EMH Episodes

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Discovery going throttle up. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Warp Top 10 podcast. What is happening, happening out there, my fellow Trek fans? What's going on? I am your co host, Phil Rizzo, here with another episode and I am joined by my co host, Brian Parks. What is going on, Bomber? [00:00:45] Speaker B: Hey, you know, not much. Glad to be back. You know, here we are. I mean, me and you were kind of in the Jersey quadrant here. I don't know if that's. That's a thing there, but it's exciting to be back. [00:00:55] Speaker A: It's good. I tell you what, bet you people listening to this are like, oh, thank God it's not me going solo again. Not just my freaking voice talking for an hour and 20 minutes here. We got Bomber back. We're gonna do another top 10 for you today. It's. It's a fun one, I think. I think a lot of Trek fans are gonna appreciate it. Bomber. I'll fill you in on what we're doing in a few, but before we do that, listen, everybody, check us out on Instagram, TikTok threads@twarp10. You can shoot us an email, stwarp10mail.com, let us know what's up, what's going on out there. You love us, you hate us, let's go Mets. Whatever you want to say, shoot us an email and see what's going on. Palmer, what do you think about that? They could. They can reach out and just email us anything they want. [00:01:36] Speaker B: I'm sure no one's gonna say let's go Mets right now, but. Yes, we never know what we're gonna get. You know, we'd like. We would like any kind of interaction with the fans here, anybody that wants to say hello. That's very, very kind. Yeah. [00:01:47] Speaker A: Yeah, we take all. Take all comers, baby. And, well, the Mets had a chance to play spoiler there at the end of the season. I really thought they were gonna help the Phillies stay out of the playoffs, but didn't work. So I get to watch the freaking Phillies and Braves playing a wild card. Unbelievable. [00:02:00] Speaker B: You know, it's. It's funny how in sports where there's not. It's almost like a. Another dagger in your heart when not only does your team not make it, but two teams you can't stand happen to play off in the playoffs. It's like, how much further can I get slapped in the mouth? [00:02:13] Speaker A: At least one of them is moving on to the divisional series. It's like, screw you, man. [00:02:17] Speaker B: But at least you know in the next round. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Wait, what's that? [00:02:21] Speaker B: Least you know who you're gonna root for in the next round. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. The only good thing is I work in Philly country. And that first loss was fun to. To be there. We were doing a. We're doing a town hall at my work. Bomber knows what I'm talking about. We both work for the same company and was doing a town hall. And you know, our executive director was taking a moment to look at her phone. So I took that opportunity to say, everybody listen up. In case you missed it, just want to let you all know, the Eagles lost yesterday, so they still suck. And the Phillies are gonna lose to the Braves. They were like, ah. They were throwing shit at me. I love it. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Wow. Nice. [00:02:51] Speaker A: Love working in Philly country, especially when the team sucks. So. [00:02:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:55] Speaker A: What are you gonna do? Hey, but you know what? We'll save that sports for another pod. We do. If you want to check out something other than Star Trek, go ahead and check out Men of a Certain Five. Bomber and I do another podcast where we do top five everything in the world of sports. Movies, tv, books, hey, historical figures we'll throw at you. We do our top five. So how about that, Bomber? We got two pods going here. [00:03:15] Speaker B: You know, that was a great segue, number one. I got to tell you that right now. That was phenomenal the way you did that there. [00:03:21] Speaker A: I do that. You said number one like there was a number two. I wanted a second compliment there, but you didn't give it to me. [00:03:26] Speaker B: No. You know. You know what's funny? Because I think we talked about this on the pod. Nobody wants to be number two. You know who. You know who wants to be number two? You know, gotta be number three. I think the number two. I don't know why, but what is that? [00:03:35] Speaker A: Ronnie Dangerfield in Back to School. Look out for number one, but don't step in number two. [00:03:42] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Love, Rodney. All right. Yeah, folks, listen. This is a Star Trek pod, baby. We're back. We're gonna do a legit five. I know Bomber has watched when the bow Breaks, so we are going to be recording that pod soon as well. We'll get his impressions of that episode as he rounds third base on season one of a Next Generation. I can't stop with the sports metaphors today. I don't know what it is. [00:04:03] Speaker B: You can. I'll tell you what, I am kind of like, you know. You know. You know, I was gonna say this is probably a long tangent you can cut out. But do you remember there was like a high school coach or, or a college coach in baseball that he went off on the umps. This video was like gotta be way long ago. And he got so irate. He started like acting like he was throwing bombs on the, onto the, onto the baseball field. And then he started like crawling on the ground like, like he was, like he was in a ditch like in a World War I scenario. Like, you know, it was absolutely bonkers. [00:04:34] Speaker A: I don't remember. [00:04:36] Speaker B: Maybe someone on here will remember this. But my point bringing it up is the way he kind of crawled. It reminded me of myself getting through this first season. It's been a little bit of a crawl. You know, we're still kind of digging our way through but eventually we will be on the season two and we can't wait for that. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah, that'll be fun. Like, like it, it's season two is different, it's a different beast. It's, it's a, it's an improvement over season one, however small. But it is an improvement over season one. You got a couple really good solid like all time Trek episodes in season two. So I think that's pretty fun stuff that has consequences through the entire Trek universe. So I'm excited to talk about season two, but folks, we'll round, we'll get back to season one on the next pod, we'll talk a little bit about when the bow breaks, see if Palmer liked it, didn't like it, what he thought of the Aldeans and the kid snatching going on there. So we'll check that out. [00:05:27] Speaker B: But today folks, be a fun one. Yeah. What do we got today? What's on the docket here? [00:05:31] Speaker A: A lot of fun guest stars in that one too. All right, Bomber, listen, today we're gonna focus on, you know, Star Trek Voyager. So today we have a little, we have a little, we're gonna take a character from Voyager and do his top 10. So we're doing top 10 EMH episode, top 10 Dr. Episodes today. This is one that I've kind of had brewing for a while. I, I'm excited to do it. I'm excited to talk about it. Robert Picardo plays the Doctor on Voyager. Bomber is familiar with that actor and, and you know he's also known as the emh, the Emergency Medical Hologram. So a little bit about Voyager Bomber. So just as a reminder, I know you, you're aware of Voyager and you know the Janeway is on Janeway. [00:06:16] Speaker B: I'm saying this is the Janeway Show. Yes. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yep, that's the Janeway show for sure. You got. We ain't found shit. You got Tuvok as the security officer there. Yes, good stuff. And. And the Doctor is a hologram. So basically, in the first episode, without spoiling anything that, you know, you won't remember three years from now anyway, but basically, in the first episode, Voyager encounters sort of this spatial whatever shockwave that, you know, really screws the ship up and sends them across the galaxy. This is the show where the ship is stranded in the Delta Quadrant and their whole mission is to try to get. [00:06:50] Speaker B: It always sounded intriguing to me when you described it to me. [00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. So, anyway, so they lost a lot of their key personnel in that opening sort of pilot episode when the ship was ripped across the galaxy, and one of them was. Was the. The Chief Medical Officer and most of the staff, I assume. So it was a kind of a cool reveal that, you know, with this new Starship Voyager, an intrepid class starship, they implemented the emergency. Emergency Medical Hologram. So in the event that this happens and the doctors hurt and no one's around that can, you know, treat the injured, they have a hologram that can come up and, you know, perform whatever he needs to perform. So, yeah, so he just. He comes in, in the pilot episode and, you know, please state the nature of the medical emergency. And they just tell him what's going on. He's, you know, give me a track order. I'm gonna fix this guy, you know. But the caveat with Voyager is that obviously, now they're stranded in the Delta Quadrant and it's gonna take them 70 or so years to get home, so they kind of have no choice. But the Doctor is going to be full time now, so they, you know, they enhance his programming and, you know, slowly, over the course of seven years, he becomes more of a sentient being. You know, he becomes one of these. Similar to Spock, similar to Data, you know, someone, you know, he knows what humanity is. He's not necessarily striving to be human. Human, but he does want to be respected and considered a full fledged member of the crew. So it was a really fun arc to watch him go through that. Like I said, he was my favorite character on the show. I think between him Seven, you know, and kind of and Tupac, I kind of hovered around those three as my favorite character. But I think the Doctor is definitely. He brings the comedy, too, so that's a good thing. I know you appreciate that. [00:08:29] Speaker B: Definitely. So now you said seven. You mean Seven of Nine. This is Jerry Ryan. Oh, it is. Okay. I couldn't. I thought so. But then when you said Jane, we said Janeway. I knew she was on here. I was trying to remember all of some of the characters. And it's funny. When you said the Doctor in the beginning with the name. What's his name? EM equals MC squared. What the hell is this? [00:08:46] Speaker A: Well, you can call him the Doctor, but he has emh. Emergency Medical Holographic. [00:08:50] Speaker B: Okay. Because I don't think I've ever. You know, maybe you have. I've never remembered you saying EMH for some reason. But when you said the. The hologram thing, then it was like, oh, yeah. Okay. Now I remember. It's the Picardo guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:09:01] Speaker A: Well, it's funny, too, because it's kind of a running joke, so. You know, my favorite episode from Voyager season one is called Eye of the Needle. One of my favorite episodes of Voyager in the whole show. It's when I kind of fell in love with the show. It kind of clicked, and it was just like season episode five or six, it was right off the bat. But at the end of that episode, you know, going along with what I'm saying about him wanting to be respected, be more of a person, he. He was like, I have a request for the Captain. I would like a name. And then the running joke in the show is that he actually never picked a name. He never ended up. He tried some here and there, but he never actually finalized on a name. So he will forever be known as the Doctor or the emh. [00:09:36] Speaker B: Gotcha. [00:09:37] Speaker A: Which is crazy because he's been on. I was doing this. I think he's been on at least three shows, but this was the first [00:09:45] Speaker B: one he was on. [00:09:46] Speaker A: Yeah, he premiered. He was on Voyager, but he also. He was on Star Trek Prodigy, the animated one that was on Nickelodeon. And he's also on Star Starfleet Academy, the show that just premiered last year. [00:09:57] Speaker B: And. And it went from Original series, Next Gen, and then the one where they're all Deep Space and then Voyager. Right, Correct. [00:10:05] Speaker A: Yep. The Animated Series was obviously between Original Series and Next Gen, but you knew that. [00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:10:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So the big shows. Yep, yep. Next Gen, D Space, Voyager, and like I said, you know, Next Gen and D Space were on for two seasons at the same time, and then Voyager and D Space were on for five seasons at the same time. So Voyager seasons 1 through 5 was D spaces 3 through 7. So. So these shows were, like I said, it was all Star trek in the 90s. It was great and Voyager was a big part of that. And you know our good friend Counselor Troy, that's his. After the original series, Voyager is his favorite Trek show. So I think that's interesting. Yeah. So I think he'll appreciate this episode. I know he loved our top 10 Voyager episodes. Episode. So, yeah, so we're going to talk about the Doctor. So. [00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:50] Speaker A: And as I go along, I'm sure I'll, you know, I'm sure you'll have questions. I'm sure I'll have, you know, some more background information to give you. [00:10:57] Speaker B: Well, it's funny because you mentioned that Star Trek was a lot, a lot going on with Star Trek in the 90s, but, you know, it's easily understandable why I missed all of that because I was living something called a life. But you know, these digs now and [00:11:12] Speaker A: then, we didn't know you, I didn't know you until 98. Right. Until like. [00:11:15] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, exactly, exactly. [00:11:17] Speaker A: Right, right. Yeah. You lived most of your 90s without me, so you probably did have a [00:11:20] Speaker B: life there, the good old days. But no, no, no, but I, I have to say there is, there's a little bit of a jealousy thing there because it's so funny because. Right. I always think about Star wars from the standpoint of that's what. That was my thing growing up as you, as yours and a lot of millions of others. But my point is I was one of those Star wars but never Star Trek. Like I never had really watched it. It just wasn't something I grew up with. But like for you, how to be definitely had to be an exciting time, the 90s. When you coming off of being a big fan of next Gen and going into all this nonsense going on, you're like, wow, this is phenomenal. Like we didn't really have that restores. That's why for us it was like Phantom Menace was a gigantic deal and now you kind of have these, these TV shows coming out and it's like, it's fine, they're, they're kind of whatever. But it would have been. How much more excited would we have been if these came out in the 90s, you know what I mean? [00:12:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:12:07] Speaker B: How to describe it? [00:12:08] Speaker A: It's like, yeah, we were desperate for more content. Right. Like we didn't get it till 99. Right. 83 to 99. We had nothing. So. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:15] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it was fun. It was a fun time. And you know, I, I dare say that was the height of Star Trek, I think, was the 90s as far as its popularity, its cultural impact, all that kind of stuff. I mean, the original series did most of the, the lion's share of the, of the, the work, of course, but now, like, you know, you kind of couldn't turn your head in the 90s without, without seeing some track. So it was kind of was a good time. Good time to be a Trekkie. Trekker. Trek Curious, as you say. It was a good time to be one of those. So it's fun. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Now, real quick, before we dive into this, was there anybody. I know it's been a while since we've been to the, the Star Trek Con thing. Trek Day at. In New Jersey. Year. Two years. Two years last year. Two years ago. [00:12:54] Speaker A: That was the three years ago now. [00:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah, three. There was at least two. I was in there only 20, 24. [00:13:01] Speaker A: Was it? [00:13:01] Speaker B: I think so. [00:13:02] Speaker A: I think you're right. I think it was 2024. You're right. Yep. Because we were looking to go last year and it never popped up on our radar. [00:13:09] Speaker B: That's right, exactly. They said they were going to be back and we haven't seen him back. [00:13:12] Speaker A: But funny. [00:13:13] Speaker B: What, what I was going to say was, did we see any Picardo cosplay people there that day? Do you remember that? [00:13:20] Speaker A: No, I don't think so. I don't remember seeing anybody dressed as the Doctor, which is interesting because who from Voyager was there? There wasn't. [00:13:31] Speaker B: I think I remember you. You trying to find representation of every show and I, I thought there was someone. Or there was someone. Had to be seven to nine. I think there was one or two. Seven or nine. [00:13:39] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, seven. You're right. You're right. Seven and nine was there, right? Jerry Ryan. [00:13:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, right. [00:13:43] Speaker A: She was there and then. [00:13:44] Speaker B: And she was actually there. But, but I mean, I'm talking about like a cosplay thing. [00:13:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no, no, I didn't see any. Oh, you know what? No, we did. We, we saw. Well, I'm think in 2023 we saw. [00:13:52] Speaker B: That's what I knew. That's what I thought you were confusing with. [00:13:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally was. Yeah. We saw a couple. Seven of nines there. We saw a couple. We saw a bunch of. Bunch of Trek cosplay there. [00:14:01] Speaker B: And I guess my, my, my point bringing it up is I know you mentioned this is one of your favorite characters. Like, you know, so this is a guy that's definitely, you know, as far as the whole show, he is a popular character in the show. [00:14:10] Speaker A: I think so, yeah. I mean, I mean, case in point, when I was looking at all of his quote unquote, his episodes, he had a lot more than a lot of the crew, a lot of the. The stars on there. Not as many. He, you know, Jerry Ryan had more. And, you know, maybe only second to Seven of Nine, which is pretty remarkable because she only jumped on in season four, so I was shocked. [00:14:35] Speaker B: I was gonna say. I remember you when you told me that. I was. I was blown away because I. I could not believe that because she's such a popular character, obviously, because not only is she slamming, but, but, but, but it's just the idea that her character was so cool, even the way she looked, you know? And I'm like. When you told me she came in at season four and wasn't on the whole show, I was like, what? I could not believe that. [00:14:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Crazy. I mean, but she's on all three seasons of Picard that premiered. [00:14:58] Speaker B: Yes, I remember you told me. [00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So she, you know, and Trek fans are desperate for her to have her own show. There's been rumors about Star Trek legacy since Picard ended a couple years ago, and it's just brutal that they haven't done that. [00:15:10] Speaker B: But that'd be cool. [00:15:11] Speaker A: She became the captain at the end of the show. I want to say the Enterprise, J or E G or something. But anyway, so that would be fun. I'd love to see that. That'd be pretty cool. I can't wait for you to get to Picard Season three. It's gonna be so awesome. [00:15:26] Speaker B: Anyway, well, yeah, so, so 20 years from now. But, yeah, let's. Let's get in. We're going. We're gonna talk about the Doctor here, huh? [00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah, we're gonna top 10 emh episodes. Yeah, let's dive right in. You know, like I said, we'll, We'll. We'll do some heavy lifting as we go along. Sound good? [00:15:43] Speaker B: Sounds good. [00:15:44] Speaker A: All right, bitch. Let's do this. So, top 10. Number 10 episode called Heroes and Demons from season one, 1995. This has got a 6.7 on IMDb when Harry disappears during his Beowulf Hollow novel. Chakotay and Tuvok, sent to investigate, disappear as well. Not wanting to lose any more crew members, the Doctor is transferred to the holodeck to investigate. So this was the first. This was the Doctor's first, like, sort of foray outside of Sick Bay. This was his first mission, basically, outside of being a doctor, so. Yeah. So Harry. Harry Kim. I might have mentioned him. Him and Garrett Wong and Robert Duncan. McNeil, they do that Delta Flyers podcast that I listen to, where they go through each Voyager episode. Maybe I mentioned it, maybe I didn't. [00:16:33] Speaker B: You did. You did mention it. Definitely. [00:16:35] Speaker A: It's a really cool podcast. Delta Flyers. Check it out. If you don't, you know, you never heard of it, but yeah. So Harry Kim, he goes, he's doing, he's some recreation. He's recreating Beowulf on the holodeck just for fun. And something goes wrong, as it often does with the holodeck and what else is new? What else is new? Chakote and Tuvoku in there and try to check out. They get lost. So Captain's like, what are we gonna do? Wait a minute, we have a holographic doctor. We could just send him and he, you know, he'll be fine. So, so he, he goes onto the holodeck and has an adventure. It was kind of fun, you know, it's a 6.7. It's, it's that, that, that's pretty apt. I put this on there because again, it was his first away mission. It was the first time the Doctor really got a chance to spread his wings. He kind of low key, falls in love with, I want to say her name is Freya, one of the characters from, you know, the Beowulf, you know, story. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Well, I was gonna, I was gonna say real quick before you got there. [00:17:28] Speaker A: No, no, go. [00:17:28] Speaker B: I, I, as soon as you said the words Beowulf, first of all, it was shocking. But at the end, again, Star Trek continues to blow me away with the references. It's kind of cool. But I'm thinking to myself, I don't know how you were at school. We had to read this thing in high school or something like that. I gotta tell you right now, if I got through two pages of this thing, I don't know if I could not understand what the hell was going on. Did you, Are you a Beowulf guy? [00:17:48] Speaker A: I mean, you know, I mean, I like it now. Like, I hear you, though. In high school, like, I didn't know what the hell they were talking about. You know what I mean? Like, they, instead of translating it, we read it. And I want to say it was middle English, right? [00:18:00] Speaker B: Like 100% yes, right? [00:18:01] Speaker A: So it's like, it's like how he's supposed to follow a story. I thought the idea of Grendel was awesome. I like the idea of Beowulf. The summary is great. And like now, like I said, since I've seen the Jeffrey, see the animated one. With Russell Crowe and Angelina Jolie. Really awesome. [00:18:15] Speaker B: I gotta be. I was scored for life to read a high school thing. So I gotta. I've got to go back to it, give it another shot, like you said. Maybe a different translation or just check out the film. Maybe so. But the film was good, I guess. [00:18:25] Speaker A: The film is fun. It's really good. Yeah. And it's pretty. It's pretty true to the source material. And I. You know, when I got into history, you know, in the last 10 years or so, like, I really. I appreciate Beowulf because it's, you know, supposedly the first. Like what? The first real epic work of. In English. I think it's like the first epic story in English. Epic poem, whatever. Either way, it's a big deal, and it kind of. It's a nice little precedent. So I kind of was intrigued by that as well. So that's why I checked it out. [00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I gotta be honest. I was never a Cliff Notes guy. Like, I'm a reader. I like to read. I was in high school. I read whatever the book assignment was. I love to read it. That was the first one. I'm like, I got to get the Cliff Notes for this, Dan. And I gotta be honest here. I needed Cliff Notes for the Cliff Notes because I had no. I still had no clue what the hell was going on. [00:19:08] Speaker A: So difficult for kids to learn. Like, they really do. Like, and I'm speaking for myself, a dumb American like that. That's just me, you know, Like. Like I'm good with something, really smart with some things, but, like, if you. If I try to read Shakespeare, you know, I can't read it comfortably because I don't know what the fuck he's talking about. You know what I mean? Like, it's. The renacto is just. Just throws me off. And if that makes me an idiot, whatever, I don't give a shit. But, you know, it makes it hard to appreciate these things. And no tangent here, but I want to mention the fucking Catholic Church should have done this just decades and decades ago. Like, you wonder why kids don't give a shit in church? They don't know what the hell anybody's talking about. How about you change the fucking words? Make it a little more understandable for kids to swallow. Maybe they'll get into it. Maybe they'll get intrigued by the stories and by the tales or what you're. You know, by the Bible. Like, it's. You want to repel a kid, speak to him like. Like. Like old English. [00:19:59] Speaker B: Not if I. You know, we can cut this out if we continue to tangent even further here. But they actually have changed a little bit of it. You know, I. I don't go to church anywhere near what I used to, but my brother still goes every Sunday. So I've gone with him and his family, and he's like, they made these minor changes. Like, you know, they'll say, like, you know, peace be with you. And we used to say, and also with you. Now they changed it to. And with your spirit. [00:20:19] Speaker A: What the. [00:20:21] Speaker B: But we were like, these are the changes we're making. Like. Like you said, I'm with you. They should have. Anyway. I don't know why they pick and chose to do that, but they could have did it a lot better. But like you said, 100%. I think a lot of things with these things with life. And it's funny, I'm talking to my brother, who's a big reader. He said he tries to read some of the classic lit stuff. Like the director I work with in the City, she was Die Hard on me. Reading Moby Dick reminded me of Major League, you know. Did you read Moby Dick? Where's the well section? You know, I actually did read. I read the damn thing. Took forever to get through because it's. You're reading this old language. But my brother, meanwhile, he got me into reading, like, the Maltese Falcon and some of the novels written from, like, the 20s and 30s, where it's like kind of the beginning of the current language where you're like this. I can get into this now. You know, it's like our stuff. You know what I mean? [00:21:02] Speaker A: I mean, at least. At least let us devour it the first time in a way that we can understand it. Then I'll go back and read the original translation. I don't care. You know what I mean? But I mean, I wanted to get [00:21:11] Speaker B: the foundation of the story. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Then I can go back and appreciate. I remember I really wanted to read A Tale of Two Cities. You know, it was like, right on the cusp of being like. Some of the vernacular was like, what the fuck do you mean by that? And then somebody was like, okay, I'm following this. I liked it. You know, I got through it. But it was, you know, just. Just the language makes it a little difficult. Yeah, it is what it is. [00:21:34] Speaker B: But I'm also pretty dense back to the episode here. I didn't mean to go. We went on there. [00:21:39] Speaker A: But that's okay. Truth. There's not much more to say about this episode. Like, I Said, I like the whole Beowulf angle. I think you would have to say it was Voyager's first real holodeck episode, I guess. I think it was. And, yeah, just a cool way to. To get the Doctor up and up and running. [00:21:55] Speaker B: I love that you're like, it's Voyager's first real holodeck episode. And of course, it's the. There's an issue with the holiday, you know, like, what are we doing here? [00:22:03] Speaker A: You know, otherwise it would just be like, you know what? Nothing went wrong, was a boring episode. They just played chess the whole time, you know, True. [00:22:09] Speaker B: What else? [00:22:10] Speaker A: Bobby Fisher. Big deal. So, yeah, so there you go. Number 10, heroes and demons. All right, let's move on. So number nine is an episode called Virtuoso. This is from 2000, which, you know, it's funny, I didn't put the seasons on here. I think it's from, let's say, season five. I think it's season five. Or six. Six, I'd say. Doesn't matter. 7.1 on IMDb the doctor's singing talent is so appreciated by the alien. By an alien species that he considers resigning his commission and staying on with his millions of adoring fans. So the Doctors. So he can be. He comes on a little rude when he first comes on the ship. He's just a program. He's just, you know, whatever. Here's your headaches cleared. Get out of here. You know, don't be a. Don't be a wuss. Obviously, he's an endearing character because a lot of people love him, but he can be a bit of an egotist, too. He has a. He gets a big head about himself sometimes, you know, like, he's a little bit better than everybody else. Part of the comedy. There's a lot of comedy with the Doctor, which I really love. Robert Picardo has amazing comedic timing, so it's fun to watch him do his thing. So in this episode, they encounter this alien species, and he's just in sick bay with them, and he starts singing, and they're like, what the hell is that? They never heard music before, so they're, like, blown away by him. So, you know, they start sort of, you know, begging him to sing more and more, and he does this show and, you know, on the ship, and then they invite him down to the planet to introduce their whole species to it. So it's just like he's a celebrity, like a. Like a mega celebrity. He's Beyonce, basically, for this. Or Taylor Swift, I guess you'd Say, now he's Taylor Swift to this planet. So it goes to his head and he starts, you know, and he contemplates leaving the ship and he's falling in love with one of the people. Turns out these guys are assholes, too. And they're just like, oh, no, I'm gonna sing now, because I'm able to do it, so we don't need you anymore. They just kind of dump him. And the Doctor's a little humbled, you know, but this is a fun episode. It's a fun exploration. It's. It's interesting how far the crew of Voyager, sort of. They do treat him like a real life form, and he is. But, like, sometimes they roll their eyes, like, all right, come on, Doc, you're supposed to be a doctor. Like, I think it's great that you're having this moment, but don't get too far ahead of yourself. And they tried to warn him and, you know, kind of. But it's interesting how it's a good episode for the crew interacting with the Doctor. And this is, like I said, season five or six. So this is, like, you know, most of the way through the show. So, yeah, they're all family now and friends and blah, blah, blah. But he's still kind of too much, so. It's an interesting character study, this episode. [00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah, it's funny, it kind of reminds me, like, you know, everyone has that family member that thinks they can sing kind of thing, and then, you know, one person says, they're good. Well, he's a little seed of. You're like, all right, I. I'm a singer. I could do this. You. You know, now maybe. Maybe Picardo was that good or the Doctor was that good. But, you know, I think it's funny to think about, you know, like. Like, and then when these people. It's funny you said they're like, well, I can sing. We can sing, so we don't need you anymore. I would say maybe if they actually heard, like, if they'd ever heard music before, all of a sudden they hear like, you know, Sinatra or the Beatles or something. They're like, wow, you actually blow. I don't know. You know what I mean? [00:25:21] Speaker A: Right. Well, they. They were like. They were big on math, like, big, you know, mathematicians. So, like, they, like, went at music mathematically, and they're like. And they gave him a piece to sing. He's like, I don't think I can hit this note. Like, are you kidding me? You know, so. [00:25:34] Speaker B: Right. [00:25:35] Speaker A: So, yeah, so, you know, he kind of Got humbled a little bit, and. Yeah, that was kind of it. Oh, he. His real voice, actually. He's got a beautiful voice, Robert. [00:25:42] Speaker B: Awesome. That's cool. [00:25:43] Speaker A: Yeah, so he did all the singing himself, which is. Which is pretty cool. It's kind of like, you know, found money there. So why not make an episode around it? You know, if you got somebody who could sing like that? So it's. He sounded pretty good. He's very talented. [00:25:53] Speaker B: In fact, I wonder if they discovered that he had a thing like that and kind of wrote an episode around the fact that he could sing. [00:25:58] Speaker A: You know something, I think. So now the Doctor always kind of sang, like, there were some episodes where he was in the holodeck just singing. There were episodes where he's just singing in sick pay. But, like. Yeah, like, why not? When you got that talent, why not. Why not do that? You know? Makes total sense. Yeah. So that was. That was number nine. [00:26:14] Speaker B: Nice. Okay. [00:26:15] Speaker A: All right, so EMH number eight. This episode's called Lifeline. This is a popular one with the Fans. This is 8.1 on IMDb. Wow, that's amazing. Six, 2000. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the doc episodes are pretty. Pretty good. I'm looking at my top ones here, and there's a bunch of eights. No nines on here, but there's a bunch of eights. So pretty good. So the Doctor gets himself transmitted back to Federation space to treat his mortally ailing creator, Dr. Louis Zimmerman. A clash of egos ensues. That's a great synopsis. Good job, whoever wrote that. So this is a fun one. This is. So the person who created the emergency medical Hologram for Starfleet, he made it in his own image. So Robert Picardo is playing both roles in this. [00:27:03] Speaker B: Awesome. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So he's playing Dr. Zimmerman and the EMH. So turns out Dr. Zimmerman is terminally ill, and the Doctor, being the Doctor who has expanded his programming for the last six years being on Voyager, has become quite the brilliant Doctor, not just in raw knowledge, like a program would have, but in improvisation and that kind of stuff. So he's really expanded his programming. He's one of the best doctors in the galaxy now. So he gets permission to go back to the. To get sort of transmitted, because he's a hologram again. He's just a program. So you could send that quicker, you know, than you can, you know, real people in a ship. [00:27:40] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:41] Speaker A: So they. They send him, I want to say, using some sort of technology that they discovered, but I can't remember. At some point, they come across this. This giant array that can transmit that far. So they kind of. At some point, they do get in touch with Starfleet, and even though they're still stuck in the Delta Quadrant, they do. They end up talking to them here and there. And, you know. [00:28:01] Speaker B: Yes, I remember you. I remember you talking about that. [00:28:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it doesn't really ruin anything for you. It's still, you know, there's still great episodes when they. When they get that next step. Next step. Anyway, he gets. He goes back to the Alpha Quadrant and, you know, if you think the doctor's ornery. Dr. Zimmerman's a douchebag, so he doesn't want any help, and he's like, who the are you? You just. You're the Mark one emh. Because apparently they had already made more emhs, and we know they have, so they've improved on his program already. So he's. He's old news. But anyway, he convinces them to help. This is a cool episode. We get a. A cameo appearance from. Deanna Troy is in this episode from Next Gen. Wow. Very cool. Yep. So. And you don't. You haven't met him yet, but we've talked about him much. Reginald Barkley is in this episode as well. Barclay's the one who had all those season eight tweet, hilarious tweets that Luke and I did. He was the one who tried to post the picture of a car and decompress decade, that kind of shit. [00:29:06] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:06] Speaker A: He's a total fucking klutz. You're gonna love Barkley. He's Dwight Schultz from the A Team. He's. He's Murdoch. [00:29:11] Speaker B: Murdoch. Yes. [00:29:12] Speaker A: You're gonna love him when he's. He's on. He's gotten five episodes in Next Gen and Six of Voyager, so. Very cool. Yeah. So he's in this episode. Councilor Troy's in this episode. So it's a lot of fun. And yeah, it was. It was a good, good episode. You know, it was some good character interaction there. Great dialogue. Picardo. Robert Picardo did a great job, you know, arguing with himself pretty much for. For 35 minutes. What do you got? [00:29:38] Speaker B: No, I'm saying it must have been a blast for him to do the episode. You know what I mean? Like, it had to be a lot of fun for him to remind me. It's funny, you made me think of the episode with Data when he plays. What's his name? Brent Spiner plays his brother. Right. That's great. [00:29:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I was just gonna. Just gonna make that comparison. Good job. [00:29:53] Speaker B: It kind of Reminded me of that. And I think that, you know, and obviously you would like if I watched this episode, not watching the rest of the show. I think, oh, that's kind of cool. But, you know, it now he's kind of. This is deep in season six. Whatever. You know the character very well, right? Or. [00:30:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. No, you know him really well. And at this point, you know, you're like, hey, stop treating the Doctor like a douchebag. You know what I mean? [00:30:13] Speaker B: Like, yeah, right. [00:30:13] Speaker A: You're on his side. So it's funny because his name originally, I remember. This is. This is really showing how much of a geek I am. But I remember right before Voyager came out, Entertainment Weekly had this, you know, big story on it, and. And they were going through each of the characters, and his name was actually Dr. Zimmerman at first, the EMH, he was going to be named after the creator, but they ended up making it a thing where he doesn't pick the name. And I remember they described him as think of Data, but with a microchip on his shoulder is the way they described it. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:30:46] Speaker A: Fucking cornball. But I remember that exact line. I remember that Entertainment Weekly article. So what can I say? I used to love Entertainment Weekly. I missed that. I missed that magazine that was. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. Yeah, no, I'm with you 100%. I definitely missed that. I remember we used to be big on that with the Oscars and everything. Oh, yeah, like Entertainment. [00:31:05] Speaker A: The Oscar predictions, they always sucked, by the way. Remember, I used to. Oh, yeah, folks, we. We. You know, for most years, we do Oscar parties at my place, and I would always put up Entertainment Weekly's picks, everybody else's, like, how well they're doing. Then we get blown out of the water. Dude, Entertainment Weekly, they used to suck at picking the Oscars. Yeah, people are way better it now. But yeah, that was number eight. Lifeline. All right, let's keep going. Number seven. The Swarm. This is a 7.1 on IMDb from season three. In 1996, Voyager is attacked by swarms of tiny spaceships which attach themselves to Voyager's hull. The Doctor is losing his memory, and Torres activates the Jupiter Station diagnostic program run by a familiar hologram. So Here you go, two episodes in a row where we have Dr. Zimmerman, one in person, but this one is a holographic representation of Dr. Zimmerman, because apparently the Doctor's programming, it was never meant to be running for this long. It was never meant to be expanded to this level. He was. The Emergency Medical Hologram was just a supplement to the actual staff. It was just supposed to be very temporary. If the Doctor goes on a vacation or whatever, he pops in, cures the cold, and then boom. But he's been active for three years now, and his program starting to degrade. So while this attack is going on outside the ship, the Doctor's losing his. His, you know, photonic marbles, if you will. So it's not really a Doctor episode, but it kind of is. So he's. I guess it's like a B story or almost 50. 50. But I considered this a. A Doctor episode, and, you know, like I said, we meet Zimmerman in this one. You know, the one before that was season six. This is season three. I know they're both Zimmerman, but we meet him in holographic form, and he's just. His ornery, and he's just like, what do you mean? He's been running for three years. That's ridiculous. And they're like, well, we're in the Delta Quadrant. What are you gonna do? You know, fuck off. Just help us. So basically, what happens in this episode is the Doctor kind of resets his programming, basically, which is kind of weird because basically what they do is they erase the last three years. So, you know, he doesn't want to lose all of these experiences and memories that he's had, that it's expanded his program. So it's. It's kind of a moral dilemma, but they kind of have no choice. But it turns out, you know, at the end, they do reset it. That does, you know, solve the problem, and he does, you know, slowly rebuild his memory. So it's kind of a. But it's a cool character thing. He was, for the first time, sort of fighting for his soul this time, which was kind of cool, but he had no choice. And Torres is the Chief Engineer. B' Elanna Torres. We've mentioned her before, but I know you're not as familiar with the Voyager crew as you are with Next gen and D space. [00:33:50] Speaker B: No, definitely not. [00:33:51] Speaker A: Yeah. B' Elanna Torres is the chief engineer, half Klingon, half human, and she's a fun character, too, but she helps the Doctor, you know, get his program reset, and there it is, and he's back to normal again, with the caveat of losing a lot of those memories from the last three years. So. Fun episode, though. Fun episode. It starts out in the holodeck where he is singing and he forgets the words to one of the operas, and he's like, I'm a fucking computer program. How am I gonna forget? How am I. Forgetting words. Turns out that's why his program is degrading so well, not why, but you know what I mean. His program was degrading, and that was the first symptom. So there you go. It's. It's a. I'm making it sound boring. It was a good episode, trust me. [00:34:29] Speaker B: Well, it's funny you said that, because I was like, wow, this sounds like it's gonna be up. But you're right. I mean, that's the one thing about the show. They always create these dilemmas or situations that really are, like, thought provoking in a way, I guess. I don't know that, you know, that it makes it that even though when it. Even when there's not a lot of action, there's always something that's kind of interesting to think about of, like, oh, you know, like, what if, you know, human humanity face this or I face this, or, you know, my family faced this, or, I don't know, you know, like, they. I mean, they do a good job, right? [00:34:57] Speaker A: Like, no matter what backdrop you have, whether it's, you know, you know, Albuquerque, New Mexico, or it's, you know, the Delta Quadrant, Like. Like good writing and good characters and good dramas do that. You know, they. They create these human condition moments that make you want to relate to. Make you want to sort of, you know, be there with them. [00:35:16] Speaker B: Right. It's almost like before the episode finishes, you're kind of sitting there going, what would I do here? You know what I mean? [00:35:21] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. I mean, that's. And that's. That's. In order for a story to succeed, we do need to relate to it on some level. Right. And I think that's kind of what people tend to forget. Like, you know, you can make a bonkers movie if you're Terry Gilliam or Wes Anderson and you want to make something that's just sort of out there, you can do that, but you got to keep it grounded. It's still got to be grounded in something where we can sort of, you know, latch onto it. Right. Whether it's a character or, you know, a situation or something that. That we, as, you know, the sort of the passive viewer needs to latch on to in order to relate to it, in order to appreciate the story itself. So, yeah, good call. Good call. And there's. I got more to say about this in. In the. My number one, actually. So. Yeah. [00:36:08] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:36:09] Speaker A: So we'll move on. So that was number seven, the Swarm. Very. Again, I made it sound boring, folks. It's a good Episode. Check it out. Number six. Author. Author. That's a 7.9 on IMDb from season. I think it's also season six. A lot of season six episodes here. 2001. The doctor writes and publishes an incendiary hollow novel that defames the crew. Paris is Paris. Paris's tampering offends the author, and the Doctor's rights come into question. So basically, this is the Doctor. Yes. He's been accepted as a full member of the crew. He's respected, but he still feels like he doesn't have all of the rights. Rights that humans do, say, or sanction, species do. So he writes this hollow novel, which you can do. Basically, it's like an author, but instead of writing a book, you write a holodeck program in the 24th century. They still write books, too, of course, but so anyway, so he writes this hollow novel that puts the crew in a bad light. Like, he doesn't say, you know, catherine Janeway did this to me, but, like, Katie Jane Stein is treating me like a douchebag. You know what I mean? So he kind of, like, changes it a little bit, but the crew is very offended by this. He doesn't want to change. He doesn't want his creativity stifled. And he still wants to send this to the Federation, you know, so they can. And he has somebody who's interested in buying it and, you know, putting it out there. Apparently, Voyager, once it was discovered that they were lost in the Delta Quadrant, became sort of like a fascination back on Earth or back in the Federation, like, oh, my God. And so people became obsessed with Voyager story and when are they going to come home? And that kind of thing. And people are working tirelessly to get them home. But. So there are a lot of people who'd be, like, itching, like, you know, chomping at the bit to get a story from the Doctor on Voyager. So he kind of insults everybody by portraying them in this way, and it became a story about, you know, he sent the story to, like, the publisher or whatever, and then the publisher was like, you're not a real person. I'm taking the rights from this. So it became like a, you know, what are his rights? Is he a real person? Blah, blah, blah. So it was a cool. It was a cool character study for the Doctor. Janeway, who, until the end, didn't really, truly embrace the Doctor as a sentient being. She was one of the last ones to come over. Her and Torres had very strong feelings at first that the Doctor was a program and we need him to do his duty first. But once he became a life form, they kind of, you know, he's a friend. But Janeway had a hard time getting over that. What do you think? It's a lot of talking. I'm sorry. [00:38:39] Speaker B: No, I. I was gonna say it's interesting because it's kind of two different things that they kind of make it interesting. It's like, first you have the. I. It makes me think of. I feel like there's been so many of these examples of, like, you know, I'm trying to give a good one off the top, man. Like. Like Corey Feldman kid didn't. He did with a whole book or a documentary about, like, you know, what went on behind the scenes with the Goonies or. Or like. Or like the whole. That whole scene back there with the 80s or between Corey Haim and all that. Or Andrew McCarthy wrote one, I think, about the Brat Pack, you know, and you get some of these kinds of things and you always. I don't know if it's like the media or somebody. They'll pick up a clip from the book and go, oh, he said this about this person. It turns into this whole firestorm. [00:39:21] Speaker A: Oh, I know. [00:39:22] Speaker B: And you might read the book and it might not have nothing. It might have said one thing. Well, that was not really the context was that, you know, so you never know what's on the level and what's not with a lot of. A lot of that stuff. But I feel like it's. It. What's interesting here is you have that aspect of it here where, you know, now you have the crew being like, yo, what the. You know, like, why. But also, like you said, it's the. Now you're talking about the rights of. Of. Of him as a sentient being, which is a whole nother aspect of it entirely, you know, And I feel like it's another way that they kind of put an episode together where it's like you're. You're pulling the society outside itself to look at. Look at itself in a way. Like, it's like a chance for us to look at ourselves in a way where we're like, you know, how do we read these things in these scenarios with, like, pop culture or whatever or. And who's. What they're saying, who's true, who's not true. You know, that. That kind of thing. So the whole aspect of it does sound interesting, even though, like, you said, you were going on or talking. But it's interesting. It's not like, I'm not bored. Although you know, everything about Star Trek is boring to me, but. No, I'm just kidding. [00:40:18] Speaker A: I. [00:40:19] Speaker B: No, again, it's interesting. I always think it's interesting. So, yeah, it's. You know, I think this would be a fun episode. I'm kind of curious to check it out. And it's funny, too, that we've been on this whole tangent about books before, and now here's an episode called Author. Author. [00:40:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. That's funny. Yeah, the Doctor, he did that. That wasn't his last Hollow novel either. He. He. He likes writing like that. It's pretty fun. Yeah, no, it was a good episode. It was a good episode, but not as fun as Number Five. Number Five? [00:40:44] Speaker B: Well, we figure, yes, when you get [00:40:46] Speaker A: there, you're gonna laugh your ass off, dude. So number five is called Tinker Tenor, Dr. Spy, and from Voyagers season five, it's at 8.4 on IMDb from 1999. An alien race sizing up Voyager for a raid taps into the Doctor's cognitive subroutines. Stay with me. To make him their spy. Unaware. They're watching the Doctor's new daydreaming program. So this is freaking fun. So the Doctor decides he wants to start daydreaming. He wants to experience that. So he makes a change in his program, and every once in a while, he just sort of slips into a daydream. It's a fun way to film the episode, too, because you never know if you're watching the real episode, if you're watching one of his daydreams. It's like a Freddy Krueger movie where you're like, is this the nightmare? Is this. You know, is this real? So, but then this alien race, they spy on people and learn everything they can before they attack. So they. They get into his subroutine of daydreaming and think it's real life. So they see his daydreams as what's really happening on Voyager and what these people are capable of. And of course, in his daydreams, he is like the hero, and he's this unbeatable dude. So they think this guy's like, holy. You get. We need to meet this Doctor. He's not just rocking three women. [00:41:58] Speaker B: He's rocking three women. He's, you know, he's got the best job. He's got all this wealth, dude. [00:42:02] Speaker A: He is like, so. So he's so every woman on the ship, he's. The fantasy is. They're all hitting on him the whole time. You know what I mean? So seven's winking at him in meetings. And, you know, Torres is playing footsie with him, and Jamie's like, oh, my lower back is hurting. You know, it's a. The actors had a lot of fun in this episode. And when you get to season three of Next Gen, I know you Next Gen fans will know this is basically the episode Hollow Pursuits, but on Voyager, that was Murdoch from 18. That was his first episode on Next Gen in season three, Hollow Pursuits. And he's a holodeck fantasy guy and he's an introvert. [00:42:38] Speaker B: Okay. [00:42:39] Speaker A: And he's, you know, Counselor Troy's looking all hot and, oh, Reg, I want you. You know, so it's been. Yeah, I know. I know. So it's basically Hollow Pursuits on Voyager. It's a lot of fun. Here's some cool stuff. So one of the cool things that he created in his daydream but becomes a real part of the chip is he created what's called the Emergency Command Hologram, just like the Doctor. In the event that the Captain and the command structure breaks down, he can become a command hologram and, you know, captain the ship. At first they're like, dude, get the fuck out of here. But then they're like, all right, you know, maybe it's a fun episode. The Doctor ends up saving the day for real, of course, pretending he's the Captain. Fun shit. Total fun shit. And like I said, he actually gets the Captain. Like I said, a great ending. At the end, they surprise him in the holodeck, and he thinks it's another daydream. His program is malfunctioning, but they really do give him an accommodation and they put the Emergency Command hologram into action. So it's a good episode for the Doctor. It's a fun one. It's a lot of fun. The alien race main guy is really funny. Is this pudgy little dude. They look at the coneheads. They got this weird conehead freaking species. But fun episode. Fun up. [00:43:54] Speaker B: Now, the. The title. Wasn't that like a. Something like a play on him? Wasn't there a movie with Gary Oldman or something? [00:43:59] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. Tinker tenor, soldier Spy, I think, is the actual. [00:44:04] Speaker B: And what is that? What is. Is that an old story or something? [00:44:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's based on a book, I think. [00:44:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:44:09] Speaker A: I don't. I never read it. I never saw that Oldman movie. I heard it was really good, but I never saw that one. But, yeah, no, it's definitely baked, I think. Tinker, Tenor, Soldier Spy. I think it's a Book or a play. I don't fucking know. [00:44:22] Speaker B: I'm not sure. Yeah, I think it was like Tinker Taylor, right? [00:44:25] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right. You want to say tenor. Tinker Taylor. Soldier spot. You're right. [00:44:29] Speaker B: You got the singing on your mind from Picardo there before. [00:44:31] Speaker A: Well, I think that's why they changed it. I, I didn't misread. I think it is actually Tinker tenor. [00:44:37] Speaker B: Oh, you're. Oh, oh, got you from the episode, right, bro? Gotcha, gotcha. [00:44:41] Speaker A: All right, so listen, these top four, when I was making this list, I knew these four would be in the four. I just didn't know what order. I thought that my number four would be my number one knee jerk reaction. But then when I thought about the list, I'm doing the Doctor list, I think he shines a little bit more on the other three. So let's talk about it. So number four is. That might have been. This was definitely top three overall Voyager. No top four overall Voyager episodes. For me, I think it was number four or three. It's called Message in a Bottle. It's an 8.7 on IMDb from 1998. Voyagers season four. Using an alien communications net, Voyager sends their Doctor to the Federation ship USS Prometheus, only to find out that it's been taken over by Romulans. Really cool episode. So this is the episode in which they first make contact with the Alpha Quadrants. Big emotional episode. But the emotions at the end, because the fun part is the Doctor, they have a small window to send a message to Starfleet. They don't know what to do, but, oh, we could send the Doctor's program. Instead of having all this information that we send, we could just send the Doctor. He'll tell them, hey, we're stranded. We're trying to make our way home. Don't forget about us. And then beam them back. So he beams onto this ship that just happened to be at the right location at the right time. And it turns out the ship, a prototype is, had been taken over by Romulans. So him and andy Dick, the EMH Mark 2, have to. Have to take the ship back. So two holograms take the ship back from the Romulans. Obviously, hilarity ensues. They're just bumbling idiots. The whole it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. And Andy Dick is. Look, I love Andy Dick. I love news radio. I've talked about Andy Dick on the pod before. He's great. In this episode he's subdued. It's a very sober performance from Andy Dick, if you could believe that, literally and metaphorically. And, yeah, it's just. It's just an interesting casting job, but I think it was. I think it paid off. I think it was good. A lot of fun. So they get on the ship, and Dick's like, no, I'm a doctor. Peace out. And he's like, whoa, come back. Would you kid me? We got to take. We got to take the ship back. And they do, and it's funny. And then he does get the message to Starfleet. And like I said, from this episode on, Starfleet's aware that they're lost, and they. They had given up the search, but now it's back on full force. So it's a very emotional ending. It's a great moment at the end when Janeway, you know, they give her a personal message. You're no longer alone. A lot of fun, but the Doctor just shines in this episode. Great Doctor episode. Great episode. [00:47:16] Speaker B: What now? This was what season? What, four? So it's interesting that this show was on, this longing. This is the first. So this definitely had to be a major impact. When you watched it, you must be like, holy shit. You know, this is a big deal right here. [00:47:27] Speaker A: Definitely. And it wasn't even like a. Like a. Like a. Like a cliffhanger. It wasn't like a season ending. It wasn't a finale. Right. It was just kind of right in the middle. And I think it was time, you know, it was. It was. [00:47:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:38] Speaker A: You know, we. You feel so bad for this crew. You know, their loved ones don't even know they're alive. [00:47:45] Speaker B: Right. [00:47:45] Speaker A: So this was like, a big deal. This was like a. Oh, my God. You know, Harry's parents know that he's not dead, and, you know, Janeway's, you know, fiance or whatever, like, all this kind of stuff. So it was just. It was just good. He. [00:47:58] Speaker B: He's already. He's already married to someone else at this point. [00:48:01] Speaker A: He did actually. He moved on, actually. [00:48:02] Speaker B: Oh. Yeah. [00:48:03] Speaker A: It was four years, you know, like, it is what it is. [00:48:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:48:06] Speaker A: So what are you gonna do? But no, it was a great, great ending. And the Doctor was just absolutely hilarious in the whole episode. So fun. And Andy Dick. Love them. So. Yeah, fun episode. Really, really fun. I think any Voyager, any Voyager fan would probably have it in the top 15, guaranteed. I would say, probably top 10. [00:48:23] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you said 8.7. That's a pretty high rating. And the episode sounds awesome and, like, you said the timing of not only getting the message out for the first time in the amount of time, the seasons that it was on, but also the. The comedy of it. So I. I could only imagine that it had to be a phenomenal episode. [00:48:38] Speaker A: It was fun. You're gonna love it when you get. [00:48:39] Speaker B: Get there. [00:48:39] Speaker A: A lot of fun. [00:48:40] Speaker B: I look forward to it. Definitely. Yeah. [00:48:42] Speaker A: All right, let's do it, man. Number three. So number three is called projections. Yeah. Top three projections from season two. This was, I want to say, the second episode of season two. 7.8 on IMDb from 1995. That sounds so long ago. Jesus Christ. [00:48:59] Speaker B: That was 31 years ago. No kidding. Yeah. [00:49:01] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's. That's why I say the years just kind of just put a different type of context in. Someone said if they're not a Trek fan, it'll at least lock them into the time frame. So the doctor tries to determine. I'm sorry, buddy. What do you got? [00:49:13] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. I was. I was. I was agreeing with you. It's. It's. It's. I think that's. That's the interesting thing about the. The listing, that when the episode came out, because it kind of sets you back to that. Like, you said that time, like, before, when he said there was episodes before 1996. I was like, damn. You know, like, that's so long ago. [00:49:32] Speaker A: It seems crazy, man. It really is. Holy crap. All right, so the doctor tries to determine what is real and what is not. When he's activated due to what appears to be a shipwide emergency. It's a decent enough synopsis. It's vague, which I think is spoiler free, which is good. So this was the first real existential crisis doctor episode. So this was when he was really grappling with, you know, okay, what am I? Like, am I real? Am I not, you know, what's going on? Shit's happening all around him. He doesn't know what's going on. This was the first God, a lot of Barclay episodes on it. This was the first Murdoch from a team episode on Voyager. So he shows up and he's like, Dr. Zimmerman. You know, this has all been a scenario. Like, you know, Voyager's not real. None of this happened. You just. You've been in the holodeck for two hours. That's it. And it's malfunctioning, and we can't get you out. So now he's like, oh, my God, is that true? Am I really. Am I a real person, or am I this medical hologram? That, you know, or is it just a story? So it created a cool little, like, back and forth. Just when Barclay has him convinced again, holographic barkley. [00:50:43] Speaker B: Right. [00:50:43] Speaker A: But who knows? Or is it the real Barclay has him convinced that he is a real person. Then Chakotay, the First Officer, Janeway's First Officer, shows up and is like, doctor, listen, don't do anything. We're trying to get you out of the holodeck, blah, blah. So he's like, are you fucking kidding? So he just loses it in this episode, you know, and it's. It's all. It's all, like, visual trickery. It's again, like, is it real? Is it not a lot of fun? But the Doctor does a great job of sort of being just afraid. And, you know, like I said, this existential crisis in his head just has him, like, going every which way. There's some physical comedy here. He gets to punch some people here. He interacts with each member of the Voyager team, whether it's, you know, real or not. So it's a fun episode for the Doctor. It was one of my first favorite episodes other than, like I said, I have the needle. This was the next episode that grabbed me as, ah, that was fun. And again, another Doctor episode. [00:51:32] Speaker B: So, yeah, I was gonna say, you know, you had me rolling here, because I'm thinking this is yet again, like you said, not only, you know, we're going to the top 10 doctors here, but here, another episode where Murdoch is in there from A team. [00:51:44] Speaker A: You know, I didn't put that together. Three. Three episodes he's in. In this top 10 list. I didn't realize. [00:51:50] Speaker B: And you had me thinking. I'm like, it would have been hilarious if they did like an A team crossover, but, like, not as their A Team characters, but like, they, like you said, he's playing Barkley, whatever, you know, But I could see Face and I could see Hannibal fitting into Star Trek. Like, you know, Mr. T in Star Trek would be. Must watch. Oh, my God, that would be the best. [00:52:10] Speaker A: He could play it. He could play a Klingon. No. No question about it. [00:52:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:52:14] Speaker A: And we know Dirk Benedict was on. He's too busy with Battlestar Galactica, the original. [00:52:20] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. [00:52:21] Speaker A: You know, he doing Star Trek. He's Battlestar. He's. He was the original Starbucks. [00:52:26] Speaker B: And that was. What was that from the 70s, that show? [00:52:30] Speaker A: Late 70s, yeah. I think it was 78 or 79. [00:52:34] Speaker B: I think it only ran two seasons, basically. [00:52:36] Speaker A: Pretty much, yeah. Pretty much, yeah. Dirk Benedict must have gone right from that to a team. So. Yeah. So that's fun. Yeah. Dwight Schultz can't get enough of him. Everyone loves Barkley. Everyone loves Barkley. [00:52:47] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. That's. That's good to hear. Wow. It's nice. Cool. Very cool. [00:52:49] Speaker A: Yeah. In this episode, like, Robert Picardo just plays drama and comedy so well. So, like, a lot of these episodes, just perfect fits for that actor. Like, he's just so good at playing the comedy and the sarcasm and then going right to the drama and the. You know, how am I feeling? Pain. I'm a fucking hologram. You know? I mean, like, so fun stuff. Fun stuff. [00:53:09] Speaker B: And now let me ask you this now, what was. Was. Was Robert Ricardo's character in there from season one, like, early? Is he a main character? Is he in every episode? [00:53:20] Speaker A: Yeah, he was there for reality. Yep. [00:53:21] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Oh, very good. Okay. [00:53:23] Speaker A: Yeah, no, he's the main one. The only. The only main characters who, like I said, Kes was in the first three seasons, and then when she left, 7 of 9 kind of jumped in, and she was in the last four seasons. Other than that, all the other characters were in all seven seasons. [00:53:39] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. [00:53:40] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, obviously, there's ancillary characters that pop in and out, but. But the main. The main crew, the main cast, I [00:53:46] Speaker B: guess, to be honest with you, when you mentioned the Doctor, for some reason, I was picturing him being like, a cue character where, like, he pops in now and then. I didn't realize he was the whole, like, to come. [00:53:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no, he's the main character. Yep. [00:53:56] Speaker B: Okay. [00:53:57] Speaker A: And like I said, he. Other than seven. Just as. Just guessing, folks, but you could check me on the mat there. But other than. Than Jeri Ryan, Seven of Nines character, I think the Doctor had the most episodes that centered around him. I mean, he had. At least. When I was doing this list, there was at least 15 or 16 that I would say were actual Doctor episodes. Because if you think about it, like, not every episode is a character episode. Some are just, oh, my God, the whole ship's being attacked. They go down a plan. [00:54:25] Speaker B: Right. [00:54:25] Speaker A: But these 15 were like him. This is, you know, the Doctor's the A story, whatever's going on, also the B story. So again, I don't even think Captain Jamway had that many that were simply focused on her. She was obviously the star in every episode, but you know what I mean. [00:54:39] Speaker B: Yeah, No, I was only gonna say, even watching Next Gen, I mean, I'm only in this first season. There But I was just thinking about Picard. Like, there hasn't really been a lot of Picard centric episodes in episode season one. I'm sure there'll be a lot more coming up there. But true enough, it's interesting you say that. You say that there's not. Wasn't a lot really of Janeway, even though she was the. Was kind of interesting. [00:54:57] Speaker A: Maybe two Picard episodes. Right. I want to say the battle for sure. Where the. [00:55:05] Speaker B: His old ship. [00:55:06] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. [00:55:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:55:08] Speaker A: And maybe the big goodbye, the one. The holodeck one with the old timey. The. The. The Dixon Hill. [00:55:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:55:15] Speaker A: I mean, that's more a holodeck episode, I guess. [00:55:18] Speaker B: Exactly. But he. I mean, I would say less than the other one, but for sure, I would put it. I would put it there. Yeah. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Yeah, you're right. I think that's. Yeah. I mean, we've had one Data episode. Obviously, you know, the Data. [00:55:31] Speaker B: It's still early. I'm only season one, so. Yeah, like four. Like, you know, I'm sure will be a lot more. [00:55:36] Speaker A: Oh, there'll be plenty more. Yeah, but. But case. Good point, though. You're right. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's not. Those episodes have to be good, otherwise they're bad. You know, I mean, like, like, fans love the sci fi episodes. They love the holiday episodes where everybody's involved. They love, you know, Klingon episodes. But, like, if you do an episode about Counselor Troy, you better make it good because it could be really bad. Like, it's. The bed shitting potential is huge with certain characters. Like, Counselor Troy did not get a lot of good episodes that were hers. Some were good. And again, I don't think it's the actress's fault, but, you know, for example, on Voyager, the character's usually pretty fun. Like, the way they wrote the characters in Voyager, they kind of. They made kind of decent character episodes. One character doesn't stand out as being, oh, shit, it's a fucking Harry Kim episode or, oh, shit, it's a Torres episode. But maybe the Kes episodes early on were kind of boring. And again, nothing against Jennifer Lee and the actress who played her, but, like, you know, it is what it is. I know fans hate the Neelix episodes. I like Neelix. I won't even. Don't even bother with any likes. [00:56:46] Speaker B: Well, I'm just gonna say, like, every show has these characters where, like, you know, but. But that. That aren't as popular as some other ones. Like, but it seems like, like for next Gen, it seems like Data is a popular character. So if you did a Data episode, there's not no next gen fancy like, ah, it's Data. You know what I mean? [00:56:59] Speaker A: For sure. [00:57:00] Speaker B: Probably be like, oh, awesome. [00:57:01] Speaker A: You know, it's hard to screw up a Data episode. It really is. [00:57:03] Speaker B: Right? [00:57:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:04] Speaker B: Right, Right. [00:57:05] Speaker A: All right, folks, let's do it. So we got two left to go and I listen, if you're a Voyager fan like I am and you are thinking about the Doctor episodes, there's one that you for sure have to know is going to be on this list. The other one, it's definitely a Doctor episode, but it's not necessarily about him. I did include it though. So my number two is Living Witness, one of the best episodes of Voyager. Overall, it's an 8.7 on IMDb that along with Message in a Bottle are the two highest rated episodes on this list from 1998, season five. This is one of my favorite Star Trek episodes in general. The Doctor awakens in the museum of an alien culture 700 years in the future, where Voyager is thought to have been a passing warship full of cold blooded killers. It's a confusing synopsis, but so basically the Doctor is activated in this museum. It's 700 years in the future. Voyager to this alien species were these ruthless conquerors who came, took what they wanted and left. History is written by the victors, right? So, so on this planet they are trying to piece together what they know about Voyager 700 years ago, right? So how much do we know about, you know, the Black Death, right, The. The middle ages, the 1300s, right? So basically, you know, what we know about the Hundred Years War is what they are trying to piece together about Voyager, even with modern technology. So the Doctor just wakes up on this alien planet in this museum and they're portraying the Voyager crew, like with reenactments as like this horrible. It's basically the mirror universe episode for Voyager. Basically to the point where when Troy and I did our Mirror Universe marathon and watched every Mirror Universe episode in the entirety of a Trek, six different shows. The last time I was up in Boston, we were going to include this one, but we opted to not, because technically it is not a mirror universe episode, but these characters are being portrayed like they are these cruel mirror universe types. So the Doctor, you know, is reactivated and he's appalled, like, you know, this is not the way the crew was. Like, what happened to them? What's going on? Let me set the record straight. Let me show you really what Voyager was about. What we did. And it creates this sort of rivalry between these two alien species who live on this planet. One is sort of above the other one. The lower species isn't enslaved, but they definitely have less status than the other species does. And if Voyager's truth came out, it would sort of reverse that. So there's a lot of political reasons why they don't want the truth about Voyager. But this one Doctor scientist who is working with the museum and the artifacts and what they have from Voyager is, has an open mind and he lets the Doctor do his thing. And here's why this episode is really cool. So it starts out 700 years in the future where the Doctor is like, well, all my friends are gone. What happened to Voyager? Did they ever make it home? So at the end of the episode, and again, this is in the future, so like, you know, who knows what the hell really happened? But he leaves to track Voyager's, the path of Voyager. He wants to find out what happened. So he just leaves in a ship to trace what happened to Voyager. But then the episode ends, it pulls back and it's like hundreds more years in the future and they're studying that moment and like, you know, we don't know what happened to the Doctor, but he left to, you know, trace the path to Voyager and if it wasn't for him, our species wouldn't have. Blah, blah, blah. Great sci fi premise. Just, just a, a fun way to tell an episode. You know, great sort of moral dilemmas as far as like, you know, yeah, history is written by the victors, but at what point do you, do you make sure you get the history right? And regardless of what that history is, you make it a part of your history because that will shape, for better or worse, who we are as a species. A fun episode and like I said, a super fun way to not only show an episode, but to have these Voyager characters act like total, like douchebags. It's, it's, it's a really cool way to, you know, Janeway and you know, Kate Mulgrew and you know, Robert Belcher and they had a lot of fun portraying these characters, sort of these, these evil doppelgangers of themselves. It's basically what the mirror universe is. I should explain to you the mirror universe, it was the next, the original series had the first mirror universe episode, you know, Spock with the goatee, that kind of thing. And it was just this universe where humans were just evil and, you know, and all the trek shows have sort of been in contact with them. So It's a fun, fun little what if for Voyager. [01:01:54] Speaker B: I. I gotta tell you right now, when you mentioned that you and Troy did a marathon of episodes of the Mirror. Fifteen episodes, by the way, I was gonna say there's. I'm like a split right down the middle thing. When you. When you said that first there's a part. The nerd part of me is like, that sounds like a fucking awesome thing. The other side of me is like, we got to get you guys a fucking pool table or something. How the fuck are you, you know, what are we doing here? You know, like, you know, Jesus. I mean, you know, that's. That's a. What an endeavor, you know? [01:02:21] Speaker A: You know, it's funny. Much like you and I, like, you know, we'll. You know, we used to. We used to hang out and play goldeneye for seven hours or we'd watch, like, you know, all three Stars movies or something. So when Troy and I used to hang out, we would. We would do these marathons. We would say, all right, you know, one day we're gonna watch all the Lord of the Rings extended editions in a row, or we're gonna watch just Tarantino movies or, you know, and it was. It was tons of fun. I wouldn't trade it, but it was. It. It made the hanging out less organic. It ended up being forced. Sometimes we weren't in the mood for it, so we kind of stopped doing it. This wasn't. This wasn't. And it was his suggestion, and of course I loved it. And it was a return to sort of that. [01:02:58] Speaker B: To sort of just, yeah, hey, why not? [01:03:01] Speaker A: Screw it. Because, you know, I was there for five days last time, so we had. We had time to kill, so it was fun. And by the way, I did put together a list, so I'll be doing a mirror universe list at some point soon. [01:03:11] Speaker B: We would expect nothing less. I was gonna say there's also. Got it. What an interesting and hilarious idea. I was thinking about when you said the reenactment part of this, you know, it made me kind of think it's such an interesting thing because we think about these things, like, they have these reenactments of, like, the Civil War or American Revolution, you know, or whatever it is, the Pilgrims down the. Whatever the hell it is, or Jamestown, you know, and you wonder if the people that were there at that time could watch it and be like, you know, well, you guys are way off. I don't know. You know what I'm saying? It makes it kind of interesting, you know, So I think this is kind of an interesting thing, like, you know, of them seeing the crew, like, you know, you know, and I, I guess, how did it seem watching it? Were you like, it was that fun? That had to be. Part of the fun of watching this was seeing the reenactment. [01:04:03] Speaker A: Oh yeah. You know, Janeway, she's got the black gloves and she's like, she's a cold blooded kill and she get what she want. You know, they still got stranded Delta Quadrant, but now they'll do whatever they got to do to get home. No Starfleet morals, no Federation, you know, nothing. They'll just shoot this guy in the head and you're going to give me the technology or I'm going to shoot you too, you know, so it's kind of like that. It's funny you mentioned like the reenactment, right? Like it's pretty much what AI is doing right now on social media, right? Like for some reason you could, you know, you have, I don't know, Anakin Skywalker jumping into Field of Dreams and chopping, you know, yes. Kevin Costner's head off. Like, so pretty much, you know, Star Trek once again was sort of ahead of its time with doing this. So this is, you could recreate this now. You could take a show like Ted Lasso and make it a mirror universe. Ted Lasso and just, just tell AI to do that and it would do it. So it was fun 30 years ago watching them do that. [01:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the other thing too. When, when you, I was thinking about this before and you said like 1995 or whatever, 96, 98, they sou long ago and it's like, you know what it is? I think it's almost like before to me. It's really like before the iPhone. Like, I feel like when you think about life before the iPhone, it sounds like we were in the stone Age, you know what I mean? It really does, doesn't it? You know what I'm saying? [01:05:19] Speaker A: You know, it's hard to imagine a time when we just didn't have it. And that's disgusting because iPhones only been around for what, fucking not even 20 years, right? Yeah, right. Not even. So it's like, you know, I'm 52, you know, which means I lived 34, whatever year, however many years, and I was perfectly fine without it. I mean, we had, we had the Internet, we had, you know, flip phones, blah, blah, blah. But like, I mean, you had a flip phone till like you were one of the last. Right? I held on forever but like. But still, like, I mean, the idea that we have all this just on our phones, it's incredible, and it's great. But at the same time. Yeah. Like, you know, we're probably losing something, but. But whatever. [01:06:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:01] Speaker A: When you think about those times, it's crazy. [01:06:04] Speaker B: No doubt, no doubt. When you. Now when you mentioned about, you know, history goes to the victors or they're the ones that write it. [01:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah. History is written by the victors. Right. [01:06:13] Speaker B: I'm sure there's a John Wayne, John Ford, Jimmy Stewart movie called the man who Shot Liberty Valance, and it's a phenomenal movie. But. But there's a quote from that that's kind of a famous one that says, I had to look it up because I didn't want to misquote it. So I looked it up here on my ph. But it's when I know you've probably heard this as a lot of people, that when the legend becomes fact, print the legend, you know. [01:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:40] Speaker B: It's an interesting idea. It's kind of like, you know, one of those things where it's like. Like. Like you say, like, as I was kind of joking around with the reenactment thing, where it's like, you know, what is the more interesting story? If that's, you know, then let's go with that. You know what I'm saying? Like an interesting way to see the way that kind of history is written. Or, you know, again, depending on who's writing it kind of thing. You know what I'm saying? [01:07:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Or who's devouring it. Like, so. So it all depends on you. Are you okay with that? Some people are. Some people aren't. [01:07:10] Speaker B: Right. [01:07:10] Speaker A: Some people are like, if it's not the truth, I don't want to deal with it. But people like, look, of course, this is already passed in. Into, you know, our culture. We all accept that. You know, say, for example, you know, George Washington chopping down the cherry tree or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, it never happened, but, like, when we were in elementary school, we thought it did. Right. Because that's what we thought. [01:07:27] Speaker B: Yes. [01:07:28] Speaker A: So it's like, at what point does it become true? True. Right. At one point does it become fact? When everyone accepts it, it's all relative. So. Yeah, that's a great point, though. It's. It's interesting because I think when we were in elementary school, we did not foresee technology being able to go back and prove this or disprove. Right. Like, we're never gonna know who Jack the Ripper is, you know, that was 100 years ago. And take them. But guess what? But we know who Jack the Ripper was. You know, I mean, it's, it's pretty insane what modern technology has done, but we just didn't see that coming when we were in elementary school in the, the early 80s for me, late 80s for you, so. Interesting stuff, I think. [01:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I, I, I agree. You know, what are we doing here? And, yeah, so, and again, that's what I think this show does. Well, is these kind of thoughts. You have these kind of thoughts going, you know, like, now I'm sitting here going, did Han shoot first? What happened here? [01:08:26] Speaker A: You know, when I saw L. Lucas with the, with the Han shot first shirt, I was like, you are a douchebag. Like, I, I, you know, I see [01:08:35] Speaker B: there's, there's a perfect example. I never knew if that was on the level or not. Like, he. Did he actually really wear that shirt? [01:08:39] Speaker A: I mean, I mean, I guarantee he did, man. Yeah, I mean, look, I'll, I'll never, I'll never be able to appreciate what Lucas gave me as far as the first three movies. Never. And to a lesser extent, the prequel trilogy. But he had his head up his ass for, like, 30 years. You know what I mean? So. [01:09:00] Speaker B: No question, no question. [01:09:01] Speaker A: I love George. I love you, but Jesus Christ, Han shot first a T shirt. If that's real, go yourself. Honestly. [01:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, of course. That's, I, I'm with you there too. No doubt. You [01:09:14] Speaker A: Star Trek hater. [01:09:16] Speaker B: Not really. Yeah, exactly. All right, now, before we get into number one, is there any honorable mentions on this list? [01:09:23] Speaker A: You know what, now? So, like, there was an episode called I want to say Life Signs that I thought about making an honorable mention, but you know what? It's just, I like the idea of the episode. It's basically an episode where he wants to know what it feels like to actually have a family and experience loss. He wants to. Well, it starts out with him wanting to be able to relate to his patients more, you know, understand what it's like to have a cold. Understand what it's like, you know, so, and he creates this hollow holographic family and makes it, programs it so it's real. And if shit hits the fan, it hits the fan. He has to deal with it. He gets attached to the family, and then his daughter dies at the end. And it's really an emotional moment, but episode just never worked for me. Just kind of didn't. I appreciate why it exists, and I like it for the Doctor, but no. So no honorable mentions, to be honest. And just, you know, no, nothing was parrot sketched. This is just. I thought about parrot sketching message in a bottle. Only because I talk about it all the time. [01:10:17] Speaker B: I. I definitely heard you were talking [01:10:19] Speaker A: about a lot, but now I want it on the list, so. So. Yeah, so like I was saying before, if you're a Voyager fan and you're a fan of the Doctor, maybe, you know, the episode I'm about to talk about, I think it's the best Doctor episode, obviously. And, you know, real quick, instead of. In lieu of an honorable mention, Bomber, in case the Adams boys are listening. 100%. 100%. 100%. 100%. 100%. They just had to take four. [01:10:44] Speaker B: I was going to bring that up on Men of a Certain Five, but yes, that is hilarious. [01:10:49] Speaker A: We'll do it on the other pod, too. [01:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:10:52] Speaker A: Folks, one of our friends and their three kids, they. They wanted to do a drinking game wherein whenever Bomber says, what are we doing here? Whenever I say 100%, they take a drink. So hopefully they're doing something hard and they're drunk now, so. [01:11:06] Speaker B: And they're getting rocked. [01:11:09] Speaker A: But you're right. We'll do it on the five. One, two. [01:11:11] Speaker B: Just in case, you know. You know, it would be hilarious if. Is if your number one answer for the number one episode is, what are we doing here? 100%. Like, that was the name. Like, that'd be fucking awesome. [01:11:22] Speaker A: Those are the names of both of our Netflix specials. Brian Parks. What are we doing here? There is a 100%. All right, let's do this. Number one, latent image. This is an 8.3 sin that. It's 8.3 on IMDb from 1999. This is from season four. Five. Sorry, season five. The doctor discovers a profoundly personal mystery when evidence of performing surgery on Ensign Kim 18 months ago arises, for which the Doctor has no memory. So this is cool. So the episode starts out really cool. The Doctor is taking these full medical body scans of the whole crew as part of their yearly physical, and he notices something on Ensign Kim's. Apparently, surgery was done on his spine. When the Doctor examines it more, he's like, wait, that's my technique. I must have performed this surgery. I have no memory of this. And Kim has no memory of it either. So apparently he got surgery done to him. And nobody knows. Nobody remembers it at all. So they begin exploring. Great episode. As far as what's kept hidden and what's revealed as the episode goes on. Again, we Won't remember by the time we get there, so I don't mind spoiling it. Folks out there, if you haven't seen this episode yet, go watch it first, because it's a great episode. Great reveal. So it turns out that Harry Kim does remember that the surgery happened, but the Doctor's memory, or should say his program, has been wiped. So he does not remember it. Here's why. So, apparently, at some point, the Doctor was on an away mission with Ensign Kim and this other Ensign Jatal, this other just, you know, actress of the week Ensign, and something happened and they got attacked, and he had to make a decision to choose either one or the other to save. Didn't have enough time to save both. He chose Ensign Kim, saved him, moved on, everything's okay. Unfortunately, you know, obviously, the other Ensign died, but. So the Doctor ends up having a crisis of conscience over this, you know, choice that he made. You know, why. Why did he choose Kim? Because he likes him more. Because he's a friend. Like, you know, this other woman died because I made a choice. And his program goes through this feedback loop, so they decided the only way to get him out of it was to erase his memory of the situation and then go about his day. And they did, for whatever it was, six months or a year. And then he discovers this thing, an incident in Harry Kim's spine. And he starts investigating and he realizes, wait, something's up. So they're like, all right, Doctor, we have no choice. So they tell him what happened, and it starts happening again, and he goes through this crisis again. Janeway's decision, like it was six months ago, is to just erase his memory again and try again. But Seven of Nine has a different take. She's like, you know, you gave him the freedom to become a real person. You gave him the freedom to explore his sentience, and now you want to take that away from him? Like, is that. Is that right? Is that. You know? And Jamway's like, look, he's. He's the only Doctor we have. We can't have him going crazy. We need him for this ship. You know, I made a decision, and this is what we're doing. So then, you know, turns out she thinks about it more, and they decide to sort of let him work it out himself. So they decide to sort of let him experience what we would all experience if we were going through that sort of. That sort of crisis. It's an amazingly written episode. The Doctor's great in it. It's a great sci fi episode. Great premise. Like I said, great mystery, great reveal. You know, he sets up a camera surreptitiously in sickbay when he thinks someone is tampering with his program. So he deactivates himself on the Captain's orders, but then tells the computer, reactivate me if somebody enters this sickbay. So he does. The camera, takes pictures, and it's Janeway, and he's like, why is the Captain, you know, betraying me? And blah, blah, blah. So it's just a good reveal after good reveal. Some amazing Captain Janeway in seven scenes when she's sort of. Sounds like it, yeah. She's arguing for. For him to be able to make his own choice, you know, because she's in a similar situation. It's a great touch by the writers. So when she. She was a Borg and they sort of, you know, took the. They Deborah fied her and made her more human again, because she was originally human, but she's still very much a Borg, and she was used to that life and, you know, it was ripped away from her. So she sort of has this take, like, it's a great line. She says, well, it's disconcerting. And Jamie's like, what are you talking about? She's like, you know, I'm just like, the Doctor, you know, what's happening to him is not dissimilar to what was happening to me. You know what I mean? And I look to you for guidance, and you were my sort of beacon of morality. But now you're doing this at a Doctor, will you choose to abandon me as well? You know what I mean? So it's a great bit of writing, and it really hammers the point home. And Janeway, who could be as stubborn as anybody, came around and was just like, all right, listen, Doctor, we're going to let you sort of figure this out. And it's a great ending. The ending is sort of Janeway and the Doctor in the holodeck, and she's just sitting with him, just being there for him, and he's just going on and on, what do I do? I make a choice, but he's just kind of unraveling, but trying to put it together, and she's just kind of being a friend, just kind of hanging out with him, just letting him do it. They're all taking shifts. Okay, great ending. It was. It was. It was real validation for the Doctor. This was the moment that Janeway truly, well, for the most part, stopped seeing him as a program and more as a friend than as a person. She sort of Got over the last of her bias towards holographic sentience. So, you know, just a great episode. Like, it's a great writing, great acting, great story. The way it developed. I think this is by far the best Doctor episode. Is it top 10 Voyager? No, but it's up there. It's top 20 for me. [01:17:16] Speaker B: Really? Oh, interesting. Okay, well, I see there's got a [01:17:20] Speaker A: lot of great episodes. [01:17:21] Speaker B: It's more about. It's more about the Doctors. It is. [01:17:23] Speaker A: I see what you're saying on a great episodes. So, like, I don't think it made my top 10, but again, it would make my top 20. And this is one of my comfort food episodes. This is one of the episodes that I constantly go back to just to put on. That's. [01:17:35] Speaker B: That's what I thought. I mean, I kind of have a lot to say here. Obviously, you know, I like the first of all, there's something about you. This is going to sound. I want to get too emotional and going down this road here, but, you know, I. I think about alcoholism a little bit when you were talking about this in a way where it's like, well, these, these two people kind of have their solution as to how to help this person, but I think the best idea was that they have to figure it out on their own. At the end of the day, it's up to them to overcome this thing, you know, like we can only. We can only do so much in a way, you know, which. Which I think is an interesting way. Like you said, you hearing, hearing you talk about it, it was interesting to say because here we are talking about it being a doctoralist. But it seemed. You described me. It made it sound like it was a great Janeway 7 of 9 interaction. Which just hearing you talk about it makes me. I want more of that when I watch the show in a way, you know, and you know, not to go down the Star wars role here road here too. But I can't help but think like, you know, I gotta be honest. Yeah, I go on tick tock now. Maybe it happened when Mandalorian came out. The Mandalorian Grogu movie came out. People were doing these lists of like their all time. Star wars was, you know, and I gotta be honest, I don't know how you feel about this. Not to go down this road, but I am shocked at how much Revenge of the Sith is like revered by people because I, to me, I'm like. I think the worst moment that has ever happened in any Star wars movie is Darth Vader. Going no. Yeah. [01:19:04] Speaker A: That to me is so number one [01:19:05] Speaker B: all time worst thing. But aside that aside, I feel like they rushed the end of the movie. And one of the things that always boggle my mind because it seemed like an easy cheat code to get around all the he'd written was to say let's have three PO's, mine. Let's have the minds wiped. [01:19:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:23] Speaker B: And I always, I always kind of hated that idea and, but here I like the idea that, that it happens. But there's again, you could do more of the TV show because there's more time to kind of lay it all out where it's like, you know, him, that, that, that it's that he kind of gains it all and not gains it all back, but it's kind of like, you know, he discovers it more back. Right. Kind of a thing or. [01:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah. He, so he's just, he's, he's, he's got to work it out. He's got to get over the, the, the trauma of the choice he made. So basically he's really working through his, his quote unquote emotions, even though he doesn't. You may be thinking about the episode before when he did lose his memory, reconstruct it. [01:19:59] Speaker B: Yes. Maybe that's. Yeah, similar. [01:20:02] Speaker A: I mean, similar. He, he's, he's a program, but he's sentient. He's trying to reconcile that and, and it's, it's, it's an interesting premise and [01:20:11] Speaker B: you know, and not to go, I, I like that you said this is a comfort episode for you because I keep thinking to myself like that's, those are the kind of golden nuggets to me in any kind of entertainment thing where like you look at something like this got an 8.3 on the rating there and there were ones that were 8.7. [01:20:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:26] Speaker B: But in your heart this is an 8.7. It's right there with a nails. Because it hits you like that, you know. [01:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [01:20:33] Speaker B: And I, and I can't. It may, for some reason it made me think of like, you know, like, you know, I don't know how you are with this, but like I'm a, I've become addicted to letterboxd. I kind of want to get more back to the IMDb and look at the ratings. Just me and you have talked about them so much. [01:20:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:46] Speaker B: But like I look, I look on like something like a letterbox. I'll tell you right now. I, I, I love, I love getting mad at the stupid ship. Like I didn't, I didn't grow up a Taxi Driver. I did not grow up with the movie. [01:20:58] Speaker A: Right. [01:20:59] Speaker B: But I saw it recently. I don't really talk to you about this. And I appreciated the movie. I got. I understand why it is what it is, and it is a phenomenal thing for what it is, you know, and on letterbox, it's a 4.1, you know, out of 10. But out of five, I think they rate out of five. [01:21:15] Speaker A: They do, they do. You're right. But five stars. [01:21:18] Speaker B: Then I look at. There's two movies on top of my head that I remember on there that on Letterboxd are 3.9, which are jaws and the wizard of Oz. And in my mind, I'm saying to myself, those two movies now, they're all three movies are very different. But to me, they all got to at least start at the same rating. You can't put this that far ahead of the other. And again, to me, it's like, I think letterbox looks at 4.0 is like the benchmark of, like, greatness. And I'm like, how is Jaws not. Not, like, what, am I losing my mind here? You know? [01:21:46] Speaker A: No, no, you're not. [01:21:47] Speaker B: Like, that makes me lose my mind. [01:21:49] Speaker A: I think it's indicative of who largely uses letterbox. Like, I don't think Gen X uses letterbox. Obviously they don't as much as millennials and Gen Z. [01:21:57] Speaker B: No doubt, no doubt. [01:21:59] Speaker A: You know, Gen X is Jaws like that, that's, that's ours, you know, 100, 100. Just like taxi Driver. Just like, you know, not the wizard of Oz, but, you know, Taxi Driver right in smack in the middle of Gen X. And, you know, I, I think if, for example, if you look at IMDb, I guarantee jaws is higher than. Well, you know what, I would say Jaws is higher than Taxi Driver, but who knows? [01:22:22] Speaker B: It might not be. But my point is it should be at least a respectable number. Like, to me, to me, it's an insult that it's below four, maybe. Yeah. And same wizard of Oz, it's just a classic. Like, what are we doing here? [01:22:31] Speaker A: Like you said, especially if the benchmark is 4 as being great. I think, you know, I think it [01:22:36] Speaker B: is just after looking at all these ratings for a while that maybe because that's what my point was going to be to you, what do you think it is for IMDb? Like, what do you. What, what is the number that's of, do you think that they say is from here on we're talking greatness? Is it eight? You know, is it seven? [01:22:51] Speaker A: That's a great question. You know, we talked about that on the pod before. Like, for me, I know we did. It's just my, my own personal opinion. For me, the. As far as episodes go, anything 6 or higher is worth watching. Anything 7 or higher I think is a decent. Pretty, Pretty good episode. Eight or higher is just. Yeah, very good. Good. But I think greatness is honestly reserved for the nines. I think, I mean, greatness, like if you're saying truly great episodes, I think those, those are nines and up. I think. [01:23:18] Speaker B: Gotcha. [01:23:19] Speaker A: But that's just my interpretation. By the way, taxi driver's an 8.2 and jaws is an 8.1. So I'm wrong. [01:23:25] Speaker B: Oh, there you go. [01:23:25] Speaker A: Taxi Driver was one tick above Jaws, [01:23:28] Speaker B: but that is respectable. At least it's in the ballpark. Yeah. I don't know. They're both above 8. [01:23:32] Speaker A: Right. I would say that means doing. If I was an alien, I was just using the ratings. I would say, oh, those must be very good movies. That's what I would say. [01:23:39] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. And it's funny because I always think we, my brother argue about this all the time with the football, you know, or the hall of Fame. We always said Mike and a mad dog had a great conversation about this where they were talking about the hall of Fame. It should be, it should be the automatic no brainers. I don't know if we talked about this on the other part. [01:23:55] Speaker A: I think we might have. [01:23:55] Speaker B: Yes. Okay. About, you know, the idea that when you don't even have to think about it, they're in the hall of Fame and then at the. After that, it's. They're a very good player. They were a great player. You know what I'm saying? [01:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:24:06] Speaker B: So it's like with these, with these ratings, it's kind of like that. But I guess my whole point, going on the stages. I love the idea that you have an episode that's number one, that's not as highly rated generally by everyone else's. I know we're talking episodes here. Not specifically Dr. When you, when you're looking at the ratings. But I, I still like the idea that you have an episode that you hold to your heart, that you put their number one. I don't know, I kind of found that a little endearing there. Even though, you know, it's. What are we doing? [01:24:31] Speaker A: Well, we all have our personal favorites. Right. Like, like, you know, you're gonna watch the Maltese Falcon and I'm gonna watch the Maltese Falcon and you're gonna rate it much Harder than I am. Right. So it's just like. I don't think anyone's gonna deny it's, you know, say it's a terrible movie, but, like, yeah, it's all relative, you know, like, if I, If I, if, if, you know, b' Elana Torres was my favorite character on Voyager, I'd probably have, you know, day of Honor on here as one of my favorite episodes or I'd have, like, one of these other, you know, Torres episodes. It's just the way. Yes. It's the way it rolls. Right? It's just the way. The way. The way you relate to these characters. [01:25:02] Speaker B: And real quick, I was gonna say is now you probably could do a top 10 of every character. [01:25:08] Speaker A: I mean, at some point we'll get there. But I don't think a lot of characters don't have 10 episodes is the thing. Okay, so, like Harry Kim, for example, played by Garrett Wong on Voyager, the operations officer, he. I don't think he has 10 episodes that are just. Just his per se. Now, could I stretch it and do some. That he was really. His stories were good. Of course. And who knows? I probably will, you know, check me out in 2032. [01:25:30] Speaker B: All right. [01:25:30] Speaker A: Top Harry Kim episodes, whatever. Top eight and a half number. Yeah, so. But for sure, like, like, you know, matter of fact, for some reason, I. I've been fixating on Kira from DS9. So I think maybe the next character top 10 might be Kira episodes, which I know some people right now are like, really do. But hey, stay with me. [01:25:50] Speaker B: Some of them, I don't even know who that is. [01:25:52] Speaker A: Right, right. No, I mean, they usually end with her crying, but that doesn't mean they're a bad episode. So there you go. [01:25:57] Speaker B: Awesome. [01:25:58] Speaker A: Not crashing. Usually I'm with her just being fucking emotionally devastated or something, you know, so she. She takes it on the chin a lot on DS9. We'll talk about her. [01:26:06] Speaker B: What episode fucked her up more? That's gonna be higher on the list. [01:26:11] Speaker A: Top 10 Kira. Fucking gut punches, you know, in season five. But listen, folks. Yeah, so listen, doctor. I love the doctor. Robert Picardo. Amazing job. I love that he's on Prodigy. I can't wait to see him in season two of Starfleet Academy. That should be starting in January. You know, I like that show. God willing, we get a third season. I don't think we're going to. It's already officially been canceled. But who knows? Anything can happen either way. I'll take as much EMH as I can get. And. Yeah, thank you for listening to my ramblings about the Doctor. I'm gonna give Bomber the final word here, but thank you so much. We really appreciate it. You guys are the best. And we'll see you soon with another pod. Bomber, take us home, baby. [01:26:53] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I was gonna say thanks for listening to all our tangents. And I got. I was gonna. I was gonna sign off with another one real quick, just because when you mentioned it was gonna be a Doctor episode, I gotta be honest, I was like, oh, wow. You know, but then when you. We mentioned it was Picardo, I remember that. He was, okay, okay. But I was gonna say, I gotta be honest, I don't know where you land on this. I. I have never been. Anytime there's a television drama or show centric to the hospital, like, we're talking like, ER or Chicago, whatever the hell the show is, I do one thing, and that is run as far away. I have no interest in those. I don't know what it is really. Right now. There's that. There's that show, the. Noah Wiley's on it. I'm hearing he's phenomenal. [01:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm a lover. Loves it. My daughter. [01:27:32] Speaker B: And I'm like. [01:27:33] Speaker A: I'm like. [01:27:34] Speaker B: For some reason, it's like, I. I never wanted to go into that world, so I've never watched it. I. I don't know what it is. And so do you have anything like that? Maybe it's not, you know, the. The Doctor thing, but is there anything like that where I can't go? Like, here it is, we're in a fire department. I don't give a. [01:27:51] Speaker A: That's an interesting question. I don't. I mean, I. I was Die Hard ER for a while, for probably the first seven or eight seasons. I like hospital dramas, but, like, honestly, is there. Is there like a setting or a genre that I just. I just turned off? [01:28:05] Speaker B: I'm asking the biggest TV nerd I know. I mean, what's the TV show you're not going to get involved in? [01:28:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. Honestly, like, I, you know, I mean, obviously I'm not big on the romantic shows. Like, I'm not big on, like, the, you know, I'm not a Gilmore Girls guy, even though I love Galore. [01:28:18] Speaker B: There you go. There you go. [01:28:19] Speaker A: I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna watch any of them. I'm not gonna watch. What's the Archie and Jughead show? Riverdale. I'm not gonna watch that shit. [01:28:27] Speaker B: Right. [01:28:27] Speaker A: But at the same time, I'm also the guy who Watches Buffy, but not charmed. So take that. I don't take that for whatever you want, you know, Love Buffy. So I can watch those types of shows, but only if they're made. Well, I guess. I don't know. No offense to Riverdale or Gilmore Girls or I know Troy and Angel. They're both big Gilmore Girls guys, so I'm not on them. But it's just not my cup of tea, you know? [01:28:51] Speaker B: And real quick, just because we're probably not going to do this on this podcast, if you went top top 10 TV doctors, is the doctor on the list? [01:28:59] Speaker A: I mean, there'd be seven Czech doctors in my top 10. Awesome. And then maybe, like, George Clooney and Howie Mandel, you know, like, after that. [01:29:08] Speaker B: How did I not see that? [01:29:09] Speaker A: Yes. [01:29:10] Speaker B: I should have figured that. Yes. [01:29:11] Speaker A: I mean, we did top 10 doctors already. We did that pod [01:29:16] Speaker B: specifically to track. [01:29:17] Speaker A: Yes. And the EMH landed number one. Yeah. [01:29:19] Speaker B: So I remember that. [01:29:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So there you go. So there are. There are 10 doctors actors on the show. [01:29:24] Speaker B: Awesome. [01:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah. So, like I said, man, thank you so much for listening. We appreciate you guys and, yeah, a lot of fun. Yeah, we'll see you soon. We'll be back with. With when the Bow breaks. Bomber finishing up season one soon. [01:29:37] Speaker B: That might be when the pod breaks. I can't wait to get into it. See you guys.