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Star Trek: Lower Decks
- Thread starter Sprite
- Start date
ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
Jeffrey Combs played a manipulative, scheming, kinda needy super computer in the last episode I watched, which is a good fit for that actor. At the climax, Boimler actually tricks HIM into opening his battery bay, so he can send a distress signal to Starfleet without giving AGIMUS access to the entire ship. At the end of the episode, the computer is stashed away with a hundred other malevolent machines, like so many antiquated desktops stuffed into the stock room of a Best Buy.
It's funny how this show takes such a "been there, done that" approach to plot devices that must have seemed so clever in the original Star Trek. "Another NOMAD, huh? Just put it in the closet with the other four. And don't confuse it with a logical paradox; we're still rebuilding after that incident from May."
It's funny how this show takes such a "been there, done that" approach to plot devices that must have seemed so clever in the original Star Trek. "Another NOMAD, huh? Just put it in the closet with the other four. And don't confuse it with a logical paradox; we're still rebuilding after that incident from May."
30 seconds in, the narrator tries to dismiss TAS an alternate universe. BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
Man, they really laid it all on the table for the season finale of Lower Decks. Action! Drama! Brushes with death, shocking plot twists, and even a cetacean crew! (What is this, Seaquest DSV?) I wasn't expecting the show to get so serious, or raise the stakes this high.
As for dismissing The Animated Series, sorry whoever narrated that, but that ship has sailed. Tons of races from that show have appeared on Lower Decks! I know Gene didn't think it was canon, but he's no longer calling the shots.
As for dismissing The Animated Series, sorry whoever narrated that, but that ship has sailed. Tons of races from that show have appeared on Lower Decks! I know Gene didn't think it was canon, but he's no longer calling the shots.
Fun fact, Cetacean Ops was something from TNG. It was one of the door labels on the Enterprise-D's hallways, and Geordi even name dropped it once in an episode. There are non-canon technical manuals (no technical manuals are canon) made by TNG staffers that have the Enterprise layouts detailing where the ship's dolphins live including specialized life pods, and why they were on the ship to begin with (to help navigation). So it's been a small bit of trivia and speculation among fans for a long time. I'm so glad LDS made it a point to actually go visit the place. It's weird shit scifi shit on TV like this that originally helped made TOS and TNG a sensation to begin with.
Also a Lower Decks/Strange New Worlds crossover???
There's about a million little references there. But the ones that got me the most riled up was:
* Quetzalcoatl
* The Delta Flyer
* J. G. Hertzler reprising his role as Martok
* Quetzalcoatl
* The Delta Flyer
* J. G. Hertzler reprising his role as Martok
The entire Bozeman, MT sequence was bordering on A Bit Much for me, but I vaguely remember having a good time with it last night.
I loved the small Kelsey Grammer cameo/reference at the end.
Considering how easy he could have it back home really raises my respect for him.
As a CA Central Valley native, I saw that less about his commitment to Starfleet or putting the hussle over hoes, and more about how almost anyone with a modicum of ambition and intelligence who grows up here wants to get TF out ASAP when they're growing up. And his line about his soul shriveling up like raisins in the sun is the giveaway. You don't talk about your hometown that way when you have a good relationship with it. Which is something I appreciate because it's all very true-to-life and clear they've got people in the writer's room who grew up here. Even if the way they show it looks rosey because muh automated-socialist-gay-utopia, Modesto still fuckin' suuuucckkkssssssss.
Edit: That's not to shit on anyone else's takes on this scene, because that's also obviously part of the motivation as well. But ya, felt very authentic to the Central Valley, young adult experience of visiting home out of familial obligation/no other place to go, and just *itching* to gtfo.
Edit: That's not to shit on anyone else's takes on this scene, because that's also obviously part of the motivation as well. But ya, felt very authentic to the Central Valley, young adult experience of visiting home out of familial obligation/no other place to go, and just *itching* to gtfo.
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I love how the big cliffhanger was wrapped up via an actual episode of Star Trek that happens offscreen. The Lower Deckers were starting to get a bit too big for their britches, any more and we'd have a Harry Kim 'why are they still ensigns???' situation.
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
I'm curious what the long game is with Mariner. What makes her compelling to me is her annoyance at everyone pressuring her to rise up the ranks when she just wants to be good at a job she enjoys. All her superiors dump on her for lacking ambition when she "has so much potential" (CRINGE), so she actively sabotages herself to avoid getting promotions she doesn't want. I definitely relate, I have a job that I don't love but was previously fine with and good at, until they pigeonholed me into supervising a ton of people and now I get in trouble if someone else is bad at their job. I'm not a leader, I hate leading, and now I'm desperate to find something else.
So I'm kind of paranoid about what side the show itself is actually on, whether everyone needs to lay off Mariner and let her stay unambitious and happy, or whether Mariner needs to step up and be fine becoming an officer. They have said the plan is to show these characters progressing, but I have no idea what that looks like with her. It's the central conflict of the show, imo, and I'll be very disappointed if it ends with Mariner as a captain but, like, one of those cool ones.
The question is a compelling one, particularly for a setting like Star Trek where no one needs to work. When no money is involved, reputation and authority are the only currencies that matter, and so anyone who joins Starfleet but doesn't want one or both of those things will be looked on with suspicion. I just hope that this show about the least important people on the least important ship comes down on the side that ambition is great, but lack of ambition is fine as well. Mariner's flaw is that she does reckless and even childish things to stay in the lower decks, not that she wants to stay there.
I'm sure there's a solution here and an ending for Mariner that's true to her character, and the writers have shown so far that they know how to handle these characters. Here's hoping they're able to thread that needle.
So I'm kind of paranoid about what side the show itself is actually on, whether everyone needs to lay off Mariner and let her stay unambitious and happy, or whether Mariner needs to step up and be fine becoming an officer. They have said the plan is to show these characters progressing, but I have no idea what that looks like with her. It's the central conflict of the show, imo, and I'll be very disappointed if it ends with Mariner as a captain but, like, one of those cool ones.
The question is a compelling one, particularly for a setting like Star Trek where no one needs to work. When no money is involved, reputation and authority are the only currencies that matter, and so anyone who joins Starfleet but doesn't want one or both of those things will be looked on with suspicion. I just hope that this show about the least important people on the least important ship comes down on the side that ambition is great, but lack of ambition is fine as well. Mariner's flaw is that she does reckless and even childish things to stay in the lower decks, not that she wants to stay there.
I'm sure there's a solution here and an ending for Mariner that's true to her character, and the writers have shown so far that they know how to handle these characters. Here's hoping they're able to thread that needle.
I think it's pretty cool you identify with the character in the show. But I think the big difference here, is that she's been shown to be really good at doing leadership things, and we've already heard testimony that at one time it was something she wanted for herself.
They've already laid out a bevy of clues to what's going on with her, and I think for now it's a combo of maturity issues, as well as a truckload of unresolved issues regarding growing up as a military brat. This week's episode, you had Mariner needling her father with resentment about how San Francisco isn't "her home" with the unstated implication that it's not where she grew up.
We've already had her confess previously that part of her problem with interpersonal relationships is that she's so burned by losing all manner of relationships by either her post moving around, or other people getting transferred, that she proactively pushes people away to avoid the pain of loss. Then there's the fact that she grew up during the Dominion War and probably dealt with a lot of death and trauma as a teenager.
I don't think she's staying at a low level job because it's what she likes and is best fit for, it's because she's got unresolved issues about not really having any roots laid down/a home. Home is where you make it and the people you surround yourself with, but if you can't even surround yourself with a stable group of people you trust in/care about, then I get why she'd feel so defensive and isolated. Especially if it's something you've been searching for since being a child and having to move about constantly because of your parents work.
I've got no clue where they want to take the character in the long run, and even if they had ideas of where to take it - plans in the writer's room are always fluid. If you told me that she got her shit together one day and became a captain, I'd believe it. If you told me she decided to settle down into the Riker-esque comfort of being Boimler's long-term XO, I think that would be a good compromise between your hopes for the character and showing her actually progressing as an officer/person.
At least, that's my read on the character so far. I think this works and is compelling on its own. It's a very honest and thoughtful examination of the kinds of issues that must plague the kids of officers we always saw running around the corridors on TNG/DS9, and the kind of deep-look into a Wesley-like character we were never actually treated to back in the day. It's also pretty good representation for military brats IRL who are voluminous in numbers but whose life experiences almost never gets reflected in our jingoistic media.
They've already laid out a bevy of clues to what's going on with her, and I think for now it's a combo of maturity issues, as well as a truckload of unresolved issues regarding growing up as a military brat. This week's episode, you had Mariner needling her father with resentment about how San Francisco isn't "her home" with the unstated implication that it's not where she grew up.
We've already had her confess previously that part of her problem with interpersonal relationships is that she's so burned by losing all manner of relationships by either her post moving around, or other people getting transferred, that she proactively pushes people away to avoid the pain of loss. Then there's the fact that she grew up during the Dominion War and probably dealt with a lot of death and trauma as a teenager.
I don't think she's staying at a low level job because it's what she likes and is best fit for, it's because she's got unresolved issues about not really having any roots laid down/a home. Home is where you make it and the people you surround yourself with, but if you can't even surround yourself with a stable group of people you trust in/care about, then I get why she'd feel so defensive and isolated. Especially if it's something you've been searching for since being a child and having to move about constantly because of your parents work.
I've got no clue where they want to take the character in the long run, and even if they had ideas of where to take it - plans in the writer's room are always fluid. If you told me that she got her shit together one day and became a captain, I'd believe it. If you told me she decided to settle down into the Riker-esque comfort of being Boimler's long-term XO, I think that would be a good compromise between your hopes for the character and showing her actually progressing as an officer/person.
At least, that's my read on the character so far. I think this works and is compelling on its own. It's a very honest and thoughtful examination of the kinds of issues that must plague the kids of officers we always saw running around the corridors on TNG/DS9, and the kind of deep-look into a Wesley-like character we were never actually treated to back in the day. It's also pretty good representation for military brats IRL who are voluminous in numbers but whose life experiences almost never gets reflected in our jingoistic media.
Trying to sus out Mariner's background is a pretty fun and tantalizing exercise. She's been around and done a lot of things, to the degree that the timeline of her activities don't make a lot of sense unless she's either much older than the rest of the main Lower Deckers, or had a Wesley-like early jumpstart to her career. Many fans tend to lean towards the former possibility, but I think it's more interesting and fits the M.O. of LDS as a show to have Mariner be a female Wesley and tend to lean towards the latter. There's compelling evidence that she grew up on the Enterprise-D (Riker claims to have been her mentor for a time, and there wouldn't have been any opportunities for that if she didn't live on an Enterprise outside of like, the singular year between the Enterprise-D crashing and the Enterprise-E launching) and thus would have been a first person witness to all those Wesley exploits. We also know that at some point she worked on DS9, and it had to have been during season 4-7 of the show (she straight up tells us she was stationed there at the same time Worf was, which is a very narrow window), so she would have had a front row seat to the Dominion War.
In my headcanon, her mom was stationed on the D, then took a transfer to DS9 either at the same time O'Brien did, or after the Enterprise-D crashed. She became an acting Ensign on DS9, then went to the Academy either towards the end of the Dominion War, or right after it concluded. Then after graduating she finally burnt out rapidly, being transferred repeatedly until ending up on the Cerritos as a last resort.
In my headcanon, her mom was stationed on the D, then took a transfer to DS9 either at the same time O'Brien did, or after the Enterprise-D crashed. She became an acting Ensign on DS9, then went to the Academy either towards the end of the Dominion War, or right after it concluded. Then after graduating she finally burnt out rapidly, being transferred repeatedly until ending up on the Cerritos as a last resort.
ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
Didn't Boimler have to live through The Naked Now in a simulation or something? And he wasn't thinking of long-term survival, but "Eww eww eww I can see my commanding officer's weenie!" Dude's an even bigger prude than Judy Hopps from Zootopia, Disney's "it seemed like a good idea at the time" figurative and literal lionization of the police force.
ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
I'd say "don't do a Next Generation flashback episode where it turns out they were just watching archival footage," but that might actually work on Lower Decks. You know, mostly for the fan service the show revels in, but also to make fun of just how stupid that moment in Star Trek was.
It was actually Mariner who did in the teamwork training exercises from last season. Her solution to that scenario was to jettison herself out an airlock. The final straw was seeing Boimler buck-naked and presenting himself in a very obscene pose. The way I read that scene was less that she was a prude (she's pansexual; constantly discusses her past escapades with pride; is the most vocal person on the show regarding her sexuality) and more that she doesn't really know how to handle intimacy and her own feelings very well. Further evidenced by her relationship with Jennifer that was adversarial simply because she was attracted to her and didn't know how to handle it in a classically juvenile manner. She's definitely also got the hots for Boims, imo.
I knew the twist with Martok’s cameo from interviews but it was still the best thing I’ve seen all week. Also, Bold Boimler is best Boimler. Where can I get a Boimler hug pillow?
Etsy, most likely.