Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x10 - "First First Contact"

[Bork359]

Good episode. They always manage to dial down the silliness for the season finale, it seems.

I hope for season 3 they break the trend of going back to balls-on-your-face absurdity for most of the season and stick to the more serious straightforward tone with a few jokes thrown in here and there for good measure.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Cetacean Ops was everything I dreamed it would be.

 

[Amaris]

Cetacean Ops was everything I dreamed it would be.

I love how the dolphins are clearly attracted to Rutherford.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I love how the dolphins are clearly attracted to Rutherford.

Starfleet clearly doesn't have HR anymore.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Cetacean Ops was everything I dreamed it would be.

Cetacean Ops is canon. Dolphins are a sentient species.

 

[eschaton]

Cetacean Ops is canon. Dolphins are a sentient species.

Might just have been the way they were drawn, but the LDS dolphins seemed to have big heads and small muzzles. Made me wonder if they were augmented or something.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Cetacean Ops is canon. Dolphins are a sentient species.

I'm aware of both things. But those officers were beluga whales.

 

[Tim Thomason]

I'm aware of both things. But those officers were beluga whales.
View attachment 24485

Yeah, but Enterprise-D had dolphins in their Cetacean Ops, so presumably they are sentient.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Yeah, but Enterprise-D had dolphins in their Cetacean Ops, so presumably they are sentient.

I know, I've always wanted to see it. I watched the show.

I think all whales are believed to be sentient given all of them have a language and clearly have a deep emotional life that we're only beginning to realize. The part of the brain responsible for emotions is larger in whales than in humans, so they may feel more than we do. Dolphins seem to have precise calls that refer to a particular individual, meaning they may have names for each other.

 

[fireproof78]

serious straightforward tone

It's a comedy series.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

10/10 and what a cliffhanger! Easily my favorite episode of the series and so much to love. What a great Star Trek story. All the character stuff has been laid out reasonably well throughout the season and pulled together in a satisfying way. I really enjoyed how the obvious reference gags were toned down with this, and replaced with much more subtle references and jokes, incorporating it into what the characters are doing rather than the characters pointing it out or having done to them. Visually amazing as well, and the solution of removing the panels from the ship was such a sight! I just finished the episode so I haven't had time to catch up on the thread yet but here were the bits that I found the most delightful or techy delightful:

- Gomez being consistently upbeat and positive
- Billups flipping out.
- Everyone FLIPPING OUT at the Tamarian security officer's suggestion, Worf style
- Dolphins being horny
- Dolphin uniforms
- RCS thrusters closeup!
- Rubber Ducky Room MSD reference (WHAT A REFERENCE!)
- First Officer Joystick
- Dolphins expressing their anger that something in their section that only they can reach was not even designed to be operated by them
- Star Trek 4 Kirk dive reference
- Keeping senior staff 'consistent'
- Gomez comforting the tripping ensign
- The ballroom dance competition, something I don't think we've ever seen in the TNG era but I am absolutely sure happened on the Enterprise as least three times a year.
- The Obena Class is beautiful. I have drawn the Excelsior Class with Sovereign nacelles plenty of times and it never looked good, but this ship is gorgeous. Adding the torpedo launcher into the deflector nook sounds silly written out but it just works!when you see it!
- Tendi and T'ana having era appropriate personal archetypes for science officers
- Tendi and Rutherfords relationship expressed through their love of starships. This is deep level Star Trek-ing.
- The aft, lower cargo bay doors (traditionally on the Excelsior, the bay is always open, might not even have doors?) The design I think is referencing the same fan style cargo bay doors on the belly of the stardrive section of the Galaxy and on the bottom of the Intrepid saucer.
- Very happy they removed the 2 extra impulse engines off the Excelsior-refit for the Obena.
- First Contact tech to remove the panels (they even have the same function! What fun!)
- Converting the viewscreen into an open port, lol. This is such a jab!

This was like a whole new level of "Star Trek at its best" for me!

 

[Awesome Possum]

Might just have been the way they were drawn, but the LDS dolphins seemed to have big heads and small muzzles. Made me wonder if they were augmented or something.

They're beluga whales. The Georgia Aquarium had two, I believe one has since died, they look like dolphins with larger melons. Those two liked to people watch. They would always park themselves near the windows and interact with the guests.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Since magnet boots were apparently useless, they should've found some way to tether all of the Bridge crew to the ship and each other.

 

[Orphalesion]

Well...that was a LOT!

First, the most important thing; we FINALLY saw Catacean Ops! YAAAAAAAAAAY
Hahaha, and I loved how obsessed the two beluga whales were with getting Rutherford naked; "You friend is saved! Let's celebrate by skinny dipping!" Their dialogue was awesome, but I had to pause the video quite often to be able to read the subtitles, I feel it might be part of the joke, but I didn't like that aspect of it, especially since their dialogue had some of the best jokes in the episode.
Also loved how clueless they were about the biology of land-dwelling humans:
"Your friend's blowhole is broken!"
"Keep pouring water on him so that he doesn't dry out!"

And well...that cliffhanger! I hoped we'd at least see a glimpse of who the new (most likely temporary) Captain is, now I'm gonna be in suspense until Season 3!
Loved the one lady getting angry that the ballroom dancing competition was postponed.
Loved Dr.T'ana purred when Tendi hugged her.

...speaking of Tendi...I really hope her promotion doesn't mean she will get less screen-time, I love her! I wonder if the Vulcan lady from last episode will take over her bunk when Tendi gets her own quarters. Or perhaps the Vulcan lady was just a joke and will never show up again...

Other than that it was also a really, REALLY good straight Star Trek episode; removing the plates and navigating through the asteroid field were both creative (more creative than the life action shows got a lot of the time) and suspenseful.
There was good character stuff, especially with Mariner and Boimler.
Also interesting that the Pakled Planet got blown up...was it the incompetence of the Pakleds or was it sabotage by the Klingon Empire to mask the actions of that one caption who sold weapons to the Pakleds?
In any case...I hope the Pakled Queen was saved! She is smart. She has a large hat.

Oh boy, there's so much about this episode to like...I haven't even gotten into the possible budding relationship between Mariner and Jennifer the Andorian yet...

10/10

 

[DS9forever]

Does it annoy anyone else that they can bring back that officer who spilled coffee on Picard but not any of the DS9 characters?

 

[Turtletrekker]

I do want to see some DS9 characters, but I have no problems with them bringing in Sonya Gomez in this context. She's the perfect, original example of a Lower Decker who worked her way up to a captaincy.

Besides, I've been loving all the references to Quark's becoming a franchise.

 

[fireproof78]

Does it annoy anyone else that they can bring back that officer who spilled coffee on Picard but not any of the DS9 characters?

No, but your username checks out on this account.

 

[Brobdingnag]

I was expecting the content of that mug in her hand to end on someone's uniform...

Good cliff-hanger!

 

[Aeolusdallas]

Starfleet clearly doesn't have HR anymore.

Dolphins are notorious sex pests in real life as well

 

[Awesome Possum]

Does it annoy anyone else that they can bring back that officer who spilled coffee on Picard but not any of the DS9 characters?

I think it's just another hint that Captain Freeman served on the Enterprise-D, that's why Mariner knows so much about what happened to the TNG crew.