In 2002’s Star Trek Nemesis, it was established that William T. Riker and Deanna Troi were going off to the U.S.S. Titan, which would be Riker’s first true command of his own. But Riker and Troi’s subsequent appearances—on Enterprise’s “These are the Voyages…” and Picard’s “Nepenthe“—took place either before or after Riker’s tenure on the Titan. It was left to the tie-in fiction to give us Captain Riker in his big chair—
—until now.
[SPOILERS AHOY!]
First of all, let me tell you that my absolute favorite thing about the appearance of the Titan in the climax of “No Small Parts” is the appearance of the Titan. When the Star Trek: Titan novel series debuted in April 2005 with Taking Wing by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin, the cover featured the ship itself, which had been designed by Sean Tourangeau, who won a contest Simon & Schuster held to design Riker’s command.
When Titan shows up in “No Small Parts,” it’s Tourangeau’s design. Same registry as the ship had in the novels, too.
And we get Riker and Troi! Voiced by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis! And it turns out that Riker and Mariner are old buddies, because of course they are.
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Besides marking the second straight season finale of a CBS All Access Trek series that features Riker (following Picard’s “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2“), “No Small Parts” is a slam-bang season-ender that has tons of action, a lot of good laughs, and actual forward movement for both Boimler and Mariner. It also has a certain amount of serious tragedy that doesn’t quite land in a series that isn’t taking things as seriously.
The main plot involves a bunch of Pakleds, the not-too-bright aliens who kidnaped La Forge in TNG’s “Samaritan Snare,” who have turned themselves into badasses. They’re still not very bright, but they’ve managed to scavenge some impressive technology. They destroy the U.S.S. Solvang, and come pretty close to doing likewise to the Cerritos before the Titan shows up.
The loss of the Solvang is the first onscreen death Lower Decks has given us, and it’s of an entire ship and crew, and it’s followed up by the death of Lieutenant Shaxs, who sacrifices himself to save the ship, and also saves Rutherford’s life by ripping out his cybernetic implants and putting him on a shuttle back to the Cerritos. Said cybernetic implants had a virus in them that was created by Badgey—yes, Badgey is back! and I’m spelling his name right this time!—but Badgey is still pissed about the events of “Terminal Provocations” and his virus won’t just shut down the Pakled computers, but blow them up.
There is a brief memorial service for Shaxs, at least, but it feels off somehow, as does the lack of any kind of mourning for Captain Dayton and the Solvang. The tone of the show doesn’t really work with this kind of tragedy, and it’s a poor fit.
So is the handling of the revelation that Mariner is Freeman’s daughter. Boimler spills the beans that he knows to Mariner herself, not realizing that he’s got an open comm channel to the bridge, so the whole ship finds out. This results in the entire crew sucking up to Mariner, which is the sort of plotline that you’d see in a 21st-century office comedy and which does not work even a little tiny bit in the 24th century of Star Trek.
I do like, however, that Mariner and Freeman discuss one of the things that we’ve seen a lot in Star Trek, which is that sometimes Starfleet doesn’t do follow through all that well. This is perhaps most obviously seen in Khan’s fate following “Space Seed,” as established in The Wrath of Khan. It’s also seen in this episode when the Cerritos has to go to Beta 3 to remind the people there to not follow Landru again, not to mention underestimating the Pakleds. Freeman is determined to follow up on things and to use Mariner’s proclivity for breaking the rules to accomplish it. This strikes me as the fodder for many season two plots…
The question is whether or not Boimler will be there. In the end, he’s transferred over to Titan, where he seems to be thriving now that he’s away from Mariner. This is a good move for the character, and honestly a good one for the show. Tendi and Rutherford are way more interesting. I fear, however, that the second season will contrive to get Boimler back on the Cerritos and be abused by Mariner. I hope I’m wrong, because that toxic friendship is pretty much played out, and the show could use a different direction.
One other side plot that worked despite itself was the journey of Ensign Peanut Hamper. An exocomp—from the TNG episode “The Quality of Life“—she chose that name because it’s apparently a mathematically perfect one, based on a study of all Federation languages. The biggest problem with this plot is that the exocomps in the TNG episode were not sentient. But it works anyhow, because Kether Donohue does such a fantastic job with Peanut Hamper’s voice, from her initial eagerness to her frustration with her inability to manipulate tools (what with not having limbs or hands or anything) to her being incredibly brilliant at medicine to her selfish (and insubordinate) refusal to help the crew and beaming herself off the ship so she doesn’t get killed. That last part backfires rather spectacularly, as the Cerritos is able to escape and Peanut Hamper is left floating alone in space.
Yeah, now that I wrote that out, that plotline doesn’t work, either, but Donohue is so good I almost don’t care.
Ultimately, this season finale is Lower Decks in a nutshell. There are funny parts (every bit with Ransom is comedy gold, but my favorite is the fact that he’s shirtless and working out while going over Boimler and Mariner’s dual requests to transfer to the Sacramento, though, “Setting my fists to stun and my kicks to kill” is a close second), and some hilarious touches (Mariner leaving bits of contraband all over the ship), but too many other parts that are just off, and the attempt to crowbar tragedy into a goofy workplace comedy doesn’t really succeed.
Random thoughts:
- The Solvang is a brand-new ship, and Captain Dayton wants to keep it seeming new for as long as possible. She doesn’t peel the plastic covering off the displays and makes everyone take their shoes off when they enter the bridge.
- I have no trouble believing that the same Riker who cleaned up at Quark’s, and who generally was willing to do whatever was necessary to get the job done would be one of Mariner’s primary sources of contraband…
- Jonathan Frakes has now appeared as the person born as William T. Riker on six shows: The Next Generation (every episode), Deep Space Nine (“Defiant“), Voyager (“Death Wish“), Enterprise (“These are the Voyages…”), Picard (“Nepenthe,” “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2“), and Lower Decks. There’s still time for him to appear on Short Treks, and hell, you could probably contrive to have him appear in some form on Discovery in some kind of historical document now that they’re nine centuries in the future.
- Marina Sirtis has now appeared as Deanna Troi on five shows: TNG (most every episode), Voyager (“Pathfinder,” “Life Line,” “Inside Man”), Enterprise (“These are the Voyages…”), Picard (“Nepenthe”), and Lower Decks.
- I first discovered the magnificent Kether Donohue on You’re the Worst, a hilarious comedy series on F/X that I strongly recommend. (You can read my review of the first four seasons of the show on my Patreon, and I do intend to review the fifth and final season soon.)
- The only sucking-up-to-Mariner scene I liked was with Lieutenant Steve Levy, who thinks that Wolf 359 was an inside job and that Changelings aren’t real and the Dominion War didn’t happen. I don’t know why, but the idea of a reality-denying conspiracy theorist in the Star Trek universe appeals to me for some reason, especially given how batshit crazy many of the things Trek characters encounter are.
- The episode opens on Beta 3 from the original series episode “Return of the Archons,” with Freeman lecturing the Betans on not going back to worshipping Landru, and also threatening Landru with another paradox if he doesn’t behave. Also when Freman and Ransom look at the records of the era, the picture of Kirk and Spock has them rendered the way they were in the animated series. Oh, and Ransom refers to that time period as the TOS era: Those Old Scientists…..
- When informed that Badgey is going to kill them all by Rutherford, Shaxs’s response is “Not if I have anything to scream about it.” I love Shaxs. I will miss Shaxs.
- Riker is late for bridge duty on Titan because he was on the holodeck re-creating Archer’s Enterprise, which we also saw Riker doing in “These are the Voyages…” Riker comments that it’s been a long road getting from there to here…
- Titan is headed to Tolgana IV, which Riker tells Troi has a Little Risa. Troi then asks if they should bring the little horga’hn, but Riker says to just take the one they always use. Wah-HEY!
- If you want to read more adventures of the U.S.S. Titan, I strongly recommend the novels featuring that ship, starting with the aforementioned Taking Wing, and also including The Red King by Mangels & Martin; Orion’s Hounds and Over a Torrent Sea by regular rewatch commenter Christopher L. Bennett; Sword of Damocles by Geoffrey Thorne; Synthesis, Sight Unseen, and The Poisoned Chalice by James Swallow; Fallen Gods and Seize the Fire by Martin; Absent Enemies by John Jackson Miller; and the Destiny trilogy and Fortune of War all by David Mack (who is a consultant for Lower Decks).
Keith R.A. DeCandido‘s latest book is on sale soon from eSpec Books: To Hell and Regroup, written with David Sherman, the final book in Sherman’s “18th Race” trilogy of military science fiction novels. Ordering information here.
Who says the exocomps weren’t sentient? That was the whole point of the episode, that Data was convinced they had intelligence and the right to live. The episode ended with their status as intelligent AIs still ambiguous, but certainly not ruled out. Not to mention that it’s been 11 years in-universe since “Quality of Life,” which is plenty of time for a good deal of AI evolution to occur.
So they’ve canonized the Titan design created for the novels, but not the crew members created for the novels. Well, chronology-wise, it could still fit in several months after Sword of Damocles; the later Titan novels were already knocked out by Picard‘s backstory anyway. We can just assume there were some crew transfers in the interim.
But is the Beta III teaser compatible with SCE: Foundations?
Quoth Christopher: “But is the Beta III teaser compatible with SCE: Foundations?”
And also with SCE: Caveat Emptor, amazingly enough…..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I’ve edited the post to include a list at the very end of all the novels that feature the U.S.S. Titan in the time following Star Trek Nemesis. There’s some great stuff in there……
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Great first season finale! Any Lower Decks fan fiction recommendations to help satisfy the itch?
Great review, Keith, but took me a second to parse this sentence. I think it’s better phrased as, “When informed by Rutherford that Badgey is going to kill them all…”
As a fan of the Titan novels, I may cheered a bit loudly to Titan’s arrival to the TNG theme song.
I didn’t think the Titan itself appeared on the cover of a Titan novel until Sword of Damocles.
If I remember correctly, the competition to design the Titan was launched in the first novel, Taking Wing.
Philip: You may be right — it was fifteen years ago, after all…………
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I like the idea of the Pakleds being a serious threat. That was the intent of “Samaritan Snare,” after all — that people underestimated their intelligence and threat level because of the way they talked and acted. I always took it as more of a limitation in linguistic sophistication than an actual limitation in intellect, like with Neanderthals, say.
@7/Philip: You are correct. Not only on the cover of SoD, but on a foldout insert. The first three books had character-montage covers.
I hope we see the Titan again, it’s a shame we didn’t get to see Tuvok on the bridge of the Titan.
I’m really gutted about Shaxs :( He was my favourite character in the show.
That was AMAZING!!
Sorry, channelled Tendi there.
Yeah, Data made a very good argument for the Exocomps sentience. But I definitely could make a good argument against their Sapience.
But seriously, I am amazed at how good this show turned out. I admit to being a bit of a Trek apologist in that I don’t think any of the shows are actually bad. Just some have more noticeable flaws than others and all of them have worse episodes than others. But Lower Decks really hit it out of the park for me towards the end. I actually got goosebumps when the Titan showed up. I usually don’t react to animation like that!
That and I do like the Pakled’s being portrayed as a threat again. I fear stupidity more than malicious intent. Evil can be reasoned as they will have goals and desires. Stupid will kill you all because they don’t know better.
@11/Cleggster: “But I definitely could make a good argument against their Sapience.”
That’s an odd way of putting it. It’s not like anything in the Trek universe has an objective reality independent of the stories. It’s all just make-believe. As long as “The Quality of Life” didn’t explicitly rule out their sapience, then there’s not a single blessed reason why a later story can’t make them sapient. Or at least posit that they evolved further in the intervening 11 years. If an EMH could do it, or Wesley’s nanites in “Evolution,” or a Moriarty hologram, then there’s no reason an exocomp couldn’t.
I wonder if I’m alone in the fact that I never thought the Pakleds were stupid to begin with. I thought it was weird that the Enterprise acted like anyone who could operate starfaring spaceships would be a bunch of morons. Yes, the Pakleds language is simplistic but it’s some very racist implications that have some real life prejudice analogues that complexity=intelligence. One might assume that having a simplistic language is more efficient actually and a sign of SUPERIOR intelligence.
But yes, Boimler should transfer back as a Lieutenant Junior Grade, only to find out everyone else has become Junior Grade Lieutenants too. “But I have seniority!”
@13/C.T Phipps: You’re not alone; see my thoughts in comment #9.
Animated Titan – HUZZAH! (Please excuse me, I’m going to be bouncing off the walls for a little while longer).
My headcanon is that the people of Beta III saw “The Purge” movies and then went, “Those lying Earthlings have their own Red Hour!”
And don’t interfere in their religion! He can’t do a worse job than some organic leaders!
I think people believed the Pakleds were stupid because they fell for the Enterprise‘s imbecilic “crimson forcefield” nonsense that was hinted at to La Forge in the most un-subtle manner possible.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@17/krad: Yes, but that could still be a function of a difference in linguistic ability rather than intelligence. With limited linguistic capacity, they might be unable to recognize verbal cues and implications that seem blatant to us. As C.T. said, it doesn’t make sense that they could operate spacecraft if they were imbeciles. Or that they’d be so deft at taking advantage of others’ underestimation of their intelligence in order to entrap them.
It’s outdated to think of “intelligence” as a single measurement or to assume there’s only one kind of intelligence. Different species should plausibly have different cognitive abilities developed to a greater or lesser extent than other species, the same way they have different physical abilities at distinct levels. I alluded to the Neanderthals earlier. It’s now believed that their language was probably simpler than ours (and that they sounded like Monty Python pepperpots, given the shape of their vocal tracts) but their intelligence was very much on a par with ours in other respects.
I danced in front of my TV when the Titan showed up. That was delightful.
Also, in my next life, I’m starting a band called Bajoran Beefsteak.
I’d rather start a band called Peanut Hamper…..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
By the way, I love the idea of a Starfleet robot painted in uniform colors. The cool thing about animated Trek is that it lets you explore beyond humanoid norms.
Oh. My. GOD.
There is a term pro wrestlers use, called ‘marking out’. That is, to get extremely excited and into the action in the ring or onscreen. And for serious, when the Titan came in… looking just like the Luna class ships in STO, and blaring Jerry Goldsmith’s theme song… I marked out. Big time. I was 13 years old watching the 3rd season of TNG again.
I very nearly pulled a Billups-from-Crisis-Point and started weeping, it was so damn beautiful.
Very interesting thing that they’ve just established that the Titan still has the 2373(?) uniforms, by the way. I wonder if this canonizes the ridiculous STO handwave for why you can set up your own uniforms, that the uniform used is at the discretion of the Captain?
@22/wizardofwoz77:
If Starfleet captains have wider discretion than we previously had reason to suspect (since the fiction doesn’t spend a lot of time on ships-on-regular-patrol not named Enterprise), that justifies how the Cerritos is run (in ways that are “coincidentally” fertile ground for comedy). Why are the ensigns berthed in a corridor? Why do the officers’ replicators have better menus? Why is the micromanagement in “Temporal Edict” accepted? Because the captain has wide latitude in all forms of crew morale and motivation.
Re: Pakleds with ridiculously overpowered ships (one shot depletes shields by 50% — are these Borg-class weapons, or is the California class just really flimsy?), consider the Titan novel Fortune of War (David Mack, 2017) in which one group almost gains control of a Husnock automated weapons manufactory. Remember the Husnock? Zapped the UFP colony planet of Rana IV in 2366 and in turn were zapped to extinction by an irate Dowd? (TNG: “The Survivors”)
Three of the four ships fled. No mention of Starfleet sending a taskforce after them, but it was a very busy episode.
The Cerritos didn’t mourn the crew of the Solvang — but how often did the plot pause for the Enterprise to mourn the crew of less-lucky ships? The Defiant (lost in interphase) and Constellation (lost to the planet killer) in TOS, the Yamato (lost to an Iconian software weapon) in TNG, etc.
We now have California-class ships numbered 12101 (Solvang), 12109 (Rubidoux), 75567 (Cerritos) and 87075 (Merced), and the Solvang is the newest of the lot. This feels like the writers are intentionally thumbing their noses at shipspotter fans who try to rationalize Starfleet registration numbers.
We finally find out what the gang have been doing with that shuttlecraft “up on blocks” in their spare maintenance bay — it’s got oversized guns and a painted sharktooth grin.
Whoo-hoo! The shape of the Titan has attained TV-level canonicity! But its CG model didn’t look consonant with that of the Cerritos and other ships original to LDS — there was too much surface detail.
I completely agree about the uneven tone of this episode. Going from a Badgey joke to Shax ripping out Rutherford’s implant made me gasp.
Still, this episode had some of the funniest jokes for me and I enjoyed basically every plotline because of it, including Mariner and Boimler’s! I laughed when I saw the picture of Kirk and Spock and never stopped having a good time after that.
Plus, the Spock helmet is canon now!! What more could you want?
Quoth phillip_thorne: “The Cerritos didn’t mourn the crew of the Solvang — but how often did the plot pause for the Enterprise to mourn the crew of less-lucky ships? The Defiant (lost in interphase) and Constellation (lost to the planet killer) in TOS, the Yamato (lost to an Iconian software weapon) in TNG, etc.”
And I’ve called those out, too. It’s an appalling tendency, and one I despise with every fibre of my being, and one I will point out when it happens.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
The cavalier attitude towards the deaths of redshirt crewmembers and sister ships always bothered me, but the grand prize has to go to the reboot movies—Into Darkness basically razed half of downtown San Francisco, and the 2009 movie actually destroyed the planet Vulcan, and both were quickly shrugged off, with the characters all in happy-end mode by the end of the film. Both of those should have ended with a level of somberness and mourning that would make 9/11 look like a pleasant afternoon.
Also, speaking of sister ships, was the Titan the first one we’ve seen in Lower Decks that hasn’t also been a California class? It’s a bit odd that almost every ship we see is of this one class—it almost feels like the original series where we kept seeing Constitution Class ships because they could only afford to make one Starfleet ship model, but then this is animation, where there shouldn’t be any such limitations at all.
@27 The USS Vancouver was a Parliament class, which felt to me like it took something from the California class and Akira class. Other than that, though, yeah, Cali-class has been the rule. Maybe the animators made one really detailed design at the start of the series and decided to just use it as much as possible to save time?
@27/durandal_1707:
For Starfleet vessels we’ve also seen the Parliament-class Vancouver, a derelict Antares-type freighter NCC-502 (being looted by Drookmani pirates in “Terminal Provocation”), and the sinister-looking NX-75300 Osler operated by Division 14. On the non-Starfleet side have been a TOS-era Romulan warbird, D’Deridex-class warbird, an entire Vulcan museum of ships, and various adversaries. Some of the vessels have been drawn rather than fully modeled, so we’ve seen them from only one or a few angles.
I, too, was puzzled by the Titan crew wearing the grey uniforms, but it’s not like we haven’t seen mixed styles on screen before (GENERATIONS, DISCOVERY).
I’m trying to not get upset over the death of a cartoon character, but dammit, I liked Shaxs. BUT. If he’s dead, let him stay dead. Along those same lines, if Boimler has truly left the ship, then don’t bring him back. And, if Rutherford has truly lost his cybernetic implant, don’t replace next episode as if nothing happened. These dramatic events only have meaning if they’re permanent. The “return” of Tasha Yar worked because she was from an alternate timeline in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and from the past in “All Good Things.” The “return” of Wesley Crusher (if only seen and not heard) in GENERATIONS did *not* work because we’d last seen him phase into some other plane of existence and there was no credible explanation for him to be attending the Rikers’ wedding, much less in a Starfleet uniform.
The light-hearted banter between Kirk, Spock and McCoy in the outtro scene at the end of “The Ultimate Computer” is another example of not a lot of concern being expressed for the loss of life aboard other starships; 500 lives were lost aboard the Lexington, Hood, Potemkin and Excalibur due to M-5’s “malfunction.”
I must have missed how Peanut Hamper was able to beam itself off the ship by itself or how the Titan knew that Cerritos was in danger and needed assistance. Was there a distress call that I missed?
Am I the only one having difficulty understanding some of the dialogue because they all talk so fast? I find myself stopping and replaying some scenes to try to understand what they’re saying more often than I care to admit. Maybe it’s me; I dunno.
@27/durandal: “Into Darkness basically razed half of downtown San Francisco, and the 2009 movie actually destroyed the planet Vulcan, and both were quickly shrugged off, with the characters all in happy-end mode by the end of the film. Both of those should have ended with a level of somberness and mourning that would make 9/11 look like a pleasant afternoon.”
For what it’s worth, STID re-edited Kirk’s speech in the closing scenes to add the line “and to honor those who lost their lives nearly one year ago.” They realized it would be callous to jump straight from the San Francisco catastrophe to a celebration scene, so they did what they could to ameliorate it by implying an intervening mourning period. Granted, it would’ve been better to leave out the gratuitous, tasteless city-destruction disaster porn altogether, but at least they made a token acknowledgment of its impact, which is more than Man of Steel did later that same year.
“it almost feels like the original series where we kept seeing Constitution Class ships because they could only afford to make one Starfleet ship model, but then this is animation, where there shouldn’t be any such limitations at all.”
TV animation has budget limitations too, since animation is slow and time is money. Look at all the recycled camera angles and stock footage in the original animated Trek. And the starships in Lower Decks are 3D cel-shaded CGI models, which have to be “built” in the computer not unlike how physical models are built, and that’s a similar investment of time, labor, and money. If you pay attention to 3D-animated TV shows, you note that they do a lot of economizing — they limit the number of distinct characters or vehicles that appear, recycle background characters/vehicles frequently, limit themselves to established locations as much as possible, rarely have the characters change clothes (since that’s a whole new 3D model), and so forth.
I saw it mentioned that the Titan model here seemed incongruously detailed compared to the other LD ships. I wouldn’t be surprised if they borrowed an existing 3D Titan model from someone rather than building a new one.
@30 While understanding and respecting your desire to see actual narrative consequences, I, for one, am 100% on board if the Season 2 crew is joined by Shax’s twin brother, Thax. The character and actor greatly amuse me, so I will accept any contrivance that allows them to continue to do so.
Same deal with Boimler. I like the Lieutenant JG idea from above. Actually, why not promote everyone each season so that they can eventually take on the ridiculous situation in the TOS movies where the entire Enterprise bridge crew was commander and up?
Not as amazing as the previous episode, but this was a thoroughly entertaining and epic episode, with character progression and a fun plot. Plus all the references (TOS, TAS, and Spock’s helmet)!
I am a bit sad that they didn’t show the abundantly non-humanoid alien crew of the Titan from the books, but it was fun to see the ship and Riker and Troi.
Also, Poor Billups, he was actually being nice and offering hand pies to the lower deckers!
What makes me sadder is the loss of Shaxs, I hope he comes back. Rutherford’s memory loss is a bit less traumatic, and Tendi’s reaction is classic Tendi.
@krad: I did feel the poignancy in Shaxs memorial. I do concurr on recommending all the Titan novels.
@16 – C.T Phipps: “But I just bought a new scythe!”
@21 – Chris: That was nice, I wish they’d have more non-humanoid characters on LD, I wish they had made one of their main cast one, for example.
@24 – phillip_thorne: The shuttle Sequoia doesn’t have a shark grin, it’s Native American style decoration, to go with the name.
@33/MaGnUs: You’re right — animation would be the ideal format for depicting Titan‘s diverse crew. At least they had a Saurian XO, though.
My guess is that Freeman and Riker conspired to have Boimler transferred so he could be plausible deniability for whenever Will and Deanna engage in some of that good cowboy diplomacy. He doesn’t realize that he’s a meat shield for someone pulling a Xanatos gambit but that’s why he goes down in history as the king of slackers.
@34 – Chris: My kid was waiting to see their dinosaur doctor. :)
Quoth Eric: “Was there a distress call that I missed?”
Ransom said that Titan also received Solvang‘s initial distress call. Freeman said to say they’d handle it, but Riker probably just went ahead and headed toward the distress call anyhow.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@30/Eric L Watts:
I didn’t see that as a self-teleport; rather, it (she?) executed a site-to-site transport through a silent radio command to the Cerritos computer.
(Tumbling through space, Peanut Hamper is in the same self-inflicted situation as the mayor (Bruce Campbell) of Swallow Falls at the end of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009): “This was not a well thought-out plan.” But that wouldn’t be a Trek reference-joke. :) )
@1/CLB:
Evidently they’ve invented family structures. Peanut Hamper admits “I joined Starfleet to piss off my dad,” which can’t refer to their organic inventor — Dr. Farallon (Ellen Bry) is a woman. (Unless she’s referring to a unseen male organic member of Dr. Farallon’s team, which IMHO is a contrived interpretation.)
@38/phillip: Or Dr. Farallon is genderfluid?
Boimler definitely has to return because I see him as returning with his own perspective to give Mariner. After having had a year in-universe of being the but monkey, him coming back with officer experience [however mild] will help balance the power discrepancy.
@40: Judging from the brief scene we see with Boimler on the Titan, he’s the cool junior officer there.
I’m sorry, but pound for pound for a half hour show this is one of the best Star Trek season finales there is. It aggravates me though because it’s a much better dramedy than it is a Star Trek WorkCom. When the Solvang warp spread itself over 10 million kilometers, I felt that, legitimate horror. Ransom being hard on Mariner, I laughed at that. Tendi being ultra excited to give Peanut Hamper orientation, I felt the joy. I also felt the dread at Badgey’s return. And Shax’s sacrifice…shock. Though I wonder if on that last point if they were just trying to one up Skin of Evil on how to properly kill off your Tactical Officer. But “It’s the Titan!”, guys that gave me immense immense joy. To the point that I kept rewinding the entrance. I had rewatched that warp in and Boimler’s reaction three times before I continued far enough that I realized the TNG Theme was playing.
I also appreciated that Boimler was ultra competent when the crisis came. It was your boy Bradward who broke down that the Pakled ship was a Frankenstein’s Monster of a ship. Then it was a team effort from our Lower Deckers. I love that.
Perhaps it’s because I watch so much anime and I have a higher tolerance for it, that the mood whiplash doesn’t even faze me. I read One Piece and that can go from dwarves who believe everything they’re told from any person in one moment to them attempting to save their enslaved friends in the next volume. The concept of Lower Decks is that this is what the slackers in Starfleet do, but they’re still in Starfleet in the normal Star Trek universe, so when something happens they kick into gear too.
I also loved that it built on the season itself. Mariner’s contraband habits are from the first freaking teaser. Of course Boimler the suck up who is also a Starfleet history nerd has picked up fencing because he’s definitely a Picard fanboy. I respect that. Badgey obviously. Peanut Hamper ended up being the prerequisite EVEN worse Lower Decks crewmember presumably replacing Fletcher. It starts with Freeman showing off her superlative skills at swiftly resolving things dealing with alien cultures. Mariner’s command skills as remarked upon by Captain Ramsey also show up with her even sitting in the big chair.
I loved over the course of the season Freeman going from being shown to be kind of a gloryhound to being completely legit. And her quick thinking when the attack came saved the ship. Her growing flexibility with her daughter is awesome and I’m hoping they get to a full blown loving relationship by series end.
It was wise to use the Pakleds here, as they were joke villains in TNG, but this shows that a joke to the Enterprise can still be dangerous to the Lower Decks. Immediately demonstrated by the Titan’s beautiful glorious arrival, which completely turns the tide. “Optimus Prime, At Autobot City.”
Many thanks to Frakes and Sirtis who were absolutely perfect as usual. Even more so since we Gargoyles fans know they’re kinda good at this voice acting thing.
And Boimler actually won.
I conclude with a combo. “SIDE ROLL! SIDE ROLL! DOUBLE HAND PUNCH!”
@24
I wouldn’t count the Yamato among those cases; Wesley was upset about its destruction and had a conversation with Picard about the loss. That’s more than Trek usually does.
Overall, I liked this one. It’s funny enough, the episode stays tight on it’s end goal without an overly pointless b story and it’s definitely a Star Trek episode. Particularly, I liked the idea that Starfleet doesn’t follow through, which plays through the episode. Freeman’s line of Starfleet having a policy of ‘some intervention’ was a pretty good point. And the arrival of the Titan, with it being the Luna-class of the novels made me grin, I’m not going to lie.
But, and there’s always a but, there’s some stuff that just didn’t work for me. I didn’t feel they quite hit the emotional beats they were going for. It wasn’t a million miles off, but still didn’t bullseye it. I found Mariner knowing Riker to be kind of grating. On its own, not so much. But after a season of Mariner being unnecessarily always the best at everything, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Although, I have no trouble at all imagining that Will Riker is the source of half of Starfleet’s contraband, not just Mariner’s. Always a wild side to old number one. The bit that really got me was the TOS – ‘Those Old Scientists’ bit. It was so painfully forced and far too fan-ish, so to speak, that it kind of gave my suspension of disbelief a kicking. Too much winking at the fans and all you can see is the wink.
But like I said, I mostly enjoyed this one.
(As a postscript I just want to note that I’m a long term reader of krad’s re-watches but this is first time I’ve posted, so sorry about the length. Additionally, I’m a big fan of both his and Christopher Bennett’s Star Trek books as well, so it’s kind of cool.)
dougie: nothing to apologize for. Thanks for posting and for the kind words!
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I didn’t realize until I saw the corrected spelling in this article, but
Badgey -> Bad guy. Owch.
Oh my. I really thought this was a home run. Solid plot that actually matters. Things that have consequences. Humor that is grounded in character and not just generic cliche type. And a lot of the stuff we saw set up in the past which paid off here, in a big way.
Very little felt shoehorned. Mostly everything belonged. Sure, it’s meta and fanservicey – but it’s my kind of fandom, the kind that believes in TOS and TNG and doesn’t really go for the reboots or Discovery, as such. I feel like it stands up for us, for the hopeful, exploration-based, Roddenberrian Star Trek.
I liked that it was super TOS-y but then had TNG people show up to save the day. I accepted that the deaths were sufficiently shocking. And above all, it was fun. Exciting and surprising and touching.
I really went away from the Exocomps imagining that we had proven they (a) were insightfully inventive, beyond their programming, reprogramming themselves to do things better than they were designed; and, (b) acted out of self-preservation and also noble self-sacrifice. Maybe I’m misremembering, but it seemed to have gently made the point that there’s something going on worthy of respect and study. No?
I hope the next season tries to keep up the ethos here. This is the most onboard the Cerritos I’ve felt.
@22. wizardofwoz77 & @23. philip_thorne: I suspect that the explanation might be even simpler than that – 2380 CE might just be a year of transition between the old FIRST CONTACT pattern uniforms and the newer design seen in LOWER DECKS; failing that, this might represent a difference between the Explorers on Titan and the infrastructure types on Cerritos.
@34. ChristopherLBennett: You’re totally right that animated Titan adventures would be delightful (especially if the voice actor for Doctor Ree does a ssssufficiently good pastiche of Sir Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter the Tyrannosaur-Man*).
*I know that Doctor Ree isn’t actually a malicious serial killer who projects a grand illusion of civility, but let’s face it he does his best to sound like one, apparently for his own vicarious amusement.
@48/ED: I’ve always imagined Dr. Ree sounding like Scott McNeil’s Dinobot from Beast Wars: Transformers.
I’m pretty sure the whole point of the episode with the exocomps was that they WERE sentient, Keith. PS: Say hi to my namesake for me! (In our case, there can not be only one but three if you count Marina Sirtis.)
@49. ChristopherLBennett: Oooh, good call – it’s been a long time since one last watched BEAST WARS, but the voice you suggest makes a lot of sense (I’d suggest a slightly ‘sleeker’ tone though, a little more hiss and a little less snarl).
@42 – Mr. D: Nah, Boimler picked up fencing because he’s a Sulu fan. :)
The season overview comments thread seems to be locked down, so I’ll leave my small summation here:
Can’t really dispute anything you’ve said, krad. It is a mixed bag. I liked parts of it here and there, but seems to me a mediocre effort. In between passionate hate and passionate love is a shrug.
I liked the intro of Orions in Starfleet, though STO got there first earlier this year when they gave KDF aligned characters a female holographic Orion doctor for their crew, fully dressed. Also liked seeing a Caitian featured. Maybe next season we’ll see Ferasans. (No Kzinti please. Boo, hiss.)
The show excelled at action set pieces. Basically, the bookends for me were the initial D’Deridexes battling the Borg in the opening credits and the Luna class Titan flying into battle in the last episode. I have one of those in STO, though only flew it briefly while leveling one character. It’s considered a Science Reconnaissance Vessel. Can’t really run it in end content since it’s a lower tier ship and would get shredded in endgame content. Which actually fits pretty well as an opponent to Pakleds (who have joined the UFP in the 25th century, btw.)
As far as its intended audience, I’m not sure it’s for either adults or kids. Maybe it’s aimed at teenagers, maybe just teenage boys. My initial assessment was that it was juvenile and manic. That didn’t change much over the course of the season.
So, Kirk “frees” the inhabitants of Beta III from Landru. They later decide, of their own free will, to reinstate the practice . And Starfleet has a problem with this? I thought the whole idea of the PD was that the Federation wouldn’t get involved in the culture of non-aligned planets? What am I missing here?
@@@@@ 42 Mr D– the “Boimler with a sword” thing goes back to the first episode. In the final scene, right after Mariner declares herself to be Boimler’s mentor, she mentions that Sulu rocked the sword and that Boimler should rock a sword because they were due for a new sword guy.
Steve: I just rewatched the first episode last night and noticed that, and smiled.
Wow, this was pretty intense. When they get serious, they do a pretty good job. The sequence where the Solvang was destroyed was beautifully animated and directed, very shocking and potent. And the attack on the Cerritos was pretty intense too. I liked the way it brought the character arcs to a head too, especially Freeman and Mariner finding a new rapport.
I agree that Shaxs’s death didn’t have as strong an impact as it could have, but that’s mainly because he got so little character development over the season. He was just a one-note “I want to shoot things” guy, basically a riff on early-TNG Worf, and even that was only showcased a couple of times. He was just kind of there in the background, and now he’s not there. It would’ve been nice if the season had had more episodes, so that the characters could be fleshed out more before bringing them moments of change and closure in the finale.
A lot of callbacks here. Mariner fought the Pakled boarders with the same bloodstained bat’leth she had in the teaser of the premiere. The Titan was heading to the planet Boimler and Mariner visited in “Envoys.” Captain Dayton was a returning character, Badgey was back, etc.
I have a credibility issue with the timing. After the battle’s over, we cut to spacedock, where the Cerritos‘s repairs are already well underway, so I figured we were at least a week or two after the climax. But then the characters started saying stuff like “You did a good job today.” So we were supposed to believe the severely crippled ship got towed all the way back to a starbase in a totally different star system and got its rebuilding well underway in only a few hours? Impossible. (Also, how did Peanut Hamper get there?)