Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 5x08 - "Upper Decks"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I got to say, for a show that is typically a comedy, they did a really good job taking a serious approach to mental health issues with the Shaxs storyline this week.
Shax having PTSD and his Pah literally warring with itself while everything else was going on.
Billups: Equal parts pansy about food (He is getting better though!) and utter stone cold badass.
Westlake being able to pet the danger kitty was a fun moment, even if I really dislike T'ana's whole schtick. the 1-10 pain scale exists for a reason y'goon.
Rather glad Barns was able to make the most of her condition and still did her sousaphone recital.
...Stevens had an umbrella. Dude KNEW....
That ending with Admiral Freeman.
For all of Carol's faults. It's good to see the two are clearly still in love.
Billups: Equal parts pansy about food (He is getting better though!) and utter stone cold badass.
Westlake being able to pet the danger kitty was a fun moment, even if I really dislike T'ana's whole schtick. the 1-10 pain scale exists for a reason y'goon.
Rather glad Barns was able to make the most of her condition and still did her sousaphone recital.
...Stevens had an umbrella. Dude KNEW....
That ending with Admiral Freeman.
For all of Carol's faults. It's good to see the two are clearly still in love.
It was a fun distraction of an episode. Far from perfect but still good.
Loved Ransom doing the Herb Brooks “common enemy” thing. The Shax stuff was great too.
I suspect they went with a one off episode like this just ahead of the final two as sort of a palate cleanser. Sorta how DS9 S7 did “Bada Bing…” ahead of the plot heavy final stretch of the series.
Loved Ransom doing the Herb Brooks “common enemy” thing. The Shax stuff was great too.
I suspect they went with a one off episode like this just ahead of the final two as sort of a palate cleanser. Sorta how DS9 S7 did “Bada Bing…” ahead of the plot heavy final stretch of the series.
Man, that was absolutely terrible, for all the reasons people have already said. The only saving grace was Admiral Freeman joining Carol in person for their anniversary at the end, that was a really nice moment. But the rest of it felt like a caricature of Lower Decks, without the clever writing the show relies on to make me forgive its absurdity. It was just so relentlessly dumb.
I'll say this about season 5, it's really softening the blow of the show's cancellation.
I'll say this about season 5, it's really softening the blow of the show's cancellation.
Imagine if they were slowly dropping PRODIGY season 2 levels of good week to week. Instead it feels even more tired than TNG season 7 (which many people forget at least had half a dozen episodes that could place in the "Series Top 30" besides AGT itself within the sea of 2/3rd aggressive mediocrity) or ENT season 2.
The Cordry rocks have a non-centrosymmetry that disrupts the charge leptons in the isolinear pathways of the main deflector, which then causes...
Quite
But it wasn't good episodic weirdness, in my opinion. It was too much and came out a bit incoherent mess. Since we know this is the last season and since they've set up this mysterious rift arc, this episode at best came too late in the season.
It felt like they had toned down the obnoxious, in your face, 4th wall breaking jokes in the last couple of seasons, so the amount of "deep cuts" feel like they are back to the first season style.
Agreed
As someone said above, the 5 seemingly unrelated plots took too much time and didn't allow for any meat. They all came across half baked.
Character growth? What character growth? Maybe Shax. I might say T'ana but that wasn't much.
I really loved this episode and how chaotic it was. My favorite episode of the season so far.
Solid episode. Great references and the technobabble take was priceless.
Not a huge fan of breaking the 4th wall stuff. But still good. 7-8.
Not a huge fan of breaking the 4th wall stuff. But still good. 7-8.
Another win for the series!
It was somewhat overdue, having an episode centering entirely on the senior staff. Literally, LOWER DECKS' version of... "Lower Decks".
There was a lot going on with everyone, and it was somewhat chaotic... but it somehow worked in its favor.
I'll start with Captain Freeman: she has definitely grown on me since the start of the show. I really appreciate her command style, now that we see it... truly trying to stay connected with all of her crew. Definitely a stark contrast from Picard's style of being closed off. Freeman is much closer to Sisko and Pike in this regard.
Ransom: his method of getting the crew to work together is both hilarious and strangely logical. Loved the exchange with the crewman who discovered Ransom's trick at the end.
Billups: this guy truly LOVES being an engineer. It's so clear why Rutherford has always looked up to him.
T'Ana: one thing is clear. She has NEVER seen 5 lights. I think I found her story the funniest.
Shaxs: I think his story was my favorite. Such a Shaxs thing to do... go into a zen like meditation in order to kick some ass. This guy is a total badass.
The Clickets are hilarious. It's so wild that their weakness is being complimented. They would get along well with Tellerites.
At first, when our gang was carving pumpkins, I was thinking to myself, "A little late for a Halloween episode." And it turns out it was only a brief scene while we get the real story. Or stories, I should say.
Some nice nods all around, including seeing another member of former UFP President Jaresh-Inyo's species.
And we actually got an explanation for the exploded rocks on Starfleet ships! I love how this show does things like that, take something that is seen everywhere in the franchise but you always silently wonder about but never expect an answer. (Or even never wonder and hardly notice is there, but realize it's everywhere when this show has the answer for it.)
Lots of fun, lots of great moments. And that last scene with her husband arriving for their anniversary was just heartwarming. Hectic as hell, but the short length of the episodes actually helps the chaos. If it were an hour long episode, the chaos might be too much.
I give this a 9.
It was somewhat overdue, having an episode centering entirely on the senior staff. Literally, LOWER DECKS' version of... "Lower Decks".
There was a lot going on with everyone, and it was somewhat chaotic... but it somehow worked in its favor.
I'll start with Captain Freeman: she has definitely grown on me since the start of the show. I really appreciate her command style, now that we see it... truly trying to stay connected with all of her crew. Definitely a stark contrast from Picard's style of being closed off. Freeman is much closer to Sisko and Pike in this regard.
Ransom: his method of getting the crew to work together is both hilarious and strangely logical. Loved the exchange with the crewman who discovered Ransom's trick at the end.
Billups: this guy truly LOVES being an engineer. It's so clear why Rutherford has always looked up to him.
T'Ana: one thing is clear. She has NEVER seen 5 lights. I think I found her story the funniest.
Shaxs: I think his story was my favorite. Such a Shaxs thing to do... go into a zen like meditation in order to kick some ass. This guy is a total badass.
The Clickets are hilarious. It's so wild that their weakness is being complimented. They would get along well with Tellerites.
At first, when our gang was carving pumpkins, I was thinking to myself, "A little late for a Halloween episode." And it turns out it was only a brief scene while we get the real story. Or stories, I should say.
Some nice nods all around, including seeing another member of former UFP President Jaresh-Inyo's species.
And we actually got an explanation for the exploded rocks on Starfleet ships! I love how this show does things like that, take something that is seen everywhere in the franchise but you always silently wonder about but never expect an answer. (Or even never wonder and hardly notice is there, but realize it's everywhere when this show has the answer for it.)
Lots of fun, lots of great moments. And that last scene with her husband arriving for their anniversary was just heartwarming. Hectic as hell, but the short length of the episodes actually helps the chaos. If it were an hour long episode, the chaos might be too much.
I give this a 9.
Eh, the story arcs in the previous seasons have never been that heavily focused on, and indeed the eighth episodes of the previous seasons didn't contribute to the seasons' arcs at all. In fact, the eighth episode of S4 was Caves, an episode they intentionally made sure was not connected to the season's arc at all to the point of even deleting a line of dialogue that referenced it.
It's was a gentle nudge.
"If the crew doesn't hate the XO, he's not doing his job." - Saul Tigh
"If the crew doesn't hate the XO, he's not doing his job." - Saul Tigh
Saul was right about that.
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