LOW 1×10 No Small Parts

Stardate not given: During a second contact mission on planet Beta III, Captain Freeman learns that the inhabitants have reverted to worshipping their world-dominating computer, Landru. The USS Cerritos next responds to a distress call from her newly commissioned sister-ship, the USS Solvang, but arrives in the Kalla system too late. The Solvang has been destroyed with all hands lost by a giant Pakled scavenger/warship, which immediately attacks and cripples the Cerritos. Lt Shaxs sacrifices himself to deploy a computer virus designed by Ensign Rutherford, which successfully destroys the Pakled ship. Although three additional Pakled vessels arrive to finish the job, they are successfully fought off by the USS Titan, which warps into the system in time to save the Cerritos.

“Star Trek: Lower Decks” caps off a nearly perfect inaugural season with a finale that is similarly perfect. In my review of “Envoys,” I complained that Lower Decks had developed a solid formula so rapidly that the second episode already felt too formulaic. And in my review of “Veritas,” I observed that the show’s penchant for upending audience expectations had almost become a schtick. Now in “No Small Parts,” Lower Decks thoroughly upends audience expectations by blowing up its own solid formula.

The first part of the formula to explode (literally) is Captain Freeman’s friend Captain Dayton, the crew of the former USS Rubidoux, and their brand-new ship, the USS Solvang. After the destruction of the Merced (LOW: “Moist Vessel”) and the Rubidoux (LOW: “Much Ado About Boimler”) it’s already expected that California-class vessels encountered by the Cerritos will be lost, but in each previous case their crews have been saved. This is even true with the simulated destruction of the Cerritos (LOW: “Crisis Point”) on the holodeck: the entire holographic crew was beamed to safety. Not so the Solvang, which is destroyed with all hands lost in a pulse-quickening sequence that was visually reminiscent of the destruction of the USS Kelvin by the massive Narada in “Star Trek” (2009). Because we’ve already come to know Captain Dayton and her crew, the stakes are thus set very high at the episode’s outset.

In the course of the episode, the rest of Lower Deck’s formula is similarly upended. One of the senior officers is killed. Rutherford’s cybernetic implant (the source of much of his character’s humor all-season) is ripped from his skull along with the memory of his continually budding relationship with Tendi. Mariner decides to stop being “criminally insubordinate” (Boimler’s words) and Captain Freeman terminates the feud with her daughter, proposing an alliance instead. And finally, Boimler is actually transferred off the ship, accepting promotion as a Lieutenant (junior grade) on the USS Titan. The biggest upending of all: in “No Small Parts,” Lower Decks ceases to be a simple parody and is transformed into full-fledged dramatic series in its own right. As Captain Freeman observes concerning the Pakleds “looks like they’re not a joke anymore.” They’re certainly not. In fact, the episode is a tour-de-force, and it’s made all the more remarkable because it was so unexpected, even with the audience on guard to expect the unexpected from this series.

The teaser sets up the episode’s central complaint. In focusing on long-range exploration and first contact missions, Starfleet is failing to follow-up on previous discoveries. This is a valid complaint for anyone who has watched the franchise closely. Sigma Iotia II was first contacted by the USS Horizon in the 22nd century, but it took a full century for the Federation to follow up with a second contact mission and to fully realize the extent of the cultural contamination (TOS: “A Piece of the Action”). Captain Kirk and the Enterprise settled Khan Singh and his people on Ceti Alpha V in 2267 (TOS: “Space Seed”). But as Khan correctly complained some eighteen years later, Starfleet “never bothered to check on their progress” (ST2:TWOK). Although the Enterprise-D learned that the Crystalline Entity was responsible for the destruction of the colony on Omicron Theta (TNG: “Datalore”), no serious attempt was made to pursue the creature until years later when it had destroyed several more Federation colonies (TNG: “Silicon Avatar”). The list could go on and on.

While this failing of Starfleet is harmless enough in regards to the inhabitants of Beta III and their worship of Landru (which are both beautifully recreated from the TOS originals), the lackadaisical decision to let the Pakleds go on their merry way fifteen years ago (TNG: “Samaritan Snare”) is now being paid for in starships and lives. The inclusion of the Pakleds as the antagonists here is brilliant.

Even the detail that the attacks take place in the Kalla System, known from a throw-away line in TNG: “Firstborn” to be in Pakled space, is genius. Their composite warship is based on an original Mondor-type Pakled ship with parts added from thirty different species, including the Romulans, Klingons, Ferengi, Bajorans, and Arkonians (ENT: “Dawn”). The fact that despite their newfound firepower, the Pakleds are just as stupid as when we last saw them is priceless.

The one part of Lower Decks’ formula that remains fully intact is the new Exocomp ensign who has named herself “Peanut Hamper.” A hilarious followup to Starfleet’s determination that the Exocomps are sentient (TNG: “The Quality of Life”) everything seems to be moving into place that the coincidence of having an Exocomp on board provides the solution to destroying the Pakleds. This being “Lower Decks,” the expected fails to happen as Peanut Hamper proves herself to be a self-interested coward and opts to save herself instead of volunteering for a suicide mission (as the Exocomps did in the original episode). This allows the honor to pass to Rutherford, who is assisted and nearly killed by his patricidal holodeck creation Badgey (making a timely return from LOW: “Terminal Provocations”). In the end, Badgey self-immolates, Rutherford is saved by Shaxs’ self-sacrifice, and Peanut Hamper reaps the reward she sewed.

In my review of the Lower Decks pilot, I observed that the USS Cerritos is the type of ship that routinely has to be rescued by ships like the USS Enterprise. However, it’s only in the finale that this actually happens for the first time, with the amazing reveal of the USS Titan. Captain Riker, Commander Troi, and their crew warp in at the last minute to save the day, with Jerry Goldsmith’s theme for Star Trek blaring. For die-hard fans, this has got to rank as one of the most awesome moments in the franchise’s history. The space battles throughout this episode are amazing, and the conclusion here is spectacular and moving.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, during the first run of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” I have to admit that William Riker and Deanna Troi were among my least favorite characters. I rooted for Riker to accept promotion already and get off the ship (TNG: “The Icarus Factor,” “Best of Both Worlds,”) and I sided with Captain Jellico who relieved Riker and installed Data as first officer of the Enterprise (TNG: “Chain of Command”). Likewise Troi’s constant refrain of “what do you think?” during therapy sessions seemed to make her the least useful member of the crew. I actually came to appreciate Troi more with her three appearances alongside Reginald Barclay in “Star Trek: Voyager,” and I believe the character make her strongest appearance ever in PIC: “Nepenthe.” I’ve also become endeared to Riker, primarily because it’s impossible not to love the good-natured, unassuming Jonathan Frakes, and his total commitment to the franchise.

Having Riker and Troi and the USS Titan appear here with the crew of the Cerritos, chumming around with “Carol” Freeman and Mariner, giving Ransom sassy take-downs… it’s like a delightful family reunion. It certainly makes me much more eager for Lower Deck’s second season next year than I am for Star Trek: Discovery’s third season next week. The resurgence of the Star Trek franchise post-2009 has been a bit of a rough ride. But Lower Decks should give every true-blue fan real hope for the future.

• Remarkable crewman: In a hilarious, deep gag, we can now surmise that the ensign who looks like Mariner is named “Jenn.” At the beginning of the episode, this ensign is seen on the bridge while Mariner and Boimler are on Beta III. Later, when Lt Cmdr Billups tries to brown-nose Mariner, she complains “yesterday he literally didn’t know my name, he called me Jenn! Who here is named Jenn?!” We next see the doppelganger together with Mariner when the former snaps a selfie of them both. Finally, at the end of the episode when Mariner is sending yet another nasty communique to Boimler (threatening to feed him “to an Armus” à la TNG: “Skin of Evil”), one of the ensigns tells her to keep it down, to which Mariner replies “oh, shut up, Jenn!”

• Remarkable reused set: TOS: “Return of the Archons” (along with several other original episodes) was filmed on the famous RKO “Forty Acres” backlot in Culver City, California. “No Small Parts” faithfully animates the set and also perfectly replicates the 1960s-style computer Landru.

• Remarkable contraband: As previously established in LOW: “Second Contact,” Mariner collects contraband, which she hides all over the ship. (She apparently shares this passion with Riker, to Troi’s chagrin.) We now see that this includes illegal drugs, weapons, and even a Tribble, although she claims “it’s only for personal use.” Among the weapons is a Ligonian gauntlet (TNG: “Code of Honor”), a bloody Klingon bat’leth, a Klingon mace, two mek’leth-like weapons, a sword, a wooden club, and a fencing sabre (presumably one of Picard’s). Her booze stash includes Klingon bloodwine, Saurian brandy (TOS: “The Enemy Within”), and Romulan ale. Finally and preposterously, she has a Remco Star Trek helmet, making its first canonical appearance.

• Remarkable ship: The USS Titan (NCC-80102) also makes its canonical debut. Although larger and more heavily armed than the Cerritos, the Titan appears significantly smaller than a Galaxy class starship. Like the Enterprise-D, the bridge has wooden accents, including in the tactical station roll-bar. The ship’s first officer is a Saurian (DIS: “Brother”), but the rest of the crew (other than Troi who is half-Betazoid) that we see appear human, now including Lt. Boimler.
• Remarkable continuity: At the end of the episode, Riker indicates that he’s been watching recordings of Jonathan Archer’s NX-01 Enterprise on the holodeck, something that he and Troi have done previously (ENT: “These Are the Voyages”). The two characters have now appeared in TNG, in TNG feature films, in VOY, ENT, PIC, and LOW. In addition, Riker’s transporter clone appeared in DS9: “Second Chances.”

• Remarkable promotion: Although I like Boimler a lot, I honestly hope he retains his promotion and stays on the USS Titan. Ultimately the fact that the TOS crew stayed together for decades was preposterous. In real life, Riker would have accepted promotion long before he did. By the end of the TNG movies, nobody even bothered to explain why Worf or Wesley were back. Of course, this happens because Star Trek is a show with actors and fans, not real life. Lower Decks stabs the heart of this in-universe problem when Boimler says that he wouldn’t want Mariner to accept promotion to the USS Sacremento because she’s his best friend and he wouldn’t want to be separated from her. The fact that he immediately accepts promotion to the Titan and that she’s totally pissed is perfection itself. I’d hate to see them walk that whole thing back à la the way Spock’s meaningful death in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” was cheapened by his resurrection in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.”

10/10

LOW 1×09 Crisis Point

Stardate not given: The USS Cerritos is surveying a planet that is home to a pre-warp civilization with two sentient species, one rodentoid (the “rat people”), the other reptiloid (the “lizard people”). Ensign Mariner attempts to violate the Prime Directive by fomenting a rebellion among the lizard people, who have been enslaved and are routinely eaten as food by the rat people. Captain Freeman squelches the intervention and orders Mariner to report for therapy with Counselor Migleemo. Frustrated by the counselor’s idiosyncrasies, Mariner decides to engage in her own brand of unorthodox therapy with her friends on the holodeck.

Despite decades of trying, Paramount has never been able to figure out how to distill a formula for making worthwhile Star Trek feature films. Lacking that vision, the studio’s most common strategy is to zero-in on the franchise’s most beloved film (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) to mine and re-hash it by continually setting up show-downs for the captain’s next arch-nemesis. The deplorable “Star Trek Nemesis” where Picard squares off against his clone, and the excruciating “Star Trek Into Darkness”, a sad re-make of the Kirk/Khan match-up itself, are only the worst two examples. Given their relatively dismal record, Star Trek feature films are a target ripe for parody, and “Lower Decks” does not disappoint.

The holodeck is a frequent setting for plays within the play in Star Trek, whether the play is actually Shakespeare (TNG: “The Defector”), a detective novel (TNG: “The Big Goodbye,” “Elementary Dear Data”), an old sci-fi serial picture (VOY: “Bride of Chaotica!”), or a James Bond-style feature film (DS9: “Our Man Bashir”). In this case, Ensign Boimler’s simulation of the Cerritos and its crew provides Mariner with the opportunity to set the ship in its own Star Trek movie. Mariner hastily hacks out the script in seconds (if the writers of “Star Trek Into Darkness” spent any more time than this writing out their screenplay, it didn’t show). From the instant the movie credits begin to appear (complete with warp effects), the episode successfully establishes the feeling that we’re now going to be in a Star Trek movie — the screen resolution even switches to “letter box” format. The movie, which Mariner has named “Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta,” proceeds to mercilessly lampoon the Star Trek movie tropes.

The setting begins with Captain Freeman celebrating her birthday with the ship’s senior officers on hydroscooters (similar to the crew’s shore leave at Yosemite at the beginning of “Star Trek V” or hanging around on the holodeck at the beginning of “Star Trek: Generations”). Just as in the movies, an emergency call comes in from Starfleet and Admiral Vassery assigns the Cerritos to investigate. Boimler points out “if this was actually happening, they’d send the Enterprise, but, you know, artistic license…” The senior staff approach the Cerritos in shuttlecraft, parodying the six minute scene when the refit Enterprise is revealed in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” As the shuttle flies around the Cerritos, J.J. Abrams-style lens flares are everywhere and Lt Cmdr Billups can’t help but tear up. On board, Captain Freeman takes the ship to warp with a pithy, movie-style one-liner: “Time to take this puppy off its leash! Warp me!”

True to the central trope of a standard Star Trek movie, Mariner sets herself up to play Captain Freeman’s nemesis “Vindicta,” who aptly describes herself as “vengeance personified.” Mariner also creates roles for our other lead ensigns as her henchmen. While Rutherford quickly gets into his role as a cyborg marauder named “Bionic 5,” Tendi is clearly uncomfortable with the fact that Mariner has cast her to play a “savage warrior queen… from a long-line of thieving Orion pirates.” Boimler was supposed to play the role of the hapless crony “Shempo,” but instead plays himself on the Cerritos. Vindicta quickly vaporizes the holographic Shempo to the horror of the holographic Cerritos crew, “that poor Shempo!” cries Captain Freeman, “you didn’t have to do that, are you out of your mind?!”

In further tropes, Vindicta’s monologuing includes quoting Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” ripping on Klingon General Chang’s unending, gratuitous quotation of the poet in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.” The plot is all-action as Vindicta and her minions board the Cerritos and begin killing the crew indiscriminately. Lt Shaxs fights back with a ridiculously oversized gun (reminiscent of Picard in “Star Trek: First Contact”) and gets off a one-liner “When you get to hell, tell the pah-wraiths that Shaxs sent you, special delivery straight from Bajor!” before getting himself exploded into bloody bits.

Throughout the “movie,” our four ensigns continually break the internal fourth wall of the story within the story. When Rutherford realizes he can say anything he wants to his boss, Lt Cmdr Billups, he races to engineering and tells him that he thinks that Billups is the best engineer in Starfleet. Tendi, meanwhile, is upset at the stereotyping of her people as slavers and pirates, “for your information,” she corrects Mariner, “many Orions haven’t been pirates for over five years!” Boimler spends the entire simulation following his own agenda of trying to get information to better brown-nose the real captain during an upcoming interview. Even Mariner can’t stop giving into her own personal frustrations with the holodeck simulation of her mother, leading the holodeck Captain Freeman to complain, “This Vindicta is all over the place!” (A similar complaint could be made of Shinzon, Picard’s nemesis in “Nemesis,” whose motives and plots were likewise all over the place.)

Mariner, as Vindicta, imagines that her climactic show-down with be with her mother, Captain Freeman, but in a twist that illustrates why “Lower Decks” is superior to the many bad movies it lampoons, she discovers that her actual nemesis is the holographic version of herself. In the end, holo-Mariner sacrifices herself to destroy Vindicta. In the process, real Mariner learns some real lessons about herself and comes to the realization: “therapy works!” Returning to the holo-program to prepare for his interview with the real captain, Ensign Boimler witnesses holographic Freeman giving a touching eulogy for holographic Mariner — thereby accidentally learning the secret that Mariner is Freeman’s daughter, which nicely sets up tension for the upcoming finale episode of the show’s first season.

Once again, Lower Decks delivers an amazing outing with just the right mix of broad satire and insider referencing, set inside a perfectly paced, cleverly plotted, all-around well written, hilarious episode.

• Remarkable starship destruction scene: Like the Enterprise-D in “Star Trek: Generations” the primary hull of the Cerritos crash-lands on a planet and rolls along the ground in an equally impressive destruction scene. The ship later self-destructs like the original Enterprise in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” Meanwhile all of the crew have been simultaneously beamed to safety by Rutherford who notes, “it’s a movie, you can do whatever you… you can do all sorts of beaming stuff in a movie.”
• Remarkable music: The holodeck movie’s theme is a take-off on fantastic score by the late James Horner, used in Star Trek II and III. The shuttlecraft approach to the Cerritos is a take-off of the music Horner wrote for the approach to the Enterprise in “Star Trek II,” whose exterior visuals were a re-use of footage from the original scene in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”
• Remarkable ship: Vindicta’s cloaked vessel is new kind of TNG-era Klingon attack cruiser. Given the limited time Mariner put into her program, this is presumably a current Klingon design pulled from the holodeck’s database.

• Ongoing crew diversity: Migleemo, who serves as ship’s counselor on the Cerritos, is from an unnamed avian species.

• Remarkable cameo: Holographic Leonardo da Vinci (VOY: “Concerning Flight”) returns for two cameos (albeit not voiced by John Rhys-Davies). Initially, he’s anachronistically skeet shooting with Tendi and Rutherford. Finally, at the end of the holomovie, he’s on the surface of the planet where Vindicta’s escape pod has soft-landed (per Spock’s torpedo in “Star Trek III”). He uses his skeet shotgun to finish off Vindicta with a pithy action-movie one-liner: “Notta today, not on da Vinci’s watch!”

9/10

LOW 1×08 Veritas

Stardate 57791.1: The crew of the USS Cerritos engage in a covert-ops mission to retrieve K’Teuvon Imperial Magistrate Clar from Romulan custody. Lt Cmdr Billups, Lt Shaxs, and Ensign Rutherford break into a spacecraft museum on Vulcan to hijack a 23rd century Romulan Bird-of-Prey. Using the cloaked Bird-of-Prey and a map of the Romulan Neutral Zone obtained by Captain Freeman from the Clickets, Commander Ransom leads a strike force into Romulan space. Avoiding detection from four Romulan warbirds, they make their way to Romulus where they collect a cryo-chamber containing Clar. Having returned the Imperial Magistrate to K’Tuevon Prime, the crew are honored with a ceremonial reception that includes etching their deeds on a monumental “history stone.”

Going all the way back to “Court Martial” in the first season of the original series, courtroom trials are an extremely common formula in Star Trek. Unlike actual trials which take place after the conclusion of thorough investigations by law enforcement, most Star Trek trials are hastily convened and investigations occur simultaneously to courtroom proceedings. As a result, in the show’s standard formula, the true criminal is ultimately exposed to the audience, prosecutors, and defenders simultaneously, generally resulting in the acquittal of whomever was wrongly accused. This is true for Kirk (TOS: “Court Martial”), Scotty (TOS: “Wolf in the Fold”), and Riker (TNG: “A Matter of Perspective”), among others.

Turning expectations on their heads has become the standard trope of “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” and “Veritas” is no exception. The foreshadowing of the twist was fairly heavy handed in the teaser. Mariner: “Calm down, we don’t know what this is…” Boimler, “Are you kidding me? Creepy stone walls, jagged metal bars, this has alien prison written all over it!” Rutherford: “A prison? No way, man, this is a dungeon.” Boimler: “That’s even worse! Hello, can some one give us some context in here please?”

Ultimately, the idea is that the lower decks crew aren’t sufficiently briefed about the “context” of their missions to make informed choices. Thus the “trial,” although precisely mimicking the visuals of Kirk and McCoy’s trial in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” is predictably not what it seems. When Clar explains that seeming trial is, in fact, a party, that “reveal” doesn’t satisfy the expectations that the episode has built up. The writers even anticipate that the audience will feel cheated and put objections into our lower decks ensigns’ mouths. Mariner: “No, this is a trial, you said we were witnesses and that we had to testify… You had our bosses suspended in a scary-ass beam…” Rutherford: “All of that chanting, the metal gavel, this is like alien trial 101… You raised us up onto a platform into a creepy courtroom…” Mariner: “Who’s this judge?… What about the eels? You held us in contempt of eels!” A meta-critique of the fact that the episode’s own reveal was lame is too clever by half, leaving the framing story of “Veritas” a rare dud among Lower Deck’s otherwise strong first season.

The bulk of the episode consists of flashbacks narrated by the testimony of each of our four lead ensigns. Mariner’s recollection is of herself and Boimler at the ops and helm stations of the bridge as the Cerritos squares off against a much larger Clicket vessel. Arriving late, they have no idea what’s going on and are at a loss when Captain Freeman asks them to present options. Tendi’s testimony is about accidentally making her way onto a black ops team led by Commander Ransom that includes three other members (including a buff Andorian) all of whose names are redacted. As they sneak across the Neutral Zone in a cloaked Bird-of-Prey, they are nearly spotted by Warbirds that humorously show up in successive numbers.

Ensign Rutherford’s testimony is, by far, the funniest part of the episode. He only remembers a fraction of what happened as his cybernetic implant took over for most of the action, allowing us to cut from one hilarious scene to the next. Rutherford first wakes up inside a Vulcan shuttle (previously seen in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”) prior to doing a halo drop to a starship museum on Vulcan. He next wakes up inside the museum, whose holdings include the T’Plana-Hath (the historic Vulcan ship from “Star Trek: First Contact”), a Klingon K’t’inga-class battle cruiser, a Jem’Hadar fighter, a Tholian web-tender, a Ferengi shuttle, a Federation work-bee, various Federation shuttles, and a 23rd century Romulan Bird-of-Prey (TOS: “The Balance of Terror”).

As Shaxs steals the Bird-of-Prey, the plan is for Rutherford to distract the guards with a fan-dance (a hilarious take-down of fan-dance from “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”). When he next wakes, Rutherford is in a spacesuit apparently alone in space… except he’s clearly standing on something, which turns out to be the cloaked Bird-of-Prey. The next two times he wakes up, Rutherford is literally crashing a Gorn wedding — his Vulcan shuttle having crashlanded on a Gorn world. It’s a preposterous setting and ties Rutherford’s testimony up with a delightful bow.

By the time the Imperial Magistrate gets to Boimler, Clar has given up trying to get testimony about what happened. Boimler therefore uses his time to assert that Starfleet officers often do not understand the context of the situation they’re in. He gives three examples. In the first, Q shows up and transports Captain Freeman, Commander Ranson, Dr. T’Ana, and Lt Shaxs to a life-size chessboard with American football goals. The are set against animated playing cards in a game that involves a soccer ball with arms and legs (a nod to Q’s second appearance in the terrible TNG episode: “Hide and Q”). In the second, Commander Ransom is accidentally hitting on a salt vampire, which he assumed were extinct (per statements in TOS: “The Man Trap”). In the final example, Dr T’Ana believes everyone on the Cerritos is being replaced (similar to Dr Crusher’s experience of everyone on the Enterprise disappearing in TNG: “Remember Me”) only to realize that she’s on the wrong California-class starship, the USS Alhambra.

The episode is at its best when it’s making visual in-universe references like these. However, the name checks that continually occur in the dialogue become gratuitous. In his final speech, Boimler asks: “Did Picard know about the Borg? (TNG: “Q Who?”) “Did Kirk know about that giant Spock on Phylos?” (TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan”) “Did Dr. Crusher know about that ghost in the lamp thing from the Scottish planet that she hooked up with that one time? That whole thing?” (TNG: “Sub Rosa”) …?” For an episode that began with Mariner and Boimler having an argument “who’s the all-time biggest badass” in Star Trek: Roga Danar (TNG: “The Hunted”) or Khan (TOS: “Space Seed”), I felt like the in-dialogue referencing crossed way past the neutral zone of the 4th wall into fully gratuitous space.

• Reprised secret plot: The episode’s central plotline of smuggling Imperial Magistrate Clar across the neutral zone in a cryo-box is a reprise of the way Romulan Vice-Proconsul M’ret was smuggled to Federation space in TNG: “Face of the Enemy.”

• Remarkable guest return: John de Lancie returns as Q for two throw-away scenes. While I understand that the joke is that he’s here for throw-away scenes (and the Cerritos crew can’t be bothered to play his Q games), it seems a shame to essentially throw away the potential of having John de Lancie on the show.
• Nitpicking: This is the second classic Bird-of-Prey we’ve scene this year in the 24th century, following up on Kar Kantar’s ship in PIC: “Absolute Candor.” While I love seeing these, it’s absurd to think the cloak would be effective. As predicted in TOS: “The Enterprise Incident” and confirmed in VOY: “Prophecy,” detection technology and cloaking technology are continually improving. Warbirds with 24th century scanners would have no trouble detecting a Bird-of-Prey with a 23rd century cloaking device. Also, why did they choose to include TNG-era Romulan interiors instead of the original bridge set from TOS: “The Balance of Terror”?

• Remarkable non-continuity: For a show that prides itself on making call-backs and references, why introduce the “Clickets”? They could have just as easily been the Jarada (TNG: “The Big Goodbye”) without changing either their on-screen appearance or ship design (neither of which have been previously established). Like the Clickets, the Jarada are insectoids known for being quick to take offense at minor breeches of protocol. In the same way, it would have been just as easy to have Clar be a Talarian (TNG: “Suddenly Human”), a Nausicaan (TNG: “Tapestry”) or even an Acamarian (TNG: “The Vengeance Factor”), rather than creating yet another Klingon-like species. Speaking of Roga Danar (TNG: “The Hunted”), Clar and his people could have been the “Tarsians” — the unseen species that Roga and his fellow soldiers had been developed by the Angosians to fight. That would have been a clever Easter egg justifying Boimler and Mariner’s gratuitous argument over who is the franchise’s most badass antagonist.
• Hilarious dialogue: “You know who I hate? Remans.” – “Oh, they’re the worst!” -two Romulan guards engaging in what has to be the most stereotypical Romulan conversation ever.
• Remarkable historic counterargument: Although this episode argues that Starfleet officers make important decisions all the time without sufficient context, this very question was thoroughly explored in excellent TNG episode “Conundrum.” Ultimately, Picard refused to follow through with his apparent orders because he lacked the context to make the decision ethically.

5/10

LOW 1×07 Much Ado About Boimler

Stardate 57752.6: Captain Freeman, Cmdr Ransom, and Security Chief Shax are sent on a covert mission to help germinate rulot seeds on the Pisepian agricultural colony. Captain Amina Ramsey assumes temporary command of the USS Cerritos, which engages in the repair of a water filtration system on planet Khwopa. When the USS Rubidoux fails to arrive at a prearranged rendezvous, the Cerritos sets out in search of the missing ship. Discovered adrift, an away team from the Cerritos finds the Rubidoux’s crew barricaded in the shuttlebay, having shut down main power to arrest the development of a lifeform infesting the ship that feeds on energy. When the Cerritos’ away team unwittingly restores power, the lifeform grows to fill the Rubidoux. The away team and the crew of the Rubidoux are transported to safety immediately prior to the ship’s destruction.

The two-part episode “Chain of Command” includes some of the most powerful scenes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” as Captain Picard is tortured by Gul Madred in a Cardassian prison. Meanwhile, having replaced Picard as captain of the Enterprise, Edward Jellico gives a rare, detailed portrait of an alternative style of Starfleet captain. However strong the episode ends up being, its premise was ridiculous. Picard, Worf, and Dr Crusher(!) are reassigned as a “Mission Impossible” style espionage/strike force! The idea that the Federation doesn’t have any covert-ops specialists but occasionally reassigns starship senior officers when the need crops up is ludicrous. The fact that they were immediately caught and that the entire crisis was just a Cardassian ruse to capture Picard almost rises to self-parody.

“Lower Decks” normally mines broad Star Trek clichés, but the A-plot of “Much Ado About Boimler” is direct parody of “Chain of Command.” Just as Picard, Worf, and Crusher were said to be indispensable for the mission because of the supposed familiarity with metagenic weapons, Freeman, Ransom, and Shax are assigned to their covert-ops escapade due to their “expertise in the germination of rulot seeds.” The three are shown hiding in a cave wearing black bodystockings identical to those worn by Picard, Crusher, and Worf in their covert-ops mission.

Once again, this silliness sets up the more interesting dynamic of having a substitute captain. The sub, in this case, is Mariner’s old Academy friend, Amina Ramsey. Despite the fact that they both engaged in Academy mischief, both were also top cadets with seemingly bright Starfleet careers ahead of them. Having already made captain, Ramsey represents a life path not traveled for Mariner. It seems that Ramsey took the assignment to see if she could help Mariner turn her career back around by offering her a job on Ramsey’s own ship. However, anticipating this motive, Mariner consistently presents herself as a screw-up to avoid being offered the job. In the end, when faced with an actual life or death emergency, Mariner drops the façade and lets her competence and leadership skills take over, saving the day.

The B-plot draws upon a much broader array of Star Trek cliché ingredients, combined and baked together with hilarious results. Boimler is put “out of phase” due to Rutherford’s transporter experiment. Beginning with Kirk in TOS: “The Tholian Web,” this kind of thing has happened rather frequently (e.g., TNG: “The Next Phase,” TNG: “Realm of Fear”) and it’s great that Dr T’Ana treats Boimler’s condition as a relatively routine nuisance. In designing a new life-form (named “the dog”) from inert carbon by custom coding its DNA sequences, Tendi has introduced a second unsolvable scientific problem.

Together, these are enough to call in Starfleet’s “Division 14.” Like the Temporal Investigations Division which specializes in time travel paradoxes (DS9: “Trials and Tribble-ations”) and the off-books “Section 31” (DS9: “Inquisition”) whose self-appointed task is to defend the Federation by breaking its principles, Division 14 is introduced here as specializing in “unsolvable space illnesses and science mysteries.” Given the number of accidents, illnesses, and mysteries that have been experienced by Starfleet officers throughout the franchise, it only makes sense that there are specialists dedicated to solving problems that apparently cannot simply be fixed by using a person’s pattern stored in the transporter’s buffer. (Of course, it also makes sense that Starfleet would have a specialized covert-ops division instead of occasionally recruiting amateur strike teams — which the episode poses here as a subtle, but deliberate irony.)

Like Section 31 which operates its own type of darker starship (DIS: “Saints of Imperfection”), an administrator of Division 14 arrives on the USS Osler (NX-75300) — a sleek, dark starship that lacks a disk-shaped primary hull common to most Federation starships. Among the in-mates in medical quarantine, Boimler and Tendi meet a woman exposed to delta radiation and left in a travel chair identical to that use by Captain Pike (TOS: “The Menagerie”), a man and a women fused together in a transporter accident (albeit not as completely as Tuvok and Neelix in VOY: “Tuvix”), and Anthony — a hyper-evolved slug identical to Janeway and Paris in VOY: “Threshold.”

The episode continuously plays on the idea that when parents tell their children that the family dog has gone away to live at the farm, this is actually a euphemism for having a veterinarian euthanize the dog. Although the Division 14 transport and its Edosian commander appear sinister throughout the episode, the truth is that “the farm” (as it’s colloquially known) to which he’s sending Tendi’s creation (“the dog”), Boimler, and the other patients actually is a medical spa on the paradise planet of Endocrominas V. When they finally arrive, the spa is so wonderful that Boimler is upset that he’s spontaneously been cured and therefore is not allowed to stay. Even the woman in the Captain Pike style travel chair is hilariously united with two additional Delta radiation victims in travel chairs — all three of whom have tropical cocktails and beachwear!

Once again, the message of Lower Decks is that even if Starfleet occasionally appears dark and sinister, it actually isn’t. This is a welcome rejoinder in the post-2009 era of “Star Trek.”

• Remarkable starship: The USS Osler is a dark, sleek Federation starship with the callsign NX-75300. It reminded me of the smuggler ship that raided the Qualor II depot in TNG: “Unification I.” The ship is presumably named for Sir William Osler, a famous Canadian physician who wrote Principles and Practice of Medicine in 1892. Osler wrote: “To study medicine without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study medicine only from books is not to go to sea at all.” This quotation would be fitting for the USS Osler’s dedication plaque.

• Remarkable Federation member: The three-armed, three-legged Edosians (also called “Edoans”) were introduced in Star Trek: The Animated Series. It was great to see a followup to Lt Arex (TAS: “Beyond the Farthest Star”). Ever since I was a child, I’ve always wondered if Edosians have trilateral symmetry, why they wouldn’t also have three eyes instead of two?
• Remarkable injuries: Captain Pike’s travel chair was equal parts horrific and preposterous (TOS: “The Menagerie”). It’s hilarious that Starfleet is using the same “therapy” for victims of Delta radiation in the 24th century. Meanwhile, Janeway and Paris’ “hyper-evolved” form (VOY: “Threshold”) was simply preposterous, making the inclusion of Anthony here a perfect jab.
• Remarkable sister ships: The USS Rubidoux (NCC-12109), like the USS Cerritos (NCC-75567) and the USS Merced (NCC-87075), is a California-class starship. One of the clichés of ST:TOS was that almost every sister ship that the Enterprise encountered ended up getting destroyed (including the Constellation, the Defiant, the Intrepid, and the Excalibur). Having destroyed the Merced and the Rubidoux, “Lower Decks” may be on a similar roll.
• Remarkably diverse crew: Captain Ramsey is reassigned with her own team of senior officers, consisting of a Vulcan, a Trill, and a Rigellian (ENT: “Demons”).

• Remarkable space-faring lifeform: The alien entity that emerges from the wreckage of the USS Rubidoux is presumably of the same species as the so-called “space vessel lifeforms” encountered by the Enterprise at Deneb IV (TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint”).

8/10

LOW 1×06 Terminal Provocations

Stardate 57663.9: The USS Cerritos asserts ownership of a Starfleet cargo convoy, derelict for over a century and discovered by a Drookmani scavenger ship. When the Drookmani attempt to seize the cargo, Captain Freeman moves to block them without resorting to weapons fire. The Drookmani escalate the crisis by reversing their tractor beams and battering the Cerritos’ shields with space junk. At great risk to the ship, Captain Freeman holds out for a diplomatic solution to the last moment. With the Cerritos’ shields and weapons offline, Ensign Fletcher improvises a defense by weaponizing an isolinear core, which he uses to successfully neutralize the Drookmani vessel.

What is Starfleet all about? That’s the in-universe question to our question outside the fourth wall: What is Star Trek all about? This is a question Star Trek fans have been grappling with since the launch of J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” reboot film series. The dialogue has only intensified with the return of Star Trek to the small screen with Discovery, Picard, and the various, potential new series that have been teased. Although Lower Decks a cartoon and a parody, the show clearly comes to the conversation with its own ideas about Star Trek’s role.

As the Drookmani use their tractor beam to hurl debris at the Cerritos, Captain Freeman explains, “They’re trying to bait us into a fight. We have to find a way to end this peacefully. We’re Starfleet, dammit!” After Ensign Fletcher admits to screwing up, insisting that he at least learned a lesson, Ensign Mariner asserts, “We’re Starfleet, and when we make mistakes, we learn” from them. Finally, during a ceremony where Fletcher is promoted as a reward for saving the ship, Commander Ransom states that Starfleet is all about “selfless heroism.” In the previous episode, LOW: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow,” Captain Freeman had said that “solving impossible problems is what Starfleet’s all about.”

Solving impossible problems, selfless heroism, learning from mistakes, and resolving conflict peacefully: although the show offers a wide variety of answers to the question, these ideas aren’t contradictory or mutually exclusive. My personal view is that Star Trek presents an optimistic view of the future where people value diversity and have learned that working, sharing, and learning together for the common good is to everyone’s mutual advantage. The franchise offers a setting for thought experiments and commentary about our current society’s flaws and different potential future paths. I think “Lower Decks” shares this view of Star Trek’s optimism, perhaps more profoundly than other expressions of the franchise post-2009.

“Terminal Provocations” continues the remarkable string of solid episodes in Lower Decks’ first season, which is now 6 for 6. The A and B plots again parody two of Star Trek’s most egregious clichés: holodeck malfunction and accidentally creating artificial life that is ultimately hostile to humanity. The only piece of Federation technology more deadly than the holodeck is the shuttlecraft. Shuttlecraft have been having accidents since the episode they were introduced (TOS: “The Galileo Seven”) and the failure of the holodeck’s “safety protocols” dates back to “The Big Goodbye” in the Next Generation’s first season.

In the A-plot, Rutherford has created a holodeck tutorial character called “Badgey” — a perfect satire of Microsoft’s “Mr Clippy,” which debuted in 1997 and was discontinued after 2007. Like Mr Clippy, Badgey puts an insipid face on dry tutorial topics, is plagued by buffering delays, and is ultimately far less helpful than a searchable FAQ list. Rutherford and Tendi have a number harrowing adventures through the holo environments of deep space, a marketplace on Bajor, and a blizzard. Rutherford’s final fight where he survives Badgey’s patricidal onslaught and reluctantly has to break his creation’s neck hits on all the right notes.

Ensign Fletcher’s accidental creation of an artificial lifeform in the B-plot follows a similar, overlapping cliché. Self-aware programs have been created on the holodeck (TNG: “Elementary, Dear Data”) and newly self-aware computers have manifested themselves on the holodeck (TNG: “Emergence”). As a result, I initially wondered if Badgey’s malfunction and the emerging intelligence created by Fletcher using the isolinear core weren’t connected. The fact that the two plots were an unconnected coincidence just furthers the episode’s critique of the cliché’s ubiquity in Star Trek.

The rivalry between our primary lower decks cast who work on Beta shift and the nocturnal equivalents on Delta shift receives further development and we actually get to meet some of the Delta shifters. “Who’s shady as hell and knows this system as well as we do?” Mariner asks. When its revealed that Fletcher is to blame and has been lying to save himself, Mariner charges, “Dude, what you’re doing is so not Starfleet.” Fletcher counters, “You break rules all the time!” Mariner’s weak defense that she only breaks “dumb rules,” smartly calls her own philosophy into question. As Boimler concludes, “We’ve gotta rethink this whole ‘Lower Decks stands together’ thing.”

Finally, the upper decks plot nicely develops the increasing frustration that Security Chief Shaxs has with Captain Freeman’s commitment to solve problems diplomatically instead of militarily. As the Drookmani test everyone’s limits, the captain yells, “These guys are lucky I’m so ethical and considerate!” When Freeman finally lets Shaxs off the leash, he’s once again disappointed, “Nooo! We waited too long, weapons systems are down!” It’s no wonder he’s so ready to believe Mariner’s account and reward Fletcher for (accidentally) taking out the Drookmani. The fact that Fletcher’s new assignment aboard Captain Riker’s ship, the USS Titan, is described as Boimler’s “dream job” and the fact that Fletcher doesn’t even last one week on a first-tier starship ties everything up with a bow in the end.

• Remarkable starship: The Starfleet derelicts are Antares type cargo ships, which first appeared in TAS: “More Tribbles, More Troubles,” and were later included in TOS-R: “Charlie X,” “Court Martial,” and “The Ultimate Computer.” The derelicts in this episode go unnamed, but at least one has the call sign NCC-502.
• Remarkable setting: On the holodeck, Rutherford and Tendi flee from Badgey through the setting of the “Bajoran marketplace” program. The background faithfully animates two matte paintings of Bajor’s surface seen throughout Deep Space Nine.

• Remarkable guest star: J.G. Hertzler is among a handful of actors who has played seven or more characters across the Star Trek franchise. Most famous for his role as Klingon General Martok in Deep Space Nine, he returns as the Drookmani captain who shares a number of characteristics with Martok, including his one-eye and general disposition. Hertzler seems to really enjoy himself in the role.
• Remarkable North American snacks: While Dr T’Ana is enjoying nachos carnitas in the officer’s mess, Ensign Rutherford is eating a hamburger, Ensign Tendi has a taco salad, and Lt Jet has a whole tray of poutine.
• Remarkable “slips” of the tongue: Half the characters refer to the “Drookmani” as the “Dravani” — a subtle critique of how unimportant aliens-of-the-week tend to be, with interchangeable names: Tamarian, Takarian, Tarkanian, Talarian, Tellarite, Tarellian, Terkellian, etc.

8/10

LOW 1×05 Cupid’s Errant Arrow

Stardate 57601.3: The USS Cerritos is called in to assist the USS Vancouver with the controlled demolition of an unstable moon of Mixtus III. Using creative diplomacy, Captain Freeman is able to resolve all of the relevant objections of the natives of the various planets and moons in the Mixtus system, allowing the demolition to go forward successfully.

Holy continuity, Batman! Is it possible that “Lower Decks” can stuff too many references and call-backs from the rest of the Star Trek franchise into a single episode? “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” clearly attempts to test (and then break) those limits.

The A-plot revolves around Ensign Mariner’s suspicion that Ensign Boimler’s new girlfriend is literally too good to be true. Lt Barb Brinson is a senior officer on the USS Vancouver and is clearly way out of his league. As Mariner explains: “Brad, when a Starfleet relationship is too good to be true, then, Red Alert: it probably is! … she’s a secret alien who’s going to eat you, or a Romulan spy, or a salt-succubus, or an android, or a changeling, or one of those sexy people in rompers who murders you for going on the grass…” All of these have happened. Soji’s boyfriend was a Romulan spy (PIC: “Absolute Candor”), Dr McCoy’s old girlfriend was a salt-succubus (TOS: “The Man Trap”), Kirk falls in love with a woman who turns out to be an android (TOS: “Requiem for Methuselah”), one of Wesley’s girlfriends was a changeling (TNG: “The Dauphin”) and another girl he was hanging out with was an Edo (i.e., “one of those sexy people in rompers,” TNG: “Justice”).

This is just the beginning of the references. Back in the workshop, Mariner has developed a “string theory” wall that includes pictures of a salt-succubus, a Romulan spy, Wesley’s changeling, and Data’s android daughter Lal (TNG: “The Offspring”). Also included are pictures of Barb Brinson as a transporter duplicate (TOS: “The Enemy Within,” TNG: “Second Chances”), Major Kira surgically altered to appear Cardassian (DS9: “Second Skin”), the Klingon sisters Lursa and B’Etor (TNG: “Redemption”), two Bynars (TNG: “1100101”), a humpback whale (“Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”), and a Suliban (ENT: “Broken Bow”), along with the traditional picture of bigfoot.

We learn the reason Mariner is so confident in an amazing flashback sequence filled with angsty hilarity. Back when Mariner was serving on the USS Quito, her friend Angie is dating a fellow officer who turns out to be a Harvongian shapeshifter. When his secret was discovered, he changed form and ate Angie before being phasered to death. Although this memory fuels her frenzy through most of the episode, Mariner’s determination to unmask Barb comes off as increasingly unhinged. This completely changes when she finds potential evidence in the form of a discarded exoskeleton which seems to confirm that Barb has been taken over by a parasite like the ones who took control of Starfleet Command in TNG: “Conspiracy.”

When Mariner confronts Barb, we learn that Mariner’s own odd behavior has triggered similar suspicions. Barb theorized that Mariner was actually a rogue holodeck character or a Breen infiltrator, before coming to the conclusion that she was infected by a parasite. The episode kept me wondering and interested how this would be resolved. The eventual reveal that is was actually Boimler who was infected by the parasite was unexpected and satisfying.

The B-plot revolving around Tendi and Rutherford competing to win one of the latest-tech diagnostic gizmos (unavailable on lower-tier starships like the Cerritos) was relatively dull. However, the upper decks mission (C-plot?) was hilarious. Although the USS Vancouver is a top-tier Parliament class starship, its expertise focuses on “complex, large-scale engineering projects.” The Cerritos is brought in to help out with diplomacy when negotiations with the natives of the Mixtus system go south.

For the first time, Captain Freeman is allowed to shine. One of the moons of Mixtus III is unstable and threatens to collide with the planet, killing everyone. The Vancouver has been assigned to carry out a “controlled demolition” of the moon, but the various natives don’t agree: “Of all the moons we pray to, that’s one of the most important;” “It controls the tides for our summer crops;” “My family has lived on that moon for generations;” and “Moons can’t plummet; that’s something the government made up to control us!”

To answer each of these objections, Captain Freeman agrees: “We will relocate three tons of moon dust for people to worship;” “the farmers will have gravity systems installed for the tides;” “and you three, your ancestral homes will be relocated to the 6th moon, which will now technically be the fifth anyway.” This works for everyone except the representative of Mixtus II. Although Freeman works heroically to save the concerns of the holdouts as time runs out, she orders the implosion when she realizes that only two people actually live on Mixtus II. The fact that Mixtus II has a population of two highlights a frequent shortcoming in Star Trek. Often problems are presented as a “planetary” emergency (e.g., “Star Trek: Insurrection”). But if all the people on the planet can fit on single starship (or worse a single shuttlecraft), then it’s not really a planet-sized problem, in my view.

In the end, this was yet another solid outing for Lower Decks, which is rapidly earning its place as Star Trek’s new flagship.

• Remarkable crew diversity: Already boasting the most diverse alien crew in the franchise’s history, we learn that the Cerritos has a Phylosian in tactical. As Mariner says, “she seems like a nice plant person.” Apparently since the time of TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan” the Phylosians have joined the Federation.

• Remarkable officer: One of the Cerritos’ engineers, Lieutenant Jet, an African American, is characterized by Mariner as “like the… second coolest person on the Cerritos.” Meanwhile Boimler thinks of Jet as “a Kirk sundae with Trip Tucker sprinkles” and later calls him, a “big hunk hottie.”
• Remarkable starships: The USS Vancouver is a Parliament class starship assigned to large-scale engineering projects. The USS Quito is revealed to be an Olympic class starship like the USS Pasteur (TNG: “All Good Things”). It was wonderful to see Deep Space Nine again.

7/10

LOW 1×04 Moist Vessel

Stardate 57538.9: The USS Cerritos, in conjunction with its sister ship, the USS Merced, is attempting to salvage a giant generation ship built centuries ago by unknown aliens. Although the crew of the generation ship have long since died and become mummified, a vast cargo of mysterious molecular fluid remains intact. The fluid demonstrates the property of generating life from inorganic material, which potentially would have been used in terraforming. As the two starships tow the ancient hulk back Douglas Station, a containment breach releases tons of molecular fluid into the area of the tractor beams. The beams draw the substance to the starships whose inorganic hulls begin to be transformed with life-generating results. Fast action by Captain Freeman and Lt Mariner allowed the process to be reversed on the Cerritos, saving the ship. But the transformation was too far along to salvage the Merced, which has to be evacuated and abandoned.

Following up on three great initial outings, Lower Decks rolls out a perfect episode with “Moist Vessel.” I laughed out loud through the entire fast-paced, tight-knit romp.

The A-plot focuses for the first time on the relationship between Ensign Beckett Mariner and her mother, Captain Carol Freeman, previously only teased at the end of the pilot (“Second Contact”). Captain Freeman is obsessed with her self-image, which is completely disproportionate to reality. When the mission is initially going well, she muses aloud: “Starfleet Command ought to just start engraving my name on a plaque right now,” despite the fact that she’s essentially playing the role of tug-boat captain.

It’s no wonder nothing galls her more than her daughter showing disrespect in front of the crew, and worst yet, in front of her frenemy, Captain Durango of the USS Merced. During the teaser, which sets up the A-plot, Freeman gives a captain’s log and senior officers’ briefing that would have been completely at home in an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” But Mariner continually yawns throughout, complaining: “it is just so much information!” This satirizes the franchise’s tendency to include lengthy exposition including “Treknobabble” — almost (but not quite) to the point of breaking the fourth wall, which has already become the delightful dance of “Lower Decks.”

Since Captain Freeman can’t transfer her daughter off the ship (as we learned in “Second Contact”), she plots with Commander Ransom to create circumstances that encourage Mariner to be one who requests a transfer. Initially they try to make Mariner’s life miserable by giving her all the worst assignments on the ship — work details that even Ensign Boimler identifies as “Klingon prison stuff.” Mariner is undeterred, however, and finds ways to make even the worst jobs fun. (This should come as no shock: we’ve already been told in two previous episodes how much Mariner loves the brig.)

Captain Freeman’s escalation of her plot is much more devious. If Mariner is determined to love serving as an ensign on the ship’s lower decks, that’s what she’ll take away — by promoting her to become one of the senior officers! Mariner, now a lieutenant, is quickly hollowed out and is nearly defeated as she is made to “suffer” through all of the activities we’ve previously seen the senior officers share on the USS Enterprise. There’s filling out reports (“auditing the audits”), the late-night poker game, listening to stage performances that include the captain skatting vocal jazz, Lt Winger Bingston Jr’s one-man show “The United Federation of Characters,” and Commander Ransom singing songs while playing acoustic guitar. Perhaps worst of all are the interminable conference room meetings, covering topics that could have been inspired by the Ex-Astris-Scientia website: what kind of new chairs should the Cerritos have in the conference room?

The mother-daughter battle is titanic but remains at a stalemate when the enveloping plot breaks through. Captain Durango shares Freeman’s sense of petty rivalry and decides to reposition the USS Merced so as to claim the preeminent role in the salvage-mission. Durango himself had noted in the mission briefing “even the slightest flux in tractor beam stabilization could damage…” the containers storing the molecular terraforming emulsion. (We’ve also already seen Ensign Rutherford has been enjoying monitoring tractor beam amplitude fluctuations in Engineering.) The predictable result is that the containers explode and the emulsion is drawn to the two starships via their own tractor beams. (The fact that Commander Ransom orders “evasive maneuver alpha” instead of “disengage tractor beam” illustrates why he’s serving on a second-tier ship.)

The speed at which the emulsion begins to transform the Cerritos’ hull into plants, rocks, crystals, and water brings the crisis to the immediate forefront, causing Freeman and Mariner to shelve their fight and work together to save the ship. Hilariously, even now Mariner can’t lay off criticizing what she sees as her mother’s BS and Freeman can’t help second-guessing her daughter’s every move. We’re treated to a well-crafted sampling of the domineering mother / rebellious daughter relationship at the heart of these two characters and the show. Having teamed up to save the Cerritos while simultaneously rescuing (and humiliating) the crew of the Merced, Freeman begins to fantasize that they’ve turned a page: “Maybe you are fit to be one of my senior officers, your chair right next to mine, spending all our time together, an unstoppable mommy-daughter team!” Mariner reacts to this possibility with horror and takes her only path out, foreshadowed in the teaser: disrespecting her mother in front of Admiral Vassery.

The B-plot satirizes one of Star Trek’s most repeated and, perhaps, silliest tropes: the “ascension” of material beings into beings composed of pure energy. The most explicit examples are John Doe’s ascension to an energy being (TNG: “Transfigurations”) and Kes’ ascension to a place where the distinction between matter, energy, and thought no longer exist (VOY: “The Gift”). However, it’s happened frequently enough that Ensign Rutherford is able to cite the additional examples of Q (TNG: “True Q”) and the Traveller (TNG: “Journey’s End”) only to have Ensign Tendi dismiss the comparison.

Tendi accidentally disrupts Lt O’Connor’s pretentious ascension ceremony by destroying a sand mandala he’d been creating for two years. (O’Connor tellingly fails to grasp that the whole reason mandalas are made of sand is to show that nothing is permanent and to accept the fact that they inevitably get destroyed.) Desperate to be liked by everyone, Tendi spends the episode trying to make up for it by exposing O’Connor to a potpourri of spiritual practices from across the galaxy. Releasing a swarm of insects on him, she exclaims: “These florkas are a vital part of the ascension process for the Tamarians!” (a fun reference to the “Children of Tama” from TNG: “Darmok”).

It’s only when their lives are in danger during the crisis that O’Connor admits he was faking ascending as a way to try to stand out among fellow Starfleet officers. He and Tendi bond through harrowing adventures as the ship’s environment is transformed by terraforming emulsion. (The transformation of the ship is reminiscent of what was happening to the Enterprise in TNG: “Masks,” but taken to a degree only possible in animation.) In the end, O’Connor sacrifices himself to save Tendi’s life. Ironically, this selfless act triggers his actual ascension (a process that is unexpectedly frightening and painful). He briefly appears at the “Great Bird of the Galaxy” and has a vision of a cosmic Koala before becoming pure energy and achieving oneness with the universe. Hilarious!

The show’s brief format means that not all of our ensigns can be in the limelight every outing. But Ensign Rutherford shows his ongoing love for everything that happens on a starship and his commitment to being supportive of Tendi, no matter how inscrutable her emotions may be to him. Meanwhile, it’s hilarious how Mariner achieving everything Boimler ever dreamed of causes him to crack just as completely as her. His revenge, “accidently” spilling coffee on Commander Ransom happens at the height of the crisis, causing Ransom to scream, “Are you out of your mind?!”

I think this episode was essentially perfect. If just 50% of the thought or talent that went into writing this episode had been expended on Star Trek: Discovery’s first season arc, that show would have been amazing. If just the same amount of Star Trek continuity referenced in this episode had been spread out across the entire first season of “Star Trek: Picard,” that series would have markedly improved. I’m tempted to give “Moist Vessel” a “10” and the only reason I’m giving it a “9” is that I’m hopeful the show may have even better outings left in store.

• Remarkable officer: Durango is the franchise’s first portrayal of a Tellarite serving as a Starfleet captain. He previously served together with Carol Freeman aboard the USS Illinois and the two continue to be rivals.
• Remarkable admission: One of the worst jobs on the ship is “Holodeck Waste Removal.” When the captain wants to give Mariner even worse jobs, Commander Ransom insists, “I’ve got her emptying BLEEP out of the Holodeck’s BLEEP-filter!” Captain Freeman asks, “Uck, people really use it for that?” To which Ransom confirms, “Yeah, it’s mostly that.”
• Remarkable uniform detail: The soles of the uniform boots have Starfleet insignia on them, as we see clearly when Mariner lies down exhausted in her senior officer’s quarters. Later, when Lt O’Connor ascends, his boots are all that remain and Tendi saves them as a relic.
• Excruciating self-expression: For Commander Ransom’s birthday party (mandatory attendance for senior officers) he plans to sing and play acoustic guitar for hours. As Captain Freeman tells it, “the songs? Well, he wrote them himself! They’re all about month he lived in Barcelona!” Pronouncing the “c” in Barcelona pretentiously with a “th” sound which gives us a rich implication of the quality of the songs. Later on the bridge, Ransom is chatting up the tactical officer, and farcically says: “You know there’s no peninsula more sensual than the Iberian…”
• Remarkable captain-management: Ransom suggests Captain Freeman could solve her problem by giving Mariner all the worst assignments on the ship: “that way transferring would be her idea, not yours.” The captain immediately sits back in her chair and muses, “Hmmm… well, we could reassign to all the nastiest jobs on the ship, that way transferring would be her idea, not mine!” Without skipping a beat, Ransom is happy to let the captain take credit for the idea, “Brilliant plan,” he says, “that’s why you’re the captain.” I’ve had this precise experience in my corporate career and have found it’s much easier to let executives take credit for ideas that weren’t theirs, so that they will have buy-in to your plan.
• Remarkable argument: Freeman: “You know what, maybe I should just lead…” – Mariner: “Omigod, will you just stop?! I am good at this. Trust me.” – Freeman: “I’m just looking out for you.” – Mariner: “That’s the whole problem, mom, you treat me like a child!” – Freeman: “Well, if you would stop acting like a child and more like a mature crew member, I would treat you accordingly.” – Mariner: “Oh, you think I’m immature. You’re the one trying to trick me into quitting, how is that mature?” This leaves Captain Freeman speechless, so Mariner concludes, “Yeah, that’s what I thought, Carol.” – Freeman: “You did not just call me ‘Carol’!” – Mariner: “Whatever… Carol!”

9/10

LOW 1×03 Temporal Edict

Stardate not given: When the USS Cerritos’ mission to a peace conference on Cardassia Prime is downgraded to a delivery of “diplomatic trinkets” to Galrak V, Captain Freeman believes that the crew need to do something to earn the respect of Starfleet. In an attempt to maximize crew efficiency, she institutes an app-driven scheduling process that times each task. On completion, the app counts down the minutes to completion of the next task without any downtime. Commander Ransom leads the away mission to Galrak V, but accidently insults the Galrakians by delivering the wrong diplomatic trinket. The away team are imprisoned and Ransom must win their freedom in a gladiator-style trial-by-combat. Meanwhile, the Galrakians attack the Cerritos with boarding parties. But the overstressed crew are only able to repel the hapless, primitive boarders when Captain Freeman relents and cancels the scheduling app. As a result of this success, she institutes a new, more flexible policy that allows the crew to disregard rules at their discretion, which she names “The Boimler Effect” in honor of Ensign Boimler.

“Temporal Edict” surveys some of Star Trek’s most common clichés and then mines them for humor. The number of times enemies board and temporarily seize control of the ship (cf: TOS: “Space Seed,” “Wink of an Eye,” “The Way to Eden,” TNG: “11001001,” “Rascals,” VOY: “Basics,” “The Killing Game,” etc.) is only surpassed by the number of times away teams get captured and imprisoned by a planet’s natives (cf: TOS: “The Cage,” “Friday’s Child,” “Bread and Circuses,” “A Private Little War,” TNG: “Who Watches the Watchers,” and many more). Furthermore, on the planet, the theme of aliens conducting trials by combat (cf. “TOS: “Arena,” “The Omega Glory,” “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” “The Savage Curtain,” TNG: “Code of Honor,” DS9: “By Inferno’s Light,” VOY: “Tsunkatse,” etc.) – including the tendency of Captain Kirk and others to lose their shirts – is hilariously lampooned by Commander Ransom’s duel with the Galrakian’s giant champion, Vindor.

In addition, “Temporal Edict” positions itself squarely within Star Trek’s long tradition of serious social commentary by attacking the worst excesses of labor within the current gig economy. Timed, app-driven scheduling by today’s technology giants – most notoriously Amazon’s warehouses – leave workers overstressed, overworked, underpaid and contribute to unsafe workplaces as employees are denied downtime and must rush to complete their next task. The immediate and laughable results on the Cerritos highlight actual failings of similar policies today.

The formula for “Lower Decks” continues to be strong. Once again we have a standalone teaser in which Boimler, Mariner, and Tendi are in the ship’s bar, performing a concert for their crewmates. This is the meaning of life in the 24th century: “the challenge… is to improve yourself, to enrich yourself” as Captain Picard explained to Ralph Offenhouse, TNG: “The Neutral Zone.” We have previously seen crewmembers performing concerts in TNG: “The Ensigns of Command,” “Sarek,” “Lessons,” “Inheritance,” among others. Up on the bridge, Captain Freeman is facing off against a Klingon Bird-of-Prey in a classic shot made famous in ST3:TSFS; the Klingons are angered that they are being dishonored by Mariner’s “excessive bass.”

In the A and B plots, the time spent on the planet is funnier than the time spent on the Cerritos. In both cases, we get more of a sense of the upper decks officers. Commander Jack Ransom is a vainglorious prig, susceptible to flattery, but he proves he’s a badass in a fight, which Mariner finds disconcertingly attractive. Moreover, Ransom’s certainty that the entire problem can be solved if he delivers a really good speech satirizes a trope at Star Trek’s heart. We also get to spend a bit more time on the bridge. While Captain Freeman is steely-hearted and determined, she’s ultimately prepared to change course when her policy has been proved a failure. She also indicates that she recognizes and appreciates Ensign Boimler’s commitment to obeying her no matter what and is thoughtful enough to reward him by naming her new policy in his honor (even though it indicates that her perception of his actual character is superficial).

The end shot where the students of the future are studying Starfleet history is hilarious. It’s good to know that Chief O’Brien will finally get the credit he deserves.

• Remarkable quote: Ensign Rutherford: “You never admit the actual amount of time it takes to finish a job. If you did, your days would be packed… It’s creative estimating. When you get an assignment, you exaggerate how long its gonna take, then you’re a hero when it’s done early.” This mirrors Mr. Scott’s philosophy expressed in ST3:TSFS and TNG: “Relics.”
• Remarkable Federation member: Although Commander Ransom indicates concerning the Galrakians, “we just signed them into the Federation,” they clearly don’t seem ready for membership. There is some precedent for signing up unready members (“Star Trek: Insurrection”).

7/10

LOW 1×02 Envoys

Stardate not given: While ferrying Klingon General K’orin to the Federation Embassy on Tulgana IV, Ensigns Mariner and Boimler are stranded in the planet’s Klingon district (“Little Qo’noS”) when K’orin unexpectedly takes off with their shuttlecraft. After traversing the planet’s Risan and Andorian districts, Mariner and Boimler catch up to K’orin, hand him over to the Embassy, and recover their shuttle. Meanwhile, Ensign Rutherford explores postings in the command, medical, and security divisions before returning to his original job in engineering.

Is the second episode of a series too early to have established a formula? “Envoys” feels amazingly formulaic for the second installment of “Lower Decks.” We have a teaser that is totally unrelated to the main episode (à la “The Simpsons”), and then after the credits we follow our ensigns through their daily, inglorious routines, separated into and “A” plot, with scenes interspliced with a “B” plot. Despite the abbreviated 30 minute format, this episodic A/B formula is very much in keeping with Star Trek from the TNG/DS9/VOY era.

Once again, “Lower Decks” establishes its “Star Trek” bonfides in spades. No series has ever come close to this kind of continuity before. In the Teaser, Ensigns Mariner and Tendi encounter a typical Roddenberrian energy being. The visuals perfectly match the being that impregnated Counselor Troi in TNG: “The Child,” but it’s essentially the same trope as the energy beings from TOS: “Day of the Dove,” TNG: “Lonely Among Us,” TNG: “Power Play,” DS9: “The Assignment,” and countless other episodes. Ensign Mariner immediately sees the energy being for what it is, captures it and threatens to confine it. In response, it promises to grant her wishes (despite the resulting energy loss) and ends up giving her the 24th century equivalent of the newest iPhone.

The A-plot is more Star Trek still. Have you been upset by the retconned Klingons in Discovery? Well, you’re in luck: the Klingons you remember from TNG and DS9 are back. K’orin does everything from fight for fun, get drunk on blood wine, and sing Klingon opera. Little Qo’noS (the Klingon district on Tulgana IV) has a Gagh stand (cf TNG: “A Matter of Honor”) staffed by an aggressive Klingon woman reminiscent of Gi’ral (TNG: “Birthright”).

After the planet’s Klingon district, Boimler and Mariner enter the Risan district. As established in multiple episodes, beginning with TNG: “Captain’s Holiday,” the Risans are devoted to pleasure and lounging about in skimpy swimwear (including a same-sex couple). In this district, Boimler is nearly assaulted by an Anavaj — a telepathic creature who apparently hopes to lay eggs inside of him akin to the Alien in “Alien.”

Boimler and Mariner next explore the Andorian district where they precipitate a bar-room brawl. Among the aliens involved is a Lurian — the first we’ve every seen beyond Quark’s most loyal customer, Morn. Boimler causes the fight by stunning an Andorian who appears to be abusing an elder, only to learn that the elder was a shape-shifter, who assumes the form of a mischievous child and escapes. Mariner stops the brawl by buying 5 rounds of drinks for the house using a wallet she’d previously pick-pocketed.

His poor showing in contrast to Mariner is enough to break Boimler’s confidence in his book-learning. However, we should remember that this is only the 6th planet he’s ever been to (4th if you don’t count Earth and Vulcan). To build him back up. Mariner conspires with a Ferengi friend to play act a scene where Boimler can be the hero: a victory he’s happy to recount on the ship.

The B-plot is a survey of most of the work environments available to a “lower decks” ensign: engineering, command, medical, and security. We also get to see how the senior officers lead their divisions on the USS Cerritos. Although each seem distant and frightening from the perspective of a junior officer, we quickly see that Starfleet is an incredibly supportive work environment.

In the command section, First Officer Jack Ransom puts Ensign Rutherford through training simulations on the Holodeck, reminiscent of Deanna Troi’s Bridge Officer’s Test (TNG: “Thine Own Self”) and the legendary Kobayashi Maru Test (ST2:TWOK) which was conducted in earlier simulator rooms. They begin with an advanced test (Command Trainer #43): within seconds the ship is being drawn into a temporal rift, has lost 90% of its shields, and a hull-breach is imminent. Rutherford’s only orders are “uhh…maintain course,” which results in the ship’s destruction with a casualty rate of 105%(!).

At the end of the first test, Ransom advises Rutherford that in these situations, a good bet is to use something called “the Janeway protocol” before booting a test for beginners (Command Trainer #4). In this much more basic simulation, the ship is slowly headed for a collision with a small asteroid, and the helmsman even helpfully asks “shall we move to avoid?” However, armed with Commander Ransom’s tip, Rutherford orders “the Janeway protocol.” In the resulting collision, the Cerritos loses “the Kindergarten on Deck 8,” followed by the “Pre-K.” Looking at a horrifying/hilarious read-out, the Ops officer concludes “all of the ship’s children have been ejected into space!”

Rutherford’s time in medical breaks down as he lacks the bedside manner needed to keep patients’ spirits up. To his surprise, he’s much more suited to work in security. In a holodeck combat simulation entitled “Smorgas-Borg,” Rutherford is confronted by twelve Borg drones. Although he has no combat experience, he learns that his cybernetic implant includes a combat program. He handily defeats all twelve drones to the amazement of Security Chief Shaxs: “In the names of the prophets! I put people into that simulation so that they can learn how to deal with defeat…”

All in all, there’s nothing wrong with “Envoys.” We’re once again introduced to our four lead ensigns as they appeared in the pilot. The love letter to Star Trek: The Next Generation continues. The show’s satire doesn’t make fun of Star Trek or imply that the Federation is anything other than a utopia — it’s just having fun within that utopia. My only complaint is that everything was entirely too formulaic and predictable to offer any real surprises: even the reveal at the end that Ensign Mariner is so cool that she set up her own humiliation just to re-build Boimler’s confidence felt expected. Nevertheless, the show is just getting started and its initial outings have been very promising.

• Remarkable uniform: To ferry his Klingon dignitary, Boimler dons the sort of dress uniform from the TNG-era that actually looked a bit like a dress.
• Remarkable planet: Tulgana IV is apparently a completely neutral world operating under the “Tulgana Neutrality Pact.” The planet includes large colonies of Klingons, Risans, and Andorians (presumably among many others), and we see a large diversity of alien species both known and unknown from within and beyond the Federation.
• Remarkable catch-phrase: In a throw-away line in the teaser, Captain Freeman is working on what cool thing she should say when ordering the ship to warp. Examples include Kirk’s “Let’s see what she’s got!” (ST4:TVH) and Picard’s signature, “Engage.” Captain Freeman tests out, “It’s warp time!” and asks, “what do you think of that?”
• Remarkable alien: In the Andorian district, we are briefly introduced to a Vendorian shapeshifter: a race only previously seen in TAS: “The Survivor.” This is one more example that the exclusion of Star Trek: The Animated Series from canon has essentially ended.

6/10

LOW 1×01 Second Contact

Stardate 57436.2: The USS Cerritos is sent on a “second contact” mission to Galador. While setting up a subspace transmitter for the native inhabitants, first officer Jack Ransom contracts an alien virus. The disease quickly spreads, causing much of the crew to become zombie-like creatures. On the surface, Ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner encounter a giant spider creature that covers Boimler in a slime that proves to be a counter-agent to the virus. Dr. T’Ana is able to use the slime to synthesize a cure which is deployed through the ship’s environmental systems, saving the crew.

“Second Contact” is arguably the most effective pilot in the history of the franchise. This is not a particularly high bar, as pilots are tough: you need to establish the new ship or setting along with an ensemble cast and their motivations. I love “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” but “Encounter at Farpoint” can be so painful as cast members step into the spotlight and introduce themselves and their wooden backstories. Example: Riker to Dr. Crusher and Wesley, “You know the captain?” Wesley, “When I was little, he brought my father’s body back to us.” Dr. Crusher, “Yes, Wes. Long, long ago.” (Ack! It’s all like that!)

From the outset with Ensign Boimler’s fake/aspirational “captain’s log,” we get the premise. The USS Cerritos isn’t an elite ship like the Enterprise or Voyager. Instead, its much more like the Tsiolkovsky (TNG: “The Naked Now”) or the Brattain (TNG: “Night Terrors”) – the kind of ship that gets into trouble and has to be rescued by the Enterprise. Specifically, we’re told that this isn’t the type of ship Starfleet sends to make first contact with new life and new civilizations. This is the type of ship that makes “second contact,” which Ensign Boimler asserts is “still pretty important: you get all the paperwork signed; make sure we’re spelling the name of the planet right; get to know all the good places to eat…”

Moreover, the lead cast of this series is not the bridge crew of this second-tier starship. Instead, these will be the adventures of the ensigns who inhabit the ship’s “lower decks.” This concept has a lot of potential for parody and for interesting development. There were over 1,000 people on the Enterprise-D, but throughout most of seven seasons, only a handful ever did anything. What were the rest doing? We get a glimpse in the excellent TNG episode “Lower Decks,” which served as a source of inspiration for ST:LD. All in all, the premise is ripe for parody as we see in this initial outing. As the bridge crew are dealing with an alien virus that turns everyone into zombies, two of the lower decks ensigns are on a first date, hardly noticing the backdrop.

The pilot also successfully sets up our lower decks ensigns. We’re introduced first to Brad Boimler, an insecure white human male from California in the command division who dreams of becoming a captain but is unsure of himself. Next we have D’Vana Tendi, a female Orion woman in the sciences division who is experiencing a sense of wonder at being given her first assignment on a starship. (I’m very pleased that Lower Decks is following in the Star Trek tradition of having past enemies becoming part of Starfleet, cf. Worf and Nog.) Sam Rutherford is an engineering geek who has recently become a cyborg and is still getting used to the situation. And finally we have Beckett Mariner.

In contrast to her starry-eyed fellow ensigns, Beckett is a cynic who previously served as on a first-tier ship before being demoted. She knows and quotes Starfleet regulations, but she continuously undercuts and flouts them. In the course of the episode, we learn that Beckett is actually that daughter of Carol Freeman, the captain of the Cerritos and a Starfleet admiral. Captain Freeman comes off as officious and remote, decisive but inflexible. Beckett’s rebellion is clearly rooted in having been raised a “Starfleet brat” and in her relationship with her mother, the captain. This is a setup worthy of exploration.

There was a lot of talk a couple years ago about whether The Orville had eclipsed Discovery as the real new Star Trek series. There’s no doubt that The Orville was a direct rip-off of ST:TNG. I was happy to have new episodes and I really wanted to love the series. But the jokes were so lame. And the pacing was so terrible. I’m sorry if you love the series, but it just wasn’t funny.

That’s not true of “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” The pacing of this pilot was fantastic. The formula worked. The jokes were funny. The characters are great and have potential. Best of all: this really is Star Trek from the era of the next generation. Visually the series is amazing for its continuity. It thoroughly captures the TNG era, updated to make use of the interim uniforms we saw in Star Trek: Picard. Everything has been replicated from the cylinder suitcases (TNG: “Family”), to the bartender uniforms (TNG: “Lower Decks”). They even have a dune buggy (ST:Nemesis)!

Finally, the show does not simply rip into the franchise cynically. If anything, it’s a love letter to “The Next Generation.” The wonder with which D’Vana views the lower decks aft viewport of the ship at warp speaks to the show’s underlying heart. The same feeling is evident when Boimler steps onto the bridge – it’s a place of wonder which he’d love to inhabit, but isn’t sure he’ll qualify for.

With the first episodes of Discovery and Picard, I was cautiously optimistic. Although I found Picard to be altogether more satisfying after the first season than Discovery after its second season, both have been rather mixed outings. I finished the pilot of Lower Decks flying high and wanting more. Let’s hope they can build on this strong initial foundation.

• Remarkable alien continuity: In just the first episode, we’ve been introduced to Starfleet’s most diverse alien crew ever: a Caitian (TAS: “The Survivor”), a Bajoran, a Trill, an Orion, an Andorian, a Benzite (TNG: “A Matter of Honor”), a Bolian, a Vulcan. Given that there’s a “Cetacean Ops” section of the ship, we can assume there are dolphins on the crew.
• Remarkable human diversity: The Cerritos is the first series to have a black woman serve as captain. We see a Sikh wearing a turban and uniform in the shuttlebay (although we’ve seen a Sikh before in the person of Khan Noonian Singh in TOS: “Space Seed,” this is the first Sikh in Starfleet). We also see a human with a visor like Geordi LaForge’s.
• Remarkable intro credits: I laughed throughout the intro. TNG, DS9, and VOY established the long, slow series of ship and station fly-bys of astronomical phenomena set to orchestral music. Even though I love all three themes, those intros ultimately were boring. “Lower Decks” goes back to that well and introduces satire. We begin with the Cerritos navigating a gas stream similar to the one observed by the Enterprise in the Kavis Alpha sector (TNG: “Evolution”). Unexpectedly asteroids begin to hit the ship, causing it to fall back into the stream, narrowly avoiding destruction in the neutron star. In the second scene one of the Cerritos’ nacelles scrapes against a protrusion of an ice planetoid, causing the ship to lose power. We see the ship encounter a major battle between the Romulans and the Borg. Rather than become involved, they prudently turn tail. Finally we see the Cerritos warping along as a giant space-faring alien attempts to consume it. It’s a fitting parody of 1980s and 1990s Star Trek series intros.
• Remarkable station: It was established in TNG: “11001001” when the Enterprise-D docks at Starbase 74 that the Federation has built multiple space stations modelled on the original Earth Spacedock (ST3:TSFS). It makes sense that such a massive station should be defending the Federation’s capital, but it’s preposterous to imagine this is a standard design that is reused elsewhere. I’ve been offended by this re-use of footage since 1988, but it’s perfectly in keeping with established canon that the Cerritos should be docked at another one, named “Douglass Station.” (I hated the scaled up re-uses of station Regula One much more.)

8/10