Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 3x07 - "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption"

[CorporalCaptain]

This was an excellent episode, best so far of the season. They braked for nobody when writing this one.

I can't help but think if PH deserved to be placed with other evil computers... she didn't exactly show tendencies towards destruction of organic life, just selfishness and lack of general interest... but now being Agimus and other evil computers, she's definitely going to be influenced to become an evil sentient computer.

At the end of the episode she was trying to call the Borg, so, she sure as fuck did "exactly show tendencies towards destruction of organic life." Winding up in a crate warehouse is exactly where she belonged.

 

[ExtremeSail]

Rutherford's old implant lit up at the beginning, maybe Badgey saved himself in there. Looks like we're in for a self-aware megalomaniacal computer team-up against the Cerritos.

 

[Deks]

This was an excellent episode, best so far of the season. They braked for nobody when writing this one.


At the end of the episode she was trying to call the Borg, so, she sure as fuck did "exactly show tendencies towards destruction of organic life." Winding up in a crate warehouse is exactly where she belonged.

I know that its a bit of a semantic I'm using here, but the Borg don't exactly 'destroy organic life'... they ignore or assimilate it, depending on how 'useful' its deemed to the Collective.

There is 'destruction' involved on an internal level where the biological organism is integrated into the Hive mind though... so there's a loss of individuality yes (And forceful imposition of it too), but megalomaniac AI's that are bent on destorying organic life are bent on actual destruction (aka, leaving no trace of organic existence).

The Borg at the very least preserve organic life, enhance it via technology, and under different circumstances CAN be liberated from the Collective by other species.

So, there IS a difference.
And besides, Peanut Hamper seemed to have a personality of a rebelious teenager for the most part and was 'acting out' mostly.
Still not sure if locking her up with other megalomaniac AI's was a good idea. I'd suggest councelling/rehabilitation if anything else, and only if she started exhibiting murderous intent, then lock her up with other megalomaniac AI's.

By placing imprisoning her with Agimus and others (especially so she can communicated with them), she will certainly be pushed into their way of thinking further (basically, she may have been at a point where she could still redeem herself... but putting her in with Agimus and others destroys that).

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, no.

 

[eschaton]

Personally, I thought it was the best episode by far of the season. Maybe not perfect, but they did something different, and I respect them for it.

For the first time since wej Duj, we get an episode which is primarily from the POV of someone other than the lower deckers. Actually, it's far moreso than that episode, where they were still involved in the C plot. Here we're all in with Peanut Hamper for the first 16 minutes, and the Cerritos was only brought in at all in the final nine. Even then, it's really the bridge crew who are the main interface with Peanut Hamper. Tendi gets a few lines, befitting her "close" relationship with Peanut Hamper when we last saw them. Mariner and Boimler get a line or two, but I don't think Rutherford even speaks. This was a bold choice.

And it pays off in spades. This episode is a very different sort of comedy than most of Lower Decks. There's very little humor here based upon Trek references at all. Instead it's basically "What if we speedrun Avatar, but with a piece of shit for a protagonist?" There's many other references mixed in as well (like the obvious Castaway joke in the opener), but for the most part this is a deconstruction of the Heroes Journey arc, with a completely unlikable protagonist who almost fools you (and the other characters) that she's actually grown into a hero, only to have it quickly subverted. This is not an episode of a workplace sitcom, this is satire.

It was also a smart choice to use Peanut Hamper for this, because this episode is mean-spirited in such a way that it simply could not be done with the main cast of lower deckers. She was the perfect protagonist for this dark, depressing, yet amusing story.

Also, they found a way to get J.G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs back, which is enough to add two to the score alone in my book.

I personally think a ten, because it did exactly what it set out to do. Asking for a different ending to this is like asking for a different ending to Blazing Saddles. The humor here arguably could have been done a little better, but I think goofy laugh-out-loud humor would have taken away from the satiric elements too much.

 

[Markonian]

^ Okay, that review makes me give the ep a rating. 10.

 

[bookworm8571]

I like the bird culture, the flying cows, pigs, etc. I suppose “how do they do it?” inevitably comes to mind too with Rawda and Peanut Hamper. For that matter, how does Peanut Hamper have a father to piss off? Someone should write that book.

Peanut Hamper is still amusingly selfish but probably not as bad as the other evil computers. It would be fun to revisit the exocomps.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Kether Donohue carries the episode as Peanut Hamper. She did an outstanding job, as she did the first time.

 

[Tuskin38]

Anyone else get major Rick and Morty vibes from this episode?

No.

 

[1987SpaceGuy]

Can't believe this censored used up one full precious LowerDecks epiosde as we only get 10 per season
I'd need a minus option...

Didn't feel like a LD epsiode unlike “wej Duj” for example.

 

[SG-17]

That was hilarious. Couldn't stop laughing the entire episode.

A side note, am I missing someone or are Data and the Doctor the only artificial lifeforms that haven't been intentionally evil/destructive/callous? I mean I guess V'Ger wasn't intentionally destructive, the Post-Data Soong Androids were ready to call in the Reapers to kill all organic life in the galaxy, Control was straight up evil, Lore was Lore, maybe the original Exocomps I don't fully remember that episode.

 

[cooleddie74]

This episode was so Adult Swim-level ridiculous that I'm still processing it, but I laughed. A lot.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Peanut Hamper, the Sexocomp...

My god this episode was hilarious from start to finish. Peanut Hamper is Starfleet's Id.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Lol... the sex scene was indeed odd... but I suppose it was bound to happen.
Its also the first time Trek showed an organic being having sex with a robot that doesn't look like a humanoid.

I'm also worried about the amount of megalomaniac computers in the 24th century that want to destroy organic life... it was also sad to see Peanut Hamper be put with the rest of them because I was kinda hoping she'd come back to the Cerritos as part of her 'second chance' and maybe become part of the LD group... that would have been more in line with how live action does things... but LD just went into other direction.

I can't help but think if PH actually deserved to be placed with other evil computers... she didn't exactly show tendencies towards destruction of organic life, just selfishness and lack of general interest... but now being wtih Agimus and other evil computers, she's definitely going to be influenced to become an evil sentient computer.

I mean, she's worse than the others because they're crazy and she's just awful.

 

[Tuskin38]

Can't believe this censored used up one full precious LowerDecks epiosde as we only get 10 per season
I'd need a minus option...

Didn't feel like a LD epsiode unlike “wej Duj” for example.

How didn't it feel like an LD episode? It had characters and followed up events from a previous LD Episode.

 

[The Habs Fan]

Well, this episode will definitely be in the either love it or hate it category. I personally loved it and thought it was one of the most funny Lower Decks episodes of the series.

 

[cooleddie74]

The fact the Daystrom Institute has to keep a vault full of Evil AI Computers is a great concept. Starfleet has run into so many over the previous 200-odd years that they need a dedicated room with escape-proof lockers to contain them.

 

[Deks]

Peanut Hamper is still amusingly selfish but probably not as bad as the other evil computers. It would be fun to revisit the exocomps.

Exactly my point. I don't think she deserved to be placed in with the other 'evil AI's'... at least, not yet.
Also, I certainly hope P.H. is NOT an indication of how other sentient exocomps behave.

A side note, am I missing someone or are Data and the Doctor the only artificial lifeforms that haven't been intentionally evil/destructive/callous? I mean I guess V'Ger wasn't intentionally destructive, the Post-Data Soong Androids were ready to call in the Reapers to kill all organic life in the galaxy, Control was straight up evil, Lore was Lore, maybe the original Exocomps I don't fully remember that episode.

The Exocomps did NOT behave like Peanut Hamper or other 'evil AI's'. Upon their introduction in late TNG, they were pretty much on the 'good side' of things (I'd imagine... or at least HOPE that PH is an exemption rather than a rule).

Also, the post-Data Soong Androids may have been ready to call in the 'Reapers', but let's be honest, they were reacting to the threat as presented by the Romulans at the time, and the UFP may have instituted a ban on synthetics, but otherwise was not out to eradicate them.
They had no intricate desire to destroy organic life. It was Soji lookalike who wanted to go to the 'Reapers' and couldn't really care about what happens to organics.

So, no, as a society they weren't really 'evil' or had malicious intent towards organics.

V'Ger wasn't inherently destructive... its technology was just overwhelmingly powerful compared to Starfleet's at the time and simply wanted to transmit all of its data... initially, and then its plans changed by wanting to merge with its creator... a human... overall, not a megalomaniac nor destructive towards organics as a whole.

Control... never made much of a sense to me. Its reasons to eradicate all sentient life seemed to have arose out of 'nothing' really... except a simple and tired out scifi trope that 'AI will inevitably eradicate life'. Didn't make sense... but then, it already managed to evolve on its own quit far, so its need for the Sphere Data on AI's also didn't make much sense.

But, seeing how that's the thing we got... I'd say Control was the only one which turned to be bad.

There's also M-5... but that was more of a problem of a machine acting out of sense of self-preservation because it basically thought like a human would have... and it deactivated itself when it realized that it went against its own directive to harm another living being.

As for Lore... eh, I don't recall him wanting to eradicate all organics. If anything he acted like he wanted to 'rule' over organics. He was mostly acting out of jealousy and what he deemed to have been 'neglect'. Still dangerous though.

 

[Deks]

The fact the Daystrom Institute has to keep a vault full of Evil AI Computers is a great concept. Starfleet has run into so many over the previous 200-odd years that they need a dedicated room with escape-proof lockers to contain them.

I'm just hoping that for all those evil AI's starfleet managed to capture and contain, there are other benevolent AI's out there.

 

[Roald]

Liked it, but I personally think it could have been better if the Cerritos crew didn’t show up it all. I like ‘out of the box’ concept episodes, which this almost was..!