So, not quite as good as last week's episode (which I gave a 10). So this week is an 8 for me.
Still loving it, just not as sharp as last time. Still love practically everything about this show. It's great having a Trek show to look forward to again every week, if nothing else, for the sheer promise of an open, episodic world to explore.
I like Picard and Discovery well enough, but their serialized, darker stories and occasional failures to execute their vision (again probably a serialization issue with the writers and the production process) made it less "fun" (?) looking forward to new episodes than it should have been. So, hooray for LDS! (and hooray for more hope in the future in SNW!)
...Last episode it seemed like the senior officers didn't really care about the lower deck crew, but not this week. That whole plotline and the ending moment with Tendi was heartwarming...
i sorta had that impression about the senior officers too, but I think it was just from that moment used in the trailer where the deck officer (?) welcoming Tendi to the ship tells her "move along lower decks". In the trailer it felt like an insult and I didn't like the tone. In the episode itself it comes off as more like "move along we have lots a people to onboard" and the "lower deck" part was more like just an acknowledgement of her station. I think the trailer played that up on purpose to highlight "these guys are not your standard bridge crew level" and it came across as mean, but the characters are clearly TNG-era good characters. The only other time it cropped up was when the senior officers ignored the contributions of the lower deckers in ending the Rage Virus. But that was a minor, minor slight at most - given the lower deckers didn't actually do anything except accidentally and unknowingly bring the raw material for the cure onboard with them. It wasn't even like Mariner or Boimler even thought of the potential of a cure from the goo.
Blame "Discovery" - Enterprise and DS9 had a logical consistency - 31 was a secret organization until Bashir revealed them to a vast swath of Starfleet command and apparently regular officers too. Discovery screwed with it for the "cool factor", but didn't pull it off.
...
- There were notably less attempts to make jokes. I only really laughed at one thing this week - the "Janeway protocol" - but it was way, way funnier than anything in the first episode. Aside from that though the episode was lighthearted but not trying to make us bust a gut. Which was fine, because it had heart in spades. ...
I just want to know what the Janeway Protocol is. I wonder if they are going to keep it as a running joke, or let us in on it at some point.
My one issue with the episode: If Rutherford is this hard working and beloved within engineering, I can't see how the series isn't going to promote him to lt. junior grade.
Of course, you could still be "Lower Decks" and not be an ensign I suppose.
Lavelle gets promoted in the original "Lower Decks" episode, so it is canon you can be promoted and still be lower decks.
It was alright. I liked the command training simulation. I assume the Janeway protocol is to get lost?
Having Boimler know about Section 31 was a bit silly. I expect better from this team than to make Discovery mistakes.
It's not LDS that screwed up. It's DIS. Bashir outed them in DS9, and LDS is totally consistent with that.
I don't entirely see it that way. She jeopardized the mission, which ended poorly, of them delivering the Klingon to the conference or whatever by her reckless actions. Barging onto the shuttle, putting herself in the mission, putting herself in CHARGE of the mission and treating Boimer like crap, getting the Klingon drunk, leaving him behind on the shuttle which gave him opportunity to steal it, thus forcing them to have to walk through the different districts where, sure, Boimer wasn't 100% prepared but would anyone entirely be who hadn't had the experience Mariner apparently has?
And there's other ways to train and teach people things other than treating them like crap and making them feel like crap...
Probably because she's always yelling, shouting and just generally being an obnoxious know-it-all. Want to teach Purple Hair some stuff? How about doing it WITHOUT crashing his mission and treating him like crap while he's piloting the shuttle?
We get it. You hate Mariner and nothing she ever does is correct in your eyes. I think we can move on from that, probably don't need to get your next week's searing take on how crappy she is and how she treats everyone else like crap. Got it covered.
Also, why do you call Boimler "Boimer" a couple of times, then revert back to calling him "Purple Hair"? Both make it seem like you are purposely trying to be insulting to the character, the show, and fans who like it. It's getting tiring already.
The cold opening was odd. I assume a later episode will continue the open plot thread of the entity inside her mother.
That energy entity died attacking the Captain after having nearly exhausted itself making the tricorder. It is likely never coming back. Think of it as a cold open.
And I have issues with that, and is the reason why I have problems with DS9.
One of my favorite things about DS9 is its depiction of the idea that it is "easy to be a saint in paradise". In the Federation proper and in TNG, it was "easy" for the characters to stick to their ideals and always live up to them. In DS9 that is harder to do, and it is on purpose. Within the setting of the show the characters have a harder time because they are on the frontier and they don't have all the might of the Federation (physically, legally, and morally) to fix every situation as the Federation would normally do it. But they still try. Also, within the approach to the show itself, the writers and producers wanted it to be more realistic; they didn't think the idealized characters from TNG were as realistic or fun to play as they wanted in their show and that that "saint in paradise" stuff was too easy. They created a show to test Star Trek ideals in tougher situations, to show that the characters - even when pressed hard - might bend or break a little, but would still work toward those ideals and, in the vast majority of cases, succeed in upholding them. But the few times they failed, it made their successes all the more significant and the impact of the stories greater.
Yeah, I too love the "perfect" Picard of TNG for being the best of what humanity should/could be, but I also love the Sisko of DS9 who struggles every day to be that best self and bring his ideals to "the frontier" (as Bashir called it at one time).
