Haha, the weirder the better!
After last week's very good entry this is another one, I like that. Keep it up. :D
That was the... weirdest episode so far.
Holy photon torpedoes! This episode was totally bonkers and absolutely hilarious! And chock-full of Star Trek canon (?) references! Also, John de Lancie doing the voice of Q!! <3
Um yes to the single letter addition haha
[7.3/10] Oh man, this may have been continuity/reference overload, even for me! We got salt monsters! We got a Gorn wedding! We got a Klingon-style trial setting! We got Enterprise-style MACOs! We got stolen Romulan warbirds and fan dances and former President of the Federation/Time-Altering Antagonist Kurtwood Smith as our weekly guest star! It’s a lot, to the point of being a little indulgent even to someone like me who laps that stuff up.
But we also got Q! And John de Lancie himself voicing the character! And I couldn’t be more pleased! I know that’s hypocritical after my mild grousing in the first paragraph here, and this is total fanservice, but by god, it’s fun! One of the great things about animation is that you can jump back and forth in the timeline without having to deal with the fact that your actors have aged or that different parts of your stories take place in wildly different time periods. (This is something Star Wars has done well with given its own multi-decade multi-generational run.)
So not only getting Q back, but putting him in a medium like this one, where the years don’t show and his reality-warping powers can go even more hog wild than before, is perfect. The initial scene where he throws the Cerritos officers into an endlessly confusing “game” was a delight. I liked the tag -- where he complains about Picard in that trademark de Lancie sarcastic-yet-whimsical tone -- was even better. Again, I know this is cheap fanservice, but damn if it didn’t work on me.
Honestly, despite some of the same “Hey, remember this thing!” vibe that permeated the rest of the episode, I still liked this one overall! The structure of four people reconstructing the same set of events is a good one! The conceits of Rutherford’s implant “rebooting” him and Tendi accidentally bluffing her way into a mission as “The Cleaner” are fun devices. Plus, there’s a reason that Star Trek returns to the “trial” structure so often -- it fits well with the demands of television to add stakes and play with structure. The fact that the whole thing was just a celebration, as nonsensical as it is, is a fun twist for a comedy to bring to the end.
But I also like the larger message -- that even senior officers are fallible. As much as those folks can seem like super genius best friends, especially in the TNG era, the notion that they don’t share everything with the rest of the crew because they’re just muddling through themselves is a strangely humanizing one. The sense that the heroes of our Star Trek stories are not perfect individuals we could never hope to live up to, but just devoted folks doing their best amid unknown situations, and the idea that this is the core of exploration, is a really heartening one. The delivery isn’t perfect, but I really like the message.
Overall, I still count this one as a win for Lower Decks. It’s more indulgent in the reference-a-palooza than usual (which is saying something, since this show usually isn’t shy about such things), but it also has something to say here, and uses the continuity cavalcade to help say it.
That was a good episode. The guy walking in saying “...you only paid for 22 mins...” exactly at the 22 min episode marker. Brilliant.
On the whole, these episodes keep getting better and better. What I loved about this episode in particular is the subversion of expectations. If we were to go by any of the Trek trial scenes of times past, this would definitely fit the bill, and in that aspect, it played on our thoughts and expectations in the perfect way. This is the second episode in a row where we've effectively been "tricked", and I'm here for it. I wouldn't want this type of episode all the time, but it definitely is something they can pull out of the playbook from time to time.
Also, most of the Trek references worked well. Where there too many about intricate details that Boimler shouldn't know about, yes. But when done right, they are quite beautifully nostalgic.
The continued character development has been great to see as well. In many ways the mystery of Rutherford was the most interesting thing of the episode. Is he Starfleets secret weapon? Tendi is adorable as usual, while Mariner is becoming less nonchalant and beginning to move toward what I expect from a Starfleet crew member. Well, and Boimler is, Boimler.
Lastly, it's almost like the guy presiding over the "party" was the surrogate to the audience that has been watching the show. Even he can't believe some of the antics that these officers have been involved with. He even comments about how that's not what Starfleet is all about or the principles they adhere to. In the end, it seems the episode can be interpreted as maybe you the viewer have been holding Starfleet as a concept in too high of a regard. The difference between the Enterprise and the Cerritos is real; now it's up to us to realize that.
Decent ep, bit hyper but ok.
Shout by Eduardo LUBOBlockedParent2020-10-02T02:11:45Z