice”