The Final Frontier Season 1 Episode 18: Gorn Star

[00:00:00] This podcast is brought to you by Stevie Wicks and by Vizzer.ai The Final Frontier Podcast. These are the voyages of Jake Boger and Justin Spur. Our weekly mission to explore memories of Star Trek's strange new worlds, to recall the search for new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has had the spare time to go before.

[00:01:16] I get that reference. I watched Dark Side of the Ring, I get that reference. Alright, well welcome everyone to The Final Frontier, as you probably inferred from that little exchange. Yeah, that inferred would be right, not implied. I'm implying you're inferring, that's right. What you may have inferred from that is we're talking about Arena. We're talking about the Gorn episode.

[00:01:40] Yeah, yeah. Okay, to start off with, I can just get all my notes on the Paramount description all out of the way now, which are all relating to the Gorn, which is number one, I get that reference. Number two, this description implies that there's a bunch of Kirk Fu coming. Oh, this is where the Kirk Fu poster came from.

[00:02:04] Oh my god, and then will this contain the iconic scene of Kirk fighting the Gorn? Which, okay, I guess I'll just say this up top, this is how you know this episode is iconic, is me as the Star Trek novice. I've seen this scene. I've seen this scene. I know this bit. I know this bit. I recognize this bit. Well, the thing is, like, this scene may be one of the most referenced and or parodied in science fiction period, because like off the top of my head, Futurama made fun of it.

[00:02:34] The Big Bang Theory made fun of it. Star Trek makes fun of it. Like, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It's just, William Shatner did a commercial when he was in his 50s where he's fighting a Gorn in somebody's living room. Okay, no, I don't want to jump the gun on the Gorn fight because I've got so much to say about the Gorn fight. Yeah, we're basically going to speed run through the episode and then spend like an hour and a half talking about the Gorn fight. Breaking down the Gorn fight moment by moment because I just, I have so many, I have a lot of questions about this episode.

[00:03:03] Well, we are, like I said, we're talking about the episode Arena. This episode takes place between stardates 3045.6 and 3046.2. The show, the in-universe date, sorry, is 2266. And the original air date was January 19th, 1967. This episode was written by Gene L. Coon, whose name you've probably seen in the credits because I don't think he was the showrunner yet, but he becomes the showrunner.

[00:03:30] Oh no, he would be by now. He's the, he's, he's the showrunner for Star Trek in the, from the middle of season one to the middle of season two. And this episode is directed by Joseph Pevney. This is such an interesting episode of Star Trek because there's so many like really cool behind the scenes fact. Like for example, this was written on very short notice when basically everyone on the writing staff failed to produce scripts on time. So Gene L. Coon basically said, hold my beer. Um, he volunteered, he volunteered to write a script.

[00:04:00] He left at 6 PM on a Friday and returned Monday morning with the first draft of the script done. I mean, this script is not complicated. It's not a complicated script. There's not a time happening. It's not bad though. It's really not bad. It's not bad though. No, it's not. It's not bad. This is a very good. I I'm not, I'm not ready to declare it my favorite, but it's definitely going to be in my top. I I'd like to, at the end of this, each, each season do like a, do like a top five of our favorites of the season.

[00:04:29] Oh, we absolutely will. That's it. And those are, and for those, for, for our fans, uh, those end of season special episodes are going to be live streams. So you'll be able to participate. This is definitely top five for sure. It's okay. It's just so much fun. Well, so much fun. I guess it's not goofy. I mean, it's kind of goofy fun, but this episode is actually way better than I remember it being. When I was a kid, because when I watched the first time, it was all about the Gorn and don't get me wrong. The Gorn is glorious. Love the Gorn. It's good.

[00:04:59] But there's, there's some stuff. There's some Gorn. Yeah. There's some stuff pre Gorn. That's really good that I want to, I want to talk about before we, well, it's not pre Gorn. Cause Gorn is obviously always there in spirit, but I mean like it's before the Gorn shows up physically. At least before we see the Gorn. Yeah, exactly. It's implied Gorn. Yeah. Up to a certain point. But I do want to touch a little bit more on the script because it's interesting here.

[00:05:24] So based on what I understand is Gene L. Coon, it was not intentional, but Desilu's research department realized as the episode was in production, that Gene L. Coon's screenplay strongly resembled a novella of the same name by an author named Frederick Brown. In order to kind of like sort of head this off because Clue Coon apparently claimed up and down that it was not intentional.

[00:05:49] They got Brown on the phone and he agreed to a writer's fee and an official credit for his story being used as a sort of template for this script, which was good practice because even if, even if it's not intentional, it's, you know. I always, I always, if I homage anything, like I, I watch so much pop culture that I'm bound to reference something at some point. I always say, if I didn't come up with it, I always give credit because yeah, you don't want to get caught in that position of being like, yeah, no.

[00:06:18] So I read a synopsis. I actually kind of want to read the short story now because it sounds quite good, but it is called Arena and it's, it's very similar, but it's not. See, I believe that it was somewhat coincidental because it's, it's, I mean, but Enemy Mine is basically just a movie version of this episode kind of taken further, you know. There's a name for it. I can't remember what it's called, but there's a, there's a, there's a phenomenon there. If you ever, if you've ever watched Louie, I believe is there's a, there's a with Dane Cook where he confronts Dane Cook.

[00:06:47] And he's like, I know that you didn't intentionally steal my bit, but like maybe you heard it or, or you, you, and then you just absorbed it subconsciously and your subconscious thinks it came up. Yes. Or sometimes parallel thought does happen. It's a weird phenomenon. It doesn't happen. One of my teachers in school had what he called the theory of simultaneous thought. And basically what he, he attributed it for entrepreneurship.

[00:07:11] But basically what he said is if you ever have a good idea, you better get on it because completely unrelated to you, somebody else is coming up with the exact same idea. Exactly. Yeah. Certainly. That's demonstrably true. Cause I've had several ideas, but I lacked the engineering necessary or the funding necessary. And then sure enough, within a couple of years, it was a thing. My ideas are so out there that I've never seen anyone come up with them, but I'm always worried that they will.

[00:07:39] Like my, my big idea, like if I had an insane amount of money that I would do, you know, where you're like, why do I recognize that voice? The only thing I could see is if you did in-app advertising, that would work, but I don't think people are going to pay for that. Although people pay for weird stuff. Well, I, yeah. Um, free though. I mean, to be fair though, what Google can do now?

[00:08:09] Well, our adventure begins when the USS Enterprise arrives at the Cestus 3 outpost by invitation of its commanding officer. Right out of the gate. I knew this episode was going to be fun because it starts with Herc, Spock, and McCoy having a moment. And Spock calls McCoy, basically Spock calls McCoy a foodie. But the word he uses is kind of inappropriate because I, I had a feeling I knew what it meant and I was right, but I looked it up anyway. Um, he calls him a sensualist. Yes. I have a note about that. What the f*** is this?

[00:08:39] I'm like, James is going to Google this for me. Essentialist is a sense. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's somebody that heavily prioritizes pleasure. However, it normally, it normally refers to sexual pleasure, but it's Spock's uses. It's not incorrect, nor is it inappropriate for bones. Cause as we saw in shore leave bones gets boners too. Bones, bones, bones is real thirsty. He gets real thirsty. He likes to drink. He likes to go to drink every once in a while. He likes to be real thirsty. He likes to play doctor. He does. He does.

[00:09:09] Um, so I've been known about that interaction and he plays one on TV and he plays one on TV. Yeah. Okay. He sets a good table felt like an innuendo. Like just the way they're all looking. He's like, Oh, he said, he sets a good. That's you. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't click that. I go. So here's my thing. I took it very literally because it's like, well, you are on a starship. So the food you're eating is probably, you know, reconstituted. But it was just the way they all looked at each other. Like this feels like a sex thing.

[00:09:39] He sets a good table. I wonder if he brought his personal chef along with him to Sestas 3. Probably rank half its privileges. It does. Do you think they were getting invited down for like a, like a group thing? Well, here's what I will say. Like an intergalactic key party. The enterprise doesn't seem like they're above partying together based solely on previous episode where they sure leave where they all look like they all participated in a big group activity.

[00:10:08] Well, and then not just that. We know that something went down on the science lab on Christmas. Something. And they all know about it. Everyone knows about it. Kirk seems to think it's a secret, but clearly everybody knows about it. Clearly not. But the other note I had is that Spock smells that BS. He absolutely does. Because he kind of gave me vibes of like, why are we here? Right? Why are we doing this? This seems like a tremendous waste of time. Going into them going down to the planet.

[00:10:38] Cinematography. Got to mention the cinematographer. That upshot. But for whatever reason, when they get a shot of a big group of the crew all together, it always looks like, I don't want to say silly, but like strange. I don't know what it is. I just, the way they shoot it. It's always like, these characters look funny when they're all standing together. You have that moment of like, not breaking the fourth wall, but like, you realize you're watching a silly 1960s science fiction show. You're like, yeah. Yeah, the shot just feels like, it's like, oh, this is TV. Right. Yeah.

[00:11:09] But another fun note though, there's a bit of foreshadowing with Cestus 3. So that's the colony name. So a Cestus is, or was I should say, a Cestus was a Roman boxing glove that was fitted with deadly weapons such as spikes and used by gladiators in the arena. Is that what that was called? Huh. I remember that from, I'm pretty sure that shows up in Gladiator, in the movie Gladiator, I think. Is it not? Maybe not the first one. Did you watch Gladiator 2?

[00:11:38] Because I haven't yet. I have not seen Gladiator 2, no. So maybe. Oh, no. He's not using a Cestus. He's using his helmet. Oh, okay. Then I might be thinking of something. Okay. No, maybe there's a real quick aside. There's a really fun Gladiator game for the PSP that I bought for like five bucks that I like just sunk like a hundred hours into. That was just super fun. And I'm pretty sure that was one of the weapons. Yeah. I remember now this is a real aside, but it kind of tracks.

[00:12:09] So you sent me another medieval MMA video. Yeah. That one was gnarly. I'm telling you. Well, that was so funny. Jordan, my co-host on Spur of the Moment, he sent it to me completely unprompted. Like I was like, it's so funny. We literally talked about this yesterday. He's like, look at this crazy. Yeah. Look at this crazy stuff. It's nuts. But anyway, but after beaming down to the surface, the crew find the outpost obliterated.

[00:12:38] The crew manages to find one survivor who says the base came under heavy bombardment from an unknown enemy. The landing party find themselves under fire from nearby with two of the security team killed in the initial volley. So before we get it, because we did it, we got it. We got it. We got it. We got it. We got it, folks. But before we get there, there was a kind of a funny moment for me where when Kurt tells him to split up, but he looks at the red shirt and he says, stay with me. I was just like, that guy's thinking, oh, thank God.

[00:13:08] I just went, I wrote down his name because I wanted to make sure I enjoyed this moment of, oh, Hurley's wearing a very red shirt. Will he live? Because we've been teased with some red shirts in earlier episodes where they managed to survive. He gets a glorious out. He does. Which, okay. So I got, oh, Hurley's wearing a very red shirt. Will he live? And then two, two notes later, will he be our first red shirt death in a while? What do we, you know, he will not. He's our first red shirt death in a while.

[00:13:36] And then what do we say when we receive a thing we want? About time. Captain, I see something. That is the future album reference for you. It's, uh, you should have stayed closer to captain. You should have stayed closer to the captain. You're safe when you're around Kirk. I mean, apparently not.

[00:14:06] Well, I was going to say that's, that's demonstrably untrue. Have we gotten to the point where Kirk was doing the captain's log while they're walking along yet? I don't believe so. Okay. Because when we get there, I have a complaint about it. Well, I'm honestly not sure. But so my other note, actually, when is this before they were under attack? Or is this when he's using the recording device that you're talking about? It's when they're, they're walking along.

[00:14:32] You see them walking through the desert and he's going captain's log and it shows Kirk not speaking, but he's, he's talking in the present tense in the captain's log. Oh yeah. That's, that's after we're introduced to the Gorn, but I know the moment you're talking about. I didn't, I didn't like that. Yeah. It was weird. I'm like, how, how are you, how are you talking about this in the moment when you're, you can see you're not recording it. I, I, I didn't, I didn't like the usage. It kind of bothered me a little bit. Yeah, no, I agree. That's actually a good point.

[00:14:59] Um, but another fun note is, uh, because it was the 1960s. So William Shatner currently suffers from tinnitus due to an improperly timed special effects explosion on the set of this episode. Yeah. That didn't surprise me. But also both Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly reportedly suffered from tinnitus as well during the remainder of their lives from this episode. So those explosions you're hearing. Yeah. Oh, I, I got notes. I was like, those are some legit pyrotechnics. Like they look like legit explosions.

[00:15:29] Now the thing is the, I was just going to say the explosions you're hearing probably were, um, added in in post-production, but those are real explosions. Oh, for sure. They look very real. Like they're impressively, expensively real. Like I was impressed. I, when I, when I wrote these notes about the pyrotechnics, I'm like, Jace can have some fun behind the scenes, uh, facts about this. Cause there's, there's one where it, I've got to believe.

[00:15:53] Well, then again, it was 1967, but the way it shot, it legitimately looks like it goes off right next to William Shatner. There's a couple of shots in this episode that look unsafe. Like just that. I think that's the one. I think that's the one. Yeah. I could believe it. Like there's a quite a few, I've gotten a note on a, on a particular stunt later. I'm like, this looks unsafe. Like, cause I'm like, cause once again, we, we talk about this almost every episode, but there's that it's the 1960s.

[00:16:21] Their idea of safety on sets is decidedly different than ours. Yeah. There's is there's this, we're not aiming the explosion at you. So pretty much. Yeah. Just duck that way and hope for the best. It's kind of, it's kind of like, hope they put it where they said they put it. Do you trust the special effects guy? It's just like, it's entirely dependent on how safe you'll be.

[00:16:45] Does the spec does, does, does Jim, the special effects guy like you or is he, or is he going to set it off at 30, like two to three seconds early? And that's when, and that's when Shatner looks at Leonard and goes, I'm pretty sure I flirted with his wife at the Christmas party. I definitely, I definitely made out with his sister once. You better hope he doesn't like his sister. Anyway.

[00:17:10] But also the enterprise is under attack from an unknown vessel, preventing the crew from beaming up the landing party on the surface. Kirk finds a grenade launcher from the outpost stores and uses it to scatter the alien. Okay. I must've missed when he picked up the grenade launcher. Cause I just, I just, one of my notes is where'd he get the grenade launcher? Okay. Couldn't I clearly missed that moment. They do show it. And I have a, it's not really a complaint, more of a question, but if I'm right, it is a complaint.

[00:17:39] I'm pretty sure that's a mortar, not a grenade launcher. I'm pretty sure those are two different things. All right. Well, okay. You would know better than I, but are, are there, is a mortar, not just an old timey time medieval version of a grenade launcher in concept? No. Okay. Fair enough. Well, I mean, I think it depends upon your, but I, so my understanding, and again, I'm not an expert.

[00:18:06] So if you served in the military, especially if you were a mortar man, let me know. It's my understanding that a grenade and a mortar, they're, they're different munitions and they have different explosions. So, well, and here's another thing. So that explosion, because my note actually said, holy those grenades, mortar, it's my understanding that mortar explosions are larger than a grenade explosion, which would make sense. Do, this is me showing my ignorance. Do mortars still exist? Yes. Oh, okay.

[00:18:35] So my, my, my brain, they're like a medieval weapon. I didn't think that we. Oh, no, no. Mortar mortars are still, in fact, I knew people that were, that worked in mortar crews in the, in the military. So. I think that's my, my, my, my Canadian showing there. Yeah. Shoot. You know what? If I'd been smart, I would have invited him on because he could have talked about, because he was a mortar man. That was his job. He was, oh yeah. I mean, now that you say, now that you've said that, yeah, you're right. Cause I, I know that I, I know. I know the firing. I know the, the firing device is certainly a mortar. That's the thing.

[00:19:05] But I'm, I'm wondering if it's the munition though. That's my question. Is it the, is it the munitions you're using or is it the firing mechanism you're using? Yeah. Cause, cause they're, I mean, they're, they're, but I don't know. To be fair, I don't know what mortars look like. The, the, the ammunition. I know what a grenade looks like. I'm not sure. I know what modern, I think they still look like they're sort of like little rockets, but. I know what like a world war two era mortar looks like, but I'm not sure about modern munitions. Are a mortar and a cannonball two different things? Oh yeah. Way different.

[00:19:34] Okay. Okay. See, see, this is me. I'm learning. I'm learning stuff today. Not just that we learned stuff on the final frontier, not just about Star Trek. All kinds of stuff. Um, but there's also a really funny moment where my note just says, why does Kirk explain to Spock why he orders the enterprise not to lower its shields? I, yeah. There's a lot of Kirk justifying himself. It's like this really, it's, it's clearly for audience exposition, but. Oh, for sure.

[00:20:02] It makes sense on its face because Kirk literally says, don't like, it just doesn't make sense in the moment because I, I, I'm paraphrasing, but Kirk is talking to the enterprise and he was, and cause Sulu says repeatedly, he's like, we can lower, you know, we can lower screens. And he says, no, don't lower those screens. And we're like, oh, because if they lower the screens, obviously they'll be susceptible to attack and they can't use the transporter. If the screen is up, got it. And then he hangs up with the enterprise and he looks at Spock's and he says, they can't

[00:20:32] lower the shields. Cause if they do, they'll be vulnerable to phaser attack. And we're like, yeah, we know, we know. So certainly Spock knows as the first officer of the enterprise. So this is a question I had for later, but I might as well ask it now because this is the big, uh, big battle sequence is the implication that there's more than one Gorn or is that it's just the one Gorn? Cause how is he fighting the enterprise in space and bombing the out of them at the same time?

[00:20:58] If it's only, no, there's, there's, there's a, there's a Gorn landing party that is wrecking the base. And then the Gorn that Kirk faces is the captain of the Gorn ship. Oh, that he was chasing after. Yeah. But the other Gorn f***ed off. Yeah. They left. Got it. Got it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I was, I was having trouble reconciling that. Well, either that or they sploded. I don't, they may have, they may have sploded. Yeah. They may have just sploded. It's possible. They sploded. It's possible. They sploded. Um, because that's a really big blast.

[00:21:28] I believe there would be nothing left. That is true. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, that's a fair point. Yeah. Maybe Kirk killed them all when he, uh, when he, uh, also, yeah. Spock, Spock, once again, being like the value of human, although we, we discussed that he probably wouldn't have sacrificed a person in the last episode. Sure. Seemed like he was willing to, but they sure get over those fatalities real fast. Well, that's a note I have where it's like, this is, uh, after the red shirt died. Wait, there's more. I missed the second guy. Cause I was so fixated on the red shirt. We don't, we don't see him die.

[00:21:58] He's, he's reported to have died off screen. Oh, okay. I just said, it feels a little weird and cold that no one has mentioned that that one guy died earlier. No one mentions the red shirt. They don't, they don't, they mentioned, and it is especially weird because they mentioned him by name. Yeah. So they, they have a personal relationship with this guy. Nobody gives that he's now dead. No, no, because he's a red shirt and he doesn't matter. The alien ship recovers its crew from, oh, so I, well, the synopsis says that the ship recovers, even though we don't think that's accurate because we never actually see it and

[00:22:28] it's not alluded to on screen. But, um, so I'm just going to refer, I'm going to, I'm going to edit the synopsis. The alien ship begins to retreat. The landing party is being back aboard the enterprise and then they give chase. So, okay. So we, we, we didn't talk about this. Um, uh, I just got a note that just says duck and weave, uh, like it's, and I, I don't really want to make fun of this just because again, I wasn't there doing the stunts, but

[00:22:56] it's, it do seem to be moving in a very unintelligent way. I mean, Kirk, Kirk roll to a Kirk crawl. This episode has everything. Well, and then there's Kirk foo later, but it just seems, it just seems like the way he, I love that there's a moment that shouldn't be funny, but it kind of is when Kirk's like, I'll get closer. And then he immediately has to stop because of the, you know, the mortars or bombs going off. Yeah. It's, it's funny when you can see, um, staging where you could see like, you can see their

[00:23:24] choreography or like he doesn't dive, which was, which I thought was right. His land. That's legit dive. I just had the note. Just says the stunt work in the scene is really, is really good. And then, uh, Holy a rare Spock roll. That, that did happen. And then, so the thing that makes this not super comedic for me is you have to remember that they did all these things more than once. Oh, for sure. My, my thing is, I found it was interesting is Leonard Nimoy's roles, not as good as William Shatner's roles.

[00:23:53] His roles were, they did not look as comfortable. I don't know if it's because, and the thing I've learned from this show that I've never, I never appreciated until I think this episode and one of the man, Leonard Nimoy is a tall guy and he just looks uncomfortable doing the stunts. Would, would they have had stunt guys on this show? Is this the kind of show that would have had stunt guys to do some of those stunts for them? Yes, but not to the same degree as we would now, because like there are some times where William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and all them would do stunts depending on the shot.

[00:24:20] I mean, Shatner, I mean, they'd get so many closeups of him doing that. It's one of those things that we want. Oh, it sounds so egotistical, but once you make a movie, even on a basic level, you understand what goes into blocking shots and like there's so, or, or closeups or medium wides or all that stuff or like to get coverage. So you, you will, you're like, if they've got a closeup of him doing a role, he had to do that role. Oh yeah. And there's actually a fun fact coming up where if you're the eagle eyed among you would

[00:24:48] notice a change in William Shatner's footwear. And that's because he was actually the one running around in the mountains in Southern California. And you'll, I'll touch on it later, but for those of you that noticed, you know what I'm talking about. He's wearing different shoes and that's, there's a reason. But so some fun facts. So Sean Kenny, who played Helmsman DePaul in this episode is the same actor that played the disfigured Captain Pike in the menagerie.

[00:25:15] Oh, his resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter, who played the original Captain Pike is playing to see in this episode. That, well, I mean, yeah, but I, he, well, he's, he was the guy working with, uh, Sulu, right? Sulu. Yes. I think I, I was just so, I was just so taken by Sulu. Sulu man. He also has given a tour to his, his, his like taking charge and being like this combat stuff in space was just so good. Just so good. Sulu is a competent commander.

[00:25:43] And that I think may have been the first seeds of what would come because Sulu, for those who don't know, Sulu goes on to captain his own ship, the Excelsior. Spock, Spock, Spock. I think Spock says either Spock or McCoy says that exactly what you just said, that, that Sulu is a very talented Helmsman. He knows exactly what he's doing. Shut up and stop worrying. Like let Sulu, but, but, but this in Sulu's capable hands, he, he can handle it. That's basically, and I think it was Spock, but I'd have to go back and watch. Um, okay.

[00:26:12] So this is, this is the thing that doesn't really make sense in this episode, but it does play into the plot. So I guess I may, I'll just read it. Kirk says the Gorn ship may indicate an invasion, but my, so my brain went crazy when Kirk said that. Cause I'm like, but if it is an invasion, isn't this one single ship really inconsequential? And like, if the Federation, the Federation would be better served by the enterprise communicating with Starfleet command immediately and patrolling the area for more Gorn ship sightings until

[00:26:41] more, you know, members of the fleet arrive, as opposed to giving chase to one ship into unknown space, which may very well end up a trap. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a moment later on where I'm like, Oh, this is definitely didn't turn out to be a trap so much, but I was like, this definitely feels like a trap. So yeah, for sure. I do. Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing of it is, so it's got trapped. I guess that this really wouldn't qualify as a false flag operation, but there, there is a term for this.

[00:27:08] I'm just, um, it's, it's been done throughout history all the time where basically the aggressing party basically makes BS justification for military action. So that's not what happens in this case, or at least it's not outright said, but it, let's say that the Gorn were actually looking for a provocation. Like they were looking for a reason to make the Federation, you know, provoke them while

[00:27:36] attacking an outpost and making it look like, and then blaming it on a so-called invasion would be a really effective way to do that. Yeah. But the thing, the thing that always kind of gets me about that is, which again, I have the history, I have the benefit of hindsight of knowing the history, but it's like, who's really buying that when they do it? Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like, okay. So a good example would be like the Japanese invasion of Manchuria at the beginning of the

[00:28:05] second world war where it's like, and we know this now that it was in fact, you know, it was a trumped up, you know, provocation. And they were like, okay. Yeah. Because we had a skirmish with, you know, members of one. I don't even remember how we, how would you call that? Cause at that time there wasn't a central government in China. It was a bunch of warring factions, one faction. So because one faction allegedly attacked us, we're just going to take over this big chunk of China and be okay with it.

[00:28:35] Well, I mean the first space my brain goes to is like Pearl Harbor, where it was like the Americans were antagonizing the Japanese. Well, at least that's how they painted up here. They were antagonizing the Japanese. That's what they said. To provoke the Japanese into doing a Pearl Harbor. So then the Americans would have an excuse to go into world war two. That's kind of what that's. Yeah. I don't, that's the thing. I'm not in that camp. I don't buy that because here's the thing if the United States just wanted to go to

[00:29:02] war, um, they, they would have, they didn't need permission. Right. The thing of it is though, the Japanese, uh, at the time, the Japanese government, I have to be careful because whenever you say the Japanese, somebody can make the argument that you're talking about Japan of today. I am not, I'm talking about, I'm talking about the Japanese government of, you know, 1941 at that time. The materials government of 1941. Yeah, exactly. That's it's a different group of people.

[00:29:30] Um, that being said though, the United States cut off oil to them because of their, you know, invasion of Manchuria. Yeah. So this was, you know, this was not, this was the thing and Roosevelt, my understanding, cause I didn't know the guy, but my understanding with Roosevelt was it's not so much that he wanted to go to war, which he did, but it was because he understood what was happening and what was going to happen.

[00:29:55] And he felt that the sooner the United States got involved in the war, the shorter it would be. And there you'll never know because it didn't happen, but there might have been some truth to that. Like for example, if the United States has gotten involved, say before the Germans took over, you know, Paris, for example, it will D-Day need not have happened for one because they would have been able to just bring troops into France. You know?

[00:30:22] I mean, here's another case of, it's very interesting because here's the international perspective on that. How, how they teach it in my school, Canadian school is that, uh, it just to be clear, it's different. It's very different than American school. Sure. Um, but they, they teach us that post world war one anti-war sentiment was very, very high. So American people did not want to go to war.

[00:30:48] And so the American government needed to make the idea of going to war palatable and getting attacked was the way. And I'm not saying this is true, but, and getting attacked by, by the Japanese was very much a way to do that. It was. And the thing of it is that because the Japanese government also sort of felt that it was a, it was only a matter of time before the United States joined the war too. And Pearl Harbor was an attempt to knock out their Pacific fleet to delay their getting

[00:31:17] involved in the Pacific theater. You know, I mean, this is not a world war two pocket, but I will say I watched a really interesting video because I, and I, I never really, I never really put this thought together, but the premise of the video is basically like the, the notion of the Japanese and the, and the Nazis working together was very, like very, very rad. Like, no, it's something you wouldn't think of because the Japanese very much are, you know, antithetical to what they're not blonde hair, blue, you know, um, why would they work together?

[00:31:46] And I watched a really interesting video that was basically like, yeah, they really, they really didn't. They were fighting two kind of separate wars and not really coordinating in a way that would allow them to win. And that was kind of sort of why they lost in the end. Well, the thing of it is, is had, had both of those sides won, eventually they would have gone to war with each other. Um, not, not, not so, not so much for racial reasons, but it was, it was going to happen. Um, just because when you're, when your goal is world domination, it's Highlander rules.

[00:32:16] There can be only one. There can be only one. But yeah. And the reason we're talking about all this is though, is it comes into play later with the Gorn's reason for being there. But yeah. Going back to the story, both ships enter an unexplored sector of space and shortly thereafter lose all proportion power. Very mysteriously. The Enterprise is contacted by a species calling themselves the Metrons. The Metrons. The Metrons. Trons. Metrons. The Enterprise is contacted by a species calling themselves the Metrons.

[00:32:45] They announce that they will pit the respective captains against each other in trial by combat to the death, with the ship of the losing captain to be destroyed and the other ship free to leave. Captain Kirk is suddenly transported to the surface of a rocky barren asteroid. Note on that in a moment. Along with the captain of the other ship, who is of a reptilian species known as the Gorn. Hell yeah. I just have a bunch of notes regarding the chase.

[00:33:15] I'm chasing the Gorn. I think it was Spock was bringing up something about, I guess, the morality of what the Gorn, what the alien, they hadn't defined what they were yet, had done. I said they were pretty much actively trying to blow you up. They don't seem like they have good intentions. And I know Star Wars messes this up, but I couldn't remember in which way. Is Parsec a measure of time or distance? Distance. Distance. So they're using Parsec correctly. They are using Parsec correctly.

[00:33:45] Yes. Star Wars uses it incorrectly. That is correct. Although, I don't remember what they said, but somebody came up with a really convoluted way to prove that Han Solo was technically not wrong. I don't know how you can... They do it in the Han Solo movie. They explain how they... I can't remember how, but there's an explanation for how it's actually distance and not time. Well, I think it's a... Isn't the sort of like cheap code to get out of it?

[00:34:12] Isn't the Kessel Run not a defined crack? Isn't it like... I don't remember how they... It still doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. How many warp factors are there? So there are actually 10, but by this point in Star Trek lore, it appears that their engines are capable of going up to 6 safely, and 7 is pushing it, and 8 is kind of like really pushing it. That's what I figured. I said apparently it goes as high as 8.

[00:34:40] I said, oh yeah, so I have a note that says so they are space cops. Oh yeah, this feels like a trap, which we already talked about. Is sublight like the spaceship equivalent to putting it in park? No, sublight just means they're traveling slower than the speed of light. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Which, okay, so that's another thing. And again, it's because it's 1967. Yeah, it's because it's 1967. They later...

[00:35:09] So I'm not faulting the show for this now. They later explained that warp is not technically going fast. It's technically bending space time. Gotcha. So it's not a wormhole, but... So technically speaking, they're not... They couldn't physically be traveling faster than the speed of light because if you do that, matter dematerializes. At least that's my understanding.

[00:35:37] For the physicists in the audience, if I'm wrong, please correct me because I'm not going to pretend like I'm a physicist. I'm basing this off of what I've heard other much smarter people say in videos and podcasts and one live presentation that I went to that one time. Basically, the way I understand it is somehow... I'm going to butcher this. They create this field around the ship that that is what is transported very, very quickly. So they open up... Oh, okay. Yeah. So they open up...

[00:36:04] Somehow they open up a pocket in space time and are able to do that. Yeah. So I got it. This annoyed me when I was watching the show. But again, I'm like, I'm not an astrophysicist. Maybe I'm wrong. But I feel like if it's got an atmosphere, it's not an asteroid. Turns out I was correct. By definition, this is not an asteroid. And as asteroids lack the necessary size and therefore gravity to hold on to gases.

[00:36:30] And I actually believe the Metron says planet while Perk twice refers to it as an asteroid incorrectly. But here's why it's annoying. Perk is the captain of a starship that operates in space. The captain of a starship should know the difference between an asteroid and a planet. Or even a moon. I'd buy that it was a moon. In terms of the... Oh my God. I'm flanking on the names. The energy beings. I said, you're right. It's just yet another energy being.

[00:36:58] And the interaction between the energy being, which the name is escaping me again. Metron. It felt... Metron, thank you. It felt very condescending. Like a parent lecturing... Yeah. Lecturing a child. I was like, I don't like this. And also, this is absolutely the iconic Gorn fight scene. It's absolutely. But there's a... Here's a couple notes that'll make you laugh. The Gorn stick is bigger. Why is it? Why do... Why do everyone keep trying to hit Kirk with a stick? Well, technically, Kirk grabs a stick first.

[00:37:28] And the Gorn's just like, my stick's bigger. Okay. We got to talk about the Gorn costume, right? No. First, we got to talk about the tinfoil that was in the mountains. I mean... I thought you were going to mention the spray paint that we tried to pretend was sulfur. Well, there's that too. But just looking at the mountains, I'm like... So apparently, these mountains are real. They exist. They're in California. But I'm like... I'm like, so these don't look alien enough. We have to throw tinfoil on them? It's funny.

[00:37:57] I had a few moments where I questioned. And then I remember... This is really funny. When... On the spur of the moment, we talked about Bill and Ted's bogus journey. I don't know if you've seen Bill and Ted's bogus journey. I haven't. Jordan? Oh, you have not. Okay. Very speed run of the plot of that thing. It involves them getting killed. And the point where they get killed is the same place as the Gorn fight. And Jordan referenced it. Yeah, he's like, oh, yeah. It's the same place where Kirk fought that Gorn once. I was like, oh, that's how I knew it was.

[00:38:27] Because otherwise, there was moments where I'm like, this is looking very set-like. But I knew that it was a real place. So this is another fun fact. I don't... Unless you look this up, you wouldn't know this because the costume. The Gorn is played by a very familiar face. Very familiar body. I'm sorry. He's played by Ted Cassidy, who played Rook. And what are little girls made of? Oh, no kidding. Yeah, that makes sense. Because the Gorn is massive. Ted Cassidy also did the voice of Balok in the Corbomite Maneuver.

[00:38:55] And as we established in the funniest episode we've done to date, he played Lurch in the Adams Family 60s TV series. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, we did. So the scene on the planet surface where the Gorn and Kirk have their epic battle is called the Vasquez Rocks, and they're in California. It's the same location that was used for the episode Shore Leave, Friday's Child, and several other Star Trek productions, even as late as Initiations in 1995.

[00:39:25] Oh, wow. Which I believe that's a TNG episode, is it not? I mean, based upon the date, that would make sense. Yeah, that would make sense. The area, this is great. And I think this shows up on GPS. The area of Kirk's fight with the Gorn in front of the jagged rock face is known as Gorn Rock. Of course. Naturally. Yes. That makes sense. Another fun fact. In the 1970s, the Mego Toy Company, we've touched on them before, produced a Gorn action figure doll.

[00:39:53] However, unlike the TV character, the toys dressed in the same costume used for a Klingon doll. Also, the head was the same one used for the Marvel Comics lizard doll made by the same company, except the Gorn head was molded brown to match the costume. So, in another example of the Mego Toy Company being like, oh, we already know exactly what this thing looks like. Nah, we're going to do it ourselves. We're going to do our own thing. I mean, very peak Mego Toy Company. Yeah, it's what they do.

[00:40:22] And then another fun fact, if you watch this on Paramount Plus with us, you will have seen that the Gorn, rather convincingly, I might add, blinks his eyes from time to time. Obviously, the original costume, this would not have been possible because it was a mask. This is not present in the original episode. The blinks were added in the digitally remastered versions of this episode, which I believe started with the DVD releases. Interesting. I didn't even notice that. I'm going to be honest with you. It looked real.

[00:40:51] So, that's impressive. I mean, that's a thing you can... Look, I'm enough of a fan of the Muppets and Jim Henson where I'm like, you could do that with puppets. It's very possible. Yeah, well, in the original, obviously, they didn't. But here's my thing. I appreciated it, but I'm also kind of like, why? I guess to make him look less like a costume, I guess. Yeah, because the eyes not blinking was what did that for me.

[00:41:19] Not the fact that when he talked, his mouth doesn't move. But, you know, that's... Yeah, but his eyes blink. It's got to be real. Yes, I love the Gorn. It is peak 1960s. Okay, everybody. We're almost there. Kirk's about ready to face the Gorn. But I have a feeling that he would have had a much easier time of it had he had this sponsored. Stevie Wicks is setting out to give you the greatest candle you've ever smelled. And they're specializing in hand-poured, all-natural soy wax candles. Many, many varieties. Very many scents.

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[00:42:44] Um, I don't know that that would have made Kirk's fight with the Gorn easier. Not gonna lie. Yeah, no, I don't think that beloved sponsor would have helped him very much. But anyway, back to the story. The Metrons speak to Kirk, explaining that while neither captain has communication with his ship, each has been given a vocal recording device that will transmit their words to their ships. However, they are unaware that they also translate their words to the opposing captain as well.

[00:43:13] That seems kind of disingenuous. Oh, is that why the Gorn could all of a sudden speak to him? Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, I was just like, what is the additional necessity of having the rest of the crew stand there and not really say anything and watch what's happening on the screen? I didn't really understand the function of that. It's so Spock, it's so, yeah. It's so Spock can look really good at chemistry, even though, well, I'll touch on that when we get there.

[00:43:40] But there's no way Spock could have known that was potassium nitrate, a white powder. It could have been any number of things. It could have been anything. I just felt like it really could be anything. Could have been sand for all he knows. My thing was like, when I think in one of the captain's logs, Kirk is like, the Metrons have told me this, this, and this. I'm like, when did they tell you this? Like, you disappeared off the Enterprise and then they're like, arm around you as you're teleported to the planet. So Kirk, here's the deal. That thing, called a Gorn. Okay? It's a lizard thing.

[00:44:10] It's going to kill you. Cool, cool. Here's a thing. Good luck, buddy. Like, when did this happen? It's going to eat your face. Yeah. He's going to murder you. We're going to enjoy it. We've placed money on it. Fred's betting for you for some idiotic reason. Fred's a freaking idiot. Oh my God. Turns out, Fred won a lot of money. I almost said it. So that recording device the Metron supply Kirk with and the Gorn with is actually just

[00:44:37] a silver painted electric hair clipper without a guard on it. Of course it is. That makes sense. Yeah. Which actually, I kind of figured, I'm like, that just looks like a, that just looks like hair clippers. I'm like, it looks suitably science fiction-y enough. It's good enough, man. It's good enough. I'm not hating on it. Kirk is told that the asteroid, the planet or moon, Kirk is told that the planet and or moon has numerous resources either captain can use to defeat the other. Aboard the Enterprise, the crew are allowed to watch Kirk's actions.

[00:45:07] So this is where you'll, the footwear change that I talked about comes into play. Because my note that I wrote down was, did Kirk's boots always have laces? Turns out, they did not. Oh, I didn't even, I didn't even notice that. That's so funny. This change is likely, and I had a feeling this was the case. This change was likely due for safety reasons as William Shatner was running and climbing around those really steep rocks. Well, yeah, there's, there's, well, that's why I was talking about safety where I'm like,

[00:45:37] there's one shot where he's climbing up like a sheer cliff face where I'm like, did they not have insurance like concerns? Oh no, they probably, they probably did have insurance, but the thing of it is, it's like, and see, here's, this is why, this is why it's probably a good thing that I'll never make it in Hollywood because like, I would totally do it. I wouldn't be bothered by it. I mean, I, I, I, I've done a lot of things I shouldn't have done for, for, for, uh, for film.

[00:46:03] Um, but I'm, I'm just like, in today's day and age, they would never let Shatner do that. Like they'd be like the insurance companies won't let us do this. Like there's, there's no, there's no way. So just watching him climb that sheer, like cliff face, I'm like, that looks dangerous. That's why we don't tell them. And here's the thing. Just, I know this is extremely anecdotal. All my work. Well, I take that back. Most of my injuries have been from doing really mundane things that I don't disagree with.

[00:46:31] Not, not like I've done some decidedly dangerous things and walked away with no problems. I rolled my, I rolled my ankle once by jump and not even jumping by like kind of hopping off of a curve. The most dangerous thing I did for a movie was the director wanted me to flip backwards over this couch. I was sitting on the couch and I had to flip backwards and I like onto like reasonably hard floor.

[00:47:00] And I was very concerned about breaking my neck. I was like, this feels dangerous. They didn't even get cushions or anything. I think at a certain point it was like couch cushions behind me, but I went right through them. Yeah. I can't, I can't talk because in my, my first ever internet show weekly wrestling wrap up, which fun fact, we're actually going to be releasing them on our off weeks for down the middle. So if you like wrestling and don't subscribe already, stay tuned for that. There's, there's a bit we did and we did not tell him to do it this well.

[00:47:30] There's okay. This is a long story. There's a bit where one of our friends is playing one of the interns and there's a bit where he gets hit in the head with a pan off screen and then falls down a staircase. Oh yeah. Okay. Now I told him take it slow and I can speed it up and make it look a little bit more. Nope. He just rolls down the staircase with a very sickening thud and you can see it on my face.

[00:47:57] There's, there's an outtake we do in one of the episodes where we do gag reels and we show what happens after that. We all turn around and go, are you okay? And he gets up. He's like, he's like, I'm fine. Well, I'm glad because you're not doing that again. Right. There's one take. One take. That's a, that's a one take. Yeah. That's a one take, which fortunately it was perfect because I mean, he just falls down the stairs. Yeah. That's funny.

[00:48:25] Kirk attempts to communicate with the Gorn, but receives no response. The Gorn tracks Kirk down and Kirk realizes he is outmatched physically and relies on his speed and agility to outrun the Gorn, which actually I'm going to call out the synopsis that actually happens when they first meet. It becomes very apparent that the Gorn is significantly stronger, but also slower than Kirk. Okay. So all my notes are, uh, that costume is very difficult, clearly very difficult to see out

[00:48:53] of, which is probably why the, the choreography is what it is. I thought the same thing. And, but kudos to Ted Cassidy because Ted Cassidy is apparently very claustrophobic. I mean, good for, I mean, it's a, here's what I will say about the costume itself. I liked it. I, other than the head, the rest, the body looks great. Like, I think the body looks very believable. It looks like it's real. It's that head, man. That head looks ridiculous. Other than that, it's a great costume. And yeah, it's very slow fight.

[00:49:21] Just an excruciatingly slow fight. Really? I kind of like the head. I, I mean, I love it. Don't get me wrong. Um, but in terms of making it look like, not, like not corny, but I love it because it looks corny. Like I, I'm, that's just how I work. Like, I love it because it's peak 1960s. It looks 1960s. Well, I just realized why it looks so weird because for some reason the lizard has compound eyes. Yeah.

[00:49:47] Which is not a thing that normally, no, most, most, most, every reptile I'm aware of has like, I mean, different, different pupils, but, um, standard eyes. One of the four varieties on earth other than compound. I'm not sure. But I, yeah, I love it. I love a bad guy and a stupid, I grew up with power Rangers. I love a bad guy and a stupid costume. I, okay. I'm at, I'm this, this might be controversial.

[00:50:16] The Gorn costume is better than some of the ones that were on power Rangers. I said it. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I, I, I don't disagree. It's mo it's mobile. Like I think the reason why I think it functions out of it, if what functions and like, it's not cumbersome or, or he can move. Yeah. We've talked about Godzilla. Like there's a lot of Godzilla costumes where they clearly can't move. So the fights aren't really all this is like, he can't, he clearly can't see

[00:50:42] like, it feels very much like they didn't test this out prior to the day of shooting. He put it on and they went, oh no, we can't see. Like, it gives me that, that vibe. Like maybe they had a much more dynamic fight sequence planned out prior to this. And he's like, I can't see what I'm doing. I'm okay with it though. Cause it does make, although the, the one thing that doesn't make sense is if it's a reptile, that means it's cold blooded.

[00:51:06] And that means that it would be theoretically super slow if it were cold, but they're clearly in a place that's a desert. So he'd be pretty fast. Like it'd be pretty fast actually. Like the, cause I mean, the best example I could think of is say like a crocodile or an alligator, which the, I forget what Nile, like Nile crocodiles can actually run very fast. Crocodiles and alligators in general. They're actually very fast. I think it's like, I don't want to say, I don't want to miss.

[00:51:36] I think it's 35 miles an hour. I was going to say 30. It's just something 30 or 35. They're really fast, but also they won't because well, alligators certainly, and they, they tend to be very lazy creatures. So they typically won't, but they can, if they want. Well, the crocodiles are more aggressive. That's why I referenced the Nile crocodile. Cause they're, and they're even faster and they're even faster in the water. My, my thing with my thing with that first flight is it's not so much that the gore is slow is that Kirk is also slow when he's fighting him. He's like, that's true.

[00:52:06] That's only, it only bothered me because a lot of the moves, like he's doing like this, but he's doing it agonizingly slowly. And it bothered me because in previous episodes, he was much faster when, with his combat. So just again, it became obvious that it was very difficult to see out of the stupid costume. Yeah. Like Finnegan, he was going super lightning fast. I would say that the, uh, that the Finnegan, the Finnegan costume or the Finnegan, um, uh,

[00:52:34] fight was better than this in terms of an actual fight. Oh, sure. Sure. But it's, it's a better fight, but it's not nearly as fun. It's not nearly as fun that I, that I will agree with. Yeah. But so the other note I have is, and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. That was a very conveniently placed rock, right? Right. All of it's just kind of there. But here, here's the other thing. So I, I wasn't thinking about this initially, but later it came to me later and it turns out I was right.

[00:53:03] So give it, obviously it's not a real rock. It's made out of some, which is why William Shatner was able to do it, but he has to push it slightly uphill. But given the size of that rock, um, he wouldn't have been able to do it. And if he moved it, it probably would have just rolled backwards and killed him. I mean, yeah. Well, my favorite part of that was when he picked up the rock and then the gorn picks up a bigger rock. So the gorn stick and rocks were bigger. Right.

[00:53:32] So the other thing that I found kind of comical is the Enterprise's crew reaction to an alien lizard man. It's really strong considering that they've encountered extraterrestrial life before. I mean, yeah. It can't be that weird. Well, I've got, I've got a note about the, them watching the view screen, which is just that it's nice to see that the Metrons care about dynamic cinematography. Yeah. It's important that this viewing experience looks interesting.

[00:53:58] And security camera footage is not good enough for the Star Trek, for the Star Trek Enterprise. Right. It was just funny because there's one, I was like, it was mostly once one still frame. And then one moment it did an extreme push in and I'm like, who's filming this? Like the Metrons went to film school. What do you want? They, they're, they're of the art film school. They like a bit of more Artur film. They went, they went to USC. So. Right. Kirk gets caught in a rope trap set by the gorn, which, oh my God.

[00:54:27] My favorite part is, okay. Wait, is that, okay. Is that the bit where the gorn take? No. Yeah. Yeah. The gorn takes a, no, no, it's not. There's a, there's a moment later where the gorn takes an absurd amount of time to, to get to Kirk and allows Kirk to fuck up. That's it. Is that getting him out of the trap? Yeah. He takes so long to get there. It gives Kirk 40 billion chances to escape. Like what is happening? Well, first of all, like I've never seen somebody so careless running than William Shatner.

[00:54:55] I mean, then captain Kirk in this episode, because he is, it's probably is purposeful because it has to convincingly look like he fell for the most obvious trap ever. He watched him build it. That's my thing. He watched him build it. He watched him build it. That's right. Yeah, he did. And then he's, he's clearly, he watched him build it. And he's clearly looking away as he comes to the rope trap, which is the only way you would fall for it. And also considering the fact that it's almost a foot off the ground. I, the trap is so stupid.

[00:55:24] I forgot about it. That's how dumb it was. Like, oh yeah, right. It's the obvious trap he was building. The gorn finally communicates with Kirk via the translation device after Kirk escapes and offers to put him out of his misery. Kirk accuses the gorn of being butchers, but the alien defense, their attack on Cestus III, stating the outpost had been built in what the gorns considered to be their territory. They viewed the Federation's presence in this part of space as an intrusion and a possible prelude to a full scale invasion.

[00:55:54] And suddenly the Jew was on the other foot. And Kirk understood. My thing. Okay. Is there like, oh, the gorn were just defending themselves. I would not characterize slaughtering an entire outpost outpost as defending themselves. I said the same thing. My note actually says maybe, but it's not like the Federation came to Cestus III and wiped out a gorn colony. Right. It says that they still slaughtered an entire outpost.

[00:56:22] It feels like an entirely disproportionate reaction. Oh, hugely. And that's the thing. Cause it's like my response had I been in the same situation would have been like, okay, I can understand why you felt that our presence may have been an incursion, but your response was really, it'd be one thing if you showed up and were like, Hey, we're the gorn. This is our neighborhood. We appreciate it. If y'all got the f*** out. Yeah. And then the, uh, the Federation was like, yeah, we understand that. We hear you.

[00:56:52] No hours, hours now. Then that might've been, uh, I'm not even going to say an appropriate, understandable response. If the Federation went, went full colonial British, then I'd understand. Boom. History reference. Yeah. Yeah. If the gorn showed up and they're like, this is our territory. And they're like, but you are simple lizards. We're going to make this place much better. Yeah. It is ours now. Starting with subjugating all of you and stripping you all of all your natural resources.

[00:57:22] Right. Right. But don't worry. We're going to build a school. Then at that point. All right. Okay. Yeah. We're going to, we're going to re-educate you. Have fun learning our version of English. Don't worry. There will be a, so much Shakespeare. So much. Trying to stay ahead of the gorn, Kirk discovers numerous valuable minerals and resources on the planet, not the asteroid, seemingly useless at this point. He's in the spray paint on the wall.

[00:57:50] That's one of many, many valuable resources. He's inspired upon finding stalks of bamboo and raw chemicals that can be mixed into black powder. That was it. That was the bit where, where I was like, oh my God, the gorn are the slowest creature as he, as he takes a thousand years to bring, to mix all these chemicals. Oh my God. He's taking so long. The gorn is taking forever. So Kirk constructs a makeshift weapon using chunks of diamond as ammunition. Kirk barely completes the assembly as the gorn arrives and fires it, severely wounding

[00:58:20] the gorn. Chemistry is useful kids, except. Okay. Here's the thing. Okay. So assuming that Kirk could even come up with the correct mixture, which fun fact, it's not even close because the formula for gunpowder is actually really specific and there are other steps to it. It's not just mixing, mixing the dry powder. I learned that from Mythbusters. Yeah.

[00:58:48] And actually I think Mythbusters did an episode about this. Yep. And they all, everything I know about gunpowder and explosions. I learned from Mythbusters. But here's the other thing. So assuming that Kirk could actually even do this, he would have blown his face off. He took so long to mix everything. I just. Well, okay. Okay. So here's the thing. So he essentially made a giant bamboo blunderbuss for being real. And so my first problem with this scene is he breaks off a bamboo stalk.

[00:59:18] So it's theoretically open at both ends and we don't see him seal the back end. True. True. I just, he just started dumping the shit into it. Yeah. So, so, so he's going for here. He's dumping all this powder and stuff into it and it should theoretically just be running out the back. But okay. Let's assume that he somehow, someway found a way to plug the back of it. He's still, it's bamboo. It's not an iron barrel. It would have blown up in his face. Right. Right. That was a, that was a lot.

[00:59:47] That was a lot of black powder. If he had mixed it correctly, that. That's, that's, that's a very, very large amount. And his ammunition is mixed in with it. So. Right. Oh, that would have been so, so bad. It just would have been terrible. First of all, the Gorn, to be fair, would have been dead too. Yeah, it would have been, it would have been mulch. I mean, they, they basically both would have just been dead. Right. Ugh. But. It would have been over there, over there, over there, and over there.

[01:00:17] Since this is sci-fi, it works. And as Kirk prepares to deal a death blow, he considers the Gorns claims that the attack on Cestus III was only in self-defense and allows him to live. So I have a nitpick here too. Which I meant to bring this up earlier, but I forgot about. So I'm, I'm a, I'm a big Obsidian nerd. And the thing is, for those of you who don't know, Obsidian is volcanic glass. And as you can probably guess by the first word, um, in order to have Obsidian, you need

[01:00:47] volcanoes. That makes sense. That's a connection. I see no volcano anywhere. I mean, maybe somewhere on this planet. That's, that's possible. Um. Said. But I mean, I guess, here's my thing. It's very obviously, specifically Obsidian. But, just make him sharpen a rock. Like, it's real nitpicky, I'll admit. But. Yeah, fair enough. On my brain, I've kind of hit the point in my life where I'm like, he's on a space planet. That's true. Logic went out the window.

[01:01:17] Hey, maybe it's. There's an alien lizard man. Logic has gone out the window. Well, and hey, fair enough. So I will say this too. It's never expressly called Obsidian. I am assuming, and it probably was a piece of Obsidian that they had. Actually, I doubt it was real Obsidian because that would have been really dangerous and stupid. Because Obsidian is actually extremely and dangerously sharp. So, I actually, now that I think about it, because considering William Shatner is holding it with his bare hands with no sort of grip or anything.

[01:01:47] So yeah, it probably wasn't real Obsidian. Otherwise, he probably would have sliced his hand about 50 different times. But. Maybe, maybe it's, maybe it's just a weird space rock that looks like Obsidian. It's just a, it's just a weird space rock. Fly, flying. The only, the only Jordan will get this reference. Flying magic pirate ship. No, I know what it is. It's unobtainium. Super pirate ship. Yeah, exactly. Unobtainium. Yep. Hey, apparently that's it.

[01:02:14] I learned, I learned somewhere that that is a real definite, like that's a real thing in like geology that, that they like determine geology that they actually use. And like, apparently they, they are like, they find the notion that James Cameron actually used it in a movie to be hilarious. Oh yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's absolutely. So I actually do a whole rant in, what episode is that?

[01:02:37] I think it's an episode of the Average Intelligence podcast where I actually, it was right before Avatar 2 came out. And I basically did an episode talking about how is Avatar actually a good movie or not? Avatar 2 came out. And I talk about, there were so many better names that would have made sense for the mineral. And the one that I came up with was Prometheum. Oh, that would be much better. Han of Tamea was so bad. It's so bad.

[01:03:04] I have, I am not a, a, a impartial person when it comes to that movie. I have particular trauma associations with it because I, oh, this is a very weird aside. I'll do it quickly. I used to work in a movie theater. I've talked about before. And I worked in the movie theater when that movie was at its peak. And it was like four months of every single showing sold out. And people were mean, like, like they would, they would come up, they would, one person drove

[01:03:33] like an hour out of their way to watch this movie and screamed at me. Like we tried, the line was, the line was so long that it was a fire hazard. We tried to put it outside and everyone like verbally abused us. It got to the point that like my manager was having like terror nightmares about it. Like still to this day that like, I, yeah, that takes me back. I have a hard time enjoying that movie as a result. And also it's not a very good movie. No, my, my argument is, and will remain the fact that it's just dances with wolves in space and not as good.

[01:04:03] I don't disagree. Jordan always called it cotton candy where it was like, you know, it's sweet. It looks good, you know, but it dissolves really easily when you put it in your mouth for too long. And it's fluffy and meaningless made of nothing. Yeah. At the end of the day. Yeah. Cause I'm going to sit here trying to defend it. Um, but the thing is, it's just been done before. And to be fair, and I actually liked the movie, the last samurai, but even I admit the last samurai is just dances with wolves in Japan. Yeah.

[01:04:31] I mean, to be fair, a lot of the deal with that first one was the surrounding identity and type being tied to the 3d stuff. So that's, and at the time 3d was really big. So that's why that movie, when you watch it at home, you kind of notice it's narrative flies. Yeah. Yeah. Also, I thought the second one was bad. Oh, it was. Cause the second one's just free Willy in space. Yeah. It's 13 years too late. It's way too long. And there's an exceptionally long, long scene of them killing a space whale. Star Trek.

[01:05:01] Star Trek 4 did it better. I'm just saying, see the concept of the space whale, that's a Star Trek thing. That's coming one day. In more ways than one, actually, because one of the Zindi species is aquatics and they're whale-like. They're like humanoid dolphins. Star Trek likes the space whales. That's fair. They do. Eat your heart out, George and Gracie. Trekkies get that reference. Anyway, suddenly the Gorn disappears and a Metron appears to Kirk, congratulating him

[01:05:31] on not only winning the battle, but showing the advanced trait of mercy for one's enemy. Kirk declines the Metron's offer to destroy the Gorn ship, leading the Metron to comment that- You are still half savage, but there is hope. That line was weird to me where it was like, yeah, we're, we love the fact that you let it live. Do you want us to kill it anyway? We could do it. We totally do it. We could, we can kill it right now. See, that's what we call an extra credit question. Right? Right? It's a bonus question.

[01:06:00] The Metron also says that the Federation should seek out the Metrons again in several thousand years' time. Do the Metrons ever come back? Do they seek them out again? I don't remember, but I will tell you what you should seek out. This thing. Stop wasting your time on manually editing your videos. The secret AI tool will do the work for you. One of the best thing about it is that it gives your video the potential to go viral. Visit this page. Sign in.

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[01:06:58] Once done, click export to post. So those of you who are language nerds, you might be thinking Metron, Metron, Metron. It's sticking out because it was for me too. Metrons were named after Metatron. God's. God's. God's. Well, okay. So, okay. Let me just, I'll just read the whole note so you'll understand why I chuckled when you said that.

[01:07:27] So the Metrons were named after Metatron, God's other high ranking soldier in Michael's army of angels. Hence, their cherubic spiritual presence or Alan Rickman for those who saw Dogma. I watch Supernatural so he's bogey from Revenge of the Nerds. Oh, fair enough. That too. If you watch Supernatural. So suddenly, Kirk finds himself back aboard the Enterprise. His injuries healed. And also, lace is gone from his boots. And the crew finds itself 500 parsecs from Metron space. The Gorn ship nowhere in range.

[01:07:57] So like, I guess they must shoot, they must have shot all the spaceship stuff, even the end stuff, all at once on the soundstage. And then they obviously shot the planet stuff on location. Yeah, so it's why they switched back to his regular shoes. Unless like the shoe change isn't permanent, I'm guessing. So this is really, really kind of funny. So they mentioned that the Enterprise is 500 parsecs away from where they were.

[01:08:26] And in terms of the entire galaxy, that's not nearly as far. Because they make it sound like they're on the other end of the galaxy. Yeah. Yeah. That's not, it's not nearly as far as it sounds. I had a feeling. Yeah. Yeah. The way it was like, ah, go back there. I don't remember the exact, because for some reason I must have gotten the wrong. I was really unfazed by it. So I was like, it can't be that far. Yeah. I got the, well, no. Oh, and they make it seem like it's very far.

[01:08:57] But the thing of it is, I don't, the example that I read was that if the galaxy were condensed to like California to New York. Yeah. Oh, okay. They make 500 parsecs seem like California to New York when it's really more like Los Angeles to, um, I forget what they said, but another place in California. Oh, I know. So in state, basically. In state. Yeah. So it's not, it's not quiet as far as they make it seem to be.

[01:09:26] I mean, yeah. Again, Kirk seemed really unfazed. He was like, all right. It didn't seem all that distressed by it, which indicated it couldn't have been a terribly long distance, which actually I've got to look this up because it's bothering me. Cause I feel like I'm not getting that right. Okay. So Sulu said they were quote clear across the galaxy, 500 parsecs from where they were. The galaxy is almost 40,000 parsecs across. So they were moved about one 80th of the way across the galaxy.

[01:09:56] That would be the same as saying that when traveling from Los Angeles to New York city, Pomona is clear across the country. I don't know where Pomona is. It's in California. Yeah. So how far is that from Los Angeles? Let's find out. Also keeping in mind, I use the metric system. I'm also, I I'm better in terms of time to tell me how far away it is in terms of time. Okay. I can do that. That's probably so Los Angeles.

[01:10:24] So if you're like, it's about 40 minutes away from Los Angeles, I'm like, all right, that's not that far. I can wait that too. It's 57 minutes away. Oh, so it's about an hour. Okay. So basically it's from where I live to Vancouver. Well, okay. It's worse than that though. So it's not that far. So, but that's because that's because of traffic. It's 29 miles away. Los Angeles to Pomona is 29 miles. Oh, so, so it's an hour with traffic. Okay. So without traffic. Okay. Yeah.

[01:10:51] That's not that far, but basically, yeah, it sounds like it's from where I live in Abbotsford to Vancouver, which is not far. That's about a, if you hit traffic, you can do it in just under an hour. So that's like 70 kilometers. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so, I'm, I'm bad. Even when it's in kilometers, like if you said to me, it's a hundred kilometers away, I'd be like, I don't, I don't. So that it was very funny when I, when I, when I, when I went to, when I went to Paris on a, well, I went to more than Paris, but when I went to France on a school trip, the,

[01:11:19] obviously the signs are in kilometers, not miles per hour. So I forget the conversion, but it was something like it's Mark 70. And here in the United States, 70 miles per hour is pretty fast. That's what you see on like the highway. So all these American kids are seeing like 70. And some of us had to be like, that's like 40 miles an hour, 40, 45 miles an hour. Just stop freaking out. They're not going that fast. We, we get, we get lucky because our speedometers have miles on them.

[01:11:47] So if I go to the States, I have miles on my speedometer. A lot of, a lot of our cars have kilometer per hour as well. Yeah. But it's definitely, you really have to think about it when you're down there. Well, see, that's why I like my, so my car has a full digital display and I can actually change it. So like, if I were to drive to Canada, I can actually change it to kilometers per hour, which is real nifty. It's enough of a conversion where you're like, yeah, exactly. 40, 40 miles an hour and 40 kilometers an hour. Very, very different speeds.

[01:12:16] Well, so funny though, when I did drive to Canada, um, when I was, I was vacationing in Michigan and we were like, I mean, we're right there. Might as well go to Canada, eat at Tim Hortons, go to a mall, that kind of thing. Might as well. But I did, I had to keep reminding myself. I was like, okay, don't be that dumb American that starts driving when it, when it's marked 40 kilometers per hour, don't drive 40 miles per hour. You will get, you'll get pulled over by the Mounties. Right.

[01:12:43] A hundred kilometers an hour and their eyes go wide. It's, it's not, it's fast, but it's, it's not as fast as you're probably thinking. So this episode has a lot of firsts. This is the first episode to establish that the Enterprise's cruising speed was Warp 6. It was the first episode to be directed by Joseph Pevney. So Pevney was actually hired by Gene Coon because he had a reputation of filming fast. I mean, this episode needed that. Yeah, it, it, it did.

[01:13:12] It's also the first episode to establish the existence of the Federation. The word was used in the Corbomite maneuver, but it was referring to the first Federation. But this episode refers to the Federation as the United Federation of Planets, which will be fully named later in the episode, A Taste of Armageddon, which is coming up. It's not next, but it's, it's coming. Interesting. It is also the first episode to make reference to Starfleet. When Kirk makes an entry in the recorder, given him to the Metrons, he asks, quote, whoever

[01:13:40] finds it, please get it to Starfleet. It was also the first episode to be broadcast in color by the BBC. Huh. First shown in the UK in November of 1969. And it is also the first episode to establish that transporters cannot beam through deflector shields. I mean, yeah, obviously to create drama, but hey, it's, that at least makes sense though. Oh, for sure. It does make sense. Yeah. Otherwise, yeah. A lot of the problems with the episode would be solved pretty quickly if they could just

[01:14:10] beam up whenever you wanted. Well, yeah, but it actually makes sense that you wouldn't be able to beam aboard a ship that has its, you know, shields up. Fair enough. That does, that does make sense. Well, I mean, because here's the thing, boarding would be far too easy then. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, no, it makes absolute sense. You want, it's like, it's like the, the space equivalent of the gangplank. You know, if you don't want people rolling up and laying down at the gangplank whenever they, whenever they want. Precisely. Except the Vikings, space Vikings would find a way around it because that's what they do.

[01:14:40] Because they're space Vikings, naturally. It's what they do. They just jump out of their spaceship shirtless and naked. Right? They're not wearing a space helmet. They don't need it. They're space Vikings. They're berserkers. Right? Berserkers. Berserkers. Berserkers. Except they're in space. So it's there. So I get that reference. Olaf metal. No one can hear you metal in space.

[01:15:09] No one can hear you metal. So I think, you know, I'm going to ask you, do the Gordon come back? I, well, yes, but not, not for a while. No. Interesting. I was, I'm going to be honest with you. I was expecting you to say no. So here's, it was actually my next note.

[01:15:25] So despite the aliens impressive debut and the cultural popularity of the image, no Gorn was ever seen again in a mainstream Star Trek production until mirror darkly or in a mirror darkly part two from Star Trek enterprise almost 40 years later. So an actual Gorn shows up in that episode. Like, is it, but is it an updated version or is it like original costume and everything? It's an updated version. Oh, lame. Because I'll be honest, I would have really liked for them to have at least a redone version of the original costume.

[01:15:55] So is the design completely new? I mean, in a way, yes. They keep the heads basic shape if I remember correctly. But it's still a stupid looking like, yeah, but it's a CG character. Oh, it's a CG character. Ah, okay. So, so the mouths move. I say, I think I can't remember. I do remember the Gorn showing up and I'm being like, ah, because like, that was my next thought.

[01:16:20] My next question was these feel like the kind of, I didn't write this down as a note, but these feel like the kind of characters you bring back in like strange new worlds or like a new movie. And it's like, they're updated in their CGI. And this is the bad-ass versions of the stupid. You know what I mean? Like, see, I believe. These are the kind of characters that come back like that. I'm pretty sure that we'll see a Gorn in strange new worlds. It wouldn't surprise me. They're kind of rehashing a lot of those old classic Trek episodes. And I, listen, I don't have to love it, but I get it.

[01:16:49] I get why they're doing it. Oh, for sure. My other note though, is in one of, one of the more fun episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Trials and Tribbleations. Captain Sisko admits to Jed Zia Dax that he would love to meet Kirk and ask him about, quote, fighting the Gorn on Cestus III. They all know it. But that's not why we're here, old man. Also, technically Kirk didn't fight the Gorn on Cestus III. He fought it on a random planet in space.

[01:17:21] I'm just saying. Technically he did fight Gorn on Cestus III. Okay, but here's the thing. Gorn could be singular or plural. That's just what I'm saying. The fist fight occurred on, was not on Cestus. I don't want to be that guy, but if I'm going to be that guy. No, but here's the thing though. That feels like something because there's been, what am I, I'm trying to think of an example, but of course I can't. But there's several examples of battles throughout history where it's like the battle of such and such, where the battle actually didn't take place at such and such place.

[01:17:50] It was a nearby place. How many, how many years after that is Deep Space Nine in universe? Like 10, 15 years? Oh no, it's, it's, it's. Okay, I'm going to have to do math here. I don't know, but it's, well, it can't be that long because Kang, Koloth and, okay, hang on. Well, we'll look that up too. Trials and.

[01:18:14] My, my, my point is more just after a certain amount of retellings, the flight may have gone for random planet to Cestus III just out of simplicity. Got tired of differentiating when he was telling the story. It's like, it all happened on the same place. Right. That's what I'm saying is because probably because they, the planet technically didn't exist. It was created by the Metrons. So if there was a battle there, they probably would still refer to it as the battle of Cestus III because that's where it started. True.

[01:18:40] It's all one extended battle because the battle never ended because he chased the Goron and then they found the Goron. So the battle technically never ended if you really want to get pedantic. So Star Trek Deep Space Nine takes place between the years 2369 and 2375. What year did we say at the top of the episode this was? We are in the year 2267. Oh, wow. So it is. So almost, so about a hundred years or so. Then, yeah. By that point, the story has been retold. It told a number of times. Wow.

[01:19:09] Klingons live for a long time. Well, because as established, there are characters that are in Star Trek, the original series that show up again. Kang and Koloth being two of them. Yeah. That show up in Deep Space Nine. Now, granted, they are old men, but I mean, they're well over a hundred because they're clearly adults in command positions in Star Trek, the original series. So, wow. Klingons live a while. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that makes sense. I've won. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, they're aliens.

[01:19:38] I have a bone to pick with Star Trek Picard then. Yeah, but Star Trek Picard is supposedly bad. Well, no, here's the thing. Worf has visibly white hair in that episode, except that Worf is certainly not a hundred years old. And Kang, I think only one of those three characters actually has white or gray hair when they appear in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Well, then the obvious answer is one of them is doing a dye job. Two of them would be doing a dye job. Two of them are doing a dye job.

[01:20:07] It's the only answer. They're dyeing their hair. Worf doesn't care. Worf is like, I'm a white, I'm a silver fox. Now I'm just imagining Gowron doing a... I'm a silver clean up fox. Now I'm just seeing Gowron do an ad for Just For Men. Bring honor to your house. See, I'm not... I've been tempted by watching Kirk... Not Kirk, Picard a few times. But the fact that... I think I've mentioned this before. The fact that they curse puts me off of it.

[01:20:37] I just... Especially for Picard. I just... Like, to me... To me... Next Generation and the original Star Trek is so milquetoast and safe. Like, I just... I just don't like that they curse. I just... Again, as much as I have campaigned for rude Star Trek from Quentin Tarantino, he's the only guy who I will allow it from. We kind of got that from the Orville, but I guess it's not rude. It's cruder. It's a little bit crude, but they don't like straight up... Or they do, I guess, in the third season, but it's still... It's Picard. I don't know.

[01:21:07] It off-puts... Like, it off-puts me when that universe... That version of the universe curses. Just picture, like, number one. I'm given to understand that we're allowed one F-bomb per series. Should I use it now? Yes. Yes, Captain. You may. And then Data Malfunction just goes... Dang it! And then the beefs come back. Oh, live long and suck it! Live long and suck it. What if I told you that Commander Wolf's head looked like a fanny?

[01:21:37] You can all suck my ridges. Commander Wolf's head looks like a fanny! As much as I'm enjoying the original series, I'm so excited to get to Next Generation. I love Patrick Stewart. Oh, we're going to be a minute. I realize now the horrible undertaking. I feel like... This is what some of the crew members felt like when they... Like, they first got on the Enterprise. They're like, yeah, five years in space! And then the first red shirt bit it and they're like, oh no.

[01:22:07] Oh no. Five years in space. With this guy telling us what to do. Our five-year mission. To watch all of Star Trek. In as succinct as fashion as possible. Da-da-da-da-da-da. Well, listen. Listen, if you want us to do this in five years, we're going to need your help. That's true. You're going to pay us. Yeah. We're going to need to be able to do this more than once or twice a week. Okay. We're going to really need your help on this one.

[01:22:36] But you can do so by patronizing our sponsors that we introduced you to in this and all of our episodes. Or subscribe so we get popular enough that we can start a Patreon. We have finally raised our red shirt casualty count to three. Hit that counter. Oh, we already did. Oh, we did. Well, hit it earlier when you already did it previously. Rewind and go back. Rewind and go back. Watch it again.

[01:23:06] Watch it a few times. Right? And then go back and watch do Android's Dream of Killing Red Shirts where we do it twice. Where we do it twice. Now, here's the hope. I mean, you would know. Are we going to see a steady incline of red shirts? I have a feeling. I have a feeling. I think we're going to start seeing that. At least one an episode. Like, I think I will be satiated if I get at least one. But they really, they really, man. No. For however much in the, was it the last one?

[01:23:35] The last one was where they got all emotional about the guys dying, right? For however emotional they got in the, I guess because they weren't red shirts, you allow your allocated emotional bandwidth to feel sad for the non-red shirts. But the red shirts, you have to compartmentalize and never talk about them again. Now I'm just, now I'm just imagining they're like, God, he wasn't wearing red. Oh, he wasn't wearing red. I'm allowed to feel sad about this one. He was wearing gold. Why?

[01:24:04] I'm just, I'm just picturing, I'm just picking a quick pick. What shirt was he wearing? Red? Red shirt. Oh. Don't care. It's cool. We have more of those. Don't bother telling me his name. Don't bother telling me his name. Ah, well, like I said, that was arena. Hopefully you had as much fun as we did. And if we didn't. I had a great deal of fun. Lighten up a little. Like, come on. How could you not? How could you not have fun with this episode? I mean, maybe somebody should just come up to you and go.

[01:24:35] I will say it's one of those episodes that makes me go, man, I regret not getting into the show earlier in my life. Because man, I am just enjoying the hell out of this. Let me tell you. Okay. Well, join us next week when we look at the episode Tomorrow is Yesterday. Justin, as per usual, would you like to take a stab at what this episode is about? It's about time travel. Care to go back in time? Care to try to be more specific? Oh, I mean, okay. Okay. I'm going to be straight up.

[01:25:03] I would have guessed it was time travel regards. I did get a brief glimpse at the description, but it was very vague. Like, so I'm going to guess that they go through a wormhole in space by accident. Like, they're going warp factor seven and they accidentally go through a wormhole in space and they wind up in pirate times. No. No, no, no. So, yeah, you should have stuck with your original and said, nope, I'm not going to get, I'm going to stay vague. So, I'm going to be fair.

[01:25:33] All it said, all it said was, all it said was, they go back in time, which I would have guessed. I would have gone free throw. It's about time travel. They're going back in time. Yes. It's just, I don't know how yet. I don't know how. I don't even remember how, but yeah, I mean, it probably is a wormhole or something to that nature. I'm excited to go back in time. Time travel episodes are always fun. They are. It's always fun when a show set in the future goes back to the current time. Like, when it's set, that's always fun.

[01:26:03] That's always a great deal of fun. Wait, is this the one, I've referenced it before. Is this the one where Abraham Lincoln says it's unfortunate racism? No, because that's actually not time travel. Really? Yeah, because that's not time travel. That's not really Abraham Lincoln. Oh, interesting. I mean, obviously it's not, but I mean, even in universe, it's not really Abraham Lincoln. They didn't pick up Abraham Lincoln from the past and bring him to the Star Trek future? They did not. Oh, fascinating. Although he believes they did, that Abraham Lincoln imposter.

[01:26:34] We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. That's a fun little episode. That's fun. I will say, looking to the future, I was not expecting time travel to come back. Oh yeah, it comes back multiple times, which is why Star Trek 4, The Voyage Home is quite humorous because they're talking about theoretical time travel and I'm like, you've done this like four times already. You know four different ways to travel back in time. Why are you speculating as to whether or not this will work? You've literally done it before. I'm excited though.

[01:27:03] As soon as I saw it has to do with time travel, I'm excited. But that's next week. Yes, that is next week where once again we will look at the episode, tomorrow is yesterday. But until then, watch long and prosper. And subscribe. And comment and like. Yeah, comments. Because when you guys comment, it's more fun. So watch, comment, subscribe long and prosper. And prosper.

[01:27:36] Yeah, that was my memory of that guy. I just remember his talking head part where being like, everyone thinks that this is a character. It's not a character. I'm really this crazy. My note was, why does Christopher get an officer's uniform? He's in a spaceship, right? In space. Speaking to a future man from the future. And his line is, a man with slightly pointier ears than him. And I just remember the other guy. So do you think that he's going to be like, man? He does. He does. He does.