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Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 4x09 - "The Inner Fight"

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This was just excellent!

The scientists using the suits from "THE THOLIAN WEB"!

Boimler dreaming about Dr. Crusher teaching him to tap dance. :guffaw:

And Tom Riker is alive! That needs to be an episode!

Freeman is really showing us she's a very competant captain. I've been liking that this year. And good to see Billups again... I think he's been absent since he promoted Rutherford. (And getting inside MUDD'S, no less!)

I loved how the Balok puppet lookalike was actually real. "He has lots of internal organs!" :guffaw::guffaw::guffaw: That cracked me up so hard!

We finally learn why Mariner has been acting like she has, and not just this season. We got to the root of all her self-destructiveness on ranking up. And a great callback to Sito. And I love Ma'ah's words to her about doing honor to Sito's memory... it's exactly what Worf said he was doing after he was made Security Chief upon Yar's death. (Klingon wisdom really is far better than people think.)

I loved Mariner's speech to all of them. It's one of the core philosophies of the franchise.

Quite an interesting twist with Locarno. I have to say, I did NOT see that coming. I am really looking forward to seeing how th8s plays out.

Also very happy to see T'Lyn again! She has been absent too long.


Great callbacks, great humor, good character development, a good mystery, and a great message that speaks to one of the core parts of STAR TREK. What more can you ask for?

This was most definitely a 10!
 

Although I do also buy the GIVEN reason: Locarno was irredeemable (he tried to convince his Nova Squadron mates to lie and cover up the truth) where Tom was the opposite (having initially covered up his guilt but coming forward and admitting the truth).

Locarno could not have had the character growth on VOY that Tom did. Tom was basically a good person at heart; Locarno was just a dick.

That said: If they initially couldn't use Locarno on VOY because of royalties issues, why can they use him now? Because Tom was a recurring role and Locarno isn't?
 
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That said: If they initially couldn't use Locarno on VOY because of royalties issues, why can they use him now? Because Tom was a recurring role and Locarno isn't?

Yes, I think the difference is between using Locarno as a main character versus just a guest character. On Voyager, Locarno would have been in the main cast. So they would have had to pay higher royalties for using him and pay them in every single episode, for the entire entire series. Here, Locarno is just a guest character. So they have just to pay for the right to use the image in a couple episodes in contrast to paying a live action person and paying royalties for the entire series.
 
^ Ah yes, that must also be why T'Pau could turn up on ENT in a guest role. (T'Pol was originally supposed to be her.)

As for this episode: Nice PIC reference with Beverly Crusher.

The changeling plot to infiltrate Starfleet may have already begun, and Beverly is on the run with Jack who is a toddler at this point. So that's why she's missing.
 
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So much for my "Nick Locarno is somehow Tom Paris" head canon....
It least we got a good episode. I like how the plot is coming completely out of the left field.
 
Man, Sean at TrekCulture really didn't like the Sito Jaxa reference. Not really sure why? I thought it was sweet. It lends a bit of backstory to Mariner, fills in her timeline a bit, it worked for me. I actually got a bit choked up even - I seem to recall TNG's Lower Decks episode really affected me when I saw it first run in my younger years.

And finally we get a strong link between Lower Decks and ... Lower Decks.

I reckon Locarno's plot seems to be some kind of 'Lower Decks rebellion' arc. Masses against the classes, we're all one except our governments / commanding officers keep us apart. He's going around assisting mutinies and all his mutineers are gonna be one big happy fleet that tries to overthrow someone next week.
 
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I found it a little too easy to get to the very very long awaited Mariner backstory dump. We now know her age in much more in line with her actor.

Nick Locarno? Okayyyyyy:lol:

The interior of that ship at the end looked very 32nd century. Curious where they're going with it.
 
Yeah, if Mariner was in Starfleet Academy in 2368, she was likely 18-21. I would think she'd either be in the same class or maybe a year younger than Sito who as an upper classman was presumably 21 in 2368 when the flight accident occurred. So let's say Beckett was 20-21 in 2368, placing her birth year in 2347-48.

Meaning in 2381, which is when S4 takes place, she's around 33-34 years old.
 
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