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

But you resort to bringing up relatively serious examples which have nothing to do with unilaterally power-washing an alien building while their representatives are in the process of selecting their subspace number. Let’s take 30 seconds to repeat that premise a few times.

Now, we don’t really care what happened in the 2260s or the 2280s because the Roddenberry Box wasn’t in place back then. The year is c. 2381, while VGR ended c. 2377. Lower Decks is riffing on TNG, and Piller was in fact Roddenberry-boxed by Berman’s decree, even if they were able to loosen some restrictions by allowing more serious conflict, often involving Starfleet personnel leaving Starfleet in the end. McMahan can’t do that in a comedy, so he’s cheating silliness into the setting rather than looking for humor in the basics.

Why would working out the details of a latinum vacation be pedestrian humor? It would be original as opposed to ridiculing tropes. Again, because of all the little questions raised by Gene’s Vision, I’m saying you can actually get away with portraying it to the letter and people would find it funny because you’re not avoiding everything Berman would have.

Gene’s Vision isn’t that approachable, so much of the TNG era isn’t either.

Again, serious examples in the absence of silly examples. What you need is Starfleet officers in the TNG era acting like Lwaxana Troi or Q. Jumping on a fellow officer with a bat’leth. Tinkering with someone’s cybernetic implants. Agents of whimsical chaos, not people with issues.

 

Gawd, I’m giving it a 5, which is the lowest I’ve given any Lower Decks episode. Even the weaker episodes of the first season tended to have a few decent gags, but this had nothing.

 

You keep making the same incorrect points, which no one has called you out for.

Mariner does not "unilaterally power-wash an alien building" nor does she do so "without asking" as you claim in an earlier post.

She clearly asks her mother (and Captain) if she can go power-wash the buildings in the their scene, and Freeman agrees, albeit "unofficially" with a "go for it". Unlike last season's finale when she was handing out art supplies to the Betans or last season's opener when she was secretly giving farming supplies to the Galardonians, everything she does this episode (with the exception of kicking Ransom in the balls, a ship-saving measure she does in tandem with Dr. T'Ana) is above board and sought with approval beforehand.

Incredible character development.

One man's silly is another man's serious. I'm sure Dulmur and Lucsly found Sisko's silly time travel shenanigans in Trials and Tribble-ations to be serious.

 

"we" don't need anything.

A lot of us find the humour fine the way it is.

 

“Clean your public spaces, people. It’s not that hard.” This sounds right to everyone?

Yes, the captain did in fact authorize the power-wash, which just makes it weirder. Did Starfleet reach a preemptive agreement with the aliens so that officers could pull such stunts? Did the captain inform the government of Mariner’s proposal? Why not focus on the visible smoke instead and have a serious discussion on pollution? And how can you refer to slightly less silliness than before as “incredible character development”? Mariner ends up in the brig like it was nothing, whereas ensigns in the rest of TNG era would be worried about their permanent records (or do everyone a favor and leave Starfleet).

Darvin was missing, so of course they were serious. It’s an example of comedy constructed out of built-in rather than cheated-in elements.

So to you the show is funny and witty and original as opposed to a collection of famous tropes and references, with characters acting in an exaggerated manner for no particular purpose? Galaxy Quest is funny. LDS is mostly about a mild chuckle from time to time.

 

"I don't find it funny, so you can't either".

 

No, because Picard would solve it with Subsection A on reducing pollutants referencing an expert evaluation on how best to proceed with cleaning and restoring historical buildings. And I’m sure other Berman-era captains would stick to procedure also. Case closed.

 

Captain Freeman isn't very good at these things.

That's part of the fun of the show. However, this is "believably" terrible at her job in the fact that she's just authorizing Mariner to clean buildings rather than anything that could possibly be assumed to have problems for the group.

 

Starfleet can't be ALL or even 90% fully competent and well-rounded Captains. Look at the Admirals. Those duplicitous liars and co-conspirators came from somewhere and that somewhere was the lower ranks.

 

All MU imposters. Starfleet is perfectly run.

 

Don't give DSC any more ideas.

 

They already had that one.

 

Unfortunately. Le Sigh.

 

As opposed to the string of corrupt admirals?

 

I'll take corrupt admirals over Lorca being an MU spy the entire time. That is the single most disappointing thing about DSC to date. The most complex and promising character ended up being from the Mirror Universe and was squandered because the writers needed a gimmick.

Bureaucracies create corruption and criminals. Parallel universe explanations for wounded and emotionally-complicated characters just so that we can say we "get the audience" and understand Trek lore is just lazy. But hey, to each their own.

Lorca had the potential to be one of the all-time greatest Trek leads. And that was wasted. I'll take a dozen Admiral Cartwrights and Doughertys over that disappointment.

 

Lower Decks is usually at its best when Mariner is doing minor insubordination that wouldn't even be notable because it's almost always trying to make things move faster. Giving out farming tools and supplies early and so on. In Star Trek where freedom is something emphasized everywhere and they're incredibly mildly military, it's not worth it. The "start an alien uprising" thing is certainly different but, again, they were being eaten.

The joke should be that Mariner is not really that rebellious and Captain Freeman is just extraordinarily strict for a Starfleet Captain to the point of being ineffective--the problem made doubly personal because one is the daughter of the other (why they SHOULD be on different ships).

But, you know, exaggeration for comedy.

 

I assumed approachable meant relatable. In spite of "Gene's Vision" the actors and writers attempted to make the characters and situations relatable. The comedy elements as well. Riker's joshing with Data. Wesley's holodeck hijinks. Worf's stiffness. Troi and her chocolate.

 

How optimistic.

 

Reality.

I don't need Trek to always be hopeful but I do need to walk away not horribly disappointed in the writing choices.