Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x01 - "Strange Energies"

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' started by Commander Richard, Aug 11, 2021.

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Rate the episode...

  1. 10 - An excellent season premiere.

  2. 9

  3. 8

  4. 7

  5. 6

  6. 5

  7. 4

  8. 3

  9. 2

  10. 1 - A terrible season premiere.

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  1. Boris Skrbic

    Boris Skrbic Commodore Commodore

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    I’m saying “have fun with it”, not “be serious about it”. Why should McMahan cheat the setting into something more “approachable” so as to make it easier to employ traditional kinds of humor? Why not search for comedy on the basis of what makes the show Star Trek, especially when you’re in this particular era?
     
  2. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Speaking of cetacean ops, they're still teasing us with that!
     
  3. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yes there is.

    Reginald Barclay
    Kira Nerys
    Jadzia Dax
    Montgomery Scott
    James Kirk
    Ben Sisko (sometimes)

    All people who break the law/Starfleet regulation for the greater good, who follow their own internal moral code when they feel it needs to be done. Kirk, in particular, has been repeatedly reprimanded for going outside of Starfleet regulation. There was an entire movie dedicated to that consequence.

    It sounds like the humor you want is going to be much more nuanced and pedestrian, which is fine as it is subjective, than what Lower Decks is going to offer you. The show likes to touch on high concepts sometimes, but it's not a high concept show, it's a fun, blue collar look at a white color profession kind of show, like The Office, though with far more aliens and ball kicking.
     
  4. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    All comedy in Star Trek has been traditional. It's verbal, it's physical and character based. There is no one type of comedy based on it being Star Trek. And it's always been approachable.
     
  5. Tim Thomason

    Tim Thomason Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    We've had plenty of bad guy Starfleet officers (Tracey, Garth, Maxwell, Cartwright, Hudson). We also have had good guy officers disobeying orders at the drop of the hat (Riker getting promoted because of it, Picard and co doing it in a couple different movies, Tom Paris being a criminal and getting demoted to Ensign and tossed in the brig himself in Voyager for doing what he wants). Mariner is not the first of her kind. Her gig of wanting to be a Lower Decker forever is even shared by the likes of Crewman Harren on Voyager.
     
  6. NCC-73515

    NCC-73515 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm sure we're gonna see it this season
     
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  7. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I hope they never show it. Just tease us.
     
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  8. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The entire concept of Starfleet officers not having interpersonal conflicts is pure nonsense and deserves to be chucked out. I don't care if it's "Gene's Vision" -- by the time he developed that idea, the guy was not thinking clearly as a result of decades of alcohol and substance abuse. The idea that there won't be interpersonal conflict isn't even actually optimistic -- it's just dishonest. Real optimism wouldn't mean rejecting what humanity is today in favor of some idealized projection of the future; real optimism is saying that what is good in humanity today outweighs and will ultimately defeat what is bad in humanity.
     
  9. Tim Thomason

    Tim Thomason Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The way she phrased it, while obviously a joke aimed at the hardcore fans who know of Roddenberry's Rules, makes me think that, in-universe, it's just an unenforceable guideline for Starfleeters not to have interpersonal conflicts. It obviously was never adhered to in canon, except maybe the first few episodes of TNG.
     
  10. jackoverfull

    jackoverfull Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    yeah, I know it’s him but it doesn’t particularly sound like him to me. Had the same issue with the Q cameo last year.
     
  11. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    Just a hunch, but maybe it's a result of PAL speed-up? Seeing as you are located in Italy, you're most likely used to the voices having a slightly higher pitch.
     
  12. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    LDS Riker is a little more boisterous than TNG Riker. I think he was holding back on the D.
     
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  13. Tim Thomason

    Tim Thomason Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I don't think that's true, because Troi should be getting pregnant about this time.
     
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  14. Ryan Thomas Riddle

    Ryan Thomas Riddle Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm so happy that LD is back. How I've missed this fun take on Trek.

    With this episode, I feel the show has found the right balance of meta and story. Last season, the meta references overpowered the story and the humor from the characters/situation. But this one had it pitch perfect. And so many great lines.

    "We got sci-fi stuff happening here!" (I can totally see this now as 24th slang for "weird shit going on".)

    "It's leg day" nearly broke me.

    "[Pears] are mealy and bland. Fuck pears!" This is 100% true. Fuck pears.
     
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  15. Uhura's Song

    Uhura's Song Captain Captain

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    Yeah. As you say, it was never really enforced. Sometimes the conflict was brought on by outside forces (Naked Now, Mirror Universe, possession/transformation of a crew member, etc). But sometimes the crew member just went rogur (Spock in Menangerie, Kirk in the movies, Data numerous times, Sisko to win the war, Kira, Odo, etc).
     
  16. Tuskin38

    Tuskin38 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    He rated it a 1/10 lmao.

    He rated the Badgey episode a 6, which surprised the hell out of me. I thought he would have objected to the violence.
     
  17. Agony_Boothb

    Agony_Boothb Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I would argue it didn't really matter when he was alive either. *looks at TWOK and TUC*
     
  18. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    And TFF.

    Love it or hate it the fact that Gene disliked it so much and said it was "apocryphal" tells you all you need to know about how much he should have been listened to by 1988-89. He was trying to micromanage and dictate to the franchise even into his last few years.
     
  19. jackoverfull

    jackoverfull Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    interesting, but I don’t think this has much relevance these days: it shouldn’t apply to digital content. Anyway, any trek over seen (before 2010 or so) on a n analogical medium would have been dubbed and basically any trek I’ve seen digitally starting around 2009 or so was in English.

    Regarding Riker and Q, it’s obvious that the actors are just fitting in with the LDS style, that is very fast and exaggerated delivery, but it tends to have the effect of known characters sounding different than one would expect them to.
     
  20. daedalus5

    daedalus5 Rear Admiral Moderator

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    Using the Miranda class as an escape ship was great, very cinematic. The 4 lights joke, Gary Mitchell references and ultimately several kicks to the balls was great. Obviously, Riker…. Very nice to have Trek back.
     
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