Case 1.14

#014 - Alien Nation 1.09 "Three to Tango"

2026.02.17 1:35:49

Alienating Ourselves Podcast

0:00 1:35:49

This week we review "Three to Tango," one of the best episodes of "Alien Nation" and a great episode of sci-fi TV in general. This installment explores gender, sex, procreation, faith, and religion -- topics that you wouldn't think go together, but that's the beauty of science fiction. We learn that the Tenctonese species has a 3rd gender that is required for Newcomers to reproduce. Binnaums, as they are known, seem similar to males, but they have noticeably different...parts...and functions. And, one of our recurring characters is a member of that order.

- Do both co-hosts agree on the strengths and appeal of this episode?

- What parallels did one co-host notice between this episode and the Moclan species storyline from "The Orville"?

- Which co-host had great appreciation to the details applied to the beliefs & rituals portrayed in this episode?

- What were the noticeable differences in the Albert character, when he was acting as Binnaum to the Francisco family rather than just the janitor at the police station?

- Which co-host described the acting, directing, editing, and music, from the last few minutes of the episode as "perfect"?

- What does George teach Matt about what makes a Tenctonese women attractive?

- Matt already gets on the co-hosts' nerves for a few reasons. In this episode, we learn that Matt is bad at something else. What is that new revelation?

- What issues made one co-host feel like the weekly crime subplot was predictable?

- As much as the co-hosts love the George Francisco character, what did George do in this episode that disappointed one co-host?

- What questionable police actions did Matt Sikes demonstrate this week?

- What guest star was also a main cast member in all three seasons of the science-fiction TV show "Seven Days"?

- How much does Dobbs get to do this week?

- How much unwanted information is shared about North Carolina, just because one Tenctonese character is named after Jame K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States, who was born in N.C.?

- What aspect of this episode warrants a reference to "Ally McBeal"?

- And, is this, whether the writers intended it or not, a transgender-themed episode?

Listen now for the answers to these and other mind-bending questions as our co-hosts explore "Three to Tango."

Please rate or review us wherever you listen to podcasts. You can leave reviews on individual episodes on the Spotify & GoodPods apps. Our e-mail address is [email protected].

Royalty-free music in this episode comes from Pixabay.com and The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

Humans and aliens working together I.

Really want to dig more into their culture.

It's a mirror up to humanity. Social commentary through

allegorical storytelling. Wild, angry old man opinions.

That's an erogenous song. Prepare the channel with

catalyzing emission. Oh my.

Todd is just a stupid guy with an obsession for Wikipedia.

An ass that you laugh at. Good grief.

Oh. What a twerk.

Brilliant science fiction storytelling.

You definitely need to watch this ever.

Can we give Eric Pierpoint an Emmy for next week's episode?

George Francesco is one of my all time favorite characters.

The show is going to go to places that I really enjoy.

Sour milk is a good thing to the tanked knees.

Soft with a subtle finish. This is a packed episode.

Stay tuned, listeners. We're both fans of Star Trek.

Watching Alien Nation and we enjoy.

It I am one of your hosts. Todd, this is Nick.

This is the Alienating Ourselves podcast.

Greetings humans and newcomers, and welcome back to Alienating

Ourselves, the podcast where we examine sci-fi entertainment

with a focus on aliens who need three people to procreate and

the humans that need only two people to procreate.

Three or more people to have an extra fun time, and sometimes

maybe just one person to, you know, relieve some stress.

I am one of your hosts, Todd. With tonight's episode being

about the sensitive topics of sex, procreation and religion,

maybe it's a good thing I couldn't think of one of my

usual corny jokes to say during the outro.

Did you mean intro or do you not have anything for the outro

either? Real professional.

And joining me, as always, is a guy who's probably tired of my

corny jokes already. Anyway, it's Nick.

Nick, how's it going? Every week is like the first

time. So I'm I'm doing just fine.

We are we are going to get into some stuff today.

I didn't expect this one. I mean, the title is about

dancing, so I'm naive. I just, I thought it was going

to be pretty chill, a lot of maybe wind blowing through the

curtains metaphorically. But no, no, we are going to get

into it and so are some of the people on the screen.

So let's get into it. Tonight, as Todd and I continue

alienating ourselves, we will explore Season 1, Episode 9,

Three to Tango, which originally aired back in November 13th of

1989. A series of murders of phenom, a

rare kind of tanktonese needed for catalyzing reproduction,

raises fears that purists are trying to stop the tanktonese

from breeding. Francisco asks Albert to be the

phenom for his and Susan's next child.

And it took me a week or two longer than everyone else, but

eventually even Nick understood that this title is a double

entendre and a very, very obvious 1.

So that's what you all are dealing with.

This is written by Diane Froloff and Andrew Schneider, and

they've written several episodes of the series 3 Alien Nation TV

movies and they're still busy today.

And it's directed by Stan Lathan.

He directed 62 episodes of Rock starring Charles Dutton right

after this, and two episodes of Alien Nation, this one and

Partners, which is still a few episodes away.

We're going to, it's going to take a while to get to Partners.

So just to get things going. What was your initial take on

this episode, Todd? OK, so I was really looking

forward to this one because we talked before about how we've

seen this show before and we remember some things and not

other things. This was the one that I don't

know if I would say I remembered everything vividly, but it's the

episode with certain themes and certain moments that I think I

remembered possibly more than any other episode.

If not, then just a lot. And I would say this is the best

episode so far. It's one of the best of the

whole series because I have peeked ahead.

So I've I've at least skimmed through every episode, or at

least almost every episode for the rest of the season.

And so I'd know some things to come.

And yeah, I think this is one of the best of the whole season.

And I think it's just in general a great episode of science

fiction overall. So what did you think?

I think you're right on all counts.

I think it's a return to form for the creatives behind the

show. I think Diane and Andrew, as a

writing team, they're just on a roll with this episode.

And when you talk about science fiction, I mean, taking us

someplace we haven't been before, whether it's a metaphor

or just saying, hey, what if you had it work like this for people

and having a very big imagination.

This episode has some big imagination in it, So yes, the

part of your brain that's wired for sci-fi and loves to have

your thoughts expanded. Oh my goodness, this was

expansive. So I I loved a lot of things

about this episode. I loved how it was done and

there are things that I wanted to see more of in previous

episodes that weren't that big a deal and we get those too.

So a lot of things to love in this one.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, so I guess we'll move on

to our first section, the sour milk section, where we talk

about the good stuff from the episode.

Do you want me to go first or do you want to get started?

You go first. OK, so this is going to be very

similar to my first impression though over just the overall

premise for this episode is brilliant science fiction

storytelling. I mean, they take one little

twist and make a whole story out of it, and that is that the

Tinctonies technically have 3 genders.

And yes, one of them is very similar to the normal male

gender, but they still have different anatomy and they're

there for different purpose. And therefore there's a bit of

their society that is kind of separate because of it.

And so there is technically 1/3 gender.

And I love how just taking that one little science fiction twist

can lead to such great storytelling.

It kind of reminds me of the Mocklin race from The Orville

where they take a similar twist and milk it for all it's worth.

I mean multiple episodes there and that is the Mocklands

supposedly have only one race. I think you mean one gender, not

one race. That they are all male now

there's a few complications there.

I don't know if I want to spoil it, but you know, there, there's

some issues there. Not everything is as it appears.

And like I said, they milk that for all it's worth.

And it leads to a lot of episodes that are very good

allegorical storytelling. And so this one episode of

Alienation kind of reminded me of of that, of taking that one

little twist and, and making a whole story out of it.

Yeah, I think when I would look at science fiction and someone

would tell me you have a very human story that could take

place on Earth with normal people in it, except it has one

weird thing about it and one stretch of the imagination.

And then you have people kind of moving around that in orbit and

how it changes things and mixes stuff up.

And that's a big part of this one.

So I definitely agree about that.

And I, I think those of us who love the genre, we might even

get a little bit used to people not being as creative.

We just do the same things that we enjoy over and over again.

I, I can't get enough time travel, But you know, we've seen

a lot of that. But if somebody does something

we've never seen before in the genre, whoa.

And I've seen this episode before.

And when I saw it, I was a kid. So I'm rewatching it with like

this younger version of myself telling me what's going to

happen and he is wrong. There are things that I did not

remember at all, I think because I genuinely didn't understand

them just because it was it was too big and weird an idea for

me. And there are other things that

I misinterpreted because it's subtle and sweet.

So I will say my next one to kind of kick off of that is the

ritual. So in Star Trek, we have some

creative ideas and we have some alien races that do things

different than us and, and some of them will have rituals.

And I love the end of Star Trek 3.

It's not for everybody, but it's a big elaborate ritual.

This episode kind of stands out on its ear.

Somebody sat down with a memo book and went to town on the

details of the ritual. And they didn't just make it

rich and alien and complicated. They went as far as to try and

make something beautiful. And I think they kind of

succeeded. So if you're a fan of a, a

universe that doesn't really exist, if you like to imagine

living in the wizarding world or the Star Trek Galaxy or the Star

Wars Galaxy, you want these kinds of things that make it

feel real and you you like to learn these details.

But this, just this episode, they had rituals, multiple

rituals that were so detailed. They felt very fleshed out and

real and kind of personal. And that was, that's like a big

one for me for this episode. I love that.

So some of those details would be things like the candles and

certain reading of the Book of Celine and Anarcho.

And some of that is because they consider procreation to be a

very spiritual thing. And so it does almost seem like

a religious ceremony. But another thing I liked about

it was the use of the veils, because after they're done with

the ceremony and and Matt and Susan go up and they do the

other half of the procreation. Hang on, you mean George and

Susan, not Matt and Susan? You know, it's typical, you

know, husband and wife type stuff, but the benam is supposed

to it's almost like they are helping people out by doing a

service that is it's not even like it's voluntary.

It's a part of their the anatomy of their race that there is this

third gender and they have to do what they do, but they are not

part of the husband and wife marriage unit.

And therefore the use of the veils by both people kind of

puts up a little bit of separation and says that, you

know, yes, their bodies have to interlock in one particular way

because of what has to happen, but that's the only thing that

has to happen and everything else is separate.

So like you said, there are a lot of details of ceremony.

And like I said, there's some of the candles and music and stuff

like that, But the main thing to me was the veils.

I thought that was very important and kind of a message

that said that yes, this sex thing is a spiritual thing, but

it's also a very different thing.

And it also kind of made it AAI don't know if I'm explaining it

very well, but kind of a a separate alien thing and

different from the way humans view it and what humans have to

do to procreate. So yeah, I like that, that

detail most of all. Things like that.

Where George will recite things in Tanktonese like scripture and

Albert, who is depicted as sort of a simple character.

He doesn't say anything great or lofty, but he does announce

things and coordinate things like a wedding planner or

something, or a minister or an elder in a religious group.

Or he just, he'll say, and now we're moving on to this and now

you can do this. And he, he speaks with a kind of

casual authority and it it really, it's a cool aspect of

that character without making him different or retconning him

in some way. So yeah, those scenes were

wonderful. I will say one of my next ones

is just, we've seen this in a couple of other episodes, but I

feel sometimes in an episode that the writer will sit down

and have a thesis statement that they're going to try for or like

a theme and they'll kind of move around that.

And in a really good episode, when it isn't edited to death or

something across different series, they'll manage to circle

back to that. They'll have like 1 central

idea. And this, this episode covers a

ton of stuff. But I feel like their thesis was

about faith and they have these reasons for Matt and George to

interact. And Matt's pretty self-conscious

about it. He has an attitude about the

church and he grew up Catholic and George talks about how they

weren't allowed to practice their beliefs on the ship as

slaves so he doesn't understand someone voluntarily giving up

their rituals because it was denied to him.

And Matt tells him some stuff pretty bluntly before saying he

don't want to talk about it anymore.

But this keeps coming up throughout the episode and it is

hard to talk about these things without it feeling preachy or

without it feeling forced. And I feel like it was done in a

really cool way. So the things that the

Tanktonese are doing, we see it through Matt's eyes and the

other humans. And at first, at the beginning

of the episode, it's just weird. We come in as outsiders and

we're like, it's just weird. And then we find out more about

it. We're like, Oh no, that's crazy.

And as we go along, we get to see Matt kind of converted.

And during the process, he doesn't know what he's going to

have to watch. He's coming over for day one and

it's just presenting Albert as this third.

But then Day 2 is supposed to actually be the getting

together, so he doesn't know what he's in for.

And we're all happy as viewers when they say, OK, everybody

turn around and look the other way.

But Matt peeks. He actually peeks.

I'm a rule follower. I don't like the idea of getting

in trouble. So I was worried about him

peeking. But when he peeks, he kind of,

it's almost like he has a little bit of a religious experience.

It's like he starts to see it as something beautiful or majestic

and not the way he thought about it before.

George uses the word brilliant to talk about the dismissive and

vulgar way he talks about these things.

Ober's quitting his job to return to the monastery.

Too bad. Can't blame him though. 700

women, you know, get that kind of accident around a cop shot.

You know your lewd innuendo is grossly inappropriate.

Oh well, that's me, Mr. Grossly Inappropriate.

Would you like me to make jokes about your Virgin Mary giving

birth? Now that has comedic

possibilities. Hey watch it.

So this Mary says to the Joseph, same.

It's not the same thing. Yes, it is.

Stop looking at us with your purient human eyes.

So he kind of, he kind of seems to see it as transcendent and he

thinks differently about his own faith and history after that.

So I thought it was really cool that they had an idea in all

this other stuff going on to try and have a sort of message about

faith. And they managed to, I think,

stick the landing without saying anything directly to the screen

about it. Matt doesn't announce anything.

We just figure it out. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with

you about everything. And in fact, two of my bullet

points are directly related to two things you just talked

about. So I'll go ahead and double up

and say in response to what you're talking about.

When it comes to Albert, I like how Albert acts smarter and more

confident in certain portions of this episode.

He's much more in his element when he knows what his purpose

is and that it's a higher purpose.

And I know that in that very first episode, people were

picking on Albert and calling him lightning and stuff like

that was supposed to be like a sarcastic nickname.

And the whole reason he's called Albert Einstein in the 1st place

is a sarcastic naming because he's not as bright as others.

And there is even a moment in this episode where he looks like

a little bit, I won't say loss or bewildered because he was

back on familiar ground, but it's just like he was a little

bit head in his clouds, head in the clouds type of of thing

going on. But he has also proven that he's

smarter. Like that one episode where they

were playing basketball and he was like doing statistics and in

his head and stuff like that. So I mean, he is smart and

people give him credit for. But this was one of those

episodes where, like I said, he was in his element and so he was

acting more confident. And then the other thing that

you were talking about was how they mixed sex and faith in the

same episode. And you would think they

wouldn't go together, but they they did a really good job of

making these two somewhat separate topics meld very well

together. And so I like the way they

blended them. But as much as I like the

episode 1 of the things that of course, as usual, drags it down

a little bit, is Matt's overreaction to everything and

how he's got to continue to be the caveman and and, you know,

insert his own viewpoint on to everything.

And of course that that's an issue.

So I do like how and why George loses his temper on Matt one

time. And and you mentioned it, he

says, stop looking at us with your purient eyes when Matt

keeps making fun of them. George gets the point across

that look, this is this is the way we are and it's connected to

our faith. And he, you know, makes a good

point point and he deserves to to get angry.

And of course, it's frustrating as usual that Matt still just

doesn't get it. So so yeah, those are are two of

the big points I was going to bring up.

And like I said, they were related to to what you were

talking about. So I'll let.

You take a turn now. I don't, I still don't have a

good shorthand way of saying it, but there's this effect when you

are, when a person is maybe becoming open minded and

they're, you know, still caught up in some of their prejudices,

but they have eye opening moments based on the people

around them who are worse than them.

And Matt is our stand in and our progressive.

Matt is the character in the show who is open minded.

He's still racist and biased and mean and dismissive and says

stuff he shouldn't. And he's the one, he's the most

progressive character in the show.

That's human so far. I think the others might be

more, except that they are, they're keeping it to

themselves. So we see him challenging his

own prejudices. He continues to bother Todd more

than me. I think he's kind of hilarious.

But when he does say these things and do these things, I

think if you have a friend who is who cares about you enough

that they can forgive or ridiculous things you say.

Or when you say something very stereotypical, like the

propaganda you've heard a bunch of ignorant people say, but you

ask it as a genuine question because everybody in the group

asks it at some point or another.

Like, well, I don't get it. Why can't you just blah, blah,

blah, or something and people roll their eyes.

Somebody cares about you in that group will be like, look, you're

worth it. Let me talk you through this.

And Matt does that all the time. So if there's an opportunity to

misunderstand, to misconstrue, he's going to do that in this

episode. Yeah.

I don't know. And sometimes it feels like a

very. He says, I don't know, man.

It sounds pretty kinky to me. He's working through.

He's trying. But the other two, I think Dobbs

and the captain are both tapped to participate.

And math has to kind of force them into it just to be a good

friend. And then they still dip the

second time. Yeah, we may come back to that.

My next one, I guess I'll do acting because we mentioned

Albert. Albert's character is nuanced,

and I like his interactions with everyone in this episode,

especially Dobbs. So Dobbs doesn't make Albert

quit exactly. But Dobbs does a couple of He

tries to hook Albert up with somebody, and we didn't know

Albert was already struggling. With his role in life and when

to be normal in his opinion, and realizing since he's this

different kind of tanktonese, he feels like he'll never be

normal. So he has to go back to his life

in the monastery. He had four.

So he quits the police station and being maintenance and Dobbs

is upset at first just because he feels guilty for like running

Albert off. But then Albert is replaced by

this guy and Dobbs is he looks so upset and he's not just

because his stuff has moved around, but he's talking about

how great Albert was and the other guy never did this and the

other guy did that. And so when Albert comes back,

Dobbs seems really broken up. And Albert seemed to miss Dobbs

most of all. Like he's like, I missed you

too, man. He's like looking at him and he

he comes back. Dobbs has an attitude.

He's kind of like, Hey, these floors aren't clean and, and

Albert just pushes him off, hands him a new mug and walks

right past him because he's just happy to be back and he cares

about everybody. I I don't think we have a lot of

characters in fiction like Albert.

He's sort of a faithful innocent, and that's unique.

I mean, he's supposed to be slow, but they show him really,

they only really show that in him Speaking simply.

And what you said about being in your element, I think I've

experienced this before where someone thinks that they are not

as smart as other people in the group and it really based on

where you're standing. There are things that one person

is much more intelligent about. But if we're not in their venue,

if we're not talking about what they're comfortable talking

about, they feel like the slowest one in the room.

But then if you guys switch the conversation to basketball,

suddenly there's no one Dumber in the room than me and I'll

just get quiet until I can get you talking about movies.

So yes, Albert, it strikes me that if you are at the

monastery, he's one of the most competent people you'll

encounter. But if you encounter him at the

real world and he kind of says that he's not good with people,

especially women, which is ironic, we find out it's

everywhere else. He seems completely out of his

L. So I love the way his character

was in this episode. Yeah, yeah, me too.

And I, I can relate to that. You know, when I get into a a

situation where I have to have a conversation or I'm around other

people and they're talking about sports or something like that,

I'm just like, I have nothing relate to.

I'm just sitting here, standing here.

And then if either the conversation naturally changes

to something like TV or movies, or I bring something up to

switch it, then depending on what we're talking about, it

might be a lot to to shut me up and people probably wish I would

go back to being quiet. That's confirmed.

Yeah. So, yeah, I can.

I can relate to that. And there was something else I

was going to respond to about what you said, but then I forgot

about it, so I don't know, maybe I'll remember it later.

But really, my last bullet point.

And it's strange because as much as I like this episode, I really

only had four main bullet points.

And I think it's because the things I liked about it were so

broad and sweeping that I just didn't need a whole lot of

specific points. But everything about the acting,

directing, editing, and music from those last few minutes

minutes of the episode are nearly perfect.

There's just something special about the timing of the facial

expressions, the actions, and the music that are very

memorable. Like I said this, this episode

really stuck with me through the years and watching again, I

think it's that scene in the way everything just seems to be

timed erfectly, I think is what helps helps it stick with me

through through all the years in between rewatches.

And it seems to be a trend of this show that they saved the

best for those last few minutes. Because this is not the first

episode where it's like, oh, more police stuff, more more

annoying, frustrating mad stuff. And then whatever it is that

comes to the end, it's like, Oh well, that makes the whole

episode worth it. And I'm OK with that formula.

I just wish that more of the good stuff would be sprinkled

out throughout all of the episode rather than having to

get through stuff that is frustrating just to have the

Super good stuff hit you at the very end.

Well, the Halloween episode ends with George happily at home and

us having good feelings, and that's a nice bow on it.

This one, it feels like you get a whole elaborate chapter and a

bunch of interaction and a bunch of sort of character

development. So I'll say just about the whole

episode, but especially the last scene.

One of my things that you've talked about in previous

episodes is the on point work of Eric Pierpoint in his acting.

So I just talked about how Albert gets a chance to play

this nuanced character. But Eric Pierpoint, George

Francisco, this is a great episode for his character.

He gets to do several things. So like, for one thing, he's

just gushing emotion. As you already said, he gets to

go off on mad at one point. And, you know, that's always

good, if a little bit uncomfortable.

He gets to kind of put him in his place.

And he does a really good job of comparing Matt's dismissive

attitude toward what George holds sacred.

As George brings up the idea of ridiculing the Virgin Mary.

He doesn't actually even get that far.

He just brings up the idea. And it's enough to set Matt off,

even though he's a wayward former Catholic.

But after that, he also, when he invites his friends to join in

this ceremony, George Francisco looks like he is about to break

down in tears of joy. He is just like exploding with

how excited he is and proud he is.

And when he says, I am in, I have selected you like, he's not

even asking them. Like, hey, would you mind

helping me out with this? I need pallbearers.

I need grooms. But no, he's like, I have chosen

you to join in this activity. And I need three men who are

important to my livelihood or something like that.

And he's just, the man really does look like he's about to

cry. It's powerful.

So then when they're all over at his house and we're doing this

final ceremony, George is, I don't think we get to see grown

men like this. He is like almost skipping

around the room. He's so excited.

He's thoroughly just joyous about everything that's

happening. Like he wants to hug everybody,

put a hand on everybody's shoulder, tell them all what's

about to happen and how great it is and how great it is that

they're all there. So it's just some really cool

acting from Eric Airpoint. And I think if he ever watches

this episode again, he'll say no matter what his acting journey

has been, I don't think I'll ever get to do something like

that again. That's crazy how that was

written for that. But one more thing he gets to do

is when Matt is asking about erogenous zones, George gets to

do this weird guy talk thing where he like pulls him in and

gets swaggery and talks out the side of his mouth looks left and

right and he's like, OK, you want to know what's really going

on? And he totally misunderstands

and thinks Matt is asking for advice with women and like how

to hit on women who are newcomers or something.

So George gets the most lascivious we've ever seen him

and he's having fun doing. Are you going to eat that or

play with it? George, let me ask you

something. You touch a newcomer on the

small of her back and bingo. Fireworks, right?

What else? Matt, are you dating a tynkanese

woman I'm. Just curious, OK.

Is it Cathy George? I like Cathy George.

I understand bridge of the nose, shoulder blades and we're

especially sensitive on the backs of our knees.

When you see a woman, what do you look for?

What turns you on? When a woman's speckles flow

down her neck onto her back and then narrow into a fine delicate

line, that's speckled. Also, the ear valleys when they

end in a swirling little S shape.

And more of this. And I'll need a hot shower.

I just, I love that you get all of those things crammed into one

episode for him and it's not even, the story isn't really

about him. It's like he's the maybe the

third most important character in it and they give him so much

to do. Yeah, I totally agree with you.

Yes, Eric Pierpoint is great as usual and especially in this

episode for a lot of the the ways that you just articulated.

But I know it's 30 five years later, but can we give Eric

Pierpoint an Emmy for next week's episode?

I I think it's next week's episode if it's the one I'm

thinking about. I mean, Oh my goodness, it blows

out the. Next episode, is that what you

said? Yeah, yeah.

Oh well, I I have no idea. We'll.

Oh, I do have an idea. Yeah, I, I, I think if I

remember correctly, the next episode is the game.

Yeah. Yeah.

We will get there. But if it's if it's like I think

it is, yeah. They've they've had several

opportunities for actors to do something that we mentioned

before. It's exactly like you're

watching a a powerful social drama, just without any

fantastical elements. And that they were doing an Emmy

performance. They just happen to have

ridiculous alien makeup on. So, yeah, it doesn't surprise me

that you're saying that we're looking forward to something

like that again, I only, I think I've only seen it once.

I think these episodes are so good, but I've seen this one and

that one once and it's just, I don't want to say scarred me for

life, but it has made an indelible impact.

So yeah, we'll see how I experienced that next week, but

I think I'm ready to move on and I'll save my other little weird

bits for I have to mention this. OK, all right, so we'll move on

to salt water. That's the bad stuff.

I do have 5 bullet points here. To be honest.

They're all minor. They come nowhere close to to

ruining this otherwise great episode.

My first one is, I mean, I've kind of already mentioned this,

but this is a little bit more specific.

No big surprise, but Matt is a terrible teacher too because

he's trying to teach Kathy how to dance and his instructions

are basically listen to the beat, clap and count.

That's it. Now, granted, there might have

been some teaching that went on off camera before the scene

started ahead of time, but still, he's not really given a

whole lot of details. He's not saying, you know, move

this foot here, move that forward, watch my feet or

whatever. He's basically just like, listen

to the beat. And it's like some people just

don't have rhythm. I'm sorry, Matt, I was afraid of

this. This is why I wanted you just to

recommend a dance. School, it's not that hard.

It's not that hard. Just listen to the beat, OK?

Get the rhythm right. Yeah, yeah, let's try it without

the music. I know sometimes if I if I does

grant it doesn't happen that much anymore, but the rare times

I might be somewhere where there's music and clapping going

on, I literally have to concentrate.

It's like clap now, No, no, now oh I'm off the beat crap.

And so I have no rhythm either. So I know how it is.

And so, yeah, he is just not doing a good enough job.

And it's also a scene where he's back in a tank top again.

And when she pointed out to him that he was touching one of her

erogenous zones, I don't think he moved his hand away right

away. OK.

Let's try it without the music. What?

Where you're touching me on my back, That's an erogenous zone.

Erogenous, sexually rousing. I like the inside of your thigh.

I get it, I get it. How do you know about the inside

of my thigh? We've been studying comparative

Physiology at UCLA. How can I teach you how to dance

if I can't touch the small of your back?

You can. Just a little higher.

Higher. What's that good?

So so yeah, some annoying things going on in that scene.

There are scenes in movies where a person says they can't dance

or they want to dance or they need to dance, and another

character throws on a song and just grabs one of their hands

and decides they're going to teach them this weird impromptu

lesson. I don't watch a lot of those

movies, but I mean, the only example I can think of is Clerks

2 with Rosario Dawson. But in most of those scenes, it

doesn't work out at all. And one of the two doesn't have

great rhythm. And that's feels like what's

happening here. At first, Kathy doesn't seem

like she can do it. But we also, we come in in the

middle, we don't see them have that conversation.

We come in and they're already trying to dance.

It's weird too, because we just saw a couple get blown away in

bed with a shotgun and then suddenly they're dancing.

But the implication she implies, it sounds like she's saying that

newcomers don't dance, like they have no cultural dancing and she

wants to learn. And when he really shows it to

her and she does start to get it, it's kind of like showing

someone ice cream for the first time.

Like, hey, this is great. I really like this.

So I don't know. They didn't go into that a lot,

but I do want to talk about that scene.

I think that's probably coming up later, But so I'll say there

were only two suspects. We catch, we catch the killer.

If you guys are not remembering names, it's handy.

The killer's named Keller. So Keller, the killer is caught

about halfway through. A big mean white guy, religious

zealot, purist. He says that we're in a state of

war. You need to respect my Geneva

Convention rights. So then we're we have the

viewers, we're pretty confident. We see where this is going.

The guys at the monastery act very extreme when they're

pushed. There's some haughty glances.

And when Matt starts to suggest that this could have like there

could be someone contributing to this guy's killing spree from

within and giving him information, I feel like there's

only two suspects after you catch him.

And when they run over to the monastery, we're like, which of

these two jerk guys is it going to be?

And we see one of the two jerk guys immediately.

So we're all, I think, as viewers like, oh, it's the other

one. Yeah, that was that was one of

mine is that we're we're pretty sure there's not going to be

like a A twist here. Like within the last 20 minutes

you're going to be like, oh, that's what's going to happen.

I think it was a bigger twist seeing the guy in a suit instead

of a shroud. But yes, that not a big jump

there. What's another one of your salt

waters? OK, so the Tanktonese have been

here for five years. And in fact, the episode opens

with a radio port talking about how they're breeding so much and

yet it is not common knowledge how they procreate because Matt

says he didn't believe what he heard about binoms the the the

third gender. And I'm like, how is this not

come up sooner? And how is it that Matt is still

not believing things? You would think that this would

be something that would be on talk shows or documentaries,

docudramas, just even like the Tanktonese soap operas.

It you'd think it would just be common knowledge by now that

yes, they have a third gender. It's a real thing.

This is how it works. And everybody be like, oh, that

is weird, but we're used to it by now.

But of course, as, as as I said, Matt is a caveman, so he's

ignoring everything he's here hearing.

He's not hearing enough, whatever.

And even when he does hear it, he's not believing it.

And so of course he has to act shocked in this episode.

So yeah, it just seems like one of those things that would be

figured out by now. There are some.

Examples throughout the show that because of the narrative

needing to go a certain way, they have detectives not asking

very basic questions or knowing very basic things.

So that does seem like a thing. And we have a throwaway line

where George says they don't talk about it because of the the

prejudice that they encounter when they do.

They keep it very personal and we explore the whole spiritual

side of it. But yes, it is a especially

since the show starts with hearing people talk, like you

said, about the boom in population.

We find out throughout the episode how hard it is for them

to procreate. They don't mention that this

episode kind of eliminates the entire concept of teen pregnancy

or accidental pregnancy or something.

It's not that easy for the newcomers to get pregnant, so

every single child is planned for the process and that says

something too, I guess. But my next one is just how

disappointed I am in Captain Grazer and Dobbs.

So when they when they aren't up for the first event, they both

one of them says, Grazer says, I'd love to, man, but I have to

go to the ballet tonight. And he starts flipping through

his calendar. And Dobbs is like, you know

what? I also have to go to the ballet,

come up with his own thing. George isn't suspicious at all,

maybe because he's so sure that someone would be honored to

participate. And Matt pushes them into it.

But the second night, George just tells us and Matt that

unfortunately, Razor and Dobbs can't make it because both of

them have to visit their moms in the hospital on the same night.

They're not even trying that hard.

So I'm just, I gotta say, they really let me down.

I'm really upset with them about that.

And it turned out to be a beautiful thing.

Now I will agree with you to a certain extent.

Yes, it's disappointing they turn stuff down, but in the and

this is actually a bullet point that I have, I'll skip over my

third one of the 4th 1. I'm actually a little bit

disappointed in George though, because it's weird to me that

George gives Matt Grazer and Dobbs such little notice.

He doesn't say, oh guys, this is coming up three nights from now.

He's like, oh, tonight, I'm just telling you right now, but it's

tonight and it's a two night ceremony, so you'll need to

reserve your calendar for tomorrow night too.

It's like George, come on, give some people some notice.

I mean, I know you're an alien, but that's just a nice normal

human thing to do. And also in defense of Grazer,

not only did he have short notice, but he didn't know he

was going to have to clean somebody's feet when he went

either. So in a way, I don't blame him

for getting out of the second night.

So George really needs to do a little bit better making sure he

takes other people's calendars into consideration.

While you brought it up, I will say that we get to see Buck for

two seconds in this episode. And I don't have a lot to say

about Buck except he's he's deadpan for this episode and it

worked for me. He doesn't look bored.

I'm imagining that he's just sort of casual, serious, I guess

he's not really trying to emote much of anything.

So when they tell Grazer, Captain Grazer, who's already

just got a swollen ego and thinks so much of himself, that

he has this important part to play in the ceremony and he

like. Huffs himself up and looks so

self important. He's like, what is it?

What is it? And Buck walks over and says you

have to wash his feet. And he says it's sort of like,

you're going to take the trash out.

He just says this like, flat affect maybe my favorite thing

that Buck has said in the show because he just looks so

nonplussed and blah, like, yeah, he says this is what you're

going to do in here in a second. It's like, oh, oh, that's great.

I don't have anywhere else to talk about Buck, so I'll plug

that in. While you're saying that I

thought that it was weird when we find out George is culturally

insensitive for hooking Albert up, that George turns around and

does the same thing to Matt. So Dobbs is positive he's doing

Albert a favor. He sets him up with the the

snack cart girl. You know what?

I didn't even write down this stuff in my notes.

I have it further down and I'll find it in a minute.

But she pushes around a snack cart that has a thing on it for

coffee, tea, soda, soda, cola drinks.

And it also has signs that say things like intestines.

And her name is Mae. You can give that away if you

want. But she she's sweet and she

seems kind of silly and basic. I guess.

I don't know. I don't want a nice way to say

it. And Albert is sort of into her,

but Dobbs thinks he's helping Albert out by passing this girl

a note from Albert asking her out.

And it freaks Albert out. And George is like, he doesn't

know. Albert's been very sheltered.

But then George tries to hook Matt up with Kathy, and he

invites Kathy to the thing without telling Matt.

So Kathy shows up, and he's back to the the weird eyebrow

raising, like, winking version of George at the beginning of

the episode. Like, hey, I knew you'd be

pleased. Daffy's here.

Nudge, nudge. It's like, dude, that's pretty

much what Dobbs did. So I guess they can both be like

horrible and pushy and insensitive without thinking

about it. Yeah, but maybe they're on to

something. I don't know if I should say

anything more. Oh, no, I'm just saying it's

it's George is acting very, I don't know.

I felt the two men were largely doing the same thing.

I thought at first Dobbs was horrible and I was mad because

of how it blew up. But it turns out Dobbs had no

way of knowing like the very, very particular inner workings

of Albert's mind. And George didn't really bother

to ask Matt a lot of follow up questions.

He did the same thing Dobbs did where he's like, I'm going to

help you out, buddy. I know what you're really like

and wink. And it's like, oh, oh, shoot,

OK. That's just how I read it.

All right, so I've got, oh, this is a super minor nitpick, so.

Rest of mine and minor. Yeah, so talking about police

work, there's a scene where they're thinking there's a

suspect in an apartment and I didn't totally follow why they

were there. It didn't really matter.

I didn't care but it involved both of them firing their

weapons and then now it's kind of off camera.

So I'm not positive. But considering his positioning

and his motion, I think Matt sticks his gun in his pants

because apparently he refuses to wear police issued holsters.

And now I'm not an expert on weapons either, but if my

understanding is that guns heat up when they get fired,

especially if they're fired more than once.

And I'm wondering, would that gun be hot enough that if he is

sticking his pants that he would be burning his skin?

I can go ahead and take this opportunity to jump to my

section. Yikes, Sykes, Yikes, Yikes,

Yikes bad Sykes. I hate these know it all muffin

heads who come from outer space. Frenchman, a Russian and a

sponge head. They're a boat in the middle of

the ocean. Why stop with running them back

to Slag Town? Why don't we just kill them?

You are emotionally involved. It makes for bad police work.

Just what's that guy doing over there?

Quick guy. What was that name again?

Makes for bad police work. Bad police work.

Yikes. Yikes.

Yikes. I'm Kathy Frankel.

Matt Sykes. Yeah, I know.

In your language, Sykes means excrement and cranium.

Yikes, Yikes, Yikes, Yikes, Yikes.

Sykes, Sykes, Sykes. Where we talking about Matthews

likes questionable police actions and possibly how often

he almost shoots an innocent person.

And I also think it's a good time to just indulge Todd

questioning everything that Gary Graham does in terms of acting

choices. But when they come into this

apartment and they announce themselves, it's a weird

apartment too. If this is ever released in

Blu-ray and you can go back and just look at Keller's apartment,

I feel like they put a ton of weird crap on the walls and

fridge that I can't make out. I saw a framed sketch of Sigmund

Freud and but there's like a person on the fridge and I think

a few other things, and it's just, it's not clear enough on

my DVD to make it out. But they announce themselves,

nothing happens. There's a door closed.

They move up to it nodding at each other.

You know, they're in police action mode.

And then George hears Keller on the other side of the door cock

his shotgun, which is his signature move, and pushes Matt

out of the way at the last second, and both of them are

clear and blam, the guy blows a big hole in the middle of the

door. So now Matt is on the floor and

George is on the floor, and they look at each other and they look

at the door, and they nod the same way.

I guess you would like, you know, you go to the left, you go

to the right. You know, what's our plan?

What's our next? They have a moment to think.

And the plan they've come up with is for Matt to lay down in

the middle of the front, in front of the door on the ground,

and George to stand to the side and, quote, cover him.

And then they both just unload as many bullets into the door as

they possibly can. I don't know the right thing for

police to do in this situation. Whereas, quote, suspect has

fired a shotgun through a door and I get firing back, but now

we are just going to shoot as many holes through this door as

we possibly can. Did not seem like it was.

It was the best response. He's gone out the window.

They're just shooting at nothing.

But that was I found it to be questionable.

Police work. Just an execution.

I don't know. Yeah, I don't remember.

Do they ever once announce themselves as police officers or

say you're under arrest or come out?

I mean, even if that's useless, even if it's kind of pointless

and futile because the guy's going to fire, isn't that just

what they're supposed to do procedurally anyway?

And maybe they did and I just don't remember.

They announced themselves when they busted in.

Oh OK. But then it was quiet and still

and they were looking for an attack from any angle.

But yes, I think there's a moment.

I would be curious to ask my friend with the police

experience again if I have time. But like, what?

What you could possibly because I know you're supposed to try

things like de escalation, but technically, they've already

been shot at. If they had shot back instantly,

I think I would have gotten it. But that's not what happens.

Blam through the door. And then there's like this

moment of silence where they look at each other like, what's

our next move? What do you think?

I don't know. You know what we should do?

Yeah, that's what we should do. And then they just unload on the

door. This is where.

I don't know. You take 3 steps back, you go

into the hallway, you're like, look, man, there's no way out.

So and so is going to cover the fire escape, you know, come out

quietly, throw down the gun. They can get behind.

And no, no, this is our plan. But anyway, that was my biggest

thing. I didn't notice him put the gun

in his pants. I I thought I was watching for

those things now, but it doesn't surprise me at all.

I think that that falls definitely under him almost

shooting himself for an innocent person.

Yeah, I guess it does beg the question, how many seconds does

it take for self-defense to become murder you?

Know, and I mean my my brothers and sisters in the police force,

if a person shoots a shotgun at you, I'm going to judge

fictional characters more than you if you fire back 3 seconds

later instead of one second. But if you are telling a story,

if you go to your car, talk to some people, come back and then

just start shooting everything, the story doesn't play as well.

But yes, what else do you have in negatives?

So I've got one more and it's another very minor nitpick.

So as much as I like the story overall, including Albert's

involvement in it, he's not with the order very long before he

leaves it again, which means he's away from his job at the

police station a little while and then he's back in the police

state. It's like he's a little bit of a

ping pong in this episode. It's like he doesn't stay in

anyone place very long. And so it, it almost, it's like

it kind of undercuts his decision to leave the order

because he's not even at the order for very long.

Same thing with the police station.

He's gone, they bring in his replacement for one day, and

then he's back. It all happens pretty quickly.

And it's one of those things where I can't help but wonder,

did this actually take a week or two of story time?

It just doesn't seem like it there.

Again, I think this is all happening concurrently with

George having people over for two nights in a row.

So I think this does all happen very quickly.

So basically Albert went back to the order to basically leave the

next day so. Yeah, yeah, it does feel.

Like timing is a little weird. We see him get sworn back in.

There is a ceremony. This one isn't this pretty

because it felt like they filmed it in somebody's apartment, like

in the doorway. But they essentially say you're

back in and they go through this little thing and they give him

his tiny little apartment. And then it feels like, you

know, he has a picture of his friends under his pillow.

We cut away. We cut back.

And he like, looks out the window and a couple outside

laughing together, hands on each other.

And he's sad and he's pretty much ready to quit.

So yes, it it does feel like it's 10 minutes.

And that doesn't seem like a valid blot point.

Maybe they thought they could edit it so that more stuff

happened in between those two. But yeah, that one was a little

more obvious. My my last two are pretty silly

too. So one of them is just while

he's gone. What you're talking about, he's

replaced by Bjorn. What?

The hell happened to my desk? Well, it made the cleaning so I

cleaned it. Nobody.

Nobody's touched my desk. Allow him the unit or.

You look out, but the guy before you, you never touched my chest.

Well, that could be, but the captain, he says he wants things

shipped yet. Where's my coffee?

Cup Oh, I threw the damn thing out.

You threw it out. Well, it was broken.

But already fixed it. Well, he they filled the germs.

Then you drink the coffee and those germs go in your stomach

and you I get sick for sure, so I threw it out.

He threw out my coffee cup. Albert fixed it.

He threw it out. I just want to say that Bjorn

sounds amazing, OK? Bjorn said.

That's in one of the plays, Chip shape.

Bjorn straighten people's desk. You know what, I bet Hobbs will

clean up his desk next time if he doesn't want to lose stuff.

Bjorn just he comes in and he's just a powerhouse.

He's a nice guy. He's smiling, and I feel bad

that he gets nothing. He's there for one scene and

he's gone, and I'm sure Bjorn will land on his feet wherever

he goes because that man, he was a great, great maintenance

worker. So yes, I want Albert back, but

you know who weeps for Bjorn? Oh, and you said you had two.

Sure. All I was going to say was that

we're only missing Moodri and Jill and the skeevy reporter,

and I think we'd have had the whole gang back together.

So I thought they were very close to pulling everybody into

this episode. It was almost a complete set.

Yeah. OK.

So we'll move on to connecting the spots where we draw

connections between this episode and other episodes of the show

or this show and other TV shows or movies.

I've got just three different things, and one of them is one

of the guest actors. I'm betting you might have it.

Do you want me to take it or? As always, I'm comfortable with

you stealing things from me and I just embellish.

But yeah, you go ahead, grab. Yeah, because the only reason is

I've only got one. I'm betting you have several.

So. So it's Alan Scarf or maybe

Scarfay who plays the Drevni. And I think Drevni might be a

title. I don't know if it's his name.

And in IMDb it didn't give a name.

I don't think a name was mentioned in the credits.

But he's the Drevni in this episode.

Alan Scarfay has been in three different Star Trek episodes, a

Babylon Five TV movie and one episode each of Quantum Leap,

Highlander and Stargate Atlantis.

But the thing I'm probably most familiar with him from is the

three season UN show called 7 Days.

And that's a TV show that was on during the UPN days where there

was like a time machine that was made partially off of alien

technology from Area 51 that could allow somebody to go back

in time, but only by 7 days. And I think there was some kind

of restriction in the technology, possibly the, the

fuel type that wouldn't allow anybody to go back further than

7 days. And the weird, I think they

might have called it the sphere, but it really looked more like a

12 sided die or a 20 sided die. And the machine required a pilot

and the pilot was supposed to keep certain things in line, but

everything was shaking so much. It's like, how can anybody

really control that? It looks like their their hand

is shaking all over the place. Ever wish you could live your

last week all over again? Well, my name is Frankie Parker

and I do it all the time. I work for a secret government

project experimenting in time travel.

Things really get screwed up. I'm the Guinea pig they send

back to take care of it. That's is you.

Can only go back seven days. Let's do it again.

Alan Scarfay played the director of the Back Step Project.

His name was Doctor Bradley Talmage.

It it's interesting Wikipedia, you know, sometimes gives a a

few details. The 1 little snippet it gave was

that although he was middle-aged, he has shown

several times to have some excellent combat skills.

So that's our our our main guest star this week.

Well, and I will say about this guy, when I mentioned before

that I don't recognize actors and actresses very well with

their newcomer makeup on, but I will get this feeling like I've

seen you somewhere before, especially when they have a

really extreme expression. This guy has a face I would call

sort of warm, but maybe haughty, possibly a little menacing or

holier than thou. And it just really struck me as

familiar. So it doesn't help me when I

just see that he's been in Voyager or Next Generation.

I've got to try and look these up.

Todd and I have talked about doing like a single episode of a

show and digging into it. And one of the ones we could do

at some point is this guy's one of his episodes of Next

Generation. It's called Data's Day.

And it's one of the best episodes, not because of a just

electrifying story arc. In fact, it has kind of a weak

little bizarre, limping story arc.

But it covers a bunch of random events in a cool way on the ship

that feels really real. And he is Admiral Mindak in

that. And he gets to have kind of some

twists to his character. So down the road, if Todd and I

do a spotlight episode on Data's Day, you will hear me completely

forget that we mentioned him and be like, this guy was on an

episode of Alien Nation. That's crazy.

I remember him. But yes, that's that's pretty

big. And I'm always excited when I

find one of these people has been on Babylon 5.

So that's nice. Yeah.

I think, I think Drevni is a they present it kind of like a

title, like the Pope. So he's the Drevni.

And they have a parallel there where Matt is asking George,

like how he can still believe in his religious ceremony when his

religious leader has been defamed as a murderer.

And they get that following discussion of it.

So that's what I think the analogy is there.

I will say some other characters, some other actors in

this, there are not many that I want to bring up as much.

Like there's a friend of Albert's that we see at the

monastery for a second named Goran.

They all have the same first name.

I can't remember what it is. Do you remember what it is?

They introduced themselves as something, but one of them in

the credits is just listed as in Goran, and he is in an episode

of the original Flash series. And let me see, there's Yeah,

most of them. They don't have a lot going on

for it. The guy who played Bjorn

ironically has most of the credits that I want to mention

because he's been in Terminator Salvation, Casino Royale, Hunt

for Red October. I, I don't remember which one he

is because he is a guy with a really thin face.

I don't think he was the evil Russian.

I know that doesn't seem to narrow it down, but it kind of

does in Hunt for October. I'd probably recognize him if I

see it again. But if you are into that kind of

thing, Yvonne Guevara as Bjorn was in 647 episodes of Days of

Our Lives. Wow.

Yeah, I I'm sorry, listeners, I did not write down the name of

the two characters he played. But if you are interested in

looking up Ivan Guevara or Yvonne, if you want to say it,

the accent, that's a lot of Days of Our Lives.

It's a 650 almost. And the only other carrot, the

actor that I would mention is Dana Anderson.

And Dana Anderson hasn't done that much.

She plays Mae in this episode, the girl with the snack cart,

and she doesn't have a lot of credits.

She was in the short lived War of the Worlds series in the 90s

that I was both evocative and kind of scarred me as a young

man when I should have been doing homework instead.

But what interested me about her is that she's going to come back

for another alienation thing. She's in the TV movie The Enemy

Within has this character, and I could be wrong, but I think she

may be the first returning side side side character that we've

encountered. A lot of people are showing up

again, but they play somebody different.

Maybe this time they're a newcomer, maybe this time

they're not a newcomer. But May is going to appear again

as May shouldn't have a lot of credits except for another alien

nation and War of the Worlds. So yeah.

Todd said he could have sworn Dana Anderson was in the Alien

Nation TV movie Dark Horizon rather than The Enemy Within.

Apparently she's in both. The actress is listed in IMDb

twice due to her last name being spelled two different ways.

Nick saw the entry in which Anderson is spelled as ON Under

the Sen version. She was in Alien Dark Horizon as

well as LA Law Wings, Northern Exposure, NYPD Blue, An

Outbreak. And the other things I have for

this section are just analogies. So I don't know if you had

anything else for this section you wanted to mention.

And I take a turn or I just get through them all.

Yeah, I've got one other thing and then Dobbs Watch also.

I'm sorry, I was a little bit distracted and looking at my

notes a minute ago when you were asking this, I think you were

asking about the title of everybody else under the Drebni,

if that's what you're asking, it was Ben, which is short for Ben

on. So like with Albert being called

his, his name is Glenza, so he was referred to as Ben Glenza.

OK, yeah, so so the credits just say Goran.

There's nobody named Goran in the whole episode, but they

greet each other and he'll say Ben Glynza and he'll say Ben

Goran. So yes, that makes a lot more

sense. Note that one of mine was that

Matt brings up the Salem Rich witch trials.

He doesn't say them, but he talks about how religious

zealotry, which is another one of the things we've mentioned

before, you have these social issues that come up that are not

dated to the 80s or 90s. They are still pretty current

today. And in this case, someone being

so sure that they're righteous, correct, and backed up by God,

that they'll do horrible things to other people, that that seems

to be a constant in our world. And Matt just mentions that

people will go so far as to burn books.

And then he pauses and he says or they'll burn other people.

He doesn't say Salem witch trials, but he brings it up.

You know, this episode is kind of out there, but it also feels

sort of ripped from the headlines as people in charge of

religions hurt other people out of fear or hate.

I'm not going to give any examples, but did not weigh into

it. But Matt gets to do like a

little speech. And we already knew he had

attitudes towards organized religion.

So he just, he gets to kind of get in the guy's face and like

talk at him about, you know, like, what's wrong with you,

People like you acting like this.

So that definitely felt like it had some real world analogies.

All right, let me see one thing that I have.

It's actually something that was in IMDBI.

Don't always look at the trivia in IMDb, but I happen to see

this one. And it might have even been

mentioned before here on the podcast because I know that you

kind of keep track of when stars are in other things.

And you say that Gary Graham is one of those, I think, 3 or 4

people that are kind of like in your base score.

But there have been at least two references to Vulcans in Star

Trek, and one of them is in this episode.

And one of them was a few episodes back in 15 with Wanda.

But by coincidence, Gary Graham eventually played a recurring

Vulcan character, Ambassador Soval, in several episodes of

Star Trek Enterprise. So it is kind of neat for him to

sometimes bring up Vulcans and he doesn't know it, but someday

he's going to play a Vulcan. But do you have a something

else? Well, no, just that I think

people who write for shows like Star Trek and enjoy it might be

the exact same population that watches shows like Alien Nation.

So to them, getting Gary Graham could be a much bigger deal than

it might be to someone making another show.

So when they're casting for something like Star Trek and

somebody's like, I think Gary Graham would be on the show,

these people have a greater chance of being like, oh, that

would be so cool. I think that helps his chances.

All right. Do you have anything else?

No, that's it for connecting the spots for me.

OK, so I've got this week's Dobbs Watch and Dobbs this week

is here as we've already talked about it.

He's the one that is teasing Albert for like May lying about

keeping a secret and trying to set Albert up.

He also gets to yell at Albert's replacement.

So he is here. He gets lines of dialogue.

He's in multiple scenes enough that I didn't bother counting

them. I'm guessing it's 3 or 4, not

the usual 2, so he does get something to do.

You've already mentioned this, but Burns and Jill are the 2

that are missing this week and I had that in my notes.

And since I have mentioned that I've kind of sneaked peeks ahead

at future episodes. I do happen to know that Jill is

in the next episode. In fact, I was trying to

remember if it was this one, but it is next week's episode.

And the reason I was having a little bit of trouble

remembering is that both the episodes have some kind of

ceremony at the house, and Jill is in the one next week, not

this week. The weird thing is she's there,

but I don't think she has any lines of dialogue.

And yes, Burns is missing this week.

One of the little minor non spoiler bits of preview I'll

give away is that the weird thing is, you know, we talk

about how he's in the opening credits, but rarely in episodes.

Well, after episode 13, when he is no longer in the opening

credits, he will be in an episode.

And in that episode he'll have more to do than he ever has

before. And so it's weird after he's no

longer a a main star and he's just a guest star, that's when

he's given the most to do. So yeah, that's.

It we'll say I mean, since you brought up Dobbs, I talked about

how much Eric Pierpoint got to do and honestly, it wasn't

nearly as much, but Lawrence Hilton Jacobs Dobbs got to he

got some pretty fun stuff to do in this episode.

So I've gotten crossed before when they just have him like

they'd pay him to come out and be on set and literally never

give the man a microphone. But in this episode, he gets

interact in multiple scenes, and he actually has something to do.

He's not just filler or holding the coffee mug saying, you know,

sounds like you need to follow up that lead or some throwaway

line. He's an important part of these

interactions. So yeah, he got to do a few

things in this one. That was good.

Yeah, yeah. All right.

So we'll move on to the Albert Einstein Award.

And it looks like to me there are three contenders for this.

You might have spotted some others.

I'll go ahead and take. Yeah, so I'll go ahead and take

the first one. James Polk.

I think he might have been the victim at the very beginning

that we just barely saw. But James Polk, he's the Yeah,

that's right. I have it in my notes.

So he is the first been on murder victim at the very

beginning of the episode. But James Polk James Knox Polk

is the name of our 11th U.S. President.

He was born in Pineville, NC, in the Charlotte urban area near

the South Carolina border, about two hours away from me.

He also attended UNC Chapel Hill and on the Wikipedia page for

presidential rankings, Pulp usually ranks just outside the

top 10 in most polls, but usually within the top 20 or

maybe even top 15. So he's kind of sort of one of

our better presidents for the most part.

I also looked at some of the presidential rankings and Polk's

strengths are luck, willingness to take chances, foreign policy,

party leadership, executive ability, avoiding crucial

mistakes, crisis leadership, administrative skills and

vision, setting an agenda. Unfortunately, some of his

weaknesses are integrity, moral authority, and ability to

ability to compromise. And so I can't help but wonder

if his name was chosen on purpose since we are talking

about a bid on who had left the order and so he wasn't quite

doing things the way he was supposed to.

And like I said, Polk's weaknesses are apparently

integrity and moral authority. I didn't know that until I

started looking at those some of the surveys that are in the

presidential rankings. So I can't help but wonder if he

if that name was chosen for a reason.

I it's funny you would say that, for one thing, because I don't

usually read into why they've selected names.

But when you say Pulp, it sounds like Poke to me, which is like a

sexual joke. So I thought the first guy we

find with somebody else's wife, his name is Poke.

James Poke. Yeah, Yeah.

But yeah, other than that, Todd has said on past episodes that

he's not the history person. And we have a theme here today

where you are smarter if you're in your elements.

So clearly, man, if it's somebody close to you

personally, like geographically, the history knowledge just

blossoms. You were motivated.

So that was great. I think it's more accurate to

say that Todd is just a stupid guy with an obsession for

Wikipedia. I knew from slight previous

research that James Polk is one of, I think two or three

presidents that are at least from North Carolina.

I think they, I think anybody who was born in North Carolina

and then became president moved away.

And so I think James Polk is more associated with Tennessee

than he is North Carolina, but he was technically born there or

here. And thanks to Todd's advanced

detective skills, also known as typing questions into Google, he

found out that James Polk did pass through Winston Salem, NC,

on a presidential tour of the South.

But one source said Polk may have stopped there for less than

an hour. However, Todd also discovered

that his first lady, Sarah Childress Paul, attended the

prestigious Salem Female Academy.

Salem Academy is a small private boarding school for high school

age women with a focus on science, technology, engineering

and math. It shares a campus with the all

female Salem College, both of which are in Old Salem and

Historic section of Winston Salem.

Good grief, we get it. Todd lives in Winston Salem.

And you might be right, it might be pronounced poke instead of

Polk. Whenever I see the Li tend to

pronounce it, but it could be that it's silent.

But no, because I knew he's from North Carolina.

I knew that much already. Anything else that I just gave

to you? I basically got off of Wikipedia

like two or three hours ago. I think you're saying it right,

and I'm using an accent. So just to be clear, listeners,

I I don't think you pronounce Polk Pope.

But yeah, the our other two contestants for the Albert

Einstein Award are another Benon named Isaac Newton.

And Matt is so tired of the names that when they're

introduced, he doesn't even say a real word.

He and George are both kind of like, yeah.

And they just start walking away.

And our dream cart girl, who I said was May, they don't say it

in the episode, I don't think. But the credits tell us that her

last name is, oh, nays, she is Mayonnaise.

So I don't know, man. I mean, you may be more

passionate than me. Mayonnaise takes the win for me.

But you, you did such a good biography of James K Polk, our

prestigious 11th president of the United States.

So he may take it. What do you think?

See, that's the thing. I'm torn.

It is like a three-way tie because James Polk, I mean, like

I said, he's from North Carolina, barely.

So I I kind of leaned toward him in that way.

There again, I didn't know that his weaknesses were integrity

and moral authority. So I don't know, maybe it wasn't

that great after all. And then there's Isaac.

Is for everybody, like maybe they have to reach for it, you

know, just like us trying to come up with negatives.

Let me see Isaac Newton. That's the more obvious choice.

But really the character himself wasn't given that much to do.

And then I did not know that Mays last name was Onays until I

looked in IMDb. And so I noticed that today too.

And in a way, I think that's creative, especially since they

have to use the apostrophe. I mean, she literally has like O

apostrophe and then nays. So it's almost like she's Irish.

But The thing is, I don't like mayonnaise either.

So. So I'm torn.

It's like, what? What exactly do I base my vote

on? Well, here's.

Let me, let me, let me make it easier for you.

OK? I think we give this one to

James Polk. May has another chance when she

shows up again for one of the TV movies and a few episodes, and

she has a shot, you know, and she's, you know, she got a

little bit of a handicap because Todd doesn't like mayonnaise.

But, you know, if they pull out a really good juicy name for

that other movie, we'll be like, oh, this is her chance.

You know, she got to go up against them right now.

I think we can go ahead and call James Polk the winner.

OK, yeah, yeah, I'll let my vote go that way.

You've made the most convincing argument for someone yet.

This whole series. We ready for I have to talk

about this. Yeah, yeah.

So in the miscellaneous section, really I've only got two things.

1 is a big thing, 1 is a smaller thing that I didn't even think

of until we started the episode. The big thing is a list of

Tanktonese facts. So like I said, there's a radio

report at the very beginning of the episode where they're

talking about the census and a woman is complaining that there

are now 271,400 newcomers, which is an increase of around 21,000

since they landed five years ago.

And I was mean to go back to this and do the math because

even though I was a math major, I'm, I love algebra and I was

good at calculus at one time. I've never done great with

population increase type formulas.

So I was going to have to go back and look up and see, OK,

how much is is that? They're increasing every year.

And I didn't get around to that. Let me see another thing.

Erogenous zones. You mentioned how George

explains that to Matt in one scene.

And what he lists off are the small, the back, the bridge of

the nose, shoulder blades and the backs of their knees.

And as I've mentioned in another episode, I can't help but wonder

if that's where Richard Fish from from Ally Mcbeal gets it

because he made a big deal in that whole TV show about like

the knee pit being a Roger Zone on women.

Do my knee. Lang you expect to March in here

whenever you feel like it and have me service your deep.

Yes, quickly. I have meetings.

Let me see. Bit alms are approximately 1% of

the population, maybe even less. They are anatomically different,

but the episode never gets specific as to how, and it's

kind of implied that their genitalia is either bigger,

shape differently, or both. Oh my.

But again, they never come around and say, but apparently

the purpose is to prepare the channel with catalyzing

emission. So I don't know if that's like

increase the size of the channel or do some kind of lubrication

thing or maybe a little bit of both.

I'm not sure. Let me see three more wait.

Pause. Because you said several things

that I could respond to. So that in itself was

interesting to me because they simultaneously don't tell you

stuff. See, your imagination wanders.

But they also, I mean, that is a pretty vivid description at the

same time. And you did mention one of my

other things, and that is that when we have our first murder

victim and after a couple of other scenes, Matt and George go

to that murder scene. George casually reaches down to

lift this sheet up while Matt is talking to him.

And Matt's saying, you know, I've seen this a million times.

Husband busts in and finds him in bed together and shoots him.

And. But as he's talking, George is

lifting the sheet up. For one thing, we see blood

splatter, but they are managing to maintain tanked and knees

having this livid bright pink blood.

So they're going with it. The sheets were splattered with

pink. He lifts the sheet up and he's

looking at this guy's crotch. We are seeing their faces

looking at the crotch and Matt does a whole double take.

And if you want to freeze frame, there are so many, There are

like 5 or 6 different shots you can do of just these two grown

men looking down off camera at something and Matt making the

most bizarre faces. So you can only wonder what we

imagine is going on down there is pretty epic in this scene.

So, yeah, that was that was a big deal, that scene and just

how long they spent. Like this show spends a little

chunk of time with two grown men staring at some guy's junk.

That was an interesting choice. It was kind of hilarious to me.

And the other thing you were saying, oh, this scene.

So Matt is asking George because he feels bad he's dancing with

Kathy, he touches her in a place that's not appropriate to touch

her, he's embarrassed, and he's at.

We all are pretty sure he's just asking George because he doesn't

want to accidentally bump something else that's sensitive.

Newcomer women and men are a lot more comfortable talking about

these things. But he's following the Earthling

protocol where you do not talk about private places out loud in

front of someone. Maybe you quietly ask someone

else. So he's doing that, George

misunderstands and starts laying out the moves to put on

somebody, kind of excitedly comes over, sits on Matt's desk,

leans, and he never does this. You already listed all of the

spots. I agree with you 100%.

I think David E Kelly watched Alien Nation and realized that

there is a trick with censors. If you want to have ridiculously

sexy scenes where you do incredibly inappropriate things,

all you've got to do is make up anatomy.

If you make up anatomy, you can get away with a ton.

So his characters on Ally Mcbeal do bizarre things that would

never get past the sensor, except they're touching things

that the sensors don't care about, just like in this

episode. And the knee pit is a perfect

example. They have knee pit episodes that

are like, I think a girl's hair literally curls on camera.

There's gasping and moaning and banging tables like When Harry

Met Sally. They go to town on the things

that you can get away with in TV because it's made-up an atom.

There for you, Renee. I just hope a woman enough to

handle it. Me too.

What are you doing? What is this?

What is this Or what's that? What's he doing?

John, a little knee pit action. You should give them another

try. Now notice the change.

Oh God. I should stop and I'll kill you.

Oh my God, look at me when you say that, Renee.

Oh my God. Pull me in your bosom.

So yes, I think David E Kelly straight up stole from Alien

Nation and considering how many people are poached from the show

I think it's pretty obvious. He also mentions like Matt asks

what George looks for in a girl. I transcribed this entire

section. Matt does say you know what

about? And he doesn't say private

parts. And George says dismissively

that humans are obsessed with genitalia and we are not.

And Matt asks what he looks for. And George looks off into space

and he says the speckles going down the back of the neck into

the fine line. And then he talks about ear

valleys when they end in like a swirling little S shape.

And then he says, any more of this and I'll need a hot shower.

And he claps Matt on the back and walks away.

So that was a ah, That was a great scene.

I don't know why, but for some reason, as a young man, when

Matt asks about Tanktonese women and erogenous zones, George

says, are you dating a Tanktonese woman?

Is it Kathy? I like Kathy.

That just stuck with me. He's so genuine.

He's like, I like Kathy too, George.

So yes, you can do another one now, but you've mentioned a few

of those. Let me see, Albert Tanktonese

name is Glenza Mantoya, and I thought that was interesting

because I don't know if we've ever heard anybody's last name.

And I can't help but wonder, is that a last name?

If so, is it a family name? Or since the only people to say

that were other people in his order is it?

Also maybe a title, but a title that is attached on to the end

of the name instead. And I'm not sure that we're

supposed to be sure. I I don't know.

Usually when we've heard a tank Denise name, it's only one word.

So I thought that was interesting.

Let me see. And then two things that have

kind of already been mentioned, and that is that Drevni is the

title of the leader of the been on and that as the leader of the

Ganem's workplace, Grazer has to wash the bed, arms, feet.

And I assume that that's true and that that is part of the

ritual. But it does make you wonder, how

did that translate to them being on a slave ship?

Does that mean that a slave driver or like maybe the like,

foreman of a work group or something, was that the person

who had to to wash the bed, arms, feet?

I just can't help but wonder how that translates to their

previous life on the slave ship. And there is a part of me that

can't help but wonder, is that really a real ritual?

Or was that just their way of messing with the captain?

And I don't think so, but they don't seem like the type to do

that. But it's also kind of a strange

ritual, so. Well, well, now that you say it

out loud again, Nick misses subtext like constantly.

But if you are on the slave ship and you are forced to work jobs

that maybe as a culture you wouldn't think they would work.

So the Ben, we see them all in a monastery, but on the slave ship

they have jobs. So the idea of having a foreman

that they're having to go work in some section come and

literally like clean their feet as they have to walk in some

section. They they're dirty walking in

like that, that I connect with, that I get there, what they're

trying to say there and have the person who's the boss of that

section, it's like acknowledging how special the bent on is and

that they're lowering themselves to like even step foot there or

something. Wash the dirt of my area off.

That's a that's really, really cool.

But yeah, I wouldn't have thought of that until you were

like spelling it out. One of mine is related to

Grazer. I would just like to take this

time to say that Grazer sucks. This is his character.

He's not enough of a jerk or terrible person to be like a a

Ted Knight character from Mary Tyler Moore or too close for

comfort. And he's definitely not a

Michael Scott. He's just like an ass that you

laugh at. He's just enough to be like, uh,

what a twerk. So he's like a foot shorter than

everybody. That's how they cast it.

And he's just generally like a little creeper.

I don't know, he's a punk. So that's that's how he plays

it. That's what the characters like.

I just razor. He makes everybody look better.

I mentioned the pink blood. Continuing.

I did want to say that when they talk, some of the speech in

Tanktonese goes so quickly that even the most committed nerd, I

am pretty confident, could not try and transcribe it.

But hearing them say certain things, even if it's I'm sorry

or thank you, it really felt like somebody was putting a lot

of work into the language. And I kind of appreciated that.

And Todd already mentioned the Star Trek reference.

I just wrote it out. But when they find the husband

passed out in the hall, when the wife and Venom are murdered,

Matt says, can't you guys just, like, touch a pressure point and

knock yourselves out? And he's like, wait, yeah, that

may be Star Trek. And he's not trying to be funny.

He's genuinely getting his aliens confused.

So that was that was, that was a nice little shout out.

Intentional or not, you have anything else for this section?

I think I have one more, two more.

Yeah, so I do have one more item, but before I get to that,

you know, I've mentioned before that I have the episode, I

usually have the episode on in the background, on mute, just in

case I catch something visually while we're talking.

And this episode is already finished and it's moved on to

the next episode. And so I'm getting actually,

I've now passed the scene that I've was talking about before

where Eric Pierpoint is just acting his butt off.

And I mean, that episode, this episode that we're reviewing

next week is just amazing when it comes to acting, directing,

writing. I can't wait to review next

week's episode. But anyway, one of the things I

did not even think about when it comes to this episode until

after I rewatched it this past time is kind of related to what

I mentioned earlier about how on The Orville they make that one

twist with the genders for the Mocklin race.

And how if they're supposedly male, that means men are going

to be married to men. But it's not even a gay thing

because supposedly that's their only gender.

And then when they find out maybe there's not total truth to

that, then that opens up other things.

And then how they choose to deal with, you know, a possible

second gender. It kind of is a very allegorical

storytelling way of approaching mostly gender identity issues,

but also to a certain extent, sexual preference issues.

And, and this episode does that in a somewhat less obvious way.

And after I rewatched it, I realized, wow, without even

realizing, I'm not even sure the writers did on purpose.

This is kind of like a transgender episode before that

was even a hot topic. Because because I've already

mentioned the Ben alms, even though they look mostly male

like the Ganoms, they do have different parts.

They've got a different purpose. They are technically 1/3 gender.

But at the end of this episode, Albert goes back to not being a

part of the Ben ALM order and basically living the lifestyle

of a Ganom even though he is biologically Ben ALM.

And so, like I said, in a roundabout way, this is kind of

a transgender episode. And again, I'm not even sure the

writers thought of that when they did it, but in retrospect,

it kind of is. Well, and it leaves room for the

idea of Matt and the overarching theme of finding out people are

different from you and at first thinking it's weird, then gross,

then inappropriate, then lecherous or creepy or I don't

know what the right word is, and kinky.

And then eventually discovering that, you know, there could be

beauty in it. There could be something you

could just respect and people and their differences.

I feel like you guys also on Discerning Geeks, didn't you do

an episode about Enemy Mine? Yes.

The review of the movie Enemy Mine is episode 12 of the

Discerning Geeks Portal podcast from September 2020, Todd said.

Please forgive the audio issues in that episode.

We find out halfway through that movie that the significant alien

character is 1 gender and self fertilizing.

And at the time my little 80s brain was just melted.

I don't know, that was shocking. It was wonderful.

It's played really well. But yes, like you said, this is

before sci-fi is quietly going into places that the rest of

society wanders 20 years later, and it's like clutching its

pearls about. So yes, we're crossing frontiers

here. Let me see.

I have a couple things I do want to say, and I don't know if

you're going to bring back the head explodometer, but you've

already done enough for that to be merited.

But they do have this little line in here where George is

just beginning to explain the process to Matt, where they're

standing over the first dead body or no.

Later on, they're having this conversation because Matt is

saying that they don't even know the guy's name.

And George is saying the wife probably set it up, that the

wives usually set it up. Matt is incredulous about that

as well. And George looks at him and just

says the line. After all, it is her body.

And he walks away. And again, this is 1989 listers.

Yeah. Yeah.

But that was just, I think Matt is just like he he's like, whoa,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

But he's still reeling from all of the concepts hitting him at

once. But that was just, it was a line

thrown in there. My last thing I really just need

to mention this episode is that 13 year old Nick encountering it

when Matt is dancing with Kathy and he puts his hand in the

small of her back and she tells him it's an erogenous stone.

Someone had to explain to me what that term was.

And I have to tell you, we don't always feel like kids Listen to

us. I turned my ears all the way on

and I carved it in stone when it was explained to me.

And I think part of that was because of how Tarry Trees is

playing this. When I tell you this actress, if

you guys are not interested in watching the show, you put on

the scene at the beginning, you'll see a couple get blown

away with a shotgun really fast. And then you'll see a weird

dance lesson when Matt puts his hand in the wrong place.

This woman, it is not played for laughs.

It is done seriously and she is evocative, but she looks like

her eyes are about to cross and she's like bottom lip.

And it's like like she's saying you, you can't do that.

But at the same time she's almost saying, but you know,

maybe it's cool. And just like it is, it is a it

is a powerful scene. She also does this thing where

she touches the side of her head, her temple to his temple,

and he's like looking at her and she's explains that this is like

a Peck on the cheek. Well, he does this back to her

at the end. And this is what I was talking

about, where my memory is that of a little kid.

So I really missed a lot of the subtlety.

I remembered the scene vividly and I remembered it wrong.

So seeing it as an adult, it was very cool.

It was a different scene than I thought it was.

It was very sweet and kind of tender because now that she's

taught him that language, it's kind of like Matt leaned over

and gave her a small Peck on the cheek.

And once again, this actress looks at him like she's just

fanning herself like that is. So.

Yeah. I don't know if I'm just so

smitten with Terry Trees or if it's how she plays Kathy.

Or. The director said, look, when he

touches your back, I need you to look like you are almost there

and you're trying very gently to tiptoe your way back.

But she made me believe it, man. And yeah, if that converted me

at 13, I'm pretty confident that did a big number on David E

Kelly. Because now that I'm thinking

about it, he totally repeats that scene over and over again.

Yeah. OK.

All right. Coming to realizations here.

That is it for me, for I have to mention this.

OK, so I think we've only got one thing left and that is

ratings. Do you want to start or do you

want me to? Go Sure.

I always give a Star Trek alumni score or an STA.

We have a base for for this episode for George, Susan, Matt

and Grazer who is in this episode.

We don't have Uncle Moodri, alas.

And that base for the only other one I found to go along with it

was Alan Scarfy that we mentioned near the beginning,

bringing us up to one of our lowest scores we've ever had,

STA score of five. So yeah, that's.

That's darn disappointing. But I also rate these episodes

on a watch skip basis in case, unlike me, you would like to

revisit Alien Nation but you don't know if you should watch

them all. You definitely need to watch

this episode. Yeah.

This is like, I think this is easily my favorite episode so

far. I'm not saying I need to watch

it every year or something, but I just, there's so much.

This is the whole shebang. We have social messaging that

we've mentioned before. We've got alien culture clash.

We've got the sweetness of the Francisco family, Matt

confronting his biases and growing, the promising

interactions with the pretty lady next door.

We even got a little police stuff thrown in, if you're into

that kind of thing. They can't all be like this.

But this episode is like jam packed with stuff.

So yes, please don't skip this one.

Oh yeah, I would agree. I mean, this is important

episode and like I said, one that I've been looking forward

to for quite a while, so my rating may not be much of a

surprise. Do letter grades and I'm giving

this an A minus. As usual, it's Matt and police

work that dragged the episode down a little bit.

And and keep it from that upper level of being an A or an A+.

Otherwise, the alien stuff is great.

And like I said, those last few minutes are amazing.

I mean, you you kind of went into detail about the moment

where they touch each other's temples.

You know, that's great. But practically everything in

that last scene or two is just amazing.

So yeah, this is a a really great episode of science fiction

in general, and even more specifically for this show.

And I like that you rate these things harshly.

I like that you're because there are there are things that if any

of you were not loving the episode, you could kind of pick

apart. There are things about how the

monastery is set up or how quick a scene has to be or how clipped

things are. But yeah, when you look past all

that and you're just watching an 80s show, it's like, wow, they.

So let's look ahead. Coming up next time on

Alienating Ourselves, join us as we explore Season 1 Episode 10,

the game Todd's already talked about a little bit, so I hope

you guys are stoked. I'm both stoked and a little bit

nervous. The Day of Descent, the 5th

anniversary of the Tank Deniz's liberation from slavery with

their ship's arrival on Earth, finds George Francisco

depressed. A lethal form of gambling from

the ship may be coming to Earth. OK, so spoiler alert, it's

definitely coming to Earth. I mean it's like here, you don't

need to be vague. IMDb episode description.

So I don't know if modern Nick will like this episode, but kid

Nick certainly remembers it it. It made a lasting impression.

Join us next week as we relive trauma and find out if it's even

more fun the second time. As Todd and I continue

alienating ourselves, I continue to be Nick.

I'm Todd, thank you for joining us.

We'd love to see some reviews wherever you listen to podcast.

If you love us, like us, or can barely tolerate us, please give

us five stars. If you really hate us, please

give us four stars. If you give us three stars or

lower, you too will need someone anatomically different to

prepare your canal with. Catalyzing a mission As always,

milk. Be as fresh or as sour as you

prefer it to be. And the next time you invite Co

workers over for the public conception of your next child,

give them more than half a day's notice.

It's the right thing to do. Have a great week.

Cha cha cha everybody.