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In this video, we explore ten moments from Star Trek: The Next Generation where the series boldly tackled social and political issues ahead of its time
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00:00In our opening video in this series we deconstructed the opposing definitions of woke in order
00:05to amplify the word's actual meaning, aware of and actively attentive to important facts
00:10and issues, especially issues of racial and social justice.
00:14Applying that to the original series we concluded that Star Trek has been woke since its earliest
00:18days, however we will be continuing in the progressive tense.
00:22It's hardly a spoiler by now to say after the oh so many decades that Star Trek The Next
00:27Generation was woke, in the non-co-opted sense, or politically liberal if you prefer.
00:32The only debate is to what degree.
00:35As it branched out into a new century, with a new ship and a new crew, The Next Generation
00:40continued and expanded upon the social and political commentary that had characterised
00:44its predecessor, shining a light on a yet broader array of social injustices and inequalities.
00:49It is true that on certain issues The Next Generation has rightly been reproached for
00:54failing to replicate the boldness and forward thinking of the original series, which itself
00:59had always led the conversation.
01:01By and large, however, in comparison, The Next Generation was woker.
01:05Finally, if what we are doing here is the deconstruction of woke in order to re-promote it, it is perhaps
01:11worth quoting the following from Bruno Perrault's Queer Theory, The French Response.
01:16The deconstruction of norms cannot be dissociated from their reproduction.
01:21We know that our use of woke runs the risk of reproducing it in the pejorative, but in
01:26order to point out that Star Trek has always been positively and optimistically progressive,
01:31that's a risk we'll have to take.
01:32With that in mind, I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here is 10 times Star Trek The
01:38Next Generation went woke.
01:40Number 10.
01:41No man to no one.
01:44One thing we learned from the now world famous speech in the opening credits of the original
01:48series was that there is no reason you can't split the infinitive.
01:52The rule against it was mostly the invention of a few particularly insistent grammarians
01:57of the 19th century.
01:59Today no sensible grammar will tell you not to boldly go.
02:03If Kirk broke the seemingly hard and fast strictures of syntax, it would be up to The Next Generation,
02:08with a nod at the end of Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, to work on the semantics.
02:13The man in No Man Has Gone might well have meant a human being, a person, but it did its definitional
02:21work through exclusion or, as the Oxford English Dictionary states, until the 20th century,
02:26to include women by implication though referring primarily to males.
02:31The switch to no one in Picard's version opened up a new space that included women not
02:36by implication but by design.
02:39This is one thing, concrete action on gender equality is another.
02:43In that sense, The Next Generation did break ground from the very beginning with the character
02:47of Natasha Yar in particular in a non-stereotypical gender role.
02:51The original series infamously ended on an episode that basically said women weren't allowed
02:56to be starship captains and should just be happy with their lot.
02:59But The Next Generation strove to include women in top level command positions all the way up
03:04to admirals such as Shanthi, Brand and Achayev carrying on from the work that was begun by
03:09actress Madge Sinclair in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.
03:13Number 9.
03:14Let's talk to Riva.
03:16Nestled within season 2 there is a gem of an episode that doesn't get anywhere near the
03:20attention it deserves.
03:21Loud as a Whisper is the very essence of Star Trek, delivering an optimistic, inclusive message
03:26through the lens of sci-fi and continuing the work of positive representation.
03:31In Loud as a Whisper the Enterprise is diverted to the Ramatastar system to pick up renowned
03:36mediator Riva who has been called upon to assist in peace negotiations between two warring
03:42factions on Solias V. Riva had also previously negotiated various treaties between the Federation
03:48and the Klingons and happens to be deaf.
03:51As a means of communication Riva used a three person telepathic chorus that acted as interpreters
03:57for his thoughts.
03:58Joining Riva was Howie Segoe who is deaf also.
04:02It was he who pitched the idea for Loud as a Whisper to producers in the first place.
04:06As Segoe related in an interview with Trek Untold, the chorus of interpreters was also
04:10his idea, based off his experience as a theatre actor.
04:14In the first draft of the script, Riva was supposed to use a mechanical device to communicate
04:18with his chorus that would then have failed, leading him to be taught to speak overnight.
04:23Segoe refused to act this, however, even if it meant losing the part, feeling that it would
04:27serve to propagate the false idea about the deaf community that children can learn to speak
04:32easily overnight.
04:33That was the one cultural thing I could not perpetuate, Segoe added to Trek Untold.
04:38Thankfully, producers agreed with Segoe who then came up with the decidedly brilliant ending
04:43that did make it to screen.
04:45In that, Riva alone returns for an extended stay on Solias to teach the warring factions
04:51sign language so that they can communicate with him and in doing so learn to communicate
04:56with each other.
04:57That's not just a positive message both for and about the deaf community.
05:01It's a lesson in diplomacy that should be adopted worldwide.
05:04It would be, as Counselor Troi said, time well spent.
05:08Number 8.
05:09The Cheerleader for Mental Health Marina Sirtis famously called the fabric-saving
05:14uniform she sported for Deanna Troi in Encounter at Farpoint her cosmic cheerleader outfit.
05:19Whilst the scant never made it past season 2 of The Next Generation, by then in trousered
05:23form until its temporal reoccurrence in All Good Things, it remains eminently popular with
05:28fans and perhaps could have merited its own entry on this list for its progressively gender-defying
05:32attempt at a 24th century dress code.
05:35However, it's the second meaning of the cheerleader that interests us.
05:39Commander Troi was notable for her presence at the centre of the bridge, just next to Captain
05:43Picard in the very first scenes of The Next Generation.
05:46In Encounter at Farpoint, it is Captain Picard who then refers to Troi as Counselor for the
05:50first time.
05:51There has been some confusion since as to whether this title was intended to mean one who gives
05:56counsel or advice, or onboard therapist.
05:59In fact, it was both.
06:01Troi was always meant to be the cheerleader for mental health in the 24th century.
06:05The casting call for the character, cited in The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion,
06:10clearly stated that Deanna Troi serves as the starship's chief psychologist.
06:14Later in the Star Trek The Next Generation Writer Slash Director's Guide, or the series
06:19Bible, it gave the following information for Troi.
06:22And Starfleet have learned that a starship is as dependent of efficiently operating human
06:27relationships as on efficient mechanisms and electronic circuits.
06:31In cases where starships encounter other life forms in deep space, the counselor's role
06:35is considered second in importance only to the captain and first officer.
06:39The fact that The Next Generation placed such primacy on mental health and wellbeing from
06:43day one is a testament to the power of Gene Roddenberry's ever evolving vision of the
06:47future.
06:48Asuna Seartes told Star Trek Mission New York in 2016, when I got cast Gene Roddenberry
06:53said that it was his belief that by the 24th century mental health would be as important
06:57as physical health, and that you'd need a counselor onboard a ship.
07:00I think we need it sooner, we need it now.
07:03He felt, and he was right, that it's as important as physical health.
07:07The Next Generation continued to be attentive to mental health by presenting a normalised vision
07:11of visits to a therapist and, if not always entirely successful, in depicting the mental
07:16health difficulties of Lieutenant Barclay.
07:19For now, cosmic and otherwise, we all need to be cheerleaders.
07:23Number 7.
07:24Non-binary binars, non-binary Borg.
07:27They're not gentlemen or ladies, Commander.
07:29They're a unified pair, says Commander Quinteris to Commander Riker about the binars in the opening
07:35scenes of 11001001.
07:38For television of the late 1980's, that's quite the progressive critique of gendered
07:42assumptions.
07:43If we delve further, however, we find that the episode is even more radical.
07:47We would argue that, in it, the binars come to represent both the Western gender binary
07:51and its deconstruction.
07:53Within binar, as given by writers Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin, is the performative
07:59I pronounce you binary, after the machine code that is the opposition of two possible states,
08:05one or zero.
08:06Each binar of the unified pair is the symmetrical reflection of the other, both physically and
08:11in code, 1001 for example.
08:15Commander Riker misreads this binary computer code as binary gender, the either or of male
08:20female, masculine, feminine, but as we learnt from Commander Quinteris, the thing that makes
08:25them appear to be binary gendered is their binary code, but in reality, it is the very thing
08:34that makes them non-binary.
08:36The binars hold up a mirror to our pre-programmed expectations on gender to decompile them.
08:42Nonetheless, despite being told from the outset, Riker does continue to misgender the binars
08:46when they are showing him the new holodeck setup.
08:48Moving ahead to the next season for Q Who when Captain Picard goes down to engineering to meet
08:53the Borg drone that is just transported in, the titular Q re-appears over his shoulder
08:58to say, interesting isn't it, not a he, not a she, not like anything you have ever seen.
09:04Like Q, this statement could be interpreted in several different ways.
09:09It could be retrospectively argued that transposing the non-binary onto the otherness of the Borg replicates
09:15the age old homophobic trope that queers are coming to convert you.
09:20Number 6. The Space Plays The Thing.
09:23Nichelle Nichols once pointed out to Gene Roddenberry that what he was doing for the original series
09:28was writing morality plays to which he apparently, jokingly, replied,
09:32Shhh, they haven't figured that out yet.
09:34As we noted in our 10 times Star Trek Was Woke, the original series triumphed and stumbled
09:41in its allegorical approach to the issues of the day.
09:44In that, Star Trek The Next Generation was no different.
09:47Not every episode was a resounding metaphorical success, but each did try to catch the conscience,
09:52not of Shakespeare's king but of the audience.
09:54Let's take The High Ground.
09:56The title is admittedly more on the nose than Bajoran rhinoplasty, but this was the third
10:01season episode so pointedly political that it was banned from broadcast by the BBC and RTE.
10:07You'd have needed to be woke, as in literally awake, seriously early in the morning when the
10:12BBC did finally air The High Ground for the first time at 2.39am GMT on the 29th of September
10:222007.
10:24The reason?
10:25One of Data's examples of terrorism as an effective way to promote political change
10:29as the Irish reunification of 2024.
10:34As the High Ground writer Melinda Snodgrass related in Captain's Logs The Unauthorized
10:38Complete Trek Voyages, the whole episode was intended to be a parallel for Northern Ireland.
10:43The geopolitical allegories continued in later seasons.
10:46The two-parter Unification of 1991, for example, was inspired, at least in part, by German reunification.
10:52Unification also served as a tie-in to Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, itself drawing
10:57reference to and from the Chernobyl disaster and the fall of the Soviet Union.
11:02Political allegories have already shifted before that, of course, with Worf on the bridge
11:07of the flagship.
11:09Number 5.
11:10Gender Reveal Congratulations Data, it's a girl, declares Deanna
11:14Troy as Data's child is descended down from the laboratory alcove in The Offspring.
11:19The episode has quite rightly been praised for its stance on gender identity, in that Data
11:24allows his child to choose their own gender and appearance rather than choosing for them,
11:28a radical statement for television in the early 1990s.
11:31To frame that within the context of this article, that might be the most woke thing on this list.
11:37The episode also invites, we feel, another queer reading entirely.
11:41That is why you must choose a gender, Lal, to complete your appearance, Data replies to
11:46Lal when they say they are inadequate because they are gender-neuter, or what now might be considered
11:52as agender, gender non-binary, or genderqueer.
11:56Data's you must choose is, in fact, a warning that the parameters for the android's decision
12:02are strictly predefined such that Lal will be re-inscribed back into the matrix of heterosexuality
12:07and gender normativity, Lal was never given the option to remain non-binary.
12:13Like contemporary gender reveal parties in the real world, blue or pink, boy or girl, Lal's
12:19unveiling in the lab re-concretises their identity in line with the gender binary.
12:25Lal must now exist in the permanent state of human-female, in Troy's earlier words, for
12:31her lifetime, reiterated and re-enacted by It's a Girl, in the performative style of
12:36Picard's Make It So.
12:38By the end of the episode, we witness the terrible consequences the imposition of societal
12:43gender norms can have.
12:45Number 4 Gender Trouble The late 1980s, early 1990s was a heady time
12:51for queer activism and queer theory.
12:53Groups like Queer Nation and ACT UP emerged to fight against homophobia, for LGBTQIA plus
12:59rights and for action on HIV AIDS.
13:02In 1990 Judith Butler published the revolutionary work Gender Trouble, Feminism and the Subversion
13:07of Identity that challenged the very essence of our ideas on gender, and, along with Eve
13:13Kosovsky-Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet in particular, was one of the foundational texts
13:18of queer theory.
13:19At the time, it was also a good reason to believe that Star Trek was going to cross its final
13:23frontier of homosexuality.
13:26Star Trek The Next Generation Queer Characters Joined the Enterprise Crew, American LGBTQ plus
13:31magazine the advocate punned and prognosticated in the title of an article from August 1991.
13:36Later that same year, the Los Angeles Times announced Star Trek is on another bold journey,
13:42and that this season gays and lesbians will appear unobtrusively aboard the Enterprise in
13:47the 24th century.
13:48The apparent certainty came from a statement Gene Roddenberry had released to the advocate
13:52in July 1991 which read, in the fifth season of Star Trek The Next Generation, viewers will
13:58see more of shipboard life in some episodes, which will, among other things, include gay crew
14:02members in day-to-day circumstances.
14:05Whether or not that promise would ever have come to fruition is impossible to say.
14:09Roddenberry's declining health had meant his day-to-day involvement in The Next Generation
14:13was minimal before his death in October 1991.
14:17Rick Berman and Michael Piller were already firmly in charge.
14:20As we know, there were no gay characters in season 5, but we did get an episode that attempted
14:26to deal with the issue of homophobia.
14:29The outcast was written by Gerry Taylor who, in Cinefantastique Vol. 23 Numbers 2 & 3 of
14:35October 1992, firmly framed her script as a gay rights story.
14:40Taylor added, it absolutely specifically and outspokenly dealt with gay issues.
14:45In the same Cinefantastique article, Michael Piller also commented on the genesis of the episode.
14:51What it came down to was Roddenberry had been barraged by letters and had discussed with
14:54us before his death the possibility of having two men hold hands in some scene, which was
14:59totally irrelevant to the issue of homosexuality.
15:02I didn't think, nor did Rick, that was an appropriate way to do a story that addressed
15:07the issue of sexual intolerance.
15:09Make of that what you will.
15:11In allegorical fashion, and not least in the directness of its title, the outcast does effectively
15:16deal with the matter of homophobia, and arguably transphobia, through Sauron of the Genii,
15:22a species for whom gender is considered unnatural, even a perversion.
15:26In the episode, Sauron comes out to identify as female, only to face the extreme prejudice
15:31of her society.
15:32I am tired of lies.
15:35I am female.
15:36I was born that way.
15:37I have had those feelings, those longings, all of my life.
15:41It is not unnatural, Sauron proclaims in her devastatingly moving and impassioned speech at her
15:46trial, a speech that cannot fail to resonate in the most profound sense with any LGBTQIA
15:52plus viewer.
15:54The moment is a powerful rallying cry for love, openness and acceptance, and against
15:59the monstrous practice of conversion therapy, the Genii's psychotectic treatments.
16:04I do not need to be cured.
16:06What I need, what all of those who are like me need, is your understanding and your compassion,
16:12Sauron adds.
16:14As laudable as the message of the outcast was, it also marked the limits of the issue
16:18for the next generation.
16:19Jonathan Frakes himself thought the episode wasn't gutsy enough.
16:22In truth, Star Trek would stop short of any kind of positive gay representation for quite
16:26some time.
16:27There had been another script written for the next generation which included gay characters
16:31more directly.
16:32For that story, we have to go back to before the series had even begun.
16:36Number 3.
16:38Is the Enterprise a closet?
16:40Gene Roddenberry is going to do it again.
16:42That's how then President of Paramount Television Group Mel Harris announced the brand new Star
16:46Trek series to the world on Friday, 10th October 1986.
16:51The following month, Roddenberry was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the franchise at The
16:55Bash, a Star Trek convention held in Boston, and so was original series and soon to be next
17:01generation writer David Gerald.
17:03Within the crowd of fans was Franklin Hummel, co-founder of fangroup the Galaxian Science
17:08Fiction Society of Boston, later the Galactic Network and Galaxians International.
17:13Hummel proceeded to ask Roddenberry if, given the groundbreaking representation on the bridge
17:17of the original Enterprise, there would be a gay character on the new series.
17:21According to Gerald, who was taking notes, Roddenberry gave the following reply.
17:24Sooner or later, we'll have to address the issue.
17:27We should probably have a gay character.
17:29Cinefantastique volume 23 numbers 2 and 3 from October 1992 reported that, during a staff
17:35meeting later that year, Roddenberry reiterated his desire to include a gay character on the
17:39show, to which producer Robert Justman apparently replied, what do you want, Lieutenant Tutti
17:44Frutti?
17:45No, no, no, seriously, it is time that we acknowledge this, Roddenberry hit back.
17:50With Roddenberry's support, Gerald then set about writing a script that would notably
17:54include two gay male characters as lovers.
17:58Entitled Blood and Fire, the episode was also to serve as an allegory for HIV AIDS.
18:03Gerald had recently learnt that Michael Minor, illustrator art direction on Star Trek The
18:08Motion Picture and Star Trek The Wrath of Khan, who was being considered as art director
18:12for the next generation, was seriously ill with AIDS.
18:16Junior sadly passed away at only 46 years old in May of 1987.
18:20Unfortunately, as stated in Cinefantastique and further confirmed in Star Trek The Next
18:24Generation The Continuing Mission, the memos began to circulate.
18:28People complained the script had blatant homosexual characters, Gerald recalled.
18:33Rick Berman said, we can't do this in an afternoon market in some places, we'll have parents
18:37writing letters.
18:38Whilst others like Dorothy Fontana praised the script, Gerald was still obliged to rewrite
18:43it and remove the gay characters.
18:45Strangely, and in spite of having sent a few memos himself, Robert Justman changed his tune,
18:50reportedly arguing for the gay characters to be put back in, stating, why are we afraid
18:55of showing gay characters on Star Trek, what are we, wusses?
18:58More rewrites followed, but eventually Gerald, frustrated, just abandoned the idea.
19:03He left The Next Generation on together soon after.
19:06Gerald did eventually release Blood and Fire in book form in 2003, and his script was rewritten
19:11and adapted to the original series era for the 2008 two part episode Blood and Fire of fan
19:17production Star Trek Phase 2, formerly Star Trek New Voyages.
19:21In that, now Ensign Peter Kirk, nephew of James T, is in a relationship with Lieutenant Alexander
19:26Freeman and the couple are engaged to be married, but not before the Enterprise encounters the
19:31Copernicus, a ship infected by plasmasites which transmute into Regulan bloodworms.
19:38All that was bold for a fan production even in 2008.
19:41In the late 1980s, Gerald's original script would have been nothing short of revolutionary
19:45for television's 24th century.
19:47Ultimately, however, Gene Roddenberry's promise of a more sexually diverse future clashed with
19:52the reality, and Star Trek continued to trail behind on gay issues.
19:57It would be several years before Trek addressed the HIV AIDS crisis too.
20:01There is one other episode, The Host, which has sparked multiple reactions and interpretations
20:06over the years, from friendly-ish hint at homosexuality to outright homophobic rejection.
20:13As per The Next Generation in general, Dr. Crusher's Perhaps Someday Our Ability to Love Won't
20:18Be So Limited of The Host's final scene marked the deferral of queer potential towards a hypothetically
20:24queerer future of a hypothetical future that should already have been queer enough.
20:30Apart from woke or aware of the issue, The Next Generation forced its gay characters back
20:35into hiding.
20:36For them, and for gay viewers, all the Enterprise-D was a closet.
20:41Number 2, Rainbow Warriors.
20:44They wanted proof?
20:45I'm going to give it to them, said Dr. Sarova before blowing up her ship, and herself along
20:49with it, to prove her theory about the damaging effects of warp drive on subspace.
20:54That kind of eco-radicalism, as depicted in Season 7's Force of Nature, would easily be
20:58decried as woke in its co-optive form these days.
21:02If we take a trip back to 1993, however, it would be difficult to argue that The Next Generation
21:06was ahead of its time on this particular issue.
21:08It was, at least, trying to keep up with it.
21:11The real world had certainly been woke to environmentalism for quite some time before 1993.
21:16The 1970s and 1980s had been a hotbed of climate activism, with the first Earth Day taking place
21:22Greenpeace back in April 1970.
21:24Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior, the ship, had been sailing the sea since 1978, campaigning
21:30to save the whales, a cause dear to Star Trek as well, of course, and protesting against
21:35nuclear testing and the dumping of nuclear waste.
21:38In 1985, the Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk by French Secret Service agents, causing
21:43the death of Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira.
21:47In the 1990s, there was also a turning point for public and political awareness of climate
21:51change following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development aka the Earth
21:56Summit of 1992.
21:58No matter how much we love it, Star Trek is a television show.
22:02The stakes shouldn't be much higher than entertainment, and they definitely aren't
22:06life or death, in that perhaps we've all been a little unkind to Force of Nature.
22:11The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion called the episode a disappointing though worthwhile
22:15message show, while its writer Naren Shankar commented, it wasn't one of my finer moments.
22:21Jerry Taylor thought it was a doomed premise to start with.
22:24In the end, being woke doesn't mean you have to change the world, it simply means, to paraphrase
22:28the comedian Lotus Weinstock, that you should be able to leave the room with a little dignity.
22:33When it came to representing the issues that mattered, The Next Generation by and large,
22:37and Force of Nature too, managed to leave the room with its head held high.
22:42Number 1 The Right Way and The Row Way Before Star Trek Deep Space Nine was even a thing,
22:47The Next Generation introduced us to the Bajorans, or Bajora, through Ensign Roe Laren in the
22:52eponymous episode that was specifically designed for us to meet her.
22:56Roe was meant to shake up the Federation's typically comfortable morals and laurels with
23:00a backstory that wasn't Starfleet Academy's sweetness and light, as Rick Berman noted in
23:05The Captain's Logs, The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages.
23:08The introduction of a strong woman, often embroiled in conflict, and her acceptance by the fans
23:13was one of our greatest achievements of the season, added Michael Piller in the Star Trek
23:17The Next Generation Companion.
23:19As for the thought process and inspirations behind the Bajorans themselves, producers have
23:23refused to pin down a real world origin story.
23:26In an AOL chat in 1997, Rick Berman stated,
23:29We didn't really try to make Bajor a direct analogy to any specific contemporary country
23:35or people.
23:36Blending the experiences of many earth peoples and races into our storytelling allows us
23:40to comment on these subjects without advocating a particular political point of view, while
23:44at the same time allowing us to view the topics in a different light, without the baggage
23:49of contemporary politics.
23:51Politics they did do, nevertheless, via Ensign Roe.
23:54In Journey's End we learnt that a Demilitarized Zone had been established between the Federation
23:58and Cardassian space as part of the Treaty of 2370.
24:02As a result, certain Federation colonies along the border were handed over to the Cardassians
24:06and vice versa.
24:07One of those colonies was a group of Native Americans who had come to call the planet Dorvan
24:11V their home for over 20 years.
24:14In Journey's End Captain Picard was ordered to relocate them, but the colonists resolved to
24:18stay with the Cardassians in charge.
24:22When the Maquis resistance formed to fight against Cardassian occupation of their homes
24:25across the DMZ, Roe, now Lieutenant, seeing the injustice for herself in pre-emptive strike,
24:31decided to join the Maquis, as did several other Starfleet officers at the time.
24:35Still, even 30 years later, with everything that happened in the interim, Picard had to
24:40be talked out of his grudge against Roe.
24:42The strength of the next generation is that the Roe way, in spite of Picard's protestations,
24:46is never depicted as the wrong or indeed the right way.
24:50We are merely presented with the information, allowed to draw our own parallels and invited
24:54to reason our way through.
24:56That is the best message the next generation ever offered us.
24:59That to reason is always the woker thing to do.
25:03Thank you so much to everyone for watching along, we really, really appreciate you.
25:07Thank you so much to Jack Keighley for writing the article upon which this video is based,
25:11you can check that out on whatculture.com.
25:14Now make sure that you're following us on the various socials, we are on Twitter and
25:17the various at TrekCulture, we're on Instagram at TrekCultureYT, I am at Sean Ferrick on the
25:21various socials, I can be found with a swift Google.
25:24Thank you, you are awesome, you are wonderful.
25:27Make sure that you live long and prosper, make sure you treat yourself and treat the people
25:30around you well, I'm sure that's a pretty good way of living your life.
25:33Thank you so much, I'll talk to you soon.
25:35Bye!
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