Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x08 - "I, Excretus"

[Qonundrum]

Not much to add to what has already been said, so I'll be brief:
"I, Excretus" is a masterpiece of pure joy.
<3

I'd rather be boxer brief.

It is indeed a masterpiece, pulling off quite a lot in its constrained 25 minute runtime. It's almost too busy, but it somehow works. Granted, I'm also a fan of rabid slapstick comedy sketch shows where there's a joke a minute (or faster), which probably doesn't hurt...

Just popping in to wonder how a holodeck could simulate the experience of being assimilated? Like, it's a body hijack. I don't think the holodeck can *make* you do something you don't want to do.

Not that it detracts from the episode, just one of those headscratchers.

I rolled with it, as these pods left over from "The Fly" were advancements in the technology. (when the ship "cartoonishly" steps aside from the energy stream at the black hole, that one's arguably worse but it didn't draw me out of the scene...) I knew Boimler would eventually lose, just didn't see the HOW it was going to happen and that helped win me over a lot. Lots of little surprises despite using that basic trope of "We know he'll go too far" but the twist is his fastidiousness was a perfect coincidence for the rest of the crew...

...oh yeah, the use of the moral theme (empathy, walk in others' shoes) was absolutely sublime, as well as being layered into the script so beautifully. Still a 10/10 with ease.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

This one wasn't expecting much, and was bowled over by what was delivered. Boimler obsessively going for higher and higher scores. The Pandronian turning out to be a total yutz, out to save her job at the expense of everybody else's.

This one notes that they backed off some of the more extreme elements of BEM (i.e., limiting Pandronian modularity to head, upper torso/arms, and lower torso/legs, rather than having arms detach individually), although this one thinks they should have also eliminated the levitation, the way ADF did, when he novelized the episode as Star Trek Log Nine.