Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 4x08 - "Caves"

[Airmandan]

Definitely feels like the calm before the storm episode. Last 2 are gonna be bangers. I enjoy it when the episodes are meta about the convent accidents or them all being the exact same layout.

 

[BOO-ing Hearts of Qo'nOs]

I've seen this before where its a flashback show, but to stuff we havent seen before. I think they did this on Community once, and maybe South Park.

I thought of both of these as well! So the Community episode is a standard clip show but all the scenes they clip from are brand new and were not seen in any episode. This was a really fun subversion of the trope.

But the season 2 South Park episode is a big reference to TNGs season 2 Shades of Grey as a cheap and stupid clip show, sprinkled with other Star Trek references. Firstly, the episode is straight up called City on the Edge of Forever, where the kids are stuck in the school bus dangling over a cliff so the bus driver leaves to find help but the kids say that there is a monster out there that will eat them. While she's gone they all reminisce about previous episodes where clips are pulled from, except at the end of each clip there is new footage of them eating ice cream and we dissolve back to one of the kids saying, "Now that's what I call a sticky situation!" Then a student in a red shirt leaves the bus and is immediately killed by the monster. The episode then ends up being all a dream a la Shades of Grey.

 

[valkyrie013]

Pretty good. Boims was a bit of a snoozer but the rest were fun.
Oh.. Do establish your pee corner!

 

[Hartzilla2007]

My only concern is that they've given us a "We all love each other, we'll be friends forever" episode just before the final two eps of the season. I'm now getting slightly worried!

Probably doesn’t help with how mum they are being about the next two episodes.

 

[Paul755]

That was a fun episode. I liked Mariner with Delta Shift and Tendi’s the best. But all the stories were good.

This one felt a lot like one of those light one offs DS9 would sometimes do before getting into some heavy shit. Like “In the Cards” before “A Call to Arms” or “Badda Bing” before “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” and the rest of the final war arc.

8/10

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

This was a good one. Especially liked Rutherford's story, probably because it had T'Ana in it.

 

[Amaris]

This one was a cute bottle episode. I loved Tendi's turbolift story. Everything is better when you have friends.

 

[firehawk12]

So was the episode with Worf and his brother a cave episode or a holodeck episode? lol

 

[Uhura's Song]

Good episode. I rated 7 but should have gone 8.

Any mention of why they don't transport people who are stuck in the turbolift should get +1. And how modern technology is no match for rocks.

 

[Anson Mount Seleya]

So was the episode with Worf and his brother a cave episode or a holodeck episode?

Yes

And how modern technology is no match for rocks.

Yeah, I liked that line. "Who'd have thought plain ordinary rocks could defeat centuries of technological progress?"

 

[fireproof78]

Robert Heinlein.

 

[Frightscape One]

This was a nice bottle episode, which is an odd thing to say out loud because this is an animated series.

I like how it combines two often used things during the Berman era... bottle shows and caves. (Three, if you count how each of the planets looked almost exactly the same with only the color being different.)

Each story flowed nicely into the next, with all having the central core theme of friendship. Great message and reminder that while friendships may change, they don't die.

The moss just wants a warm hug... Tendi is just awesome.

Dr. T'Ana doesn't like babies... why doesn't that surprise me? (I love her solution to dirty diapers... phaser them! Genius!) Despite how much it reminds me of ENT's "UNEXPECTED" (terrible episode), I think I liked this story the most.

Shaxs opening the door like that... hilarious!

Another nice homage... the Vendorians allowing them to enjoy their momemt a bit longer. This is what Picard said to Riker in "Manhunt" when Lwaxana couldn't read Rex but not knowing he was a hologram.

This show has been firing on all cylinders this year! I gave this a 9... fun story, great message, and just smiles all the way through.

 

[Michael]

A bit of housekeeping to nip this in the bud …

Yes, I have to say that conspiracy theories aren’t fun in RL and thus aren’t very funny in Lower Decks. Part of the reason I feel this way is because I used to be a huge X-Files fan and am an anarchist in RL. There’s numerous RL conspiracies of shady inside things like the fact that the NRA was funded by Russia to subvert democracy and a certain electorate vote scheme on January 6th. Things that certainly are straight out of Tom Clancy or John Le Carre. However, these aren’t the conspiracies that people focus on. Instead, the conspiracy theories of the internet are usually Far Right barely disguised anti-Semitic blood libel and often used as propaganda for the Far Right.

*sigh*

Which is to say it just didn’t work for me at this day and this time.

While I'm sympathetic to anyone who feels conspiracy theories lost a lot of their humoristic appeal in the last decade or so, I don't want you to start up a conversation about divisive real world topics in this subforum.

"Bad people use value-neutral things to do bad things in real life so we should never ever show those value-neutral things in media because....reasons" is quite a take.

Could you be a bit clearer on the meaning?

Let's not, okay?

Thank you.

 

[Michael]

While I agree with some of the issues people have voiced about this episode (e.g., conspiracy theorists are just too real to be funny for me right now), I have to say this was probably my favorite episode this season!

It just really has its heart in the right place and the message of trust and friendship at its core is heartwarming. I continue to be astounded by how they're able to basically tell five stories within one single episode. And even though I complained to not spot T’Lyn in the preview images, I now get why there wasn't really a good spot to place her within this story. The reused cave set and Mariner breaking the fourth wall about the oddities and tropes of cave episodes were clever and funny touches.

 

[Tallguy]

I'm assuming that this was the by the numbers feel good episode before whatever storm is going to be the two part finale.

Vendorians! I'm not a fan of The Survivor, but any episode that has this much TAS works for me.

Good to see conspiracy guy. Ahhh conspiracies. Not just for (insert whatever social / political stripe you think it didn't used to be) anymore!

The CAVES! (I didn't catch that that was the actual name of the episode.) And they were pretty well done TNG era caves, no?

How come Delta Shift didn't have a Tendi?

A half hour well spent. We're spoiled that an 8 is a run of the mill episode.

 

[fireproof78]

How come Delta Shift didn't have a Tendi?

Tuesday.

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Dr. T'Ana doesn't like babies... why doesn't that surprise me? (I love her solution to dirty diapers... phaser them! Genius!) Despite how much it reminds me of ENT's "UNEXPECTED" (terrible episode), I think I liked this story the most.

That's probably about how they get rid of dirty diapers on ships with kids, other trash too. They dump it all down a chute that functions very similar to a replicator, and it's broken down to its component atoms, then stored until someone replicates something.

While I'm sympathetic to anyone who feels conspiracy theories lost a lot of their humoristic appeal in the last decade or so, I don't want you to start up a conversation about divisive real world topics in this subforum.

A dedicated Conspiracy Theories topic would be fun, though. The NRA one is new to me, but I have several good ones.

 

[Michael]

A dedicated Conspiracy Theories topic would be fun, though. The NRA one is new to me, but I have several good ones.

I meant what I said, though. We can't have that kind of stuff here. There's other places on the board where you can start such a thread. This place is not here.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Halfway through the next day I found myself laughing to myself about the whole broken leg/ageing bit to the extent I had to explain it to a coworker (who is a Trekkie bit is kinda new to it and only on TNG)

Like, I was yelling at the TV "aren't you gonna set it first?" and they went all the way with it. Omg.

 

[BOO-ing Hearts of Qo'nOs]

When Mariner said they would just grow him a new leg I thought of poor Nog lol.