Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x07 - "Much Ado About Boimler"

[fireproof78]

My pain, where Trek is concerned, runs real deep. But most of it has nothing to do with the content.

Well, we could do the whole pain sharing thing. Now with 50% less mind control.

 

[Lord Garth]

This is one of those cases where I'm absolutely a Doylist, not a Watsonian. The reason Riker stayed on the ship for seven years (plus the movie era) is because...well...Frakes was part of the main cast. In exactly the same way that high-school based shows try and find excuses to have their characters stick around after graduation.

They could have handled it better though. Like the idea to kill Will and have Tom Riker take his place. Or maybe engineer some sort of "fall from grace" for him which effectively mean the Enterprise is the last place in Starfleet he is welcome. Either one would give an excuse for Frakes still being on the show while not canceling out Riker's early characterization.

I think "Pegasus" (TNG) was made in part to explain why Riker would still be a Commander in the TNG Movies. When it was discovered that he helped Pressman, Starfleet probably held it against him for a while and Riker accepted it as a form of punishment. Which is something he was happy to go along with since he wanted to stay on the Enterprise anyway.

 

[cooleddie74]

[*Korrd opens new bottle of whiskey*]

 

[fireproof78]

I think "Pegasus" (TNG) was made in part to explain why Riker would still be a Commander in the TNG Movies. When it was discovered that he helped Pressman, Starfleet probably held it against him for a while and Riker accepted it as a form of punishment. Which is something he was happy to go along with since he wanted to stay on the Enterprise anyway.

Exactly.

 

[Sarcastic Vulcan Salute]

A more fundamental question about Mariner: why stay in the command division if she wants to avoid promotion? Maybe I'm weird, but isn't that the implication of a red uniform? A desire to lead?

In addition to being commanders-in-training, they are the ones who get to do all most of the cool shiznit without specialized knowledge or training. Although she is omnicompetent, she presumably does not want to be in engineering, security, or medical. Command, seems to me, is the Swiss Army knife of Starfleet: piloting, away missions, whatever command needs done. I suspect Command has the most variety to its assignments, the most impact you can have and the least hierarchy/bureaucracy in how you achieve goals. All of which would make it perfect for Mariner.

 

[gblews]

I liked this episode overall, Boimler’s storyline in particular. Loved those characters on the District 14 ship. I really would like to see the guy who was aging in both directions become part of the regular cast. Same for the captain with the evil but not “evil” laugh. Can you imagine that guy getting off that laugh on the Cerritos after some innocuous joke? These characters would add some spice and diversity to a too “normal” Cerritos crew.

Mariner’s was pretty interesting as well. Pretty cool when she took control of the rescue.. still hoping we get an actual story covering where she stands on pro,options.

Shout out of the week was Mariner mentioning “Jellico.”

 

[Charles Phipps]

Aging Guy tried to murder Boimler. I never want to see him again save on a prison barge.

This mutiny was the one time Boimler was right to tattle.

 

[Muji]

I’m a bit late to the party. I enjoyed this one again. It’s nice to have something easy to watch, without the need to overanalyse everything until the point it’s no longer enjoyable. Just good casual fun.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Though I imagine there’s an endless supply of them waiting in Hell for me.

What have you done to deserve to go to Hell?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Aging Guy tried to murder Boimler. I never want to see him again save on a prison barge.

This mutiny was the one time Boimler was right to tattle.

Boimler was nice enough to not file charges against the mutineers.

 

[SolarisOne]

O’Brian?

Nope. He was a Senior Chief Petty Officer, making him enlisted. He absolutely should have been a warrant officer, though.

 

[BillJ]

What have you done to deserve to go to Hell?

I plead the fifth, as those answers may serve to incriminate me.

 

[BillJ]

This mutiny was the one time Boimler was right to tattle.

Was he? These were folks who had been taken and held for months on end.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Was he? These were folks who had been taken and held for months on end.

Yes, the general jump from, "This is a long journey" to "this is a secret Federation prison camp" is a pretty big one.

 

[Sci]

The most unusual Starfleet ship ever?

Someone may have already covered this earlier in the thread, but I'd bet the USS Osler is actually a Klingon ship purchased by Starfleet. Why would Starfleet be using Klingon ships? Well, maybe Starfleet reassigned whatever ship had been working as the Division 14 transport to the front lines during the Dominion War, and they purchased an old Klingon ship to replace it. That would explain why the Osler's transport missions took so long: because she's an old ship not designed for speed.

Anthony the Hyper-Evolved Human was great. Threshold reference for the win.

I did not catch that reference! Good catch.

Mariner betraying her friend like that was terrible. At least be competent for the mission.

Pretending to be incompetent to avoid a promotion during low-stakes missions where no one gets hurt is not a betrayal.

And seriously, forgetting your Tricorders?

Isn't that the one thing everybody is supposed to take on nearly every away mission?

Yes. Hence why she thought pretending to be too incompetent to bring tricorders would mean she could avoid an offer of promotion.

This was definitely my least favorite episode of the season. I'll rewatch it later, but some of the schticks are starting to get old. Mariner's endless "don't promote me!" self-sabotage with no (that I can see) hint behind the why is a bit tedious at this point, and its amusement value was limited to begin with.

I think the point of this episode is to hint that something definitely happened to Mariner to traumatize her into refusing to advance in life. She's pretending she's still in her early 20s even as she's clearly at least in her early 30s.

Going back to my own diversity schtick, the pattern of most named characters having Anglo-Saxon/European names is getting on my nerves. Also, with Shaxs's kissing T'Ana (admittedly she's a cat so it feels weird) last week all eight primary characters have been involved in some heterosexual attraction/pairing, with no hint of anything else. Bleh.

Those are very, very fair critiques. I hope LD does better about representing LGBT people and not making it seem like everyone has Anglo-Saxon names.

The show has had Mariner state several times that she believes being an ensign is where the real action is, that ranking officers are unnecessarily obsessed with seeking glory and a place in the history books, that Starfleet has too much red tape. There's the implcation that she has issues with her captain mommy and admiral daddy. The whole subplot with her being promoted to lieutenant was about having to do a bunch of BS as a ranking officer she found tedious, which is saying something since she could derive joy from even the crappiest of ensign jobs. Basically, what she likes out of Starfleet (space exploration, mysteries, saving people, cool friends) she can get out of her current position, being a ranking officer doesn't really get her more of those things and comes with a bunch of stuff she doesn't want or like (obnoxious glory-seekers, following every stupid protocol to the letter).

I really think that's her rationalization for avoiding moving on with her life. She's in her early 30s but living like a 22-year-old because something happened to her and she's refusing to deal with it.

With three of the five main human characters being people of color, why does it matter that their names happen to be Anglo sounding?

It matters because no one culture should be depicted as being dominant over others in an egalitarian future. "Anglo" should not be the default setting for the human race.

 

[SG-17]

I find this show mildly entertaining but I wouldn't be annoyed if it didn't get a second season.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Mariner could just TELL her friend she doesn't want to be an XO.

 

[jackoverfull]

Was he? These were folks who had been taken and held for months on end.

yes he was. He could have handled the thing better, but honestly there is plenty of blame to share and both the “freaks” and the elosian captain acted horribly.

 

[BillJ]

Someone may have already covered this earlier in the thread, but I'd bet the USS Osler is actually a Klingon ship purchased by Starfleet.

Not sure why it would have the 'NX' designation if it was a repurposed Klingon ship?

 

[Charles Phipps]

I think it'd be more Lower Decks that the "demonic looking Warhammer ship" isn't a Klingon ship but maybe an Elosian other race that has different design philosophy than human. Also, that it probably looks warm and inviting to them.

Black perhaps invokes Johnny Cash to them instead of doom or, "What? You guys don't see into the ultraviolet spectrum? God, it must look so depressing to you."