I also want to apologize for not putting an "11" in the poll.
Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 4x10 - "Old Friends, New Planets"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
The biggest plothole of the story is where the hell that Lorcano got a Saberrunner-class Starfleet vessel. Also, where it's crew went. Given that Lorcano claims that he is a murderer, I'm wondering if that he first tried to recruit his Lower Deckers from a Starfleet vessel and had to kill them all.
We could argue that Starfleet keeps better handles on their ship but TOS is full of missing crews.
We could argue that Starfleet keeps better handles on their ship but TOS is full of missing crews.
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This is a 10. I loved the episode and how everyone worked together to rescue Mariner. The flashback at the beginning was the highlight for me though, and it was great to see Sito Jaxa again. I am happy Shannon Fill agreed to reprise her role. The original Lower Decks TNG episode made me lover her, and it was cool to see her again. I'm very curious to see what happens with Tendi next season.
Link to the relevant tweet: https://twitter.com/BradinLA/status/1720263024995663983
**chefs kiss**
10/10
I just KNEW we would get a flashback with Sito and Wes. I loved seeing bouncing, super excited, un-jaded Mariner.
“He looks just like Tom Paris”
they went a bit heavy with the WoK stuff but that’s ok because it really worked.
I liked that in some ways Locarno was a mirror or a peak into the future of what Mariner COULD have become if she continued on the destructive path.
I still love the Orion names…D’Erika. lol.
the return of Twaining (suggested by T’Lyn no less) and Rutherfords nemisis were great.
the Ferengi paywall was a killer idea.
the evil grin on Tendi…so good.
I would love for them to release it as a full uncut, hour long episode. See how it plays that way.
I HATE that the season is over.
between this season and the crossover SNW episode, Lower Decks owned the Trek year.
10/10
I just KNEW we would get a flashback with Sito and Wes. I loved seeing bouncing, super excited, un-jaded Mariner.
“He looks just like Tom Paris”
they went a bit heavy with the WoK stuff but that’s ok because it really worked.
I liked that in some ways Locarno was a mirror or a peak into the future of what Mariner COULD have become if she continued on the destructive path.
I still love the Orion names…D’Erika. lol.
the return of Twaining (suggested by T’Lyn no less) and Rutherfords nemisis were great.
the Ferengi paywall was a killer idea.
the evil grin on Tendi…so good.
I would love for them to release it as a full uncut, hour long episode. See how it plays that way.
I HATE that the season is over.
between this season and the crossover SNW episode, Lower Decks owned the Trek year.
Ah, so hope you're in a part of space with relevant in-zone coverage, otherwise you're shit out of luck.
I doubt collecting vast amounts of "Solar Power" is considered "Draining a Star".
There are plenty of energy that a Star is going to naturally radiate that you can collect and convert to useful energy.
All methods of "Stupid amounts of energy generation" require a logistics train, usually not an issue when you control a entire Star System, there should be plenty of raw materials & energy to help with things.
Nick Locarno was in control of everything in the Star System, I'm sure he designed the Trynar Shield in such a way that he can control who gets in / out.
That's a LONG ass distance to project a Shield Bubble., if the StarBase is anywhere close to the center of a Star System, you'd have some unnecessarily long reach needed to project something that far, the excess energy requirements to project from that far would be crazy.
You saw how risky it was for a 31st Century Retro-fitted USS Discovery to extend/project it's shield bubble over a small InterStellar COMMs Relay Station. The energy drain on the Shield Strength is already ridiculous for growing the Shield Volume to that size.
Remember, the Surface Area of a Sphere is (4πr²), the amount of surface area grows Quadratically. That's very bad for your energy consumption.
Now imagine doing that to a StarBase by several orders of magnitude larger, that's a HUGE drain on a Deflector Bubble Shield emitter. You'd probably have to design the entire StarBase around the Shield Emitter, heck most of the StarBase would probably be that Shield Emitter & Reactor.
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I may like the episode more later on a rewatch, but making Nick the big bad was kind of... I dunno, boring. Just felt like an underwhelming way to tie into the Lower Decks episode.
Hopefully Mariner is finally ready to move on and move up though. I don't want them to reset her character next season.
I'm also hoping that evil S31 Boimler and Tom Riker show up. Honestly I was expecting evil Boimler to be the big bad and Nick and Mariner to team up to stop him, but alas.
Edit: Just noticed that Shannon Fill retired in the 90s, so they really went out of their way to get her for the cameo. Impressive.
Hopefully Mariner is finally ready to move on and move up though. I don't want them to reset her character next season.
I'm also hoping that evil S31 Boimler and Tom Riker show up. Honestly I was expecting evil Boimler to be the big bad and Nick and Mariner to team up to stop him, but alas.
Edit: Just noticed that Shannon Fill retired in the 90s, so they really went out of their way to get her for the cameo. Impressive.
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Or maybe he stole the ship
Mariner was able to pilot it by herself.
I wonder if the lower deckers Locarno recruited will be up on mutiny charges?
Or if any of the ships' senior officers might hold a grudge upon returning to their commands.
It's the Kolvood Starburst. He finally made the display.His fate was written on his back all the time.
Damn, I loved all those TWOK callbacks and the music.
No one is 'draining a star', you're just collecting the stupid amount of power it already emanates.
As for there being other ways to generate stupid amount of energy in Trek... depends, and even then SF never seems to USE these technologies.
The ENT-D warp core was inferred to be rated at 'mere' 12.7 exawatts... even compared to the amount of energy a sun puts out every second, tha'ts a proverbial drop in a bucket. You'd literally need 30,283 Galaxy class Warp cores to just match a power output of 1 G type star like ours (and even then, a Star will most definitel OUTLAST dilithium M/AM warp cores in generating same amount of power for millions/billions of years - whereas a starship's maximum power output will be severely limited in comparison).
If we take into account the premise that UFP has about over 70 000 ships as part of SF... then, that would mean UFP's whole fleet is barely exceeding the power output of 2 stars - and even then, most ships won't have such powerful warp cores (depending on their sizes and capabilities)... so 2 stars power output is a maximum I'd rate it at... 1 to 1.5 G type star though if we account for variability in ship sizes and Warp core power output.
There was the method of generating the same amount of power as a supernova at the end of Discovery S2 using a dilithium recrystalization technology, but of course this was never again seen or used... and Dilithium isn't exactly something that will last (you can thank Disco S3 for this).
When powerful technologies are introduced, they are there for 1 time use only, and then are never heard from again.
You'd think someone would become interested in those given the overall advantages.
He wanted protection to the point where nothing gets in or out.
I am not necessarily convinced that's the case. Locarno's starbase was fairly small (comparable to those small starbases that can barely hold a Jem'Hadaar attack ship we saw in DS9 during the war - which also fits the size of a Steamrunner class ship).
In the early 25th century, Starbase One was the one seemingly responsible for generating a shield around Earth (the Starbase shields were strong enough to withstand a barrage of about 60 odd SF ships for a relatively long period of time - but eventually it failed, and with it, so did the Earth's shield).
At any rate, generating enough power for a solar system wide shield from existing methods seems like it would be a type of technology that would go well beyond Dilithium and M/AM (unless they used the supernova emulation tech from Disco s2 ending) and something the UFP would be interested in.
Aren't the Bynars UFP members? If so, why hadn't they shared this power generation and shield technology with the rest of UFP?
No they don't.
Protostar cores just run, as does anything that draws energy from subspace.
The Delphic Expanse spheres were generating area's of altered space light years in diameter.
That would have a lot more meaning if we didn't know the 31st century backslid on most of their technology.
From all my googling, they aren't members.
But given that they were hired to upgrade StarFleet Computers, I would assume that their species are protectorates at best.
The Proto-core isn't the reactor type drawing energy from subspace, you must be confusing which Reactor type does what.
The Proto-Star Drive creates a Artificial Baby Star, that's what powers the Proto Core.
The Delphic Expanse spheres were radiating massive amounts of Gravimetric Energy, that's what caused the spatial anomalies in the Delphic Expanse.
Intentionally blasting out Energy spherically to cause spatial anomalies randomly seems quite different than forming a shield.
I'm pretty sure their Offense / Defensive capabilites would have increased along with their energy efficiency for each system.
But anyways, expanding shields is a Quadratic problem, the amount of surface area expands (4πR²) for a sphere.
Projecting out a field farther would logically follow the Inverse Square law.
The only logical conclusion is that he's siphoning/collecting some energy from his Star System's local star and using that to power the Trynar Shield, how else do you find a power source with enough energy to sustain that much Surface Area with a Shield that is that freaking strong and able to regenerate that fast.
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About Locarno:
Sure, he wasn't portrayed as an all-out villain in "The First Duty," but I have no trouble believing that he ended up there after spending 13 years brooding and obsessing over the glorious Starfleet life and career he was "supposed" to have. Indeed, the ep did a good job of portraying how that bitterness had warped him. One telling bit: the moment where he claimed to have graduated first in his class -- despite never actually graduating. Showed just how delusional he'd become. You just know he kinda believes that -- because he can't get over that imagined future he keeps reliving in his head.
As for the irredeemable thing: I think it's less that they couldn't have found some way to redeem him, if they absolutely had to, but why go to the trouble when it's easier just to rework the character (and give him a new name) to suit your present needs?
Nick Locarno was designed to be a one-shot antagonist. Chances are, they would have written him slightly differently if they'd intended him to become a series regular down the road. Maybe given him different baggage.
Tom Paris was created to be a series regular, so they took advantage of the opportunity to tweak Locarno's backstory to create a new character that filled that role better.
Locarno is best seen as the first draft of Paris, just like Decker and Ilia were the first drafts of Riker and Troi (and Questor was the first draft of Data). And Lord knows you always want to revise your first drafts!
Sure, he wasn't portrayed as an all-out villain in "The First Duty," but I have no trouble believing that he ended up there after spending 13 years brooding and obsessing over the glorious Starfleet life and career he was "supposed" to have. Indeed, the ep did a good job of portraying how that bitterness had warped him. One telling bit: the moment where he claimed to have graduated first in his class -- despite never actually graduating. Showed just how delusional he'd become. You just know he kinda believes that -- because he can't get over that imagined future he keeps reliving in his head.
As for the irredeemable thing: I think it's less that they couldn't have found some way to redeem him, if they absolutely had to, but why go to the trouble when it's easier just to rework the character (and give him a new name) to suit your present needs?
Nick Locarno was designed to be a one-shot antagonist. Chances are, they would have written him slightly differently if they'd intended him to become a series regular down the road. Maybe given him different baggage.
Tom Paris was created to be a series regular, so they took advantage of the opportunity to tweak Locarno's backstory to create a new character that filled that role better.
Locarno is best seen as the first draft of Paris, just like Decker and Ilia were the first drafts of Riker and Troi (and Questor was the first draft of Data). And Lord knows you always want to revise your first drafts!
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I was 100% wrong about Locarno not being full baddie. And about Sito being alive, sadly
But it was awesome and I loved it anyway. Ten.
But it was awesome and I loved it anyway. Ten.
This is essential to his character. Which is why he was redeemed by the original episode, taking the fall for the other cadets. He story was meant to be complete.
The only reason I can see for saying he cannot be redeemed is because Berman, Piller, and Taylor wanted to make sure Ron Moore and Naren Shankar couldn't get any credit for reusing a character they created.
Exactly. He let bitterness over his situation consume him to the point that he felt they owed him.
He wasn't irredeemable but he made his choices nonetheless.
Both explanations can be true. There's seldom just one reason for any creative decision. There can be legal issues, of rights and royalties, AND good creative reasons to rework the character to benefit VOYAGER.
Again, designing a one-shot character to serve a specific purpose in one specific story is very different from designing a character you intend to keep around every week for seven seasons. It's perfectly valid to think, "hey, about a Nick Locarno type character, but tweaked to fit the new show?"
And, honestly, if Robert Duncan McNeill hadn't played both roles (as so many other Trek actors have played multiple roles in the franchise), we wouldn't even be talking about this.
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