Categories
Because That's What Heroes Do

Picard, Season 3, Episode 3-17 Seconds

Get ready for an exciting new season of Because That’s What Heroes Do. In it Tom and Megan review Picard, Season 3. In this episode, we discuss Episode 3, 17 Seconds.  We take a deep dive deep into the “Wrath of Khan” theme and discuss fascinating theories about Jack’s possible connection with the Borg. They also express their disconcertment with the end of the Dominion War and its impact on the federation. However, the conversation doesn’t stop there as they explore the dynamic between Riker and Picard, uncovering past experiences that may have affected Riker’s decision-making abilities. The hosts also share their thoughts on Riker’s character development and question the use of modern language in the Star Trek universe.

Along the way, the speakers delve into the growth of characters such as 7 of 9, highlighting her evolution as a character and the importance of loyalty. They also touch on the lack of Easter Eggs in the episode and mention an upcoming cameo that has them buzzing with excitement. Don’t miss out on this thought-provoking and insightful episode of “Because That’s What Heroes Do.” Join Tom and Megan as they discuss everything Star Trek and share their passion for the universe.

Highlights

  • Episode 3 Synopsis
  • Analysis of Episode 3’s Plot Points & Theories
  • The Tension between Ryker and Picard
  • Character development and language
  • Character development of Shaw and 7 of 9
  • Analysis of Raffi’s Pragmatism
  •  Star Trek Cameo and Episode 3 RecapEaster eggs

Resources

Megan Dougherty

LinkedIn

One Stone Creative

Twitter

Tom

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

LinkedIn

Categories
Because That's What Heroes Do

Picard, Season 3, Episode 2 – Disengage

Get ready for an exciting new season of Because That’s What Heroes Do. In it, Tom and Megan review Picard, Season 3. In this episode, we discuss Episode 2, Disengage.  We discuss the tension among the crew after the major reveal that Jack Crusher, Jr. is Picard’s son and how it showcases Picard’s emotional attachment to the situation. They also talk about Raffi’s mission to stop the deployment of innovative new weapons and her encounter with Mr. Worf, who was revealed to be her Starfleet handler. The hosts are excited about Worf’s appearance and use of the iconic Klingon bat’leth weapon, and there might even be a reference to Section 31 in the show. Finally, is the nebulae that escape into a living organism? Check out the full episode for a ton of fun with Tom And Megan.

Highlights

·      Synopsis of Episode 2

·      The Big Reveal

·      Key themes and storylines

·      Appearance of Work

·      Captain Shaw and the Evolution of Star Fleet to middle age

·      The Nebula

·      Easter eggs

Resources

Megan Dougherty

LinkedIn

One Stone Creative

Twitter

Tom

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

LinkedIn

Categories
Because That's What Heroes Do

Picard, Season 2, Episode 10

In this podcast series, two complete MCU fans, Tom Fox, founder of the Compliance Podcast Network, and Megan Dougherty, co-founder of One Stone Creative, indulge in a passion for all things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by re-watching each movie and then podcasting on every movie in the MCU. However, we will go in a different direction over the final two episodes in this series on Picard, Season 2 by reviewing the final episode.

Join Tom Fox and Megan Dougherty for the podcast: Because That’s What Heroes Do and hear about the latest storylines in Picard Season 2, discussing Wesley Crusher’s character journey, Will Wheaton’s roles, the Picard and Talend farewell scene, and the importance of the Picard-Q scene. Learn about the impact of Queen Jurati’s leadership, the changes in Klingon and Borg villains, the conversations and experiences Raffi and Guinan shared, and the reunion between Raffi and Elnor. Join us as we explore the evolution of adventures and love between characters in the 25th century. 

Key Highlights

The Representation of Queer Couples in Television

The Power of Transformation in Star Trek: A Discussion of Wesley Crusher and Renee

The Power of Male Love in Q and Picard’s Farewell Scene

The Lessons Learned by Picard

The Transformative Power of Protection

The Impact of Queen Gerardi on the Timelines in Star Trek: Picard

Notable Quotes

“Q after years of kind of plugging Picard and other captains throughout and around the galaxy, gave Picard this really beautiful gift of self forgiveness and self expression and opening helping Picard open himself up to deeper affection and deeper relationships.”

“And of course, the field commission of 7 and just that center chair looks really good on her too. She looked right in the center of this chair. I was super into that. And I think it was a great way to end the series.”

“It actually gave me some hope that maybe the Borg’s future might be different, and maybe there is a way. There’s certainly a way for former enemies become friends.”

“Even gods have favorites. But he’s no god, just a guy with some really cool powers.”

Categories
Because That's What Heroes Do

Picard, Season 2-Episode 9

In this podcast series, two complete MCU fans, Tom Fox, founder of the Compliance Podcast Network, and Megan Dougherty, co-founder of One Stone Creative, indulge in a passion for all things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by re-watching each movie and then podcasting on every movie in the MCU. However, we will go in a different direction over the final two episodes in this series on Picard, Season 2 by reviewing episode 9.

In this episode, they discuss the concept of Jurati becoming the Board Queen and the implications of her journey. Fox and Dougherty highlight the profound impact of Seven of Nine’s transformation which enabled her to strike a balance between the human and Borg parts of herself, ultimately allowing her apparatus to return. They also explore the implications of drones like Soon and his manipulation by the Board Queen. By exploring these topics, Fox and Dougherty provide unique insights into the world of science-fiction, offering their in-depth analysis to listeners.

Key Highlights

The Strength of Seven of Nine in the Face of Immense Odds

The Sadness and Fear Surrounding 7 of 9’s Temporary Humanization Experience

The Manipulation of Soon by the Board Queen

Notable Quotes

“I felt real sadness because she she had and it wasn’t that she was going back to something she remembered because she had no memory of being a human.”

“I want that on a t shirt, I think. If if the merch people are out there listening, please give us build a better board t shirts.”

“I love how Jurati saved her.”

“She was able to defeat her several times as the Borg Queen, tried to take over either to ship or engage in some activity. But I just thought it was delicious that Jurati became the Board Queen.”

Categories
Because That's What Heroes Do

Picard-Season 2, Episodes 7- 8

In this podcast series, two complete MCU fans, Tom Fox, founder of the Compliance Podcast Network, and Megan Dougherty, co-founder of One Stone Creative, indulge in a passion for all things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by re-watching each movie and then podcasting on every movie in the MCU. However, we will go in a different direction over the next three episodes and review Picard Season 2. In this podcast, we take up episodes 7-8.

Key Highlights

Episode 7-Synopsis [1:16]

Episode 7-Commentary [2:37]

Episode 8-Synopsis [8:13]

Episode 8-Commentary [9:33]

Next time, we will conclude our deep dive into Picard Season 2 by looking at episodes 9-10.

Categories
Because That's What Heroes Do

Picard-Season 2, Episodes 5-6

In this podcast series, two complete MCU fans, Tom Fox, founder of the Compliance Podcast Network, and Megan Dougherty, co-founder of One Stone Creative, indulge in a passion for all things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by re-watching each movie and then podcasting on every movie in the MCU. However, we will go in a different direction over the next three episodes and review Picard Season 2. In this podcast, we take up episodes 5-6.

Key Highlights

Episode 5-Synopsis [1:16]

Episode 5-Commentary [2:41]

Episode 6-Synopsis [15:54]

Episode 6-Commentary [17:14]

Next time, we will continue our deep dive into Picard Season 2 by looking at episodes 7-8.

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Episode 54 – Bread and Circuses

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode Bread and Circuses, which aired on March 15, 1968, and occurred on Star Date 4040.7.

On a routine patrol, the Enterprise happens upon space debris from the S.S. Beagle. This survey ship disappeared 6 years ago, commanded by Captain R.M. Merrik, an academy associate of Kirk. When Spock projects the path of the wreckage back in time, he discovers a civilization of modern-day Romans on Planet 4 of the 892 System. The extreme similarity of the 892 System’s civilization to the Roman Earth is apparently a coincidence, demonstrating, according to Kirk, the validity of Hodgekin’s Law of Parallel Planet Development.

Scott prepares to disrupt power to the entire planet from the Enterprise just as Kirk is about to be executed on live Roman TV. Scotty beams up the away team just before their cell is crisscrossed with machine gun fire. Back aboard the Enterprise, Uhura discovers that the escaped slaves were not sun worshippers but worshippers of a different “son”: the Son of God.

Compliance Takeaways:

1.     Being a CCO or compliance professional requires many soft skills.

2.     Do you translate your compliance documents into the local language?

3.     Does your compliance program enhance and enrich cultural diversity in your organization or acerbate the differences?

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

Categories
Blog

Farewell to Lt. Uhura

The Star Trek world and family lost one of its dearest members on Sunday with the passing of Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Nyota Uhura. George Takei spoke for many of us when he wrote on Twitter, “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.” The role of Lt. Uhuru was truly ground-breaking for television in the 1960s; a black woman was an officer of a naval ship (well OK combined services); manning a key role on the executive leadership team of the Starship Enterprise. For a television show which premiered only a couple of years after the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, her role was almost revolutionary.

Indeed, as noted by Jake Tapper on Twitter, perhaps her biggest fan was Dr. Martin Luther King. After the first season of the show, she was considering leaving but reconsidered after meeting Dr. King at an NAACP fundraiser. She said he introduced himself as a fan and grew visibly horrified when she explained her desire to abandon her role, one of the few non-servile parts for Blacks on television. Nichols told Entertainment Tonight, “Because of Martin, I looked at work differently. There was something more than just a job.” As reported in The Hollywood Reporter, “He told me that Star Trek was one of the only shows that his wife Coretta and he would allow their little children to stay up and watch,” she recalled. “I thanked him and I told him I was leaving the show. All the smile came off his face and he said, ‘You can’t do that. Don’t you understand, for the first time, we’re seen as we should be seen? You don’t have a Black role. You have an equal role.’ “I went back to work on Monday morning and went to Gene’s office and told him what had happened over the weekend. And he said, ‘Welcome home. We have a lot of work to do.’ Said Roddenberry in the documentary, “I was pleased that in those days, when you couldn’t even get Blacks on television, that I not only had a Black but a Black woman and a Black officer.””

Adam Bernstein, writing in the Washington Post, said, “Nichelle Nichols, an actress whose role as the communications chief Uhura in the original “Star Trek” franchise in the 1960s helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star William Shatner one of the first interracial kisses on American prime-time television.” He went on to say, “On the bridge of the starship Enterprise, in a red minidress that permitted her to flaunt her dancer’s legs, Ms. Nichols stood out among the otherwise all-male officers. Uhura was presented matter-of-factly as fourth in command, exemplifying hopeful future when Blacks would enjoy full equality.”

On the subject of that kiss, the first inter-racial kiss went to Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra but was simply a “peck on the cheeks.” Her kiss with Shatner was anything but a peck on the cheek. Bernstein wrote, “Her most prominent “Star Trek” moment came in a 1968 episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” about a group of “superior” beings who use mind control to make the visiting Enterprise crew submit to their will. They force Kirk and Uhura, platonic colleagues, to kiss passionately.” But if you watch the episode, I as recently did for its upcoming treatment on my podcast series Trekking Through Compliance, you will see that it is something very different than a passionate kiss, as it was forced onto the characters of Kirk and Uhura by beings who controlled their minds. In rewatching the entire episode, it is a troubling episode with this kiss perhaps the most troubling seen.

The Hollywood Reporter said of that kiss, “When NBC execs learned about the kiss during production, they feared stations in the Southern states would not air the episode, so they ordered that another version of the scene be filmed. But Nichols and Shatner purposely screwed up every additional take. Finally, the guys in charge relented: ‘To hell with it. Let’s go with the kiss,” Nichols wrote in her 1994 book, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. “I guess they figured we were going to be canceled in a few months anyway. And so the kiss stayed.”

Even though Star Trek, the Original Series went off the air in 1969, “Nichols’s continued association with Uhura at Trekkie conventions led to a NASA contract in 1977 to help recruit women and minorities to the nascent space shuttle astronaut corps.” Nichols said of that recruiting effort, “I went everywhere. I went to universities that had strong science and engineering programs. I was a guest at NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command], where no civilian had gone before. “At the end of the recruitment, NASA had so many highly qualified people. They took six women, they took three African-American men … it was a very fulfilling accomplishment for me.”

In many ways, the fight for equality that Nichols participated in is still ongoing. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is under attack in many states across the nation, with states such as Florida and Texas considering legislation which prevents companies from DEI initiatives such as those by pioneers such as Nichols.

Sunday, we lost another pioneer in the fight for DEI and social justice but from a very different world from Nichols. That pioneer was Bill Russell, and his world was sports. Please join me tomorrow when I pay tribute to Russell.

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Episode 37-I, Mudd


In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider episode I, Mudd, which aired on November 3, 1967, and occurred on Star Date 4513.3.
The Enterprise finds Harry Mudd (Harcourt Fenton Mudd) on a planet and the “ruler” of 500 robot women. Mudd is being studied by the robots, who are accommodating but refuse to let him go. The androids tell Kirk people from the Andromeda galaxy built them. However, the civilization that constructed them was destroyed by a supernova, so the androids were left without supervision. Now they have found a new purpose in Mudd. Spock makes inquiries and discovers that there are 207,809 androids and, most importantly, that they seem to be controlled by some central coordinating power.
The robots find people too destructive and plan to take over and “serve” all humans in the galaxy to control them. Kirk leaves Harry on the planet with his attendant robots to serve as an example of human failure to them. The robots are also reprogrammed to carry out their original task of rendering the planet fit for human life. As a final blow to Mr. Mudd, Kirk also leaves behind several android copies of his shrewish wife, Stella.
Compliance Takeaways:

  1. Why continuous monitoring is a mandatory part of any compliance program.
  2. Will AI take over compliance? (Answer: No)
  3. As a CCO, you are only limited by your imagination.

Resources
Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein
MissionLogPodcast.com
Memory Alpha

Categories
This Week in FCPA

Episode 297 – the Ng Convicted edition


As the NY Mets have the best record in baseball and we prepare for the celebrations of Easter and Passover, Tom and Jay are back to look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories in the Ng Convicted edition.
Stories

    1. Roger Ng was convicted. Tom in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog.
    2. Lessons from DOJ’s first cyber fraud settlement? Annie Hudgins in the FCPA Blog.
    3. Depression as corporate materiality issue. Dick Cassin in the FCPA Blog
    4. Should CCOs be required to certify compliance programs? Mike Volkov in Corruption Crime and Compliance.
    5. CEO fined by SEC for impeding whistleblower. Aaron Nicodemus in Compliance Week. (sub req’d) Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
    6. How much BOD oversight of compliance is enough? Jeff Kaplan in Conflict of Interest Blog
    7. Compliance in recessionary times. Jim DeLoach in CCI.
    8. Water and corruption. Rick Messick in GAB.
    9. Why should an organization disclose diversity information? Antinuke Adrian in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.  
    10. Data governance best practices. Eray Eliaçik in Data Economy

Podcasts and More

  1. Tom visits with Matt Galvin and Dan Kahn over a 2-part podcast series. In Part 1, they talk about dealing with the DOJ during an FCPA investigation and thereafter. 
  2. Into Star Trek, then join Tom and John Champion, who is on a 15-year mission to do a podcast on every episode of Star Trek, television, movie, and animated show on the podcast MissionLogPodcast.com. In Part 1, from TOS up to the start of TNG. In Part 2, from TNG to today. 
  3. This month on the Compliance Life, I visit with Susan Divers, Director of Thought Leadership at LRN. In Part 1, academic life and early professional career. In Part 2, she moves to the corporate world. 
  4. Why should you attend Compliance Week 2022? Find out on this episode of From the Editor’s Desk. Listeners get a $200 discount to CW 2022 with the code Fox200. More here
  5. Join Tom and Jay at ECI Impact 2022. Listeners to this podcast can save 20% off registration
    by entering discount code: TOM20 at checkout.
  6. Welcome back, Sam Rubenfeld.

Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.