Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 5x01 – “Dos Cerritos”
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
And the Tholians with their WebSpinners!Sisko's or Picard's Bajoran artefact?
Palor Toff (?) has a WoK phaser
The intro battle is joined by... Apollo!
...and V'Ger
Like SD TV color vs HDR TV Colors?
I love how the ancient Orion Ship some-what resembles the Orion Ship that the TOS Enterprise encountered.
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Hi all,
I have two kids, 8 and 12, and they've both seen every episode of Lower Decks bar about one per season, usually because I was advised right here in the TrekBBS that there might be some in appropriate content- either too sexually explicit [2.7-8, 3.1] or too violent [1.6] or too scary [3.3].
Could the kind folk of the BBS please give me a heads up if there's anything in 5.1 that would not be appropriate for an 8YO.
Thanks!
I have two kids, 8 and 12, and they've both seen every episode of Lower Decks bar about one per season, usually because I was advised right here in the TrekBBS that there might be some in appropriate content- either too sexually explicit [2.7-8, 3.1] or too violent [1.6] or too scary [3.3].
Could the kind folk of the BBS please give me a heads up if there's anything in 5.1 that would not be appropriate for an 8YO.
Thanks!
Thank you!
A decent opener to the final season which doesn't particularly break any particularly new ground. Consider me slightly underwhelmed.
The A-plot here, focusing on Cerritos meeting its alternate TL crew, feels like a tired Trek trope, though thinking on it, we've never seen it done before - probably due to the historic production costs of compositing doubles of everyone. We've seen plenty of one-off doubles, like Tom Riker, Intendant Kira, etc. share the screen with their "normal" versions, but never this many at once. I like the touch that the universe is just a little bit off. The bit where Captain Becky Freeman recognizes Mariner's story suggests the POD happened within the run of Lower Decks itself, as does Billups actually being a king here. Also liked the little touch that the episode made us think that Carol had died, only for us to find out at the last minute that she was just reassigned to a scut job at Starbase 80.
The emotional core of this episode though - seeing the toll that command had done on the "alternate" Beckett, who had become a tyrant - just didn't work for me. On an emotional level, it was understandable, but the alternate Starfleet gave every appearance of being pretty much identical, and a captain could not get away creating a ship of "mostly brigs" - let alone whipping her crew. While I know it wouldn't fall in with the MO of this show as a supposed comedy, the impact here would have been better if it was more understated. I'm also a bit frustrated because despite the attempt to tie it in with our Mariner's growing responsibility - that she'll learn to be easier on the new ensigns - we're told this, not shown it.
The B plot with Tendi was much better, I think. She gets less screen time, but there's a complete emotional arc. She starts the episode a capable pirate captain who is conflicted with her crew, since she doesn't want to kill. She and the crew resolve their differences, and she finds a way to use her Starfleet mentality to defeat the blue Orions. Way to go on the show's part having TAS-style Orions here, BTW. I also like that her actions actually had wider consequences - the episode didn't end tied up with a neat bow.
On the whole, this was fine. Lower Decks has never opened on a particularly strong episode. But I really was hoping for something a bit less rote with the A plot.
The A-plot here, focusing on Cerritos meeting its alternate TL crew, feels like a tired Trek trope, though thinking on it, we've never seen it done before - probably due to the historic production costs of compositing doubles of everyone. We've seen plenty of one-off doubles, like Tom Riker, Intendant Kira, etc. share the screen with their "normal" versions, but never this many at once. I like the touch that the universe is just a little bit off. The bit where Captain Becky Freeman recognizes Mariner's story suggests the POD happened within the run of Lower Decks itself, as does Billups actually being a king here. Also liked the little touch that the episode made us think that Carol had died, only for us to find out at the last minute that she was just reassigned to a scut job at Starbase 80.
The emotional core of this episode though - seeing the toll that command had done on the "alternate" Beckett, who had become a tyrant - just didn't work for me. On an emotional level, it was understandable, but the alternate Starfleet gave every appearance of being pretty much identical, and a captain could not get away creating a ship of "mostly brigs" - let alone whipping her crew. While I know it wouldn't fall in with the MO of this show as a supposed comedy, the impact here would have been better if it was more understated. I'm also a bit frustrated because despite the attempt to tie it in with our Mariner's growing responsibility - that she'll learn to be easier on the new ensigns - we're told this, not shown it.
The B plot with Tendi was much better, I think. She gets less screen time, but there's a complete emotional arc. She starts the episode a capable pirate captain who is conflicted with her crew, since she doesn't want to kill. She and the crew resolve their differences, and she finds a way to use her Starfleet mentality to defeat the blue Orions. Way to go on the show's part having TAS-style Orions here, BTW. I also like that her actions actually had wider consequences - the episode didn't end tied up with a neat bow.
On the whole, this was fine. Lower Decks has never opened on a particularly strong episode. But I really was hoping for something a bit less rote with the A plot.
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The shade of red reminds me of the live action in the SNW crossover
Everyone knows the novelVerse is the prime oneI think the ‘mostly brigs’ line was just a joke.
The line I found funny was that both crews considered their universe to be the ‘prime’ one. That opens up lots of possibilities…
Otherford 
That was fun, as others have said Lower Decks' season openers are rarely the highlights of the season but this was very enjoyable, even if I guessed what Becky Freeman was going to do before she did it, and I thought Boimler stealing his alternate's PADD was going to lead somewhere darker than it did.
T'Lyn's joke was funny but Ransome insulting/complimenting himself at the same time was hilarious. "You sexy bastard!"
I'm surprised the T'anas didn't try to organise a foursome...
Tendi was great, as always. Hopefully she's back on the Cerritos soon.
That was fun, as others have said Lower Decks' season openers are rarely the highlights of the season but this was very enjoyable, even if I guessed what Becky Freeman was going to do before she did it, and I thought Boimler stealing his alternate's PADD was going to lead somewhere darker than it did.
T'Lyn's joke was funny but Ransome insulting/complimenting himself at the same time was hilarious. "You sexy bastard!"
I'm surprised the T'anas didn't try to organise a foursome...
Tendi was great, as always. Hopefully she's back on the Cerritos soon.
I have mixed feelings on this -- on the one hand, I enjoyed when Captain Becky revealed her sadistic side because at least it was something; on the other, it doesn't really track with Mariner's personality. Logistics aside, I don't and can't see her as somebody who would beat her subordinates.
But the deeper problem of the story for me was that, until the riding crop showed up, it was utterly dramatically inert. Oh, will the two science ships filled with science nerds who need to do a science thing succeed? Until the riding crop showed up, there were zero emotional stakes. And even then, yeah, it's a thin thread to hang the whole A-plot on.
I can tell I'm going to be really picky with this season since it's the last. Two episodes down, eight to go. There's no shrugging off a stinker by thinking, well, there's always more.
I feel like it would have been a better choice if the alternate Cerritos was quite different. I don't know about MU evil, but there was some sort of inherent conflict, clearly visible from the start, but they had to work together.
The episode did have most of the characters (other than the Boimlers and the Rutherfords) not getting along with their alters, though it seemed for no good reason at all. Are we supposed to believe someone just wants to get in a fistfight with their clone?
They added the blue TNG streaks to the title card
Or maybe they were just pent up under Becky's captaincy.
Really enjoyed this episode. The plots were very Lower Decks in a good way.
I wondered for like 10 seconds if Becky's crew would refuse to switch them back.
After all, if you have a horrible captain, and have her exchanged with someone who seems to be much nicer, wouldn't you be tempted to do that?
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