Spoilers ST Lower Decks - Starships and Technology Season One Discusssion

They both kind of look pretty closely designed to me.

 

Yes.

 

Well it may be like different type uniforms like Marine A,B,C,D, and utility sets?

 

My take on uniforms: Starfleet usually has 2 uniform designs running concurrently during the late 24th century

Early TNG become class B when the collared version is introduced. The collarless uniforms are retired and replaced with new Class B, the Voyager style. The First Contact uniforms then become the New Class B and Collared TNG stays Class A and Voyager style is retired (except on lost ships). Eventually, Collared TNG is retired and replaced with the Lower Decks uniforms, the New Class A.

Lower decks are now Class A and First Contact Class B. Picard Flashback uniforms replace First Contact as class B. When the Picard uniforms are introduced they become the Class A and Lower Decks might become Class B

This would be clearer with an infographic.

Class A........Class B
TNG S1........Unseen
TNG S3........TNG S1
.....................VOY
.....................FC
LD.................
.....…..............PIC Flashback
PIC...............unknown

 

Huh? VOY used the same combadge for all 7 seasons.

Showing the Titan crew in FC uniforms was a very deliberate decision. I guess they just wanted to make Riker and Troi more recognizable. Usually when something like this happened in live-action shows it was due to budget constraints.

 

My bad - I clearly meant tricorders, but my phone autocorrected to combadges. Funny, that. :P

Mark

 

Evidently your phone is biased in favor of its fellow communication devices.

 

Remember, DS9 showed us that different assignments/places could have different uniforms.

When Sisko was reassigned to Earth during that two parter in Season 4, he switched to the later TNG series uniform while he was there.

 

By and large, we have ample evidence showing that a ship or outpost has a say in what the uniform of the day is, and that’s not just because it’s what the US Navy already does. While I feel it a little odd that Starfleet has such a variety of contrasting uniforms to choose from ok any given day, there is precedent in today’s military.

Perhaps the LDS uniforms are available only to Starfleet crew in that particular region of the quadrant? Or the greys are preferred for exploratory / first contact crews now, after an extended stint as the “one” uniform everyone wore during and slightly after the Dominion War?
Mark

 

And that wall pattern at the Vulcan spaceflight museum?
Eagle hangars of Moonbase Alpha, maybe?

 

For now I think it's simpler if the First Contact uniform is the hero (explorer) uniform, while the Lower Decks uniform is the second rung uniform.

I really like how the uniform color coding extends to second rung ships too. The California class ship destroyed at the start of the episode has a red stripe. So we've seen red, blue, and yellow stripes on the class.

 

1x09 Crisis Point

Like "Veritas", it's tough to quanitfy how much of what we see is ACTUALLY real tech here, or even based on it, as the holodeck was specifically instructed to fill in the blanks. Whether the computer filled stuff in with creative license, or extrapolated based on known technology, is completely up in the air. Still:

- It occurs to me that Dr. Migleemo has the same leeway that Troi had in their uniform choices - as long as they've got a combadge, the rest is open season, including the choice of a single-breasted brown jacket in an age where buttons aren't commonplace. And Migleemo is wearing glasses - could he be allergic to Retinax 5?

- Voice aside, the da Vinci on the Cerritos holodeck is clearly meant to be the same physical template as the one on Voyager, down to the outfit he was wearing. This suggests that whenever anyone in the fleet calls up a da Vinci hologram, he'll look just like that. OTOH, there may be multiple templates for outfits - Einstein's two holo-appearances in TNG had him look the same (and portrayed by the same actor) but with different rumpled sweaters, and neither Data nor super-Barclay seemed the type to alter his clothing on a whim.

- Boimler states that he uploaded seven years of the whole crew's personal logs. This MAY be a reference to the TNG era habit of shows lasting seven seasons. However, could this mean that the Cerritos has been active for seven years? Or under the command of her current senior staff for that long?

- The long-supposed third shuttlebay on the secondary hull looks to be using the same set model as the one seen previously. I guess there's no real need for the third one to be different from the first two.

- Vindicta's ship is not explicitly Klingon, but inside and out it's definitely of that lineage. And yet, the Admiral that sends Freeman out says that the nonexistent San Clemente was out doing second contacts, and doing a good job. Are we implying that Vindicta's ship is Starfleet? Or maybe Mariner went and altered that part of the program to give her a menacing ship with boarding pods and all, after she saw what she'd been given by the program...

- Chief Lundy's first appearance here is also the first appearance of an NCO rank in this series. Accordingly, he's not shown from any angle where we could see his rank pip, chevrons or nothing at all. His subsequent appearance in the next episode doesn't help. :P

- So, is Shaxs' huge-ass phaser cannon a real thing, or extrapolated to match his personality by the computer?

- Tendi emphatically states that many Orions haven't been pirates for "over five years". This loosely matches the episode "Prodigal Daughter", which is the chronological last time we hear mention of Orion ANYTHING before this time, even though no actual Orions were seen in that or any previous DS9 episode mentioning the Orion Syndicate. Are we to assume that the Syndicate was taken out in 2375 and that every green-skinned member either went to prison or renounced their piratey ways?

- The Borg head explosive did a great job of exploding Shaxs, but left the bar and the two crew members cowering behind it completely intact.

- As has been noted, when Tendi exits the holodeck it's clearly seen that the stuff INSIDE the holodeck is still somehow letterboxed and film-grained. How does that even work?! What are our lower deckers seeing from their perspective?

- As it crashes, the Cerritos saucer comes to rest more or less on its edge, but with the bridge still facing laterally. On the inside, the excellently-choreographed fight scene shows the bridge facing forward wall down. Or is the artificial gravity just screwed up and pulling people in weird directions? And what about engineering, which also seems to be forward wall down even though it's separated from the rest of the ship?

- Under what context are we watching the final tag of the "Movie", wherein Vindicta Nosferatus herself out of a TSFS scene and is shot by Leo? None of those components make any sense together. Is the Cerritos holodeck just fundamentally wierd? Or is it... Badgey..?

Mark

 

Lundy's CPO insignia is shaped like O'Brien's. but I can't make out any detail. It had me wondering if the little chevrons and pips inside O'Brien's version are commendations earned that Lundy hasn't?

 

Or maybe the small details just aren't drawn because it's a cartoon -- like the ribbing on the shoulders of the Titan uniforms in the finale, or like facial features such as nostrils and eyelashes.

 

Imagine if they ever made a detailed "Star Trek: Series" in Anime format (Minus the stereo typical overly large eyes, think more realistic art styles like "CowBoy Bebop" / "Sol Bianca: The Legacy")

 

That's a really outdated assumption about anime. Besides, American animated characters often have large eyes too, including the characters in the show this thread is about.

 

Most of the female characters DO have stylized eyelashes- but I take your meaning.

 

1x10 No Small Parts

- At the end of "Return of the Archons", Kirk leaves a bunch of Enterprise crew on Beta III to undo the damage Landru did to the planet. Presumably it's they who were responsible for putting the signage and stanchions around the Landru computer, as they are in the TOS-era fonts and iconography. But in the era of pre-replicate-everything, does that mean that there is yellow chevroned hazard ribbon? Did they bring a printer with them, 3D or otherwise, to come up with the ineffectual safety stuff?

- The actual computer unit is almost the exact same as the one from the TOS episode, which is a great touch.

- Most of the elementary-age school supplies seen here are Starfleet-branded. But under what circumstances do they NEED protractors and compasses? My ten year-old daughter doesn't need these. Hell, *I* needed them for, what - one or two days worth of assignments? And on non-touch surfaces? And I'm guessing Mariner replicated these?

- Captain Dayton sure got a new command really fast - even if this season takes a calendar year, it means that Dayton got debriefed for the Rubidoux's destruction and then shot back into space on a new command in as little time as it took Kirk to do the same thing.

- I know that chronological NCCs in LDS are in question here, but one wonders if she got a newly-refitted California-class ship with its brand-spanking new bridge module?

- The Rubidoux notably had at least one child aboard. I didn't check to see if the same background characters made it to the Solvang, but if they did, and that kid transferred over too...

- Was Rutherford's implant an off-the-shelf Vulcan unit? Why would Vulcans need a bunch of emotional or personality statuses coded into the implant's OS? OTOH, the implant interface has been consistently a Starfleet LCARS design and in English, perhaps these behavioral modes are built into the default programming of all neural implants, and the glitches we've seen over the course of the series are what happens all the time when you put a universal OS on hardware from any number of manufacturers. Lookin' at you, Android OS...

- Mariner brings up that the family Crusher served on the same ship together. Of course, that's only part of the dynamic here, as we have numerous examples of married officers / engaged members as part of the same crew, but not NECESSARILY with one directly in command of the other. I wonder what Starfleet's regulations actually are here, if there are limitations, or what the practicalities can be. I'm sure they don't want another version of The Sullivans to happen...

- Escaping from further parental admonition, Mariner becomes the subject of a selfie. She tells the other officer not to log that picture, and that she doesn't want to see it "up on the..." before she's interrupted by the cat. "Up on the" what, I wonder? Is there a Starfleet social network we're not aware of? Or is there an FNS branch for gossip?

- 2380s PADDs have selfie cams AND flashes.

- Part of the plot revolves around Ransom selecting SOMEONE to be transferred to the Sacramento, allegedly a cooler ship than the Cerritos. What drives promotions like this, that a specific ship gets to send anyone of their choosing over?

- Did anyone figure out what was in the wrapping of Shaxs' present? I looks vaguely bat'leth-ish, but that something sticking out of the middle doesn't make sense for one.

- Someone on Reddit has done a fairly comprehensive review of the changes to the shuttle Sequoia over the course of the season, so I'll just link to it. Still, it's a little odd that they'd come up with a whole new ship model for the Sequoia instead of just painting over the model of the existing one that they started with, and giving it Type-6 nacelles. OTOH, stuff like the more TNG-cream paint livery for parts of it, and the TOS-sounding phasers are really nice touches.

- Shaxs establishes that there was an impact on deck 20. ARE there 20 decks on the MSD? Or are we counting the empty pylon space between the hulls as decks too?

- The Pakled ships explode out of warp with bits of debris, suggesting that either the ships aren't holding together that well in warp, or the warp drive itself sucks debris along with it. I'm guessing they mean the former.

- Upon abandoning the bridge, Shaxs says that the crew should head for the armory. Why? In several episodes this season, crew members have whipped out phasers from their uniforms despite not really needing them for whatever they were already doing. Any particular reasons they wouldn't be armed besides story ones?

- At the back of the big room on the Pakled ship that the Sequoia busts into, there's what looks like a four-legged robot with a triangular window on it that's being disassembled or something. I don't know what it is, but it looks REALLY familiar and not Trekkish. Has anyone been able to identify this Easter Egg?

- To save Rutherford, Shaxs pulls out the man's ENTIRE IMPLANT in one of the most unexpected shots of the show. But why? Was the cable somehow stuck in Rutherford's head? Why not just pull out the cable? Badgey?

- @Mike McDevitt has pointed out to me that in the shot of the Sequoia just as the Pakleds explode, the shuttle's port nacelle has been reoriented to some 90 degrees from where it should be. In the prior shots of the shuttle dodging UFO Catcher arms, the shuttle nacelles were both correctly oriented. Damage to the shuttle?

- Upon dropping out of warp, the Titan immediately starts firing weapons. A few seconds later, Riker appears on screen, and THEN orders red alert, with the accompanying lightbulb changes. Were they already at yellow alert upon receiving the same partial distress call from the Solvang and then something else tipping them off that things were amiss? Perhaps if they'd detected three warp signatures heading to where the Solvang had made a call and the Cerritos had not responded, I'd have concluded something was up too.

- This episode puts a neat little bow on just how relatively underpowered the California class ships are compared to the front-liners like the Titan. In more typical Trek, the hero ship is usually the best and most advanced Starfleet ship in the room - even Voyager usually undercuts comments about her smaller stature compared to the queens of the day with just how much quicker and smarter she was. Here, while neither the Solvang nor the Cerritos got a shot off, at no point was it registered that either ship was remotely a match for the Pakleds. Then the Titan pops up without advance knowledge of the threat ships and curbstomps three of them, before the latter could even fire back.

- Can we conclude anything about the specs of the California class as such? If the Galaxies, Soverigns, or even Voyagers of the day mount Type X phasers, would it make sense that a California would mount Type IX (which the DS9 Tech Manual states were mounted on the Ambassador class), or even lower-rated phasers? Would her maximum shield output be a meager fraction of the Titan's? To say nothing of warp speed, maneuverability, or other tactical yardsticks... The Cerritos was pretty much on standby while Freeman went over to work the situation on the Vancouver. And of course it took two Californias to tow the generational slug.

- Rutherford is recovering in a sickbay patient room, which is something we've never really seen in Trek before. In most cases before, people get to recover in the usual sickbay biobeds, and in general if they need long term care they are shuffled back to their quarters; unless they're a kid in an isolation ward or something. Rutherford is seen here in a full-on, private room of his own.

- And it seems his implant is related to maintaining his long-term memory to a certain extent, but it's not required to keep him alive a la Bareil in any way. We STILL don't know why he had it in the first place, but this suggests that it wasn't critical to his survival. I'm guessing his replacement unit, if he gets one, will fill in this story.

- I'm guessing they recovered part of Shaxs' body, unless they buried an empty casket replicated his earring for posterity. And we see that the flag over his torpedo casket has made it to Freeman's ready room.

- Does this mean that they're going to shoot his body out into space? It's not like they're in unexplored space or need to economize space in the morgue. Could his remains not be transported back to Bajor if needed for burial - as we know Bajorans do this? If so, would you still put said remains in a torpedo casket? And if not, does this mean that in general, when you sign up for Starfleet, you're agreeing that your body gets disposed of with full honors and sometimes bagpipes?

- Under repair at Douglas Station, Freeman wisely turns down the upgrade package the dealership is trying to sell her. I'm okay with that, but at what point does a Captain get to customize the EXTERIOR of her ship? We've had discussions here that a CO may have some leeway in how their bridge looks, for example, but where does this end? Did Bob Wesley put in for an extra window on his ship's forward conference lounge? Alt-Kim want a more prominent nose on his? Harriman justified those love handles?

[I'm reminded of a 1980s fan-parody manga wherein the captain of the Constellation II got her tactical officer to secretly install aft torpedoes and more phasers to cover the blind spots, after the ship got pasted in a Klingon skirmish.]

- Of the notable repairs, the entire bridge superstructure on the Cerritos was being replaced or otherwise plugged back into its socket. Given how messed up the ship got in this episode, we COULD see a whole new bridge next season and this can easily be the justification for it.

- Much of the middle of the ventral saucer had been popped off too, revealing a sizable cavity extending upwards. IF the captain's yacht takes up some of this volume, it may have been replaced as well. Unless the computer core was being extracted for some reason, as they are generally kept buried deep in a starship's saucer. Badgey?

- And speaking of bridges, the Titan! It seems to be loosely based on the Cerritos bridge, but most of the details are different so I'm guessing that it's a new set with the notable exception of the tactical station, which is pretty much the same shape, albeit covered in E-D-esque wooden textures. However, this bridge doesn't have a ramp from the upper deck, and the side stations are all configured differently, to say nothing of the Sovereign-inspired forward stations and chairs. I look forward to seeing more of this set in the next season!

- The rest of the Titan however is all redressed from what we've seen before. Boimler's quarters are the same set as Mariner's from "Moist Vessel", and the corridors are the same too.

What a great season, and an unexpected treasure trove of Starfleet tech, most of which doesn't really throw the tech of the era out the window! Looking forward to the next ten episodes!

Mark

 

-I have seen 10 images ostensibly taken by Tendi from her PADD during these 10 adventures in use as series advertising on Instagram.

-Sequoia may have been stored on Deck 4, if the bored John Tesh-looking Phil Lamarr character was directing Tendi to the workshop to meet Boims. There is an airlock on port aft-ish Deck 11 closer to the hero's bunks than a transporter room. During "Much Ado" Tendi and Rutherford imply the Cerritos starts to struggle around Warp 7.

-I heard a podcaster speculate that Sam is recovering on Starbase but I can't back that up at all.

-"Welcome to Deck 13 Starboard Pylon! Stow your gear under the Murphy bed right over there. Turbolift pass through can be a little noisy. Main EPS conduit behind this wall, it's nice and toasty! Showers and waste extraction are two decks up, just climb this ladder."

 

Replicated, and they are in the database because ships like the Enterprise-D have kids on board and will need them. There's no reason to think they wouldn't teach non-computer based skills.

It wasn't done downloading (because of Badgey). If he'd just unplugged him the ship wouldn't have blown up.