The Beige and The Bold
By VanVelding
The Beige and The BoldAug 18, 2019
All Good Things
Derek and I made a good episode here.
This has been The Beige and The Bold.
Remember Rand.
Preemptive Strike
I'm here with Joie from The Jump and Shoot podcast. We're watching the last episode of Ro Laren with you all.
Ro has grown a lot and now she's learning about her own culture during a mission to infiltrate the Maquis. I won't ask if you can think of a reason for a man and woman to talk privately in a bar; I'll ask how many reasons you can think of for a man and woman to talk privately in a bar. 7? 47?
You can find Joe on twitter at: https://twitter.com/podcastjump
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Emergence
It's the last solo session before this all wraps up. I fell I've said that before, but I really mean it this time.
Is the Enterprise itself enough of a character to warrant a whole episode? Was this that episode? (It wasn't)
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Bloodlines
Gepwin is my guest again and we're watching "Bloodlines" with you.
Maybe there's a version of this where Dr. Crusher discovers all of the medical chicanery in Picard's Son (I forget his name and I don't care) and Data and Geordi figure out Bok's one trick that physicists hate to route his subspace transporter beam straight into a holding cell, we wrap this all up without a third act.
But we have a third act.
You can find Gepwin on Watchers of Tomorrow, available on most podcasting platforms and hosted on PodBean. https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
First Born
It's another Solo Session. Worf is worried about Alexander's future, but luckily a Klingon consigliere named K'mtar is there to help. Also there's something about a plot to murder Worf by, *reads smudged writing on hand* the Dumas Brisket?
I didn't have fond memories of this one, but it's surprisingly solid, even if later Treks--*ahem*--destroy everything it builds towards.
Is that such a big deal though? Do these stories matter less if we regularly throw their character growth the represent in the trash? Aren't the lessons we learn true enough, or do they only matter when they come from a series which follows through with those ideals?
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Journey's End
Journey's End has been a long time in coming. It feels like the beginning of the end of the series and it's also an episode I recorded with this guest host almost two years ago.
That said, there are a few things I'd like to get off of my chest:
- Picard does not have Native American heritage.
- Ro Laren was 8 episodes of TNG and a prominent character in 6 of those episodes.
- Cardassians had neck frills in their original appearance.
- The Native Americans from The Original Series episode, "The Paradise Syndrome," were from Earth, not a parallel culture.
- Romulans have never been remotely "up front."
I hope you like two white guys talking about Native American culture for 45 minutes. It was neck and neck whether we could be marginally more enlightened than Star Trek and I think we pulled ahead just a little bit.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Genesis
I'm hanging out with Gepwin this week while we watch Genesis.
I feel like our science nitpicking would be really petty and mean if anything at all happened in this episode. I'm not the kind of guy to expect big arcs out of TNG, but some level of drama and real stakes are necessary. And no, "the ship will be animals forever" is not real stakes. I can suspend my disbelief with the best of them, but my arms get tired, yo.
How stupid was this episode:
A) Stupid
B) So stupid
You can find Watchers of Tomorrow at: https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Eye of the Beholder
I'm here with Randolph this week and we're just tryin' to get it done.
It's a heavy talk about suicide. Do series trivialize sensitive topics like suicide when they talk about them? Is it worth the risk of being disrespectful to talk about it?
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Thine Own Self
I continue watching each episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This time with my friend Dr. Izixs as a guest.
Delivered exactly on Wizard Central Time, it's the one where Data has hot rocks and no memory and Troi has no rocks and a hot memory. A memory of being in command.
Despite being a bit rickety, is this one of the best episodes of the season?
You can find Dr. Izixs' podcast, Watchers of Tomorrow, on podbean here: https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/
Sub Rosa Solo Session
Unedited, slightly incoherent, and mostly redundant, The Beige and The Bold Solo Sessions are episodes where I run through a show with just you, the listener, as my companion. In "Sub Rosa," things get messy.
Sub Rosa has gotten infamous in later years as the one where Dr. Crusher fucks the ghost. I've heard it said that if Riker had fucked the ghost we wouldn't give that episode nearly as much guff. I disagree. Riker gets a lot of guff for his love interests and if he'd fucked a ghost, he'd get flack for it. It would be the ur-Riker episode.
Also, I did a little count recently and there are 10 ghost episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That's a lot of ghosts. A lot.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Lower Decks
Hey it's me and Matt lookin' at one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's last classic episodes: "Lower Decks." We're gonna watch it together on Netflix and then talk about it some.
Given that Star Trek: Lower Decks is based on this episode, it's surprisingly heavy. The series has a lot of humor with only touches of drama and pathos, but it does have those as well. It's true to its roots and it's the best Star Trek I've watched since Deep Space Nine.
Less seriously, Taurik did get that Ensign killed because he couldn't count to four.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Homeward Solo Session
Unedited, slightly incoherent, and mostly redundant, The Beige and The Bold Solo Sessions are episodes where I run through a show with just you, the listener, as my companion. In "Homeward," I basically miss everything Dr. Crusher was saying because she addresses a lot of my concerns, but--
--what about DOMESTICATION?! Do you know how long it took for us to make wheat, corn, and other plants edible?! The Boraalans aren't starting over from their modest, medieval beginnings; they're going back to hunting and gathering. I'd be shocked if their culture survived that. If Lower Decks (the series) could casually kill off Spock 2, I'm rooting for them to revisit New Boraal and just find bodies.
The word I was thinking of was "referendum." Seems like something that The Federation could put together over a long weekend. I'd much rather see the story where Picard has to debate the fate of these guys with his own agenda against someone else, rather than just have him shrug his way through least-bad options.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
The Pegasus
I'm watching TNG's 7th season alongside you, the viewer, and Alex from Media Thinkings and Cinema Joes.
It's about Riker and loyalty versus principle. It's a great conflict that has a lot of ideas behind it and addresses a lot of the structure of the Star Trek universe. "Sadly, we don't see any compelling alternative ideas behind this. Don't be a dick and murder your crew, future Starfleet captains."
Also, this episode is connected to the series finale for Star Trek: Enterprise. I don't like Enterprise, so I dodge most of animus based on that. For those of you who do like Enterprise, I'm sorry.
Alex can be found on twitter @MediaThinkings and @CinemaJoes, as well as on Anchor on PopBreakTV.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Parallels
I'm watching TNG's 7th season alongside you, the viewer and Grymm from Descents part one and two. We're talking about Worf. In time.
It's a collection of roads not traveled, which is a pretty good look when, dead Geordis aside, most are pretty badass. Worf ranks up if people die I guess. It feels like Starfleet wouldn't function quite so much like a Klingon ship, but I guess it does. As is, it makes Worf look a little undervalued. Like, if he was given the opportunity he'd excel.
But hey, Lieutenant Commander Worf leaving security and re-entering the command track is just something that Star Trek may never be able to handle.
I mixed up two episodes when talking about Deep Space Nine: "Distant Voices" and "Whispers." The episode I was thinking of is just called "Whispers."
So Worf and Troi: Hot or not?
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Force of Nature
I'm watching TNG's 7th season alongside you, the viewer and Joie from Jump and Shoot. We're talking about climate change. In space.
Season seven puts the "beige" in The Beige and The Bold and this one is no exception. I've gravitated further from "language of television" and closer to "lazy contemporary assumptions." This episode is that so much because Star Trek just ignores climate change and then everyone pretends they handwaved technological solution to it.
It shows how the very short attention span of television is ill-suited to handle something lingering and ongoing like climate change. Imagine if this hung around Trek's neck for the next 8 years. We'd get tired of it. But hey, we'll get be beyond tired due to climate change.
Please enjoy our fun podcast.
You can listen to Jump & Shoot on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/yQLXv. The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Inheritance
I'm watching Season 7's "Inheritance" alongside you, the viewer. No co-host this week, just me talking about moms. Specifically, Data's mom, who appears out of nowhere after decades and wants to start a relationship with Data.
In retrospect, it gets weird. I'm going to blame it on Star Trek: Picard, but it gets weird.
Am I wrong though? Is Dr. Tainer's desire to reach out to Data after years when she chose to pointlessly abandon him on Omicron Theta okay? Is Data's response to all of this a fair equivalent to a sympathetic, human reaction? I am deep in the weeds on this one.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Attached
My guest co-host is Gepwin this week and he's on to something with these tricorders. They do an awful lot.
I'm not sure if there's some big idea or approachable social metaphor or human story in this episode. Unless it's homeopathy. Because we get one ounce of those things and whole lotta tap water to keep 'em in.
You can listen to Gepwin and Dr. Izixs to their own watch of Star Trek in Watchers of Tomorrow: https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Masks
In the far distant future of the 24th century, museum exhibits will interact with you.
It's hard to say anything about "Masks" because there's no human story, no lesson, and no real point to it. It's a standalone idea that's executed with moderate skill. It's a Star Trek episode that happened.
I dunno. How are YOU doing?
My guest this week is NamelessSeeD, who runs For Heroes Gaming. You can check it out at https://www.fourheroesgaming.com/ and see his other projects at https://www.fourheroesgaming.com/projects
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
Dark Page
Dark Page is a heavy and surreal episode which is a hard thing to make fun of, but me and Smokey try.
I hope you guys like How I Met Your Mother*.
It's great how this episode deals with language and trauma. As best as a 45-minute episodic TV drama can. It utilizes Majel Barret effectively and Marina Sirtis gets some decent work. I'm not sure why this episode isn't remembered better. It's got an IMDB score of 6.4, which puts it in the bottom middle of Season 7. I don't see how it's neck-and-neck with "Force of Nature," which we'll get to.
I'm going to be mixing some of these episodes up. When it was just me and Derek I could keep a schedule (I couldn't, but you get my point). Now that I'm trying to get episodes with guests recorded before TNG goes off Netflix, which is schedule to happen "TBD but soon," I'm taking what I can, when I can. I wouldn't 100% bet on "Attached" being the episode for next week.
*Obviously, not the finale.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
Phantasms Solo Session
Unedited, slightly incoherent, and mostly redundant, The Beige and The Bold Solo Sessions are episodes where I run through a show all on my own.
Man, "Phantasms" has got it all; lazy pseudoscience, disdain for people who aren't the main cast, and a gaping hole where a big idea should be. It's a yawner that's only slightly redeemed by its strong and bizarre visuals.
I cover The Original Series' saurian brandy and its contribution to the field of psychology, the fish-eye lens that dates from the same era, and the horrors of being assimilated into The Admiral Collective. What else is there to talk about here?
That "whole hog" thing wasn't a weight-based joke; it's what happens when you gotta keep talking for 45 minutes without anyone else letting you do thinky-times. Same with that Patty Hearst reference; her status as a "volunteer" is not something you wanna hang your rhetorical hat on.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
Gambit, Pt II
Gepwin and I talk Horatio Hornblower, the black boxes of command, and how logic and emotional are a little more complicated than Vulcans talk about.
Also, how much bull-hockey is it when Picard just hacks [REDACTED] off-screen. That's a big sword of Damocles hanging over this story and then Picard just Uno Reverse cards it when no one is looking. Disappointing.
Also: More like The Stone of Gol'darn Disappointing.
You can find Gepwin's work on Watchers of Tomorrow here: https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/ and his YouTube channel here.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
Gambit, Pt I
We talk about the narrative structure and the shallowness of fake outs and deaths in media, from Boromir, to Picard, to John Snow. There's some discussion about Star Trek clumsily trying to affect seedy bars and archaeology sites.
Gambit is the most uncompelling compelling episode I've ever seen and we try to figure out why. For everything happening, it doesn't feel like anything. Why doesn't this episode charm even a bit?
You can find Gepwin's work on Watchers of Tomorrow here: https://watchersoftomorrow.podbean.com/ and his YouTube channel here.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
Interface
Unedited, slightly incoherent, and mostly redundant, The Beige and The Bold Solo Sessions are episodes where I run through a show all on my own.
I'm sorry, but I just don't know Ben Vereen and Madge Sinclair. This isn't a boast; it's a--conspicuous--hole in my pop culture knowledge. Like, my dad and I sit around and talk about actors in movies. I'm introducing him to Giancarlo Esposito. I don't know them that well. Ben Vereen is still acting and Madge Sinclair was in The Lion King and Look Who's Coming to Dinner. Not small roles.
I always feel like Geordi is being handled with kid gloves and doesn't come across with any real personality because of it. All "Interface" tells us is that he didn't spring fully-formed from Zeus' forehead. But knowing which two humans f--had sex to make him doesn't actually develop Geordi as a character. We don't really learn anything about him.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
Liaisons
Unedited, slightly incoherent, and mostly redundant, The Beige and The Bold Solo Sessions are episodes where I run through a show all on my own.
Picard is in a Geordi plot, which is mind-blowing to discover, and the intrigue sizzles like a superconductor on an Alaskan highway*. No one cares and nothing happens. Worf gets a win and sales of fun-size Mars bars and Hurricanes go up by 1%.
The actor I couldn't place was Eric Pierpoint. I thought I'd feel stupid when I looked it up, but I don't. He wasn't in the original movie, just the five TV movies and the one TV season of the Alien Nation franchise. I was going to make a "he's been in worse" joke, but I can't do Alien Nation dirty like that.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
*Yes, I know that would technically kind of sizzle as the highway pumps heat into the superconductor, but you get what I'm going for.
Descent, Pt II
I've turned the volume up on this episode so it plays at the same level as other audio on my system. I've always set the volume according to Audacity instead of from the playback of the exported episode, but I'm doing this now. So the episode might be louder than past episodes. Let me know if it's too loud.
Grymm and I talk about payoffs, Lore's choice of attire, and how this is a really underrated 2-parter in Trek history. Weirdly underrated.
The episode where Worf becomes a paraplegic is "Ethics." "Extreme Measures" is a season seven Deep Space Nine episode.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST. If you have Netflix and would like to be a guest host for an episode in season seven, let me know on twitter @VanVelding or via Discord: https://discord.gg/Nw7Vf4Pkpn
Enterprise One: A Worthy Civilization, Pt II
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
It breaks a bit and there are some plotholes, but it's a satisfying conclusion. I wish I could write why slowly enough that other people could read and get them, but let's try:
It's good because it has S T A K E S and C O N S E Q U E N C E S. The universe isn't going to blow up and our characters don't let the "ends well" declare the rest of their actions "all well." We give up things to get other things and our characters change a bit, usually for the better, as result of all of it. Even Kira who maintains she did nothing wrong she lost, but doesn't recant the principles which made her fight.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in three weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: A Worthy Civilization, Pt I
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
It's possible I have an ax to grind about people who have an axe to grind over the use of the word "discover"? I've got one.
Last week was definitely the last of the good times before shit gets serious in the finale, but I like modern-day television's tendency to deliver big two parter season finales that give closure instead of awkward cliffhangers. Enterprise One is no exception.
...no, I haven't seen the finale of Loki. Was that important?
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in two weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: The Week of Hell
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
It's basically safe for work, but the technology of being safe for work while being not safe for work has come a looong way. Given that half the people who've seen my genitals in the past four years worked for the TSA, I feel it naturally dovetails with the message of security theater.
"Not bad" is the best I can give it, due to its loose focus and broad set of characters.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in three weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: 31 Corpses
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
Wow.
I didn't watch a lot of Voyager, but this is a gangbusters Janeway and Tuvok episode and Kirk and Worf episode and even an Odo episode little bit and it manages all of that by having the arcs of each of those characters intersect the arc of the others.
It's a Section 31 episode I don't hate. That's the highest praise I can confer on an episode of Star Trek.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in three weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: Moral Peril
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
This one is about Kes and the Temporal Cold War and it's just good teevee.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in four weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: The Dhohurl Opportunity
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
It's another Prime Directive episode, but if you promise not to tell anyone, it's also about privilege and systemic problems. It's an Uhura-heavy episode--finally--and it's also B'Elanna Torres-heavy episode. I mean, Picard is in there too, and it undercuts Star Trek's tendency to put him in a pedestal. And it does that without making Picard look like an idiot.
I mean, you could take Picard off of a pedestal while making him look like a decrepit idiot, but I don't see why you could do that when you could understand flaws in his character that make him a reasonable person who is just wrong sometimes.
Who would be so stupid though?
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in seven weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: The Tale of The Enterprise and L'morte de Legend
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
Woof. I guess if you're going to make a Star Trek fanfiction series, you've got to make a bad episode, and TToTEaLdL is one of those. When I'm making TBnTB, I can usually see what an episode was trying to do, but I'm at a loss here. I mean, I know this episode was trying to do an Arthurian Myth episode, but the goal of anything else in this 45 minutes of Star Trek mashed into King Arthur's Court like two action figures rammed together is a mystery to me.
Regarding the execution of Spirk: Not gay enough.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in eight weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: Lingering Compassion and the Art of Death
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
It's about institutional incompetence and a culture based on doing one thing, and that thing isn't making peoples' lives better. It's obvious and not too deep and there's furrows in the story that separate things. It FEELS like an episode I guess, and that's a bit disappointing for a Kira-heavy episode that also features the trio of Geordi, Data, and Wesley.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in eight weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: Pure Ambition
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
Pure Ambition is the Doctor Bashir storyline worked backwards. The dramatic revelation about his genetic history is well-established except for some dialog and then we let his character speak out for that. Using one individual minority's character as a model for that entire morality is dicey, but that's kind of the point of the story.
Sure, Starbase 47 was fun, but I feel like Pure Ambition is the first episode that's really good. But it features Tom friggin' Paris, so even odds there's something wrong with me.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in ten weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: Starbase 47
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
Starbase 47 is the home port story I've been wanting to make for a long time. Most of the time, home port is Earth or Deep Space Nine and those huge, fuckoff starbases need to be for something. So we get that and a big establishing sequence that answers questions about everyone's families and give some gratuitous nods to canon.
It's also our first Kirk episode and he gets to jam on a mystery with Odo that involves Tellaries and Federation civilians. Admiral Ross is still an idiot. It's a great time.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in ten weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: We Unwinding
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
We Unwinding is about Nog, because it's his introduction to the series. What happens when you land a young Ferengi Starfleet officer on a pre-contact planet for a year? The question is: "How do you undo what happens when you land a young Ferengi Starfleet officer on a pre-contact planet for a year?"
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in ten weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Enterprise One: Ending Yesterday
While we're waiting for the Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space, to catch up, I'm sharing a series of reviews for Enterprise One. Enterprise One is a Star Trek series I worked on with Dr. Izixs. We hash out the stories, then I give reviews of them.
Ending Yesterday is a pilot and it plays with the possibilities at hand before serving up our status quo. Everyone from The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager is alive and serving on Kirk's Enterprise. We try out a few configurations through our plot device de jour and then learn the immutable lesson that, wherever you go, there you are.
Regular episodes of The Beige and The Bold will return with "Descent, Pt II" in eleven weeks' time, when Nine Deeps of Space has finished its second season.
Descent, Pt I
I'm back with Grym and we're going over the Season 6 cliffhanger, "Descent, Pt I." I guess that's not really a spoiler if the name is "Part I." And if the last three season finales were also cliffhangers. What are we going to do; go back to clip shows to close out the season?
Anyway, we see Star Trek doing something really interesting with the Borg; allowing them to change and grow, becoming a new threat and a vehicle to explore human questions. Well, we haven't gotten to all that yet. We're just intrigued by the new thing we're doing with the Borg.
THIS shovel? It's, uh, certainly not here to put this interesting thing we're doing with the Borg into a shallow grave in a few years as this franchise commits to shortpacking everything to more easily sell it as individually-priced slivers of nostalgia. That's not even a Picard burn; it's a First Contact burn.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Timescape
Anna's back and we're talking about solid character episode with minimal ghosts "Timescape."
It's got runabouts! And time travel!
There's not too much to say about this one. We don't have a deep concept or a tightly-constructed mystery. Timey-wimey stuff happens, but we have fun anyway.
I mean that time; it sure is subjective, right?
I've been out a few weeks due to internet problems, so I'll be posting a bit to make up for it. But that's just the end of season six before we go into a bit of a holding pattern until Deep Space Nine series, Nine Deeps of Space catches up. I'll be posting some Enterprise One stuff, but I've got a poll up on twitter as to which Enterprise One stuff you want to hear in the interim. https://twitter.com/VanVelding/status/1383947120684589060
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Second Chances
More than any other episode, this one makes me think about the title of this series. Second Chances is bold in that they keep Riker around and don't write him off as some kind of alien of the week. It's pretty beige in that they thought about shaking up the status quo without really changing their cast but didn't for what are essentially commercial reasons.
So Will Riker goes on a shelf simply because people want him around, but don't particularly care if anything--y'know--GOOD is done with him. The man lives in a glass case watching any additional character development passing him by.
In the beginning of Season 4, I pitched the idea of "Captain Riker, Ambassador Picard," imagining how season four would look if after Picard's assimilation by the Borg, Riker became the captain and Picard became an ambassador at large on the Enterprise.
In that same spirit, I'm going to pitch "Chief of Operations Thomas Riker" for some of the episodes we have coming up. How will future episodes change if Thomas Riker takes over as Chief of Operations and Data becomes First Officer of the Enterprise? Will anything change? Will we have additional storylines to think of? We'll see.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Suspicions
It's a pretty cool Doctor Crusher story that effectively packs a lot into it. Remember how rushed "The Chase" was? I feel like "Suspicions" moves at a similar pace but uses a framing device to make it actually work.
It's too bad we never see the scientists again, but who knows? Maybe this technology will be useful again some day.
I want to thank this week's and last week's guest Jack, who was a lot of fun to work with. The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Frame of Mind
It's all corrections for this one. That's boring, so imagine reading this in Robert Stack's Unsolved Mysteries voice.
- My reference to Supernatural actor Jensen Ackles' constantly deepening voice was abandoned early in the episode, but that happened, and it was weird.
- It's Paramount+, not CBS All-Access anymore.
- I have seen a Philip K. Dick book including the Philip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale." Haven't read it.
- Pico de gallo is the chopped onion, tomato, and pepper thing. There is no corn in it.
- That Babylon 5 episode was "A View from the Gallery," not "A View from Downbelow."
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Lessons
For a pretty sedate episode, we've got a lot going on here. Folks kid a lot about TNG being more about administrative issues instead of high-stakes space action, and Lessons is definitely that. It focuses on one character, Picard, and it's bizarre we don't even get a character arc. It's packed with stuff, but stuff that doesn't seem to take us anywhere in the end.
It might be the worst good episode of the series. Is that why no one talks about this episode ever?
My guest this week is Anna, who was a joy to record with.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
The Chase
Unedited, slightly incoherent, and mostly redundant, The Beige and The Bold Solo Sessions are episodes where I run through a show all on my own.
The Chase is one of those episodes we all just collectively forget. Not because its epicly bad, but because it's epicly mediocre. I'm already forgetting it. It's an episode that defies being written to media. Witnessing Star Trek improv every time this episode gets queued would be more memorable than actually watching it again.
You might recognize the tragically mis-used Norman Lloyd as Doctor Daniel Auschlander from St. Elsewhere, which is a solid danged series. He does good work with Galen, what there is of Galen anyway. The dude is 106 as of posting. Not Galen. Galen is dead.
Questions of canon have been on my mind lately. Do we ignore this episode because it's directly contradicted by later Star Trek? I mean, we-go-back-to-the-origins-of-life-on-Earth-and-do-not-see-Salome-Jens contradicted. It gets hard canceled. In THIS VERY SERIES. Do we ignore the episode or just bad (relevant) parts of it?
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Rightful Heir
Worf meets Klingon Jesus, who's changed a lot since he fought Kirk and Abraham Lincoln on the rock guy planet. The episode is better than I remembered and I'm glad I could watch it with Grym, who is a fan of the Klingons.
"Rightful Heir" is a cool combination of science, religion, and Klingon politics. Does Trek even handle religion this well again until Deep Space Nine?
My guest this week is Grym, who doesn't have a project he's working on, but who loves Wyrd Games' Malifaux.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Starship Mine
I don't feel like there's a lot of depth to plumb here. It's "Die Hard on a starship." It's competently executed, but lacks real stakes and apes the original's character beats instead of making up ones that fit Star Trek.
I dunno. Who should've gotten this? Worf, as he murders his way through twice as many mooks, going "You know how I said I'd kill you last? I lied" while holding a guy in front of an approaching baryon field. Geordi? Who's doing all this with his engineering knowledge plus he's having visor problems and--who knows--has a history with the main thief? Doctor Crusher who can spin kick and hypospray folks into next week at a 0.8 Worfs, but also has to find a way to save them from the sweep? Anyone else?
My guest this week is Dr. Izixs from Watchers of Tomorrow, which also watches old Star Trek and sci-fi stuff and talks about it. You can find Watchers of Tomorrow at: http://www.watchersoftomorrow.com/
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are usually posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
The November Update
There's not much to say Derek is leaving. He's going to record "All Good Things" with me, but it won't go up until the end of the series.
Until then we've got guests and solo session. Get me at https://twitter.com/VanVelding if you'd like to be a guest.
Birthright, Part II
What happens when the only solution for peace is having sex with an enemy prisoner of war when she knows the only hope of survival is reciprocating your crappy, emotionally-stunted advances? The fact that I can point to two women this applies to in this situation is a little ewww.
I'm being a little unfair. Birthright is actually one of season six's many underrated gems. One thing I like about late-season TNG is that it swings for the fences. It misses more than it hits, but those hits are pretty good and the misses impress you with their candle ghosts. I mean, "confidence."
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Birthright, Pt 1
Derek is actually pretty right about the trend in TNG two-parters, which is kind of embarrassing and kind of makin' me proud. Granted, I only have so many, "pride in my son" moments left as Derek's 'Trek cred comes to rival my own.
Would Jaglom Shrek is the only Yridian we've met and he'd still be the worst if we met a Yridian corpse in a decaying orbit around a gas giant comprised primarily of farts. What I'm saying is that the Shrek children's book was written in 1990, so he wasn't even the best Shrek in popular media.
Is Data's story good or not? I say 'no' because it undermines Data's growth. It is well-structured and works with the themes of this episode though.
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.
Tapestry
I know it's a classic, but can we agree that this TNG run has revealed a few hidden gems and a bit too much fool's gold? Look, is old Picard too impulsive or not impulsive enough? Is he altering his character or just a few actions that young Picard is going to retroactively justify? Given that Picard straight up chooses to DIE rather than not be a Starfleet Captain, what's up with later episodes pretending that he might have become an archaeologist?
I feel like if our lesson is clear then that's fine, but I don't see any message here about coming terms with your past action that isn't just a status quo bias. "You're comfortable in the world your flaws made, so isn't it better to live in this world built on your sin because it's easier?" It sounds insane!
I think Derek nails it; learn from your past, but don't regret or idealize it.
Most importantly: Did he or did he not crack a yo-mama joke to a Nausican?
The Beige and The Bold is hosted on Anchor and is available on most podcasting platforms. New episodes are posted on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM CST.