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Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x06 - "Terminal Provocations"

Rate the episode...

  • 10 - Excellent!

    Votes: 9 8.7%
  • 9

    Votes: 23 22.1%
  • 8

    Votes: 24 23.1%
  • 7

    Votes: 22 21.2%
  • 6

    Votes: 15 14.4%
  • 5

    Votes: 7 6.7%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • 2

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • 1 - A total wreck!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    104
An 8 again.

i really enjoy that they show Mariner's and Boimler's friendship developing and all, it was nice that they were enjoying each other's company so much.

And the riff on the classic "holodec character goes evil with the safety protocols off" was very enjoyable too. It really shows the advantages they have with it being animated. Both in showing the space environment on the holodeck and with having the holodeck character be non-humanoid (was he a reference to that paperclip character from older versions of Microsoft Word?)
And well I do like seeing Rutherford and Tendi.

I also loved Fletcher and his increasingly insane methods of covering up his mistakes "A Q did it! A Q did it!" Honestly i was half expecting Q to actually show up. And poor Shax, he never gets to blow up stuff :-(

Overall I found the episode's plot and humour better than last week. But I'm still giving an 8 because I feel 9 and 10 would be for episodes that really blow me off my feet.
I can't believe there's only 4 Episodes left :(
I hope this gets a season 2 and that it will have more episodes.
 
Pretty cool behind the scenes video into how this episode was made from concept to animation:
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I admit the funniest part of the episode is the Frankenstein parallel and Rutherford mercy-killing his "son."

I was cracking up.
And him whispering with his dying breath that he's gonna cut off his foot XD

I didn't immediately know what to make of the episode. I liked badgey as a reference to clippy, and Shax pleading for a good shot cause he was a very good boi recently... but the rest was just meaningless. The Chu Chu dance could've been a reference to this TOS outtake (15:47), but the Chu Chu and Fletcher stuff was neither interesting, nor funny to me. Was hoping for a Titan or Riker cameo.

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(15:47)
 
No, it is laughing with us, and asking us to laugh at ourselves,
Where? How? This would be something I’d love to see the show actually do, but so far I haven’t seen it. In fact, I’d love to see them break the 4th wall, or even take a subtle jab at The Great Bird.

Now, I say this, but might regret it because so far, the writing has been far from clever.

I liked Badgey, but why not give him an actual personality and not just make him malevolent? Make him a total smart ass who has contempt for Starfleet, or it’s officers, or star ships, or humans. Character was a good idea, they just didn’t go deep enough.

Sadly, I’v concluded that Mariner and Tendi, and Boimler and Rutherford are all the same character at their respective cores.
 
I liked Badgey, but why not give him an actual personality and not just make him malevolent? Make him a total smart ass who has contempt for Starfleet, or it’s officers, or star ships, or humans. Character was a good idea, they just didn’t go deep enough.

He does have a personality. Badgie is an overly chipper, go-get-em homicidal lunatic with daddy issues.
 
Sci said:
No, it is laughing with us, and asking us to laugh at ourselves,

Where? How?

The show's narrative sympathy towards Star Trek fans is established by the empathetic way it depicts characters like Rutherford and Tandi. They are excited and happy to be aboard a Starfleet vessel, and that excitement is always depicted in a positive, sympathetic fashion. The narrative is saying, "Yep. We get it. We would be just as happy and excited."

The show's willingness to essentially say, "But we do get overly fixated in silly things sometimes, don't we?" comes from things like, Boimler and the others getting fixated on exactly what kind of engine noise the ships make, or the overly-detailed recollections of the lives of Starfleet officers that happen to have been the main characters of Star Trek TV shows.

I liked Badgey, but why not give him an actual personality and not just make him malevolent? Make him a total smart ass who has contempt for Starfleet, or it’s officers, or star ships, or humans.

Because we already have Mariner.

Sadly, I’v concluded that Mariner and Tendi, and Boimler and Rutherford are all the same character at their respective cores.

I don't think you're really paying attention if you think that. Mariner is competent but self-destructive; Boimler is booksmart but needs experience; Rutherford has an unhealthy need to control everything around her; Tendi has an unhealthy desire for everyone to like her. They've all got entirely different personalities and problems to work through.
 
I wonder what a Half Catian / Half Bajoran child would look like?

I'll go out on a limb and say an anthropomorphic cat with a bumpy nose.

Even though Janeway references Kirk and company's behaviors and that they would be thrown out of Starfleet?

God, I always hated that line.

To add to the above list, in "By Any Name", there was a reference to the events of "A Taste of Armageddon".

Turnabout Intruder also had a reference to Tholian Web, The Empath and the death penalty for going to Talos.

Uhura apparently becomes President of the Federation (or her son/daughter is) in the Autobiography-verse.

In the Renegades fan films (set around the same time as Lower Decks), Checkov and Uhura are current admirals in Starfleet. In a DS9 novel, Bashir meets a Starfleet Intelligence operative who's clearly meant to be Sulu (he tells Bashir to call him George). In addition to all of the history mentioned from the Return of Kirk novels, there's also the fact they have Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty flying around in the 24th century. Arex and M'Ress are in the 24th century according to the New Frontier books. Picard clearly knew Kirk in Unification ("Them I am in good company sir") and Generations. Captain Martinez was a Kirk fanboy in Shield of Tomorrow. Nog knew a guy in DS9 who liked to get pictures of himself behind famous captains desks. Add in the other examples mentioned and I find it quite believable that a Starfleet brat and 3 Starfleet nerds know everything they've mentioned.

It also fits with Riker just having him court martialed as we see that, for all his problems with Jellico, Riker runs just as tight and nasty a ship -- he comes down HARD on Ro and that kid from Lower Decks. Which is what Fletcher needed as he has no business on a starship.

I'd say those were special cases. Riker was already well aware of Ro by reputation and wanted to establish he wouldn't take the shit she was known for, and the lower decks guy (who he really didn't come down hard on, was just a bit unfair with) reminded him of himself. I doubt Rikers command style is anything remotely like Jellichos.
 
I'd say those were special cases. Riker was already well aware of Ro by reputation and wanted to establish he wouldn't take the shit she was known for, and the lower decks guy (who he really didn't come down hard on, was just a bit unfair with) reminded him of himself. I doubt Rikers command style is anything remotely like Jellichos.
I maintain that I think a lot of Jellico's actions are straight from various management handbooks. He makes a lot of uncomfortable and angering decisions not because they make things more efficient but just to get everyone in the mood to obey him and not second-guess him. It doesn't make him popular but he wants everyone at fighting ready and jumping to it even though everything will return to Picard's control at the end.

But either way, I've always felt Riker would less warm and fuzzy with his crew than Picard.
 
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