Star Trek Lower Decks

Kalidor

Supreme System Overlord
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
It felt more like a Costanza thing to me. As for the game it was a mashup between d&d and a VHS board game in the 90s that was narrated by a klingon played by the actor who played gowron.
 

MrBlud

Well-known member
Citizen
This is one episode where their need for wacky sitcoms hijinks broke my suspension of disbelief.

Respecting culture or not, there’s no logical way the Captain would allow a hunt (that we’ve already seen disrupt ship operations) to continue disrupting ship operations. Doing it on the planet or the holodeck would’ve erased that complaint but it marred an otherwise good episode.
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
It felt more like a Costanza thing to me. As for the game it was a mashup between d&d and a VHS board game in the 90s that was narrated by a klingon played by the actor who played gowron.
Constanza? I'm actually not an indepth Trekkie. I've never followed any of the various series. Except Lower Decks now, it seems.

I thiiiiink I remember seeing an ad for a VHS game thing. But not Star Wars tho. Atmos-Fear?

I kinda enjoyed the Boimler bit more than the Mariner thing. Though the jump was cool. And nice to know Billups can still have fun.
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
Can someone explain the Ferangi D&D program in simpler terms? I'm assuming it's like an app and they just gave the A.I. a Klingon skin. But, well, is that really an A.I.? That can formulate a D&D session on the fly?
an older federation computer literally created machine life... twice, So... yeah, pretty sure the PADD can DM if it wants to.

Edit: and realistically; its seemed more like they were choosing modules so preloaded stories, and the outcome were determined by the dice, so... binary tree rather than AI, it just had a martok overlay to make it more immersive.
 
Last edited:

Dake

Well-known member
Citizen
And holodecks regularly generate appropriate interactions for sessions.

I'm with Kal that it was mostly supposed to be a nod to the old VHS games (as entertainingly depicted in an episode of Community).


Edit: I didn't realize there actually was a TNG VHS Boardgame that came out back in '93 (I guess that's what you meant Kal).

pic19616.jpg


Now that's a deep cut.
 
Last edited:

Kalidor

Supreme System Overlord
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Constanza? I'm actually not an indepth Trekkie. I've never followed any of the various series. Except Lower Decks now, it seems.

I thiiiiink I remember seeing an ad for a VHS game thing. But not Star Wars tho. Atmos-Fear?

I kinda enjoyed the Boimler bit more than the Mariner thing. Though the jump was cool. And nice to know Billups can still have fun.

George Costanza. He's always come up with these crazy ideas to succeed in life. Like whatever the first thing that comes to mind about how to handle a situation he does the opposite, or say yes to everything. He was a character in the show Seinfeld.


costanza-arm.jpg
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
I... saw some Seinfeld. I thought Costanza was a Trek reference, haha. I guess his Yes Man way isn't done in moderation or whatever, aw.

Oh yeah, holodecks are programmed to respond to anything. They could have done a holodeck D&D session but maybe they just wanted to sit down and relax, hehe

Could be edging towards mature territory if talking about Billups almost almost accidentally becoming king, haha
 

Dvandom

Well-known member
Citizen
Why not the holodeck? Well, at least Mariner was supposed to be on duty, they were goofing off in the repair bay (Boimler was almost definitely not on duty, but by now he's come to accept that he's going to be complicit in Mariner goofing off).

Why would such a game exist when it could be done so much better on a holodeck? Well, not everyone is going to have unlimited holodeck privileges, especially lower ranks (and civilians). So less immersive gaming options will still have a place. If everyone has a copy of the program, it could be played over comms too.

---Dave
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
There's no TV or video games outside the holodeck, and those are generally rarefied resources. I suspect that once you get away from senior crews (who seem to wet their panties over poker.) there's all kinds of board games to be had.

Gotta kill time SOMEHOW... other than drinking. And I can't imagine getting sloshed on synthahol everynight is fun.
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
Considering the propensity for *poker* in star trek: you'd think it was how gene paid for the show.
 

Haywire

Collecter of Gobots and Godzilla
Citizen
Edit: I didn't realize there actually was a TNG VHS Boardgame that came out back in '93 (I guess that's what you meant Kal).

pic19616.jpg


Now that's a deep cut.

We had that game! The only thing I remember about it is being commanded to "Experience Bij!" at regular intervals. To this day, my siblings and I will occasionally still shout that at each other...
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
The ironic part of all this is: none of what they did is particularly hard to do or implement... except the ******* dice! We could make an "interactive novel" with a branching narrative (and it's done all the time.) using a random number generator and asking the player(s) to hit the button to determine outcome. But an actual, factual rolling die that interacted with the computer? Shit might as well just skip the technology all together and have a living DM.

Though I am suddenly burdened with the concept of role playing starfleet officers, role playing klingons. That would be meta as hell... but the DM could just scream "RED ALERT" whenever they want a bio break.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
The ironic part of all this is: none of what they did is particularly hard to do or implement... except the ******* dice! We could make an "interactive novel" with a branching narrative (and it's done all the time.) using a random number generator and asking the player(s) to hit the button to determine outcome. But an actual, factual rolling die that interacted with the computer? Shit might as well just skip the technology all together and have a living DM.

Though I am suddenly burdened with the concept of role playing starfleet officers, role playing klingons. That would be meta as hell... but the DM could just scream "RED ALERT" whenever they want a bio break.

I don't think its that hard, just have a tablet or device that can read, likely special, dice and have that replace the button based rng. It might not be 100% like what we see in the episode, but still seems plausible with modern tech.
 

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
Oh, the big problem is getting it to consistently read properly, and the dice not destroying itself after a couple of rolls.
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
Guys, I’m people! 😂😂😂

I thought he was about to get a new gf with the awkward transmissions.
Even though he had one in a previous ep, I don't see Boimler getting a girlfriend that is on his level of awkwardness. She (ooor he?) would have to have a stronger personality to offset his insecurities.

What's wrong with bird guy? I've seen the last season and I don't recall what's off with him.

Cool ep even though it's a cliche theme.

My nightmare would be being up under pressure. And being hunted by a monitor lizard. My fantasy would be censored.
 


Top Bottom