087: TAS: The Practical Joker

Welcome! Thanks for joining me today. Have you ever had a manager get in your face, or write an all-caps email, freaking out over a deadline or an issue? Have you ever done that to someone you work with? Sadly, it happens all too often because we confuse what is critical with what is urgent, or even routine. Let’s break down what that means and how to be sure your response is appropriate to the situation as we watch the 3^rd episode of the 2^nd season of The Animated Series, The Practical Joker.

<<Transporter>>

The Enterprise is doing a geological survey and is wrapping up. I love the older stuff like this, they totally acknowledge the work, work of working on a starship! As they head out, they run into 3 Romulan ships! They immediately attack and the evasive maneuvers are on! “Mr Spock, who is attacking us. Romulans.” 1:49 They detect an uncharted energy field and decide to head into it, hoping the Romulans will beg off. “They turned back.” 3:44 The ship sets to repairs and we’re back to business as usual.

Out of nowhere, a series of pranks and practical jokes start happening. “Hey, this glass leaked! So did mine.” 4:21 They write it off as a practical joker or some problems with the food synthesizers. But they keep coming! Spock gets the dark rings around his eyes from looking into a scope, Scotty gets buried in a bunch of food when he orders a grilled cheese, and ends up with a cream pie in the face. One of my favorite, and maybe the most iconic prank happens early on too, “I’ve just picked up my uniform and it says this.” 6:43 On the back of his shirt it says, Kirk is a Jerk! Classic. But the fun is wearing thin and the crew are starting to look for blame. “Go ahead and laugh. It was probably you.” 6:17

The jokes start getting a little less funny and little more dangerous. The corridor floor gets covered in ice and Kirk and Spock nearly take a nosedive. And then the Computer comes out as the joker. It starts joking and taunting everyone. “Laughing…skip to Spock: it is the Enterprise itself.” 7:38 Kirk initiates a full diagnostic scan of the ship, which sucks for Sulu, Uhura and McCoy because they were just heading off to their break. “Good the rec room is unoccupied.” 8:13 For whatever reason, they don’t hear the call to stations while they decide how to spend their time away. And this is pretty cool. It’s a holodeck!! On the OG 1701 Enterprise! They go from a beach scene to the woods and then they start strolling. But they aren’t safe either. The Computer does the old, hole in the ground covered with brush trick and then it switches the program from the woods to freezing blizzard conditions.

The rest of the crew are hard at work trying to figure out what’s going on and where the three rec roomers are, leading to what might be my favorite moment in the whole episode: “Question: why can’t we communicate. Answer: that is for me to know and you to find out.” 10:49 Haha. Love it! And it goes on and on. Kirk tries doing the whole outsmart the computer thing that worked for him so many times in the original series. “You are programmed to obey my orders. I order you. Say please.” 11:19 Kirk just gives up. He’s had enough. He asks Scotty to shut down all the logic functions for the computer. But that does not go well! The Computer shuts off the gravity! Spock says he has a theory about what is going on and tells Scotty to abort the shut-down mission.

Spock says the Enterprise was likely infected by subatomic particles from the energy field they went through. Despite his confidence about his theory, he has no idea what to do about it. And then things take a turn for the worse. “Scotty, we need a repair crew…hahaha.” 15:02 The Computer is flooding the ship with nitrous oxide. Laughing gas! Which, I’ll tell you from personal experience, doesn’t quite work like this. Spock, not as affected by it, is able to switch to emergency air. The repair crew get to the rec room and bust through the door, freeing them just in time!

The Computer goes from fun to galactically threatening in a heartbeat. No more practical jokes. Now it takes over control of the helm and sends them towards the neutral zone. If the Enterprise enters that zone, it will be considered an act of war by the Romulans! The 3 Romulan ships from earlier move to intercept them, and then the computer, well, the computer launches a life-size replica balloon of the Enterprise out into space. Feeling outnumbered, the Romulans pull off. Kirk realizes this is a huge practical joke, but this time on the Romulans! He figures the Romulans will attack the balloon, “and Romulans fear disgrace more than death.” 19:31 And if the dudes back home on Romulus hear they blowed up a balloon…yeah. Not good for them.

They take the bait and chase the for real Enterprise. Kirk starts freaking out. Things aren’t funny anymore, he’s terrified of the energy field that was in the area. “I couldn’t face going through there again.” 20:30 But he wasn’t afraid. This was a classic Kirk ruse. The Computer sends the ship back into the energy field and the Romulans follow them in. While in the field, for some reason, the subatomic particles are released from the Enterprise and they’re back to normal. But the Romulans aren’t! “Shall we tell them how to reverse the effects of the field?” 22:10 And we all have a good laugh at their expense.

<<Red Alert>>

Every single time we’ve gotten an Animated Series episode on here I have really enjoyed it! This series gets a bad rap, and totally unfairly. Yes, the animation is ridiculous, but the stories are great! I can absolutely, 100% see this as an episode slotted into the 3^rd season of the original series. Heighten the stakes, maybe get some more back and forth with the Romulans, but this is a great sci-fi story that has been told by so many franchises and properties, and Star Trek does an awesome job with it in this one.

Quarks – Ads

A couple things to bring us up to speed on the animated series itself. The casting has always been a hot topic. They brought back all of the original cast, including Majel Barrett, to voice their characters. And some, notably Majel, Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan voiced basically anyone that wasn’t already covered as an existing character. But, for some reason, Walter Koenig was not cast. He did write an episode, which we talked about in the 68^th episode of the podcast, TAS’s The Infinite Vulcan. I mean, at different points in the series they bring back Mark Lenard as Sarek and even Roger C Carmel as Harry Mudd. But no Koenig, and no Checkov.

But don’t think that puts them down a character. Oh no. We actually end up plus one on the main crew. Being animated, the sky was the limit when it came to visuals, so we got two, entirely alien crew members. Lt. M’Ress, a Caitian communications officer, and Lt. Arex, an Edosian navigator, voiced by Majel Barrett and James Doohan, respectively.

M'Ress, as a new character, actually gets quite a bit of screentime and does some pretty cool stuff through the series. In this episode, though, she just happened to be the one sitting at comms when Uhura wasn’t. But this is our first chance to talk about Caitians. They are, as the name implies, kinda like cat people. Imagine a human with feline features and fur. After TAS we see them in Star Trek 4 – the one with the whales, and then again in Prodigy and Lower Decks. Lower Decks, in Dr. T’ana, gives us a lot more insight into them as a species. But at this point, we get to see one doing her thing on the bridge and that is pretty cool.

Arex really leans into the whole being an animated alien thing. He’s orange-ish, reddish with an oddly shaped, hairless head. And dude’s got three arms and three legs!!! He’s got the standard, humanoid left and right arms, and then one sticking right out of his chest! But, remember when I said there was no Checkov in this series? Well, Arex is his replacement. He’s an Edosian, a species we don’t learn much about and we don’t see another one until an episode in the 3^rd season of Lower Decks. While neither of these characters are earth-shattering in their roles, they really show the advantages of being animated instead of live action.

One piece of, what I think is cool, trivia from this one that I, admittedly, have to really stretch for is that it was written by Chuck Menville. Chuck, and fellow Star Trek writer Len Janson were nominated for an Academy Award in 1968 for a short-film they put together. And while that’s interesting, the cool trivia is that Chuck’s son is Scott Menville. If you are of a certain age or have children of a certain age, you know Scott as Robin from Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!

I said it during the recap, but I think it’s important to note that THERE IS A HOLODECK IN THIS EPISODE! They played the holodeck for a big reaction right out of the gate in Encounter at Farpoint, but TAS beat you to it! I also really appreciate that the very first appearance of a holodeck, or rec room as they call it here, is one where it malfunctions and puts the crew in danger. The paint-by-numbers script for so many TNG and other holodeck episodes was written all the way back in 1974! Its age really shows, though. McCoy drops this incredible line, “It was probably one of the audio tapes rewinding.” 9:47 I mean, of course it would have tapes and of course you would have to rewind them! Wild thing is, there are likely people listening to this right now that have no idea what rewinding a tape even is.

So, if you haven’t already, check this one out. It’s corny but it’s fun. You will especially love it if you’re a fan of the Kirk vs Computer stuff they played a lot in TOS.

<<Command Codes>>

Why are you freaking out? WHY ARE YOU FREAKING OUT?? How often do leaders and managers get hyped up, stress out everyone around them, and then start freaking out? It happens way too often! And the thing is, it’s almost always over something that doesn’t even matter. Let’s look at how Captain Kirk comports himself during this dangerous, but maybe not so critical situation they find themselves in.

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There is very little in this world that feels as good as being a hero. I think that’s why properties like Star Trek, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and, shoot, even stuff like Mission Impossible and Fast and Furious are so popular. They are all the stories of heroes, in one way or another. Almost every piece of popular media for the last as long as I can remember, uses the Hero’s Journey as the template for their stories. According to writer Joseph Campbell, who is a pretty polarizing individual, there are 12 stages in the Hero’s Journey: Call to Adventure, Refusing the Call, Finding a Mentor or Teacher, Finding Allies, Facing the First Threshold, The Road of Trials, Approaching the Cave, The Ordeal, A Reward, The Road Back, Resurrection, and Returning Home. These are divided into the traditional 3 act structure with those Acts representing Separation, Descent and Initiation, and then Return. This is a wildly compelling narrative structure that can be found in some of the earliest writings known to man and still shows up in our modern-day blockbusters.

But the attraction to this concept often goes well beyond entertainment. Many of us want our own Hero’s Journey. We want to know that the challenges we’re facing and the things we are learning will, one day, either help those from where we are from – which can be as local as your neighborhood or as vast as the galaxy – or make you look super cool to a lot of people. This attraction sometimes causes us to do stupid things. Yeah, no nuance here, just dumb, stupid things.

Sometimes those stupid things are big, and full of bravado. Buying that big ‘ol, enterprise software that you don’t really need but people seem to want; maybe confronting your CFO in the middle of the office so everyone can see you call them on their terrible budgeting; or, it could be going head-to-head with an enemy even though there is no way for you to come out victorious.

Now all of that might seem like a real departure from this episode, but I think it beautifully sets up the key points I want to cover. How to objectively prioritize tasks, creating the appropriate amount of stress and pressure around them, and understanding when it makes sense to make the big and dangerous choice, and when it doesn’t.

In Star Trek, despite showing us a more utopian future, still rewards violence. There are the Klingons, always seeking glory through combat, the Hirogen that are constantly hunting their prey, and then there’s the Federation. They also reward excellence in battle. Both Kirk and Picard received the Grankite Order of Tactics, Class of Excellence for outstanding performance in battle. So, if someone wanted to stand out and be seen as a hero, they are likely going to be on the lookout for opportunities to do cool stuff when fighting others. That opportunity comes up, almost right away, in this episode. The Enterprise is on a routine mission and runs into 3 Romulan ships. Now, we don’t know what kind of ships, are the birds of prey, D’Deridex class…doesn’t matter – and likely wasn’t even a thought back in ’74. But it seems clear these are no-nonsense Romulan vessels. Outnumbered and outgunned, Kirk has a real chance for glory, and Scotty even eggs him on! But Kirk understands there is no value in being a hero here. The potential gain isn’t worth the lives of the people on his ship. “Let’s give the heathens a fight! Discretion is the better part of valor.” 1:57 I love this so much. And it’s so contrary to so much of the media we watched back then and even now! This really shows the leadership maturity in James T. Kirk.

When you are faced with choices like this that, honestly, will most likely not involve Romulans, but could involve customers, co-workers, board members and anyone else you interact with at work, but when you are faced with these situations where you can blaze in, phasers charged and photon torpedoes loaded, ask yourself one, very simple question: what will my team gain from this? And then consider the consequences of failing in whatever you’re going to do. Kirk does this in a heartbeat. What will the Enterprise, or even the Federation gain from engaging with the Romulans. Hmm, maybe some medals or some recognition from the admiralty. But, what are the consequences for failing? Most obviously, the death of at least 200, or 400, depending on where you’re getting your crew numbers from, but a whole bunch of people could die, and, on top of that, it could spark war between the Federation and the Romulans. So Kirk makes the wise decision and gets out of dodge.

There’s a situation from my days at the movie theatre that comes to mind. Almost everyone that goes to the movies is there to have a good time, and a lot of them are even cheerful and friendly when they show up. But, just like in our social lives, there are those people that show up actively looking for a reason to be offended. Well, one of these people showed up and decided the ticket-taker at the door was going to be the target of their ire. For context, the guy working the door, we’ll call him Don, was in his early 70’s and worked part-time at the theatre so he’d have something to do and for the free movies. He was a super cool and very dependable person. So, our intentionally offended customer is upset about something, I don’t remember, probably ticket prices or showtimes or maybe even how far they had to walk to their auditorium. The reason isn’t the important thing here. What is, is that they were raising their voice to Don and doing that firm, driving your finger into the table thing on the ticket-taking podium. So I ask myself, what will my team gain from me cutting this customer off. Safety and dignity came to mind right away. And what would the consequences be if I screwed up and escalated the situation? I’d certainly cause a scene and lost at least one customer. Considering the people I work with are my number one priority, this was an easy choice. I charged up phasers and flew in at attack speed!

The point here is that, as a leader, you influence many people and your decisions can have real impacts for them. And you have to know what that looks like! Following the example of Captain Kirk in this moment, and throughout the entire episode makes this pretty easy. Keep a level head, remain objective in your assessment of the situation. Listen to your team but don’t blindly follow every suggestion they have. And then, most importantly, make the decision and act on it.

Your opportunities to this won’t be limited to big, obvious hero moments like these. In fact, those are usually pretty few and far between. Where we have the most impact on this for the people we work with is in how we approach the daily work. Are you a person that is stressed out, anxious and makes the people around them feel the same? Or are you more chill? Just taking the stuff the day throws at you in stride? Either way, or wherever you land in between those ends of the spectrum, the way you carry yourself will be reflected in the people around you. That’s just how it works.

But why are there such differences to how we show up? I mean, yes, part of it is our personality, that’s a given. But the big impact, the real reason, is how we look at the work and tasks in front of us. I imagine we’ve all worked for the person that treats everything like a crisis and an emergency. They’re running around, putting out fires and, honestly freaking people out. The interesting thing here is that most of those perceived fires that they are excitedly putting out are fires they actually started! We can probably all agree that it sucks working with these people. No fun at all. I remember when I reported to a person like this, my stomach hurt every day I got into the car to drive to work. I was wiped and exhausted when I got home and I’m pretty sure I never actually accomplished anything at work.

The flipside to that can be almost as bad. The person that never treats anything like an emergency. Truck didn’t show up with the item you’ve been advertising for weeks and people are already lined up to buy it. Eh, it’s cool man. Building is literally on fire with ponies and kids and leprechauns caught in the blaze. Smooth…smooth. Yeah, sometimes things really are emergencies or crises, and you need to respond appropriately.

Back in the 31^st episode of the podcast, Elementary, Dear Data, I outlined an exercise I’m going to give the high-level treatment to here. You list all of the tasks that come up for your team. Daily tasks, weekly, even the weird stuff that only comes up sometimes. Once you have that, you break those tasks up into one of three categories: critical, urgent, or routine. Critical means you need to take action immediately or terrible things will happen. People will get hurt, you’ll suffer serious loss or property damage. Like, big, bad stuff you have to drop everything for. Urgent is the important stuff that you need to handle soon, like within a few hours or even a few days. And routine is just that. The routine stuff you handle all the time.

To go back to the earlier analogy, the first person, the apparent fire-fighter, treats everything like it’s critical. While the totally laid back one treats everything like it’s routine. Neither of those are good or helpful. An effective leader will treat each task as exactly what it is. Critical, urgent or routine.

To help you in deciding which category to place each task in, I offer some questions to ask. Much like the earlier examples, ask how the task benefits your team and also how it moves you closer to your goals. Also ask what the consequences of not doing the task will be. Quick story on this one. Not too long ago we implemented a new piece of software that the team does their primary work in. One of the cool advantages to the software is some customers can directly interface with it, eliminating the need for our team to do data entry or data validation. We spent about 90 development hours and a couple 10’s of thousands of dollars to build this out for one of our big customers. They were involved in every step and we were getting excited. Then, they had sweeping changes in their leadership and, all of the sudden, they wanted nothing to do with this. Keep the old process, they said. Our people can’t learn new ways of doing things. Which is an entirely different topic we could explore, but we’ll save that for another day. Needless to say, I was really upset. Borderline furious. I escalated this as high up as I could and our COO asked me a great question: what do you lose if they don’t adopt the tool. I thought about it, and likely came up with the same answer you’ve come up with. We’d lose 90 hours and a couple 10’s of thousands of dollars. In the big picture, nothing. That reframed the whole situation for me and calmed me the BEEP down.  

Ok, so we have looking at how the task benefits the team and moves you closer to your goals, and then what are the consequences of not doing the task. Beyond that, consider time sensitivity. Is there a deadline? Is it a hard deadline or is it a deadline you, or someone else just totally made up? Is it a deadline that someone downstream from you in the process is relying on so they can start their work? So, time sensitivity. Then consider if the task provides long or short-term benefits. Generally speaking, the tasks that have longer lasting impacts should take priority. And finally, how does the task align with your personal and organizational values? In my earlier example of Don getting berated by a customer, part of my decision making was my personal value of prioritizing the people I work with over everything else.

I love so much about this exercise. 100% of the time I go through it with my teams or the teams of people I’m supporting, they are blown away. It’s often quite humbling, really. I remember the first time I ever did this exercise with one of my teams; a team where the prior leadership were of the fire-fighting ilk. We got through the exercise and found, as most teams do, absolutely nothing we had was critical. Like, we even talked about a literal fire. If there’s fire, surely that must be critical. Lives are at stake. Property and inventory are at stake. But really, whether you are present or not, there are systems and processes already in place to handle this. The team does fire drills so they know to get out. You have sprinklers or other fire suppression systems in place. Usually the fire department, the actual fire fighters are on their way pretty quickly. While it’s humbling to realize none of your tasks are critical, it is also incredibly freeing. You get to settle down. You can chill out.

Captain Kirk was faced with some monumental challenges in this episode. He had to deal with the 3 Romulan ships, avoiding destruction and a potential war, and he had a Computer that was losing it and putting the entire crew at risk. His ability to ask these questions and understand what was truly critical and what was not allowed him to remain calm and level headed, ultimately leading to the Enterprise solving both problems.

<<Hailing Frequencies>>

I’ve mentioned it here before but I want to bring it up again. If you are benefitting from the topics I bring here on the podcast and my approach to them, you can have even more. In fact, you can have me! Head over to starfleetleadership.academy/contact and let me know you’re interested in coaching or consulting services and we’ll see if we’re a good fit or not. Again, that’s starfleetleadership.academy/contact

You can also find me on Twitter and Mastodon: @ SFLA podcast and Instagram, @jefftakin Jeff, t as in tricks aren’t always funny, a k i n.

Computer, what are we going to watch next time….

The 19^th episode of the 5^th season of Voyager, The Fight. If you’re one of the Voyager faithful you know this one as the Chakotay boxing episode! Dubbed The Maquis Mauler, Chakotay makes first contact with a super unique alien life form. I’ve always enjoyed boxing, I like most combat sports, really, so I’m really looking forward to watching this one with you.

Until then, Ex Astris Scientia!