00:00:00 Music Transition Dark Materia’s “The Picard Song,” record-scratching into a Sisko- centric remix by Adam Ragusea. Picard: Here’s to the finest crew in Starfleet! Engage. [Music begins. A fast-paced techno beat.] Picard: Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the USS Enterprise! [Music slows, record scratch, and then music speeds back up.] Sisko: Commander Benjamin Sisko, the Federation starbase... Deep Space 9. [Music ends.] 00:00:14 Music Music Record scratch back into "The Picard Song," which plays quietly in the background. 00:00:15 Ben Harrison Host Welcome to The Greatest Generation: Deep Space Nine. It's a Star Trek podcast from a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. 00:00:24 Adam Host I'm Adam Pranica. And it is, uh—it's Greatest Generation's 2020 Pranica Election Special. [Music fades out.] You might be— 00:00:32 Ben Host [Laughs.] Oh no! 00:00:35 Adam Host You might be in line— 00:00:36 Ben Host People try to tune into this show to like—to take a break from all that! [Laughs.] 00:00:39 Adam Host You might be in line right now! Looking for something to do with the next... eight to sixteen hours. Depending on where you're at. 00:00:47 Ben Host Depending on how suppressed votes are in your state. 00:00:51 Adam Host Yeah! Yeah. We—Ben, we famously, four years ago— [Ben laughs.] —uh, were laughing all the way up to election day. Jokes! 00:01:02 Ben Host Yeah. 00:01:03 Adam Host Jokes by the dozen. Jokes by the fistful— 00:01:05 Ben Host Yeah. 00:01:06 Adam Host —were followed by very sad times. 00:01:10 Ben Host We fucked up. 00:01:11 Adam Host I wonder if you wanna do it any differently this time around. 00:01:15 Ben Host [Chuckles.] Uh, instead of— 00:01:16 Adam Host Do you have any regrets? [Laughs quietly.] 00:01:18 Ben Host [Laughs.] Instead of arrogant self-assuredness? I'm approaching this one with, uh, a little bit of humility. [Laughs.] 00:01:27 Adam Host I feel like that was the—I mean, for you and me, arrogant self- assuredness is a totally new language we should be taking on—on Babbel or something. [Ben laughs.] Like, I don't know it. I don't know anything about that. 00:01:40 Ben Host Yeah. 00:01:41 Adam Host But, uh, that was one of the times... where we had it. And, uh, I just—we're recording this episode many weeks ahead of when this'll come out. I just put my ballot in the ballot box. 00:01:52 Ben Host Who even knows if there is an election? [Laughs.] 00:01:55 Adam Host Yeah! 00:01:56 Ben Host As of this recording. I mean, I've already voted. 00:01:57 Adam Host It's one of the exciting dangers of a scheduling runway. I—yeah, I voted today, too. I put it into a dropbox I'm fairly certain was an authentic dropbox. [Ben laughs.] Uh, because that's how things are going now. 00:02:11 Ben Host You gotta give some scrutiny to those dropboxes. 00:02:14 Adam Host I know! It could just be a man inside a cardboard box painted to say, "Election Dropbox." 00:02:21 Ben Host Yeah. But he's really just a guy that loves eating pieces of paper? 00:02:25 Adam Host Yeah. Yeah. 00:02:26 Ben Host And he goes, [smacking lips] "Num num num num num num num. Mmm!" 00:02:28 Adam Host Yeah, one of the paste-eaters from our kindergarten class, all growned up. 00:02:33 Ben Host [Laughs.] Little Ralph Wiggum has a job in the California state Republican Party. 00:02:41 Adam Host Yeah! [Ben laughs.] 00:02:42 Clip Clip Ralph Wiggum (The Simpsons): [Distressed] They taste like... burning! 00:02:45 Adam Host I wanna thank all our Friends of DeSoto for all they've done, I think. We started a couple of fundraising apparati, in order to, uh— 00:02:53 Ben Host That's true. 00:02:54 Adam Host —and the support behind both of those has been great and inspiring. I mean, I think we've both done on our own some things to help get out the vote. And— 00:03:06 Ben Host Yes. 00:03:08 Adam Host It's... And now we're just on the eve of it! It—it's—it's gonna feel weird—! 00:03:13 Ben Host Yeah. And you just wonder if it was enough, or... I mean, I would hate to have done too much, right? 00:03:19 Adam Host I don't think I've ever done too much. Of anything. [Ben laughs.] Except drink, I guess. 00:03:25 Ben Host Yeah. Yeah. 00:03:26 Adam Host And even then... 00:03:27 Ben Host It is—it's nerve-racking. I'm more nervous since you brought this up than—[laughs]—I was before. 00:03:33 Adam Host See, I was hoping we could be here for our Friends of DeSoto to make them feel better. 00:03:39 Ben Host I—I do, too. I mean, I think that that's—that's one thing I'm always gratified to hear from people, when they say that we're providing a needed distraction from stuff, and... 00:03:49 Adam Host Mm-hm. And now we're really not doing that. 00:03:54 Ben Host Yeah, but I mean, it's also, like, probably the most important couple of days that we'll experience politically, maybe in our lifetimes? 00:04:03 Adam Host Yeah. 00:04:04 Ben Host So, um... I really hope everyone is able to vote, that can, and I hope that if you can, you get out there and do it. And, uh... [Laughs.] Don't vote for the fascist piece of shit that is the incumbent. 00:04:22 Adam Host There's, uh—there's a very— 00:04:23 Ben Host Let's not advance the Mirror Universe any further. 00:04:27 Adam Host There's a fairly obvious choice to be made here. It couldn't be any easier, I think, for most of us. 00:04:36 Ben Host Yeah. 00:04:37 Adam Host And it's just about getting out there and doing the thing! If enough people who feel the way we do, uh, just do it, then we won't have anything to worry about. It's a numbers game. 00:04:51 Ben Host Perhaps fitting that today's episode of Greatest Gen is on the topic of a Mirror Universe episode. 00:04:59 Adam Host Right! 00:05:00 Ben Host And dedicated to Jerome Bixby, who was the original—he was—he wrote "Mirror, Mirror" for the original series! 00:05:08 Adam Host Yeah! What a legacy! Just a—a leather legacy, a catsuit legacy. 00:05:14 Ben Host [Laughs.] Goatees, agonizers... 00:05:19 Adam Host Yeah! 00:05:20 Ben Host He—he gave us so much. 00:05:21 Adam Host He really did. If you go to, uh, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, you'll find his gravestone wrapped in latex— [Ben laughs.] —and, uh, with like a very suggestive kind of lean? 00:05:37 Ben Host Mm-hm. 00:05:38 Adam Host Against another gravestone? 00:05:40 Ben Host It's got exposed arms. 00:05:42 Adam Host [Laughs.] We say this with love. Jerome Bixby's certainly one of the great creative minds behind—I mean, he wasn't just a Star Trek writer. He was a science fiction writer generally, and really well- regarded. So, to him the episode of Deep Space Nine is dedicated. And to a better future, hopefully, starting very soon, we dedicate this episode of The Greatest Generation. So why don't we get on into it, Ben? I've powdered my legs. [Ben chuckles.] I'm, uh—I'm pulling on the tight leather pants of the Mirror Universe. 00:06:22 Ben Host Ugh! 00:06:23 Adam Host And I'm ready to record. 00:06:25 Ben Host Yeah, I just never took mine off from the last time we recorded. [Adam laughs.] 'Cause it just seemed like too much trouble. But, uh... 00:06:30 Adam Host Hopefully you won't hear that in the mic. 00:06:32 Ben Host Yeah. 00:06:33 Adam Host That's the thing about leather pants. They're so loud. They're louder than you think. 00:06:34 Sound Effect Sound Effect [Leather creaking.] 00:06:36 Ben Host [Laughs.] Yeah, and you're always having to explain it, because people think it's a fart, and you're like, "No, it's the pants." 00:06:42 Adam Host Right. Right. 00:06:44 Ben Host "I'm just trying to slide over this Naugahyde booth seat in this diner." [Adam laughs.] "It's incompatible with my pants." 00:06:50 Adam Host Yeah, leather on tucked leather, uh—never a good combination. Let's get into it, Ben. It's Deep Space Nine season 7, episode 12: "The Emperor's New Cloak." 00:07:03 Music Transition A techno song mixed with clips and soundbites from DS9.