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Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 5x09 - "Fissure Quest"

Rate the episode...


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While I did revel in Alfre, JOLENE, Wang, Robinson, and Siddig returning, the episode was excellent for other reasons.

I thought the idea that 2-pip Kim was the one who went bad was hilarious. Boimler's rant on the multiverse writing was great. Risk averse engineering Mariner. Very strong ep without any memberberries. And for the record, put me in the camp that thought S3 of Picard was excellent (though not perfect).

But I do hope we have a huge dose of Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T'Lynn in the finale. No TATV here.

I always thought the first era of Trek had 3 big injustices, mistakes, disappointments, or however you want to phrase it.

1. How the original Enterprise crew went out on TV (TOS & TAS). The TOS movies redeemed this and went out on a fitting high note after Undiscovered Country.

2. The TNG crew going out with a whimper after Nemesis. I am SUPER happy S3 of Picard remedied that.

I don't want to argue relative merits of the shows, but in terms of cultural relevance, TOS/TNG dwarf the others. All 14 movies are Kirk/Spock or TNG (at least until Jan). And they had the longest runs. TOS debuted in 1966. TUC came out in 1991. 25 years. TNG debuted in 1987. Nemesis was 2002. 16 years. Pic S3 makes it 37.

3. TATV closing out ENT was the other. I'd love for them to "FIX" it somehow. But now that both animated shows are over, IDK how. But I am loving the ENT love on LD and SNW. It does not fix it, but it helps.

I know some put Kirk's death in Generations and the Pic3 shift away from Soji, Rios, Jurati, and Laris the same way, but I don't think they rise to that level. Not even close in my book.
 
3. TATV closing out ENT was the other. I'd love for them to "FIX" it somehow. But now that both animated shows are over, IDK how. But I am loving the ENT love on LD and SNW. It does not fix it, but it helps.

I really don’t think it’s the job of the Lower Decks writers to ‘fix’ TATV, even if LDS hadn’t gotten cancelled. Retconning a 20-year-old Trek show’s series finale by having an animated show saying it didn’t happen isn’t the most credible way to deal with that. Honestly I don’t think anyone involved with present-day Trek production is interested in going there.
 
This was absolutely supreme, for those doubting it was indeed Jolene Blalock need to f***ing wake up; anyone who is a true fan of Trek KNOWS full well it's her, adored this episode, can't wait for the finale, can't be doing with doubting idiots!! 10/10
Not a true fan then, on your way.
Wouldn't be aggressive if i wasn't being called out, but you moderators will do your own thing and not actually look at something for what it is. Whatever.
I honestly don‘t even understand what your beef is, but this aggressive tone of yours is completely unwarranted. I don‘t think I even noticed anyone seriously suggesting this wasn‘t Jolene in the role, so it‘s beyond me why you would strike such an over-the-top confrontational tone and escalate this so quickly. You’ll be sitting this thread out.

Also, while we’re at it, don’t use a poster’s profile page to flame them. Staff has taken note of that and if you do it again it will be a warning.
 
THIS! WAS! AWESOME!

I'm going to start by saying this was an incredible guest fest. Garrett Wang and Alexander Siddig are already great gets... and they add Andrew Robinson, too! Stopping right there would have been more than enough. But no! That wasn't enough, so they add Jolene Blalock to the list! But wait, there's more! If that was not supremely awesome enough... they nabbed Alfre Woodard, too! Mike McMahon is like the Seth MacFarlane of STAR TREK... he can get just about ANYBODY aboard!

As a Niner, I LOVED seeing Garak and Bashir here! (Even if they are not the prime universe versions.) These guys haven't missed a beat with their characters, 25 years after DS9 ended. It was such a huge joy!

T'Pol was fantastic, too. Very happy there are universes where Trip did not die like in the ENT finale that shall not be named. I was surprised and happy they got Jolene back. She did a great job, also not really missing a beat. At first, it may sound like she was off. But I thought she made a good character choice, because you can hear it in her inflections. Despite this not being OUR T'Pol, she did it close enough that it made perfect sense BECAUSE she is not our T'Pol.

A ship full of Harry Kims is just hilarious, because it adds to the running gag of his being duplicated multiple times. (In both "DEADLOCK" and "DEMON"... but then, so has every other member of that crew, too.) Of course the 'still an ensign' gag is thrown in there, because it IS messed up. I do like his line about Ops officers never getting promoted... because that ALSO includes Data. (And his lack of promotion is even more egregious than Kim's.)

Lily Sloane was a truly unexpected grab... I never imagined we'd see her again. She was great here, and I really loved Sloane's reasoning for exploring different universes rather than just her own universe. It's a very hopeful, STAR TREK message. This show truly has the spirit of the franchise.

William Boimler was great here. He had really funny lines, and his utter loss of patience with the whole multiverse situation was hilarious. I love how he got some of his exploration spirit back when Lily explained why she is universe hopping.

Risk-averse Mariner was funny, too. And she even got some risk inspiration. (I also liked how her shuttle was the TNG season 1-2 shuttle... I really loved that design.)

I LOVE that a Defiant class ship was used! And we finally see it land! (The DS9 tech manual says she has this capability.)

And the XCV-330 even appears! Never expected that to see the light of day, but this is the one series where that would happen.

And bubbles being used to explain the multiverse... brilliant! It also got me thinking... could that be what we were really seeing in TNG's "Where No One Has Gone Before"? Bubble universes floating around? It's the same shape as the bubble universe Beverly was trapped in during "Remember Me", so that would be consistent.


This episode had a great deal of heart and great messages about exploring the possibilities of humanity (I wonder if it ties into what Q said to Picard in "All Good Things...") and trust being such a fundamental thing across existence... in addition to the phenomenal guest fest. This is definitely my favorite of the season.

This was a definite 10. I think I will give it an 11, really. It has also entered my top 5 list of episodes of LOWER DECKS.
 
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There's coffee in that display!

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This was a nice reference too

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I'm not hot about the overarching plot especially that the crisis will or will not be resolved in one episode hence, but it was a fun episode.

I didn't realize that the Beagle was a XCV-330 type until it landed, which...wow that must be some structural engineering tech from the Vulcans.

I like the nod that humans could make rings around the sun or have continent sized ships, and while a bit isolationist, as someone said above, it makes sense that Lily would be more 'anthropocentric' than a Starfleet of 70, 80 years after her, especially one coming out of WW3 and the Post-atomic horror, and there's probably ships in her universe running around (or, the Vulcans prefer this so humanity 'learns' while not 'expanding' in 'their' universe, since Sloane doesn't know what warp is, but the ship must have some interstellar capability... those buttinskys).
 
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That was insane. Wonderfully, brilliantly insane!

Having Bashir and Garak show up was just wonderful, Woodward was a surprise but the one that surprised me most, or rather my reaction, was Jolene. I was never a great Ent fan, but T'Pol was always one of the best things about that show and I was taken aback at how pleased I was to see/hear her again.

Having Harry back was great, my only minor quibble, and it might be just me, is that of all of them Wang's voice has changed the most, but there's nothing you can do about that.

Great as that was I want the finale to focus on the LD characters we know and love...of course if they could tempt Brooks back I wouldn't complain too much :)
 
Cheers to Mike McMahan and the episode's writer Lauren McGuire. This episode was a shining gem in the Lower Decks collection. and Jack McQuaid knows how to throw out a good comedic scream to end an episode.

The throwbacks, pacing, story, characters and writing were all top notch. Loved how they honored what came before while making something new and fresh. I went into this episode knowing it was the Harry Kim episode, but seeing Garak & Bashir, Curzon, and the T'Pol? AND Lily Sloane/Alfre Woodard?



Not sure if the LDS writing staff new 5x10 would be the last episode, but 5x09 definitely sets it up in a series finale kind of way with what's coming next week.
 
BTW, was I wrong, or did William Boimler stare at alt-Mariner romantically for like a second?

I've detected zero sexual tension between Boimler and Mariner. But it's possible that he had an early crush on her that he hadn't worked through by the time of their transporter accident.
She is a very attractive and interesting person so I assume it would enter his mind the odd time. Doesn't mean anything has to become of it and I like how LD tends to be quite grown up about relationships.

On that note anyone a little disappointed they didn't go full Rule34 with Garak and Bashirogram. They have gone pretty far in the past.
 
The other annoying aspect to this show lately is the extreme amount of f-bombs and s-bombs.
Oh do f off :hugegrin:. Can't stand the snobbery around what American's call "bombs".

If my posting was to be honest about how I speak I would literally be "fuking talking about how fuking amazing" this episode was. I honestly fuking curse every second word and no one gives a sht because that's how everyone talks in Ireland especially the working class parts. O'Brien even managed to sneak a feck into DS9.
 
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I loved the episode but note with smug satisfaction that my theory from PIC season 3 is true: people are absolutely fine with these shows setting the nostalgia lever to maximum when it is their preferred character/setting/ship/relationship/whatever. There is no appreciable difference between this and PIC S3 nostalgia, aside from tone. This was just as ham fisted and ridiculous as PIC S3 was. But, like PIC S3 it was really fun and cool to see, and clearly made with fans in mind.
 
I loved the episode but note with smug satisfaction that my theory from PIC season 3 is true: people are absolutely fine with these shows setting the nostalgia lever to maximum when it is their preferred character/setting/ship/relationship/whatever. There is no appreciable difference between this and PIC S3 nostalgia, aside from tone. This was just as ham fisted and ridiculous as PIC S3 was. But, like PIC S3 it was really fun and cool to see, and clearly made with fans in mind.
Tone is everything.

Lower Decks presents itself as satire and in many ways aloof from the live action timeline. Picard presents itself as a serious follow up to the shows that came before.

It's not about any sort of bias. It's about how Lower Decks is supposed to be ridiculous by design and Picard felt ridiculous by accident.
 
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