Spoilers Lower Decks General Discussion Thread

[Cyfa]

Probably my only criticism – it’s a big one, though – would be the lack of any new art for the book. The work on the layout is flawless and the book is beautiful to read and look at, but it’s a shame that all images they used are either screenshots from the show or stuff that’s pretty obviously from the pool of promotional material. I think the only section in the book that might actually have some genuinely new art is the species drawings at the end. But otherwise I feel like I have seen everything in this book somewhere else before. It’s a perfect read, but visually it leaves much to be desired, I think. When I open the book for a section about engineering, for example, I don't just want to see a screenshot from the show or a promotional desktop wallpaper repurposed for the book, but I'd love to see actual newly created art and schematics showing these places as they would not be able to show them on the show. It's a shame, because I'm sure all sets on the show exist as virtual 3D sets, so turning these into info new graphics would definitely have been possible.

What I love, too, is that they included the MSD / Okudagram of the Cerritos as a spread. Would have been cool to have it a little larger, though, maybe even with fold out pages. But it’s nice to have that in printed form.

~ Yeah, I agree with your criticism. I must admit, I didn't really notice until I got to the section that listed previous vessels/ships named Cerritos then thought it odd that none of them were illustrated. I also thought that some of the larger character illustrations for each section/chapter were new until I saw the very same ones in some of the promotional material as you pointed out.
Still, it's a fantastic book and I'm happy you enjoyed and appreciated it so much.

And, yes, the MSD is really nice - but a larger version (or at least one with larger, easier to read call outs) would have been lovely.

You are not seeing those for the first time, do you?

~ Thankfully not! I managed to watch season 3 on Prime several bajillion times before P+ yoinked them back, but I've missed them. I have S1 & 2 on DVD/BR, and can barely wait for S4!

 

[Michael]

If anything I feel the book is a good lesson in just how much you can do when you’ve only got a set pool of images to work with. If new artwork just wasn't in the budget I’d say they did the best that could have been done under those circumstances. And while the text is obviously one of the most important aspects of a book, I feel with something like this it’s a missed opportunity to show us a little more than what we all have already seen somewhere else. Well, at least if you're like me and have been following the promotional campaigns for the show since day one.

But yes, I’d definitely recommend getting the book to any fan of the show. And who knows, maybe someone will do a dedicated “Tour of The USS Cerritos” book in the vein of the TNG Technical Manual or – better yet – an “Art of Star Trek: Lower Decks” tome at some point down the line. One can dream, I guess.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If anything I feel the book is a good lesson in just how much you can do when you’ve only got a set pool of images to work with.

Something I learned while making my "Colorblind" and "Vulcan Tribble" comics.

 

[Birb-of-Prey]

There's a slight possibility that I'm to blame for the "Fluff your down!" idea

Either that, or I am gifted with limited prescience.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Has Migleemo's species been established?
Clearly not an Aurelian, nor a Skorr.
In my own headcanon, he's a Withiki, until established otherwise, because he reminds me so much of Tellihu, from How Much For Just the Planet. Especially his eating habits.

 

[137th Gebirg]

It's as good a guess as any. MA lists his species as "Unnamed", but considering the variety of shapes and sizes in which other more well-known races appear within the canon (Klingons, Romulans, Gorn, Xindi, etc.), it would not be out of the realm of possibility that he may be a subset species of either the Skorr or Aurelians that don't happen to have wings (or, at least, undersized wings incapable of flight). Or, maybe he's a avian/human hybrid... although I must admit that I'm at a loss as to how that would work, biologically...

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. According to Memory Beta, Withiki have vestigial wings. At some point in How Much, Ford says something about the Withiki having traded flight for upright posture and a larger braincase, at some point in their evolution; on the other hand, there's a Withiki slave in Ford's The Final Reflection, whose wings were ripped off so he could better negotiate tight corridors. So far as I can recall, John Ford was the only ST author to use the species, and unfortunately, he's dead (and it appears that the knowledge of the tunes for certain songs in How Much died with him).

 

[Commander Troi]

How Much For Just the Planet is one of the few books I've read that makes me laugh out loud nearly the whole way through.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

How Much For Just the Planet is one of the few books I've read that makes me laugh out loud nearly the whole way through.

Pity there are so many songs for which nobody here has been able to figure out what tune JMF was using.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I

Hmm. According to Memory Beta, Withiki have vestigial wings. At some point in How Much, Ford says something about the Withiki having traded flight for upright posture and a larger braincase, at some point in their evolution; on the other hand, there's a Withiki slave in Ford's The Final Reflection, whose wings were ripped off so he could better negotiate tight corridors. So far as I can recall, John Ford was the only ST author to use the species, and unfortunately, he's dead (and it appears that the knowledge of the tunes for certain songs in How Much died with him).

How Much For Just the Planet is one of the few books I've read that makes me laugh out loud nearly the whole way through.

Love John M. Ford and I was very saddened by his untimely passing. Back in the mid-90's, I had access to some very early CG modeling software and editing equipment. I did my own adaptation of the short "holovid" that Ford put in How Much for Just the Planet?, entitled "Dilithium and You". Bear in mind it is extremely crude, as it was the earliest days of CG animation and non-linear editing, but I think the final product, for what was supposed to accomplish, worked.

 

[Commander Troi]

Hey, that's great! Should I call you Dr. Wally?

 

[137th Gebirg]

Thanks very much! I’m actually not Dr. Wally in the video. I’m the “That’s amazing Dr. Wally!” voice and the grunt when the hammer hit my head.

 

[Birb-of-Prey]

Has Migleemo's species been established?
Clearly not an Aurelian, nor a Skorr.
In my own headcanon, he's a Withiki, until established otherwise, because he reminds me so much of Tellihu, from How Much For Just the Planet. Especially his eating habits.

Not yet; supposedly it's going to be revealed next season. My assumption is that he doesn't belong to any named species, unless "Corvarian Sludge Worms" come from his homeworld.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

That's amazing, @137th Gebirg

 

[137th Gebirg]

Many thanks!

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Although I'd always imagined something more catastrophic than somebody getting hit by a flying hammer. Something involving either an energy beam, a mushroom cloud, or both.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I didn't have the budget for that.

 

[tomalak301]

I have been rewatching Discovery and realized tonight that Mike McMahon wrote the short trek The Escape artist. It would only be a few years later he would become showrunner for Lower Decks.

is there a way to get Rainn Wilson back for a lower decks cameo? That would be pretty cool.

 

[mattman8907]

would Harry Mudd still be around 120 years later? I'm surprised being trapped on a planet with clones of his wife would make him go MAD!

 

[137th Gebirg]

Well, canonically, he has the tech and he has cloned himself with his own partial memories and personality imprints to effectively fool others (Short Treks: "The Escape Artist"). I suspect it wouldn't take much for him to upload everything into an enhanced one-off golem like Picard was given to embrace his own personal singularity and basically live forever.