Star Trek Lower Decks

[Dake]

Woo, tough crowd here. Yeah, it was a well-worn sitcom trope but I didn't really see anything out of the ordinary for the show aside from perhaps not putting the twist on it that they tend to be good about.

Spoiler

Carol is rightfully stressed based on everything she and the ship has been through, and the Swing-by program is her attempt to regain status not just for herself but for the entire ship class.

Mariner is a victim of her own decision making. Yes, she was innocent this time, but she was also utterly dismissive of her mom's concerns in the build-up. Not to get too heavy, but anyone that's been in a semi-abusive/co-dependent relationship can relate to the idea that trust once lost is hard to recover and even easier to lose again. The proverbial straws are smaller than ever in those situations. Obviously they are ALL in need of real counseling which is beyond the scope of this show, but it's far from unrealistic that the Captain's response was swift and draconian and not even really out of left field - SB 80 has been the threat for a bit now.

Even Boimler and gang believed she had done it - just that she hadn't realized what the results would be. As for Jen, she's known her for even less time so I'm not surprised. Ultimately it's just a good example of if you act like a self-absorbed, inconsiderate asshole most of the time, don't be surprised when people assume that's who you are all the time.

 

[Kalidor]

Tropes are okay. I just feel like they didn't really do anything outside the box to subvert it. I feel like the whole thing was just an excuse to provide a set up for the final scene.

 

[LiamA]

And we know from Picard that there's a synth "uprising" in four years (in 2385, whereas LD is currently in 2381).

Spoiler

When Peanut Hamper escaped the debris field, we saw Rutherford's old implant float by and suddenly become active. There could be a trace of Badgey on that, either as or in addition to whatever "evil-Rutherford" protocols the Section-31-like guys installed.

But is Lower Decks in the same continuity as Picard?

 

[Kalidor]

Yes but Picard is further in the future.

 

[MrBlud]

Having Badgey and/or the other “hilariously” evil machines playing any role in the deaths of 90+ thousand Martian colonists would seem to erase all of the comedy and just leave the malice…which wouldn’t be very funny IMO.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

The Captain is 100% right about Starfleet needing the Swing-by program. Wrath of Khan alone establishes that.

I loved the reference to how Picard cut the druggie planet off and then just left because that's exactly the sort of thing that happened in Classic Star Trek when the plot or metaphor of the week tied up. And when you think about it that's pretty messed up. It's exactly the sort of thing it's fun to see Lower Dec recognize and play with.

-ZacWilliam, as soon as the Reporter turned on them it was obvious it was not actually Mariner imo, but I would have liked to see some reaction from the crew whose fault it actually was when the footage aired.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I kinda wish TNG had followed up on the onarrans, simply because I want to know how many people picard's actions killed.

 

[Dvandom]

While I agree that it would be a tonal problem to have the LD evil AIs involved in the Synth Uprising, if we ever do get more detail or background on that, you can be assured that Jeffrey Combs will be involved somehow.

---Dave

 

[Kalidor]

I guess I just always assumed off camera ships did follow up and establish relations. I feel like this was even mentioned in passing once or twice.

They still need to follow up with the gangster planet.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I think they did the gangster one in a book: they found mccoys communicator, developed starfleet level technology, and peacefully co-exist in three factions: red shirts, blue shirts and yellow shirts.

Yeah... I mean... Consistent at least.

 

[Cybersnark]

There was an Iotian Starfleet officer in the SCE books. He was fun; fully at ease with modern technology, but still talked like a 1940s gangster.

 

[Kalidor]

I have to be honest here, I don't know anything or care anything about the books. Anything that's not on-screen is fanfiction to me. I'm glad other people had it on their minds, I just don't even bother with books, comic books, story books. Even Star Trek Online isn't something I take too seriously.

Lower Decks is pushing it, but at least it's something that interacts with the stuff on TV and movies.

 

[Shadewing]

Well, if you want to get pedantic, anything Star Trek that wasn't made by Gene Roddenberry is technically just official fanfiction; regardless of medium.

 

[MrBlud]

I always like Star Wars (old) approach to canonocity.

Everything is canon unless/until a Movie or show overwrites it.

It gives you a much more comprehensive universe without breaking stuff into “tiers” like most other stuff does.

 

[Dake]

Except for all the folks that ignore it when they don't like something.

I think Logan had the best solution to the canon issues: anything contradictory is from in-universe fiction like comic books. Of course, that's kind of what they did with Enterprise and that really made people mad.

 

[wonko the sane?]

When you get something this big, this long... spanning this many generations... it gets entirely too complicated on a social and cultural scale to bother figuring out how to do it "right". The way that gets more content made is the right way to do it, that's pretty much all there is.

 

[Cybersnark]

I mean, Star Trek has canonically included parallel universes since TOS.

Interestingly, TOS, TNG, DS9, and even the Abrams movies all suggested (and Discovery all but confirmed) that these parallel timelines are actually parallel --as in something that happens in one universe (like a random group of people all coming together to serve on the same crew) has an increased likelihood of happening in another universe, and another, and so on. Call it fate, destiny, or quantum resonance, but it means that even if a specific work is non-canon, something similar might have happened.

Spock commented on this in the Abrams movie, and Worf saw it in "Parallels," where some of the alternate timelines were so similar that he didn't initially realize he'd shifted (while even the apocalyptic Borg-infested universe still had a Galaxy-class Enterprise). Discovery's confirmation was in establishing that by the 32nd century the "Mirror" universe had diverged so much that it was no longer "accessible." We also see it in Star Trek Online, which cribs elements from the Relaunch novels and the "canon" timeline, but is still happily not burning down its own house because it's irreconcilable with Picard.

(This also allows me to accept that the Secret Hideout era just happens in a different timeline, where events similar to Classic-Trek played out, but everything looks different.)

 

[Kalidor]

Well, if you want to get pedantic, anything Star Trek that wasn't made by Gene Roddenberry is technically just official fanfiction; regardless of medium.

Perhaps. But I still limit myself to the first rights holders, not licensed products.

 

[Dvandom]

The Iotians still don't have a "definitive" resolution. In the comics, they returned McCoy's communicator un-examined a few years later.

---Dave

 

[Shadewing]

Spoiler

I just had a potential vision of the future. Here, we have an AI controlled Warship. It seems clearly designed to combat threats like the Breen and not sure how it could be used for anything else. This season ALSO set up the idea that the two evil AIs might team-up... and well... if two evil AIs somehow control/convince three super-powerful AI Warships to join them... That's gonna be a pretty epic finale in a later season.

Spoiler

Someone online suggested Badgey as the third evil AI, and despite not being sure how that would happen, would be a return I'd be ok with.

And we know from Picard that there's a synth "uprising" in four years (in 2385, whereas LD is currently in 2381).

Spoiler

When Peanut Hamper escaped the debris field, we saw Rutherford's old implant float by and suddenly become active. There could be a trace of Badgey on that, either as or in addition to whatever "evil-Rutherford" protocols the Section-31-like guys installed.

Spoiler

Okay, so I wasn't 100% right, but I also wasn't expecting it to be THIS season finale. I felt they would let this brew for another season. Be a background element of Human vs AI and not just be all done in a single episode. Also good call on the implant Cybersnark.

The one thing about this episode that I don't fully get, is why the girl was being cagey about who was funding them if it was all above board. I get why story wise, just not in-universe character wise. Not even a "I just don't like the idea of being funded by a Starfleet Admiral" unless I'm forgetting a line like that with everything else going on in the ep.