I’m a bit surprised Eilerson once found someone to marry him. Not at all surprised that she left, though. She comes back when she desperately needs money, because why else would anyone want to talk to that guy? Eilerson did a good job brazening his way through a standoff with a loan shark, and backed it up with some convenient alien tech he had lying around. I guess that’s a better solution than “airlock accident.” I imagine a poker game between Eilerson and Gideon would be something to watch.

"The Game": This episode was awesomely bad and I kind of love it?? At first, I thought it was going to be a very weird sexytimes episode, as it begins with Riker at a planetary tryst, and the woman introduces him to a video game sex toy. He then gets all his friends to share his sex toy. Troi basically has sex with her ice cream in front of him and it’s glorious. Shit gets real when Crusher takes out Data, and Riker keeps trying to push this fucking Game on eeeeeveryone. And then basically everyone is just walking around the Enterprise masturbating. One could argue that the Game is simply supposed to represent drugs and everyone is high but Wesley totally walked in on his mom masturbating. So meanwhile why are we not always talking about the fact that Ashley Judd was on this show?? I’d caught her in small doses before, but this looks to be her first big episode, and she’s adorable, and I love Lefler’s Laws, and she and Wesley are so cute together. It becomes a young adult dystopia episode, which is totally my jam. Wesley and Robin must work together since all the adults are evil/mind-controlled/secret aliens/supercapitalist. It turns out, of course, that Riker’s one-night stand is a Ktarian commander trying to control the Federation, though it’s never quite explained how the Game does that, especially since that message only leads to action in the people in command, but Wesley and Robin did notice something fishy in that amazing(ly bad) neuroscience scene (“That’s the pleasure center of the brain!”). And then Data shows up to make this episode unsafe for epileptics. Now: KISSING. I love episodes of television that feel like satisfying mini-movies, and this was one of them.

-Oh hey, we're in the Klingon AU?
-"Janeway requires medical assistance" - nice fun holodeck games, that's all
-And now we're in WW2-land!
-"Play the game" - its interesting some of the Hirogen don't really get the point of all this!
-"I shall take great pleasure in tracking them down" - I don't think I really 'got' this before - that the point of them playing this scenario was specifically to hunt the resistance - because hunting is their thing, not war.
-"If the choice were mine, you would already be dead" - again teasing the Neelix haters!
-Heh. Even with their minds somehow controlled, Neelix and Tuvok still find a way to argue about logic.
-"He would never do anything to harm his own child" - and they found a way to incorporate Roxann Dawson's real life pregnancy like they did with Nana Visitor

I can't believe you've finished! I haven't been around consistently for the whole thing but I have dipped in and out quite frequently - and commented late pretty much every time! I can't think of a question right now but I would just like to say thank you Mark. I've really enjoyed listening to you read Discworld and the Tamora Pierce books. I credit you with the fact that I have got into audiobooks in general. I have read a number of Discworld novels I had never got around to reading before - I borrowed almost all the Tiffany Aching books from my grandfather years ago and they were still sitting on my shelf unopened. I still listen to your Tamora Pierce videos when I can't sleep and need familiar words to switch off my brain. And getting to comment with the wonderful community here has influenced the way I read all books, as I think of comments I would make if we were reading it together. I I won't be joining you for your next read because I really can't add another book to my to read pile right now, but I'll try to remember to check in for future projects, and wish you all the best