Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 4x02 - "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee"

I really liked what they did with Ransom in this episode. It's not the first time that he has shown that he actually knows his job, but I continue to appreciate it when they let the senior staff be actual, competent characters on top of their idiosyncrasies.

 

I liked this one better than Twovix.

 

Moopsy rocks!

 

I just hope no one has a bone to pick with Moopsy...

 

I loved Boimler having quarters between the two holodecks and being able to hear what programs are being run. It's exactly that trope of moving out on your own and living in a terribly-designed apartment.

 

heh if you go back and watch the trailers for this eason, they edited out the character's new pips in scenes from episodes after they were promoted.

 

nice attention to detail! Either that or everyone gets demoted!

 

I theorize that the moopsie and tribbles come from the same biosphere. As tribbles were described in The Trouble with Edward as being "nothing but meat" under the fur, we can assume that the tribbles are the natural predator of the moopsie.

 

Nah one of the shots is of Tendi from this episode.

 

I really am impressed at how Moopsy-Mania has taken hold of the fanbase.

 

Yup!

In all seriousness, it’s like the Grogu thing. A creature of infinite diminutive cuteness that can easily destroy anything it came across in seconds without even breaking a sweat.

 

I liked the stuff between Mariner and the commander and I liked Tendi yelling at the end "Hey, can he get a promotion for that other stuff!"

I felt the Moopsie thing was a tad derivative of Rick & Morty and Futurama. Like Nibbler crossed with Mr Frondles with the serial numbers filed off. Only instead of creating copies of itself or swallowing creatures whole it sucks their bones.

 

I remember that. It was after Paris was REPROMOTED (Janeway just could not handle status quo changes, I guess, after she demoted him for direct insubordination). Kim said something like, "there wouldn't be a promotion for me would there?" It was kind of pathetic, really. Harry was being wishy-washy. Janeway was probably waiting for him to grow a spine and overtly ask for a promotion. I bet Kathryn herself did so when she was starting out. The fact Harry went seven years without one after repeated acts of heroism and ingenuity, general hyper-competence, and even taking a command role... is really incongruous otherwise. Unless Janeway had a personal grudge...?

Has anyone actually asked Berman and Braga why they never gave him a promotion? Was it that old stupid "watch in any order" mentality?

 

He was too busy playing his clarinet.

 

Interesting coincidence. Star Trek introduces a Futurama-knock-off character (Moopsy, AKA Nibbler), and Futurama redoubles its Star Trek Parodies... in the same week! Couldn't have been better timed if planned.

 

Damn, I never thought about the nepotism side. She promoted the father of her children!

 

The story I heard, though I don't know if there's any truth to it is after Tom got demoted, all the writers just instinctively kept writing "Lieutenant Paris" in the scripts anyway. Eventually Braga got sick of always having to correct it to "Ensign Paris" that he finally just decided to have Tom re-promoted.

While not given as a reason for not promoting the character, Braga has admitted he never liked Harry Kim the character to the point he would often hand in scripts only for Berman to hand them back and say "there's no Harry Kim in this script" requiring Braga to rewrite it to include Harry.

Another thing to remember, from season 4 onwards, Harry's presence on the show was studio mandated. The original plan in Scorpion was to kill him off in order to make room for Seven of Nine. That's why he got attacked by Species 8472 in Part 1. But then, People Magazine did a list of the most beautiful people on television and Garrett Wang made the list, at which point UPN stepped in and told Berman "you're keeping him on the show" and Kes was written off instead. I suspect Harry never got promoted as a means of the writers rebelling against the decision to keep a character they didn't want.

 

I vaguely remember a lot of that, particularly the "most beautiful people" bit. What a tangled web was woven by Voyager...

 

It was also due to Garrett Wang having a poor relationship with the production team due to, amongst other things, routine tardiness and what might be called a bit of an attitude problem for someone who had virtually no acting credits to his name when cast. There's a story about him kicking up a stink about his uniform boots during the first season and wanting a special custom-made pair like Kate Mulgrew got rather than a used pair off the rack – if memory serves he got Brent Spiner's old pair – and when the producers finally relented and got him his custom-made boots he then refused to wear them because he claimed that they didn't fit properly. He's the only main cast member to ever be refused the opportunity to direct an episode even though he asked repeatedly. It's thought by many that Kim's eternal ensign-ness was the production team punishing the actor through his character.

 

Didn't he also publicly blame his lack of directing opportunities on unfounded accusations of racism on the part of the show-runners?

Dumb-ass should have been glad he didn't get Armus'd by the writers from all the unprofessional toxicity he exuded.