Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x10 - "First First Contact"

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' started by Commander Richard, Oct 13, 2021.

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Rate the episode...

  1. 10 - Excelsior!

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  10. 1 - Terrible.

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  1. Commander Troi

    Commander Troi Geek Grrl Premium Member

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    Band name! :D

    That is SO cool! :cool:
     
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  2. Destructor

    Destructor Commodore Commodore

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    Has this thread raised/discussed why that big cloud of rocks following the Archimedes didn't smash into the planet? Did the episode cover this?
     
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  3. matthunter

    matthunter Admiral Admiral

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    If the Cerritos can tractor the Archimedes without triggering the Deadly EMP of Doom then I assume it could also use the beams as repulsors to scoot the rocks away once it got to the other side of the field.
     
  4. Super Grover

    Super Grover Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I guess I have an ear for this, but I noticed during Boimler's decent down in Cetecean ops the score was reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's "Entering the Bloodstream," from his Innerspace score.




     
  5. jackoverfull

    jackoverfull Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Very cool!

    is there a transcript of what the other characters say?
    perhaps the weren’t big enough to threaten the planet.
     
  6. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Enjoyed the final episode, although I did wonder in the Trek universe why doesn't Federation law enforcement or Starfleet security use a telepath to confirm people's innocent or guilt?
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2021
  7. Romulan_spy

    Romulan_spy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Perhaps Starfleet sees it as a violation of the person's privacy.
     
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  8. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    True, but that option should be available, you have the right to legal council, add you have the right to a telepathic advisor
    Result - much shorter plot lol
     
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  9. matthunter

    matthunter Admiral Admiral

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    They didn't in The Drumhead... Satie had a Betazoid on her staff. All that did was throw Tarses to the wolves since the Betazoid could sense he was keeping a secret, but without questioning to bring the thoughts to the fore, couldn't determine what it was.

    We've also had canonical confirmation that you can train yourself to resist telepathic intrusion - Dukat was able to prevent the Vulcan Sakonna from getting info out of him with a mind-meld in The Maquis.
     
  10. jackoverfull

    jackoverfull Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    as mentioned, telepaths are prone to give false positives and you can train yourself to resist them.
     
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  11. Kelso

    Kelso Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I haven't posted about our little podcast in a few weeks, but we had a blast discussing "First First Contact" on the latest episode of EARTH STATION TREK.

    I am continually impressed by this show. The finale was certainly not what I expected.
     
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  12. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    We can only hope.
     
  13. Romulan_spy

    Romulan_spy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Which just shows that using telepaths to prove someone's guilt is not reliable enough. A) it will only show guilt about something, not necessarily the crime in question and B) there are ways to resist it. The lack of reliability could be a reason why Starfleet does not use that method.
     
  14. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Never mind that, what happened to polygraphs from the 23rd century that are completely flawless to the point they could detect a falsehood even if the person speaking genuinely believed the falsehood was truth?
     
  15. jackoverfull

    jackoverfull Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    good question. There is no canon explanation but it’s easy to imagine that flaws came up that questioned their reliability and barred their use in court.
     
  16. Deks

    Deks Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The EMH from VOY used the polygraph on Tom Paris when he was set up for murder. Also, Chakotay suggested the use of one on a Kazon, but the EMH said it wouldn't work on that species since they lack any basis of comparison, but that it would work for AQ species.

    I can see what the EMH meant. Kazon aren't exactly diplomatic, but you'd think that VOY would be able to establish some kind of a baseline in regular conversation by using the universal translator. After all, the Kazon were pretty simple to chat to, and more than one was on board (plus the computer records these things - and if it takes a minute or so, perhaps more to find a way to translate alien language in real time from that point on, it should be able to discern honesty and falsehood with similar ease. Tierna also spent days onboard being treated by the EMH... that should have given the crew more than enough data for the polygraph.

    Trek writers conveniently forget a lot of things about the franchize technology to the point where it stretches (to put it mildly) credibility for those of us in the know.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2021
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  17. YouAreDooomed

    YouAreDooomed Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    I like this episode as a whole thanks to the character moments, the unexpected twist at the end, and the visual quality. I also don't mind (even expect) "creative" science like the planetoid being made of weird rock or whatever, but the whole dangerous incident is a series of nonsense.
    Of all times the solar flare occurs during the mission, of all times it hits the planetoid NOW.

    Several maps of the star system are shown. Even if the star were smaller than Earth's Sun, like a K type (orange dwarf which the colour on the map may imply) or a red dwarf, the planetoid would still be millions of kilometres away which should give the the Archimedes plenty of time to get out of the way before the cloud of debris is formed in the first place, they got FTL sensors after all.
    The Cerritos cannot go around the cloud, the show is like "because reasons, get off our backs", however, what about the other Starfleet vessels that reach the planet after the catastrophe gets averted? They retain their outer hulls, so have they somehow cleared the debris field? Found another technobabble solution? :confused:

    Some minor observations:
    Wouldn't Rutherford's memory capacity be ridiculously low if some copies of some moments took too much of the storage? He could also use an external device I guess.
    Gomez intentionally approaches Lapeeria slowly in order to give the indigenous people time to scan the ship. When it is about to crash into the world and enters the atmosphere, you can see that the Lapeerians apparently have no idea what is going on, so it seems they have not bothered to conduct a scan.
    There is a chance people can survive the crash in the back of the ship (Starfleet vessels are tough), so what is the point of staying on the bridge?

    No, it's not, not at all. Unlike Laforge, Gomez has chosen the command path, chief engineers do not need to be captain.
    Troi asks Crusher why she had become a commander towards the end of TNG:

    http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/268.htm

    Billups says, "that debris is caught in the orbit".
     
  18. jackoverfull

    jackoverfull Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    as I wrote already, the science here is extremely shaky. To play the devil advocate, however, in several instances in past trek we’ve seen subspace effects moving at faster than light speeds due to planetary/solar explosions, the most notable one being Praxis (but not the only one), so perhaps that happened, knocking out their warp drive and making warping in impossible.

    been wondering the same. Perhaps whatever subspace disturbance made warp impossible dissipated by the time the other ships arrived.
    Or, even simpler, the other ships used their impulse engines to go around the debris field, something that would have worked for the Cerritos as well but would have taken to long to save the Archimedes.
     
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  19. UssGlenn

    UssGlenn Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Exactly, if the Archimedes will take X hours to hit the planet, but it will take the Cerritos X+1 hours to impulse far enough away so they can engage warp to go around, then they have to go straight through.
     
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  20. dswynne1

    dswynne1 Captain Captain

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    There are TWO ways to look at the "Plot of Doom". One, how the Cerritos resolved the crisis was for the sake of the story. How many times have some of us complained that the USS Enterprise is conveniently the ONLY ship in space to respond to a crisis, especially in an area that is in and around Earth? Personally thought that it was TOO convenient for Kirk and company to hijack the Enterprise in ST3, when Kirk, in his capacity as an admiral could have gotten a decent shuttle. Hell, he could have commandeered the Excelsior with his clout, resources and expertise. And, two, playing it straight, the crews of the Cerritos and Archimedes may not have known alternative solutions, at the time of the crisis. I mean, how many of us tried to resolve a situation, solve it, and then realize later that a better solution was at hand? Sure, it might be a plot convenience, but should look at the problem from the characters' POV.

    Still, I enjoyed the show, and I was happy that the show over all is maturing. Looking forward to more LDs...
     
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