One of the best episodes of the entire show

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I'm talking about Lower Decks.
The reason it works so well, I think, is because all the characters are so well developed.
I wouldn't have minded if they hadn't interacted so much with the main cast.
But the crew evaluation plot provides a perfect reason why they do anyway.
Normally I don't think anyone of them would have been on Riker's or Worf's radar that much.
The only exception was Ogawa who had been established as Crusher's right hand before.
The spotline was on Sito though, as she was the strongest of them all.
Who would have thought in The First Duty that she could carry an entire episode?
The end of course was tragic. With normal Trek rules applied Sito is little more than a redshirt doomed to die.
But they established her so well, that one almost expects and wishes her to be as save as Riker or Data would have been.
That's why it's a real blow when she doesn't come back.

I always wish, when I see the episode, that Sito will somehow come back and become one of the stars on a spin-off. I would have loved her on Voyager instead of Harry Kim even though I like Harry.
It was a perfect set-up that she was about to take over OPS, Harry's position on Voyager.
Well, at least Vorik made it to Voyager with the same Trick Locarno used... by changing his name

 

[Alrik]

Lower Decks is probably in my Top 10. Very solid ep.

 

[Cyke101]

Funny, I was just thinking about this episode. It was so poignant and really showed that Star Trek really could handle secondary characters, a precursor to Deep Space Nine's gigantic ensemble.

On the side, yes, Rascals isn't the best episode, but how many episodes would you ever see starring Keiko AND Ro Laren?

 

[JNG]

Sito Jaxa was indeed very memorable; the actress did a great job.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I liked this episode and wished that TNG had created a second tier of recurring "lower decks" characters, besides O'Brien and Keiko, that appeared over the course of the series. What I like most about this episode is that it reminded me of the first-run of DC TOS comics in which we got to see the adventures through the eyes of Bryce, Bearclaw, Sherwood, and Konom (the original first Starfleet Klingon).

 

[Bacl]

Lower Decks was indeed a winner. I almost wish we had not been let in on the larger plot, and had to contend only with the knowledge that our protagonists had: a big mission happened, and someone died.

 

[T'Cal]

Great episode with an emotionally charged ending. I'm glad they killed her off only because it made such a strong impact. Data's wonderfully sacrficial death in NEM was cheapened by the fact that B4 was around.

I wish we had seen more of Sam LaVelle, though. He could've taken Wes' place as the regular at the helm. While a bit similar to a young Riker, they could've made him clearly his own character.

 

[WillsBabe]

I love this episode. It's probably in my top 5. I love everything about it from the casting of Shannon Fil, to the lower deckmen adopting Worf into their circle at the end. I love Picard's out of character treatment of Sito, the whole Canadian joke, Troi pulling up Riker about his attitude to Lavelle's sucking up. I love Worf's reaction when Sito shows him her bruised face. Great episode all round.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

WTF? I created the most boring thread ever. No one disagrees in here? Who are you all and what have you done to the REAL Trek BBS posters?

 

[2 of 10]

I Loved Lower Decks, it probably served as the template for the Voyager episode Good Shepard, ever the Bajorian Tal Celes, totally reminded me of the ensine killed in the episode. I have not seen Lower Decks for quite a while, but it's still fresh in my memory...

 

[2 of 10]

Reposted reply by accident

 

[2 of 10]

WTF? I created the most boring thread ever. No one disagrees in here? Who are you all and what have you done to the REAL Trek BBS posters?

I disagree with your disagreement...

I actually did like Lower Decks, and I'm sure all the other posters did also, if you had come out with a thread slamming LD, I'm also sure you would have gotten some replys saying that yeah it did kind of suck. Such is life in the Trek BBS...LLAP

 

[jamestyler]

I remember seeing this around the time B5 did something similar, showing the main story through the little peoples eyes.

I quite liked the idea and how well the characters came over. Especially the feeling that one was left out of the mission and began to get frustrated with it, only to feel regret that he may have only got the job as Sito had been listed KIA.

It's not my favouite, but in the top ten.

 

[TheGodBen]

WTF? I created the most boring thread ever. No one disagrees in here? Who are you all and what have you done to the REAL Trek BBS posters?

I hate this episode! It is absolute garbage of the worst kind. It is my least favourite episode out of all Trek. . . No, I can't do it! I love this episode!!

Sorry, but it really is a great episode, I really wish that Voyager had taken this idea and fleshed it out fully by having recurring cast members who are junior officers. Perhaps not in my top ten, but definitely top 20.

 

[Piper]

A very fun episode in what was otherwise a bit of a dry spell for TNG!

 

[RikerLover]

I really liked this episode. I don't know if I would put it in my Top 10 favorite episodes but I did enjoy it. It was fun to see junior officers for a change and the interaction between Ben and the junior officers and the senior officers was interesting. It's a pity Lavelle didn't show up again in either movies like Ogawa or books like Taurik and Ogawa.

 

[sbk1234]

WTF? I created the most boring thread ever. No one disagrees in here? Who are you all and what have you done to the REAL Trek BBS posters?

What a piece of drek!
First of all, the phaser rifle shot at nearly 13% the wrong angle from the muzzle of the gun! The bruises on Sito's face were not accurate enough to represent 24th Century cosmetic surgury techniques. Troi and Riker hardly EVER sat in that table on Ten Forward, yet we are supposed to believe that they just happened to sit there where those junior officers could see them! They didn't even go into the holodeck! It was so mean to have Sito missing at the end, and not reset everything in the last two minutes of the show!
I know he was no longer on the show, but they should have had Wesley come back to save the ship somehow.

 

[Red Ranger]

People,

For the most part, I liked Lower Decks. The only thing I didn' care for was the actress who played the Bajoran, Sito. She always had this odd s**t-eating grin on her face even when Picard was bawling her out. When actors have these kinds of facial tics, or use grins that are supposed to indicate pain or internal turmoil, it just bugs me.

I thought LaVelle was a bit of a tool, albeit a somewhat likable tool, but it shows that Riker was probably a suck-up as a younger officer, as his ambition drove him to make friends with more powerful higher-up officers. I also like how Troi reminded Riker that LaVelle was just doing what he once did to advance in his career.

Taurig was also a bit of a prig, but I like the actor, as he played a similar Vulcan on VOY. I think it's been suggested that both characters were twins, because, aside from the fact they were both played by the same actor, they were both engineers. Would be fun to have a Vulcan as the chief engineer -- no frantic calls from engineering that the ship is about to blow apart, a la Scotty, just a calm, matter-of-fact report. "Captain, I regret to inform you that one more warp factor will destroy the ship."

And Ogawa was fine. I like the actress who plays the character, and thought it was fun that they made her chief medical officer in one of the realities in the ep Parallels. Her little crisis was mundane, but I understand it was supposed to be so.

Red Ranger

 

[jgdst]

<snip> Would be fun to have a Vulcan as the chief engineer -- no frantic calls from engineering that the ship is about to blow apart, a la Scotty, just a calm, matter-of-fact report. "Captain, I regret to inform you that one more warp factor will destroy the ship."

Now there's an idea!

And also, yes, very good episode, though sbk1234 is right. The angle of phaser fire is at least 13% off. At least. Which ruins the whole episode.

 

[Jean-Luc Picard]

I really enjoyed this episode. It's a refreshing change of pace to see the focus falling on minor characters for once.