Sonya Gomez first appeared as a fresh-out-of-the-Academy ensign in the TNG episode “Q Who,” where she spilled hot chocolate all over Captain Picard. She was eager to sign up for the Enterprise because the ship was on the frontier. “Whatever’s out here, we’re going to be the first humans to see it. And I want to be a part of that.” She got a major lesson in being careful what you wish for, as shortly after that was Starfleet’s first encounter with the Borg.
Her next appearance was in “Samaritan Snare,” where she helped rescue La Forge from Pakleds, and while she was intended to be a recurring character, that didn’t really work out, and we never saw on screen again—
—until the second season finale of Lower Decks.
SPOILERS AHOY!
Gomez was played by Lycia Naff, who’s probably best known for playing the three-breasted hooker in 1990’s Total Recall. She had retired from acting, switching to journalism, but somebody at CBS, Secret Hideout, or Important Science must have convinced her to do some voiceover work, because Naff came back to voice Gomez for “First First Contact.” Fifteen years after she spilled hot chocolate on Picard, she’s now the captain of the U.S.S. Archimedes, which looks like an Excelsior-class ship.
Buy the Book
Until the Last of Me
I found this appearance both wonderful and annoying because in 2000, John Ordover and I put together the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, which was a monthly eBook series that I edited (and also wrote several installments of), which ran until 2007. Featuring a mobile Corps of Engineers team that flew around on the U.S.S. da Vinci fixing things that were broken across the galaxy in the year following the Dominion War, the lead character in the series was Gomez. A commander, first officer of the da Vinci, and head of the S.C.E. team on board.
Now nothing in “First First Contact” contradicts the Corps of Engineers series, at least (though it is at odds with later books that mention that Gomez took over as captain of the da Vinci in 2380, and was still her captain over the next few years, according to the Destiny trilogy by David Mack, your humble reviewer’s A Singular Destiny, and David McIntee’s Indistinguishable from Magic). But I also found myself frustrated by one aspect of Gomez’s character as seen here.
However, that’s a personal problem, due in part to how much work I invested as both an editor and a writer in developing Gomez. And I’ll get to that in a bit, as getting there was quite entertaining.
“First First Contact” gives us several Trek standbys: a character being offered a promotion that they eventually turn down because they can’t leave the show (TNG’s “Coming of Age” and “The Icarus Factor”), a day dedicated to celebrating the captain (TNG’s “The Pegasus”), the main ship having to rescue another ship that’s been damaged (too many episodes to count), the crew all standing in a row in the corridor to see someone off when they leave (TNG’s “Redemption,” Voyager’s “Homestead”), and the season-ending cliffhanger (TNG’s third through sixth seasons, DS9’s fourth and fifth seasons, Voyager’s second, third, fifth, and sixth seasons, Enterprise’s fist and third seasons, Discovery’s first and second seasons). Plus we get an old sitcom standby: Tendi thinks she’s being transferred off the ship, and she spends the entire episode bemoaning her outcast state. Rutherford takes her on a tour of all her favorite places on board (including the Jefferies Tube where the two of them watched a pulsar on a padd in “Envoys”). However, it all turns out okay: T’Ana thinks she’s too good to just be a medtech and transfers her to the main sciences division, where she might even be able to do bridge duty.
However, my favorite part of this episode is when they go to Cetacean Ops. Established as part of the Enterprise-D in, among other places, the Enterprise-D blueprints by Rick Sternbach, it was never seen on screen mainly for budgetary reasons. It’s staffed a couple of dolphins, who help with navigation. After decades of wishing we could see it, Lower Decks (which already mentioned Cetacean Ops twice) finally shows it to us, and also gives me my two new favorite Starfleet characters, the dolphins Kimolu and Matt. These two are hilarious (they keep wanting everyone to join them for a swim, especially Rutherford and his broad shoulders, and they provided most of the funniest lines in the episode).
The climax of the episode takes place in Cetacean Ops because we have one more Trek standby: the lame-ass technobabble jeopardy plot! The Archimedes is on its way to a first contact, and the Cerritos is there as backup. A solar flare blows up an asteroid, which lets out some magnetized ionic particles that collide with the Archimedes, acting like an EMP. Power is completely out.
The Cerritos has to rescue them before they crash into the planet they’re supposed to make first contact with, which would be an extinction-level event. But the only way they can get through the magnetized ionic particles is to go unshielded through the debris field—and also without the outer hull, as it will attract the magnetic particles.
Inexplicably, they need the crew to do this—if any job would call for the Dot-23 robot drones we’ve seen on Discovery and in “Ephraim and Dot,” this would be it, but whatever—and one panel won’t come off. The manual override is only accessible through Cetacean Ops. But Kimolu and Matt can’t do it, because the manual control isn’t designed for flippers. (Kimolu and Matt are, justifiably, very cranky about that.)
Mariner is about to put on a suit and save the day, but she doesn’t get to, because this is the season of Badass Boimler. He actually tells her to shut up and apologize to Freeman, with whom she’d had a fight, in case the mission fails and they all die. Boimler goes down to do the thing.
As usual, Mariner is pissed that someone is abandoning her. She gets along better now with Freeman than ever before and now she’s leaving. But they do kiss and make up in the end.
There’s also some artificial suspense when Boimler’s suit is breached and he blacks out while under water, but Kimolu and Matt get him out of the water—saying his blowhole is malfunctioning—and Tendi revives him with CPR.
The Archimedes is saved, and this is where I have my problem. Gomez came up as a Starfleet engineer under Geordi La Forge. In her second appearance she came up with a way to trick the Pakleds into returning La Forge. In the Corps of Engineers series, we spent a lot of time showing that Gomez is a prototypical Starfleet engineer in full “miracle worker” mode. Which is my way of saying that the Sonya Gomez I know would be able to her own damn self out of a situation where the ship was without power. We do see her trying to use the power from the shuttlecrafts to jump-start the ships, but that doesn’t work, and if not for the Cerritos they’d all be dead. It’s character assassination, I tells ya!
Okay, maybe not, but you understand my issue.
Still, it’s my only issue with a very strong finale to a very strong season. And it ends with Freeman under arrest. Apparently the Pakled planet has been destroyed, and Starfleet Security has “evidence” that Freeman colluded with Klingon extremists (whom we met last week in “wej Duj”) to plant a bomb on the Pakled homeworld. (One piece of evidence is the Pakled wearing a Cerritos T-shirt who was given a tour of the ship by Ransom and Kayshon in “The Spy Humongous.”).
We end with the crew all lined up in the corridor, intending to wish Freeman well, but instead they all get to see her perp walk. (It’s not clear why they’re lined up, as Freeman had already told the whole crew that she wasn’t going to take the new command, as she wants to stay with the Cerritos, but whatever.)
This is a jam-packed season finale, but it never feels overstuffed. It even has some nice feel-good bits as the crew all works together and get a lovely benediction from Freeman when she decides to stay on board. Oh, and the ship is mostly saved by Rutherford, who came up with the solution to the problem.
Plus, we get a strong cliffhanger, leaving us on tenterhooks for season three. Whenever that will be…
Random thoughts
- If you want to read about Sonya Gomez’s adventures on the U.S.S. da Vinci, check out the Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers series. The individual novellas are all available as individual eBooks, and all but the final eight were collected into print volumes (which are also available as eBooks): Have Tech, Will Travel; Miracle Workers; Some Assembly Required; No Surrender; Foundations; Wildfire; Breakdowns; Aftermath; Grand Designs; Creative Couplings; Wounds; Out of the Cocoon; and What’s Past. In addition, I’ve been reading my contributions to the series (Fatal Error, Cold Fusion, Invincible, Here There Be Monsters, War Stories, Breakdowns, Security, and Many Splendors on my YouTube channel, “KRAD COVID readings.” This month’s is Many Splendors, which chronicles Gomez’s tenure on the Enterprise-D from the second through fifth seasons.
- Rutherford is suffering a malfunction whereby he keeps getting error messages, which block his vision. Turns out he’s been making multiple backups of all his memories of Tendi, in case he loses them again like he did in the first-season finale. He purges the redundant backups, and also catches something where two shadowy figures are installing something into Rutherford. “What if someone asks why he has it?” “We’ve programmed that in. He’ll think it was elective.” That’s not ominous at all!
- At one point, Jennifer-the-Andorian saves Mariner’s life, and afterward the two of them have a rapprochement. Mariner admits that she tends to sabotage relationships so she won’t get hurt. It looks like Jennifer may become part of the gang next season along with Boimler, Rutherford, Tendi, and Mariner…
- Shaxs has the funniest non-dolphin line when they’re moving all volatile material to the center of the ship when they’re removing the outer hull. “Nothing explodes around here unless I’m the one blowing it up!”
- When told she’s being transferred to sciences, Tendi squees, and says, “Like Jadzia Dax?” T’Ana just stares at her. “Who the fuck is that? I don’t know who that is! No, like Spock!” This is the second funniest non-dolphin line, partly because T’Ana’s initial confusion as to who Dax is serves as a cute commentary on the show’s proclivity for sub-referencing, and her followup of saying it’s like Spock is a similarly cute commentary on how little love DS9 tends to get in comparison to the original series and TNG.
- Kimolu is shocked to learn that Mariner is Freeman’s daughter. Matt rather angrily tells Kimolu to keep up.
- The senior staff is incredibly whiny about Freeman’s promotion when they find out—which they only do find out because Mariner overheard her talking with Gomez about it and tells the senior staff before Freeman was ready to, thus continuing Mariner’s character arc as a massive pain in the ass. I particularly love how devastated Ransom is, as he’s the ultimate suckup.
- Having said that, Ransom also plays a big part in saving the day, as it’s his piloting skills that get them through the debris field—using a joystick, no less, just like Riker did in Insurrection. Which was, y’know, really dumb, but whatever.
- While Boimler is more badass this season, he’s not completely de-Boimler’d yet. For “Captain Freeman Day,” he made a big sign that looks exactly like the “Captain Picard Day” sign we saw in TNG‘s “The Pegasus” (and which Picard still had in his storage unit in Picard‘s “Remembrance“). Of course, that banner was designed by children, which Boimler is dinged for. He also desperately wants Freeman to know that he designed it…
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be a guest at Indiana Comic-Con this coming weekend at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. He’ll be at the Bard’s Tower booth for the majority of the weekend, alongside fellow word-slingers Claudia Gray, Michael A. Stackpole, Megan Mackie, Caitlin Sangster, Brian Anderson, and Christopher Ruocchio. Keith might also be doing some programming. Other Trek guests include William Shatner (assuming he makes it back safely from space) and Carlos Ferro. Come by and say hi!
I just had to make the first first comment on First First Contact!
Totally aside- BUT I ORDERED MY “RITOS” T-SHIRT AND I AM SO EXCITED TO GET IT!!!!
I really enjoyed this season. I think they helped tone down some of the rougher aspects of the characters (as is pretty common for a second season, I think), and I like the direction they are taking it. I also think they have managed to strike a really good balance between having a bit of an overall arc (with the Packleds/Klingons) but keeping the episodes totally able to be watched out-of-context or out of order. It’s nice to have a show that isn’t a essentially a 13-hour long movie. The Jadzia joke *really* made me laugh, although I do think they could tone down some of the other Trek references (and I think they got a little better at that this season, too, or at least making them seem more natual).
This was fantastic. This show’s comedy is hit-or-miss, but when they buckle down and do straight-up Star Trek adventure stories, they’re remarkably good at it. Okay, the science was total rubbish, and I don’t get why jettisoning the hull plates was supposed to work, let alone why the front of the bridge lacks the two-layered hull of the rest of the ship, when you’d think it ought to be the best-protected part. But it was an amazing premise to see the crew actually taking their ship apart to save the day. It really took advantage of the potential of animation to show things that would be hard to achieve in live action.
Speaking of which, I never thought I’d actually get to see Cetacean Ops! That was amazing. We so rarely get to see non-humanoids in Starfleet. And they got humor from the well-known tendency of dolphins to be incredibly horny, constantly urging the others to get undressed and join them in the water (though they were wearing uniforms of their own, oddly enough).
The references to the children on the ship celebrating Captain Freeman Day confused me. Have we ever seen any children on the Cerritos? (Mariner doesn’t count, childish though she is.) Also, if this is a small ship as they claimed, how come it has all the amenities of a Galaxy class ship, including families, Cetacean Ops, a captain’s yacht, and a rubber ducky room (it’s canon now, no takebacks!)?
No note that the Archimedes first officer was played by Phil LaMarr doing his Hermes Conrad voice?
@3 Since Cerritos is so much smaller than a Galaxy class ship, perhaps there are only a handful of children on board?
@4/SeanOHara: That wasn’t a Jamaican accent, it was an Indian accent.
@5/CLB I work for Indians, and if that’s LaMarr’s Indian accent he failed big time.
@6/Sean: Okay, it was the standard American actor’s idea of an Indian accent. I doubt his Hermes accent was authentically Jamaican either.
I liked the first season well enough, but honestly this one has cemented Lower Decks‘s place in my mind not only as the best of the new series, but as the best Star Trek in general since Deep Space Nine. I really hope that they didn’t just wipe out the Pakleds, though.
wildfyrewarning: I need to get me one of them t-shirts……
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Oh, and I forgot, they’re still doing that annoying thing of trying to insist that every episode takes place over a single day. At the end they were talking about how the crew did a good job “today,” and how Pakled Planet blew up “earlier today” during the crisis. But IIRC, they said it took 19 hours for Gomez’s ship to reach the planet, and then there would’ve been all the subsequent time for the first contact ceremonies and the ship repairs and the travel time for all those other Starfleet vessels showing up at the end… add in the initial travel time to get to the planet, and it should’ve been more like a week.
Yes, I find it a shame they didn’t name the ship the Da Vinci. Maybe she’s in temporary command or got transferred. I blame those time travel shenanigans in Coda.
And the whales/dolphins have uniforms. Automatic 10.
I choose to believe that this show is ACTUALLY playing the long game, though:
* Mariner “used” to be courageous, which means there is a big traumatic incident that destroyed her.
* Rutherford and Boimler were afraid there was a black ops sleeper agent onboard. It’s RUTHERFORD not Mariner.
(Note: Rutherford has combat mode that can defeat dozens of Borg, was able to do a spy mission on autopilot, and has his emotions able to be manipulated by his implant)
* There is probably a conspiracy in Starfleet of some sort (because there always is). I assume it’s Admiral Freeman because all Admirals are evil in Starfleet.
* The Pakleds blow themselves up with their own bomb as established in the previous episode.
IT ALL CONNECTS!
Re: Children on the Ritos
During Rutherford’s Command Simulation, it says that his actions killed every child on the ship. Starting with the preschool.
One thing that bothered me, as it usually does with Trek series (and most space series, really), is that they always forget/ignore that space is 3-dimensional. The asteroid field in front of them could have been avoided by flying above or below it, or even going far enough around it. The need to remove the hull could have been explained by having some debris still surrounding the Archimedes as it plummeted towards the planet.
Raphy
@12/Raphael: Looking over the recap on Memory Alpha, I think that basically was what they said, that the debris was too close to the Archimedes. And Kayshon did suggest warping past the debris, but the others shot it down for some reason.
Anyway, it’s not really a question of 3-dimensionality, since the debris field would’ve been spreading out in all directions. It’s a question of the sheer size of space. With 19 hours before impact, they should’ve had plenty of time to circle out past the debris field in any direction, or to do a warp hop to its other side. We just have to assume the radiation from the flare or whatever was preventing that.
Okay, I totally geeked out a few days ago when I found out we’d see Gomez. Not just because I really liked her appearance in TNG but also because I loved her in the SCE stories! (which I should go back and re-read one of these days) So, even though she didn’t save her own ship (though I give her an A for effort) it was still great seeing her!
I usually don’t have a problem with Mariner but her spilling the beans about her mother’s leaving was just petty and awful.
Well, that’s it for the Pakleds. I’ve seen speculation as to who actually blew up Pakled planet. While the idea of a conspiracy is really interesting, I wouldn’t put it past the Pakleds to have done it themselves out of stupidity.
Rutherford’s cybernetic implants were NOT elective! OMG, that actually clears up something that’s been bugging me for two seasons. I never understood why someone would electively let themselves be fitted which cybernetic implants. I’m sure many disagree with me, but I felt it was needlessly invasive. I know TNG-era Trek didn’t have a bias against computers but it still felt strange for Starfleet to institute this type of voluntary program. (I know we were never told it was Starfleet, that’s just the assumption I always made) The idea that he did not choose the procedure makes so much more sense to me!
First, as a huge fan of Jadzia Dax, I loved that Tendi referenced her! Also, the joke worked for me on another level–you have the younger person referencing a more modern example and the older person not getting it.
Speaking of Tendi, this episode cleared up another misconception that I had. I thought she was a doctor. I didn’t get that she was a medtech.
I think I’m in the minority but I really didn’t like the Cetacean Ops stuff. Maybe because I didn’t like the original reference so I just put it out of my head. Only, before it was it easier to ignore and forget because it was just mentioned. Now, we actually saw it.
The whole crew working to disable the hull so they can save the Archimedes was great! Equally awesome were Jennifer saving Mariner and the Cerritos tractoring the Archimedes just in time.
Captain Freeman being led away in irons off her own ship?? Now that’s an EPIC cliffhanger! It hurts that we’ll probably have to wait until next summer to find out what happens. (In regards to the “farewell” walk, I don’t think she told the whole crew. I got the impression it was just the 10 people who were in front of her. So, Boimler and others in the back wouldn’t have known. Yes, word should have filtered down but maybe those in the know just wanted to leave it alone so they could show respect for the captain–to know she’s appreciated)
Note: My brother is a principal at a elementary school and they do a walk off for the 8th graders. It’s kind of sweet.
Someone on another site speculated that the Cerritos will get a new captain (probably for an episode) while they get Freeman’s problem sorted out. If that’s the case, I hope it’s Captain Jellico because 1) I really liked him and would love to see him again and 2) It’d be fun to see him drive the crew of the Cerritos crazy..
I admit, I choose to believe the Cetaceans are actually alien whales rather than Earth ones. They’re the same ones who probably sent the ST IV probe too.
@15/C.T. Phipps: “I choose to believe the Cetaceans are actually alien whales rather than Earth ones.”
Why? Not only does ST IV canonically establish that Trek-universe Earth cetaceans are sapient, but the consensus of many scientists is that the real ones are too. So what could possibly be objectionable about them being Earth cetaceans?
Speaking of T-shirts, Kimolu and Matt are featured on this week’s Lower Decks Shirt Collective.
https://www.titmousestuff.com/collections/star-trek-lower-decks/products/shirt-collective-week-10?variant=40197050794160
It’s also a bit funny that the cetacean ops crew outranks the lower decks (Kimolu and Matt are both junior-grade lieutenants).
I also liked how this episode at least partially answered some questions that were building in the back of mind. Primarily, does the Ceritos have a captain’s yacht and would we see it? Also, what’s going on with Rutherford’s implant? Why did he decide to get it?
I thought this episode was great and was glad they didn’t take the Corps of Engineers books into account since those were among the weakest of the entire Pocket line.
I just realized that the Rubber Ducky Room was a super deep cut to the starboard elevation of the Enterprise-D in Main Engineering, which included a rubber ducky as an in-joke. (Here’s a screencap from someone on Reddit.) Damn, this show has levels.
There was something in the interactions between Mariner and Jennifer-the-Andorian which hinted at more than tentative friendship… I really got more of a “I -like- you, like you” vibe which might make an interesting character dynamic to explore in subsequent seasons.
Lower Decks has shied away from really committing to romance between the characters, even though Tendi and Rutherford perpetually seem on the verge of doing -something- in the Jefferies Tubes, while Boimler and Mariner have a real siblingesque thing rather than any romantic chemistry. So maybe we’ll see Mariner and Jennifer indulging in a fling, whether it’s against regulations or not.
Given the suggestion that we might also be getting the Vulcan ensign from last week’s episode as a new member of the Cerritos (as some have speculated) I wonder if we’re actually going to see any expansion beyond the Core Four+Senior Bridge Crew as regulars.
Loved seeing Cetacean Ops brought to life at long last.
Alas Tendi is doing her best to the reverse of an Orion woman and Rutherford would not make the first move unless he tripped and fell.
But yes, I’m all about Jennifer and Mariner.
I’m also shipping T’Lyn and Boimler.
I’ve been enjoying the show from the beginning, but I have to say, this season and these last few episodes in particular have seen a huge jump in quality. I actually found this episode and the last one really thrilling. The four-ship battle last week was great, and the idea and execution of de-hulling the ship this week was just spectacular. I know it’s mainly because animation allows for more freedom, but damn these episodes have been exciting. I’m really loving Trek again (and I’ve been pretty happy with Discovery and Picard, so Lower Decks must really be something special)!
I may be misremembering (or misheard), but I thought they deliberately removed the inner hull from the front of the bridge as well as the outer because something something about the viewscreen might trigger the fragments, so it had to go, which was why they needed the lookouts. I’m not confident in that memory, so correct me if I’m wrong.
I don’t think the last episode showed the Pakleds blowing up their own planet. As I recall, they tested their one and only bomb on an asteroid, which is what created the metreon(sp?) particles that the Cerritos and the Vulcan ship detected. The bomb that destroys Pakled would have to be a second bomb, presumably planted by the renegade Klingons, or some other members of this conspiracy.
No, the previous episodes established that the Klingon Captain gave them a second Vaaruvian (sp?) Bomb.
costumer: the viewscreen was deactivated, so Ransom needed a hole in the hull so he could see where he was steering.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@20/Michael M. Jones: Oh, they were more than hinting at a Mariner-Jennifer romance. At the start, Mariner’s complaints about Jennifer included a seemingly non sequitur reference to her “stupid little butt,” which was a dead giveaway that Mariner’s resentment was sublimated attraction. And then at the end, she and Jennifer were talking about Mariner “liking” her in a way that was clearly meant as more than platonic.
“So maybe we’ll see Mariner and Jennifer indulging in a fling, whether it’s against regulations or not.”
No reason it should be against regulations. Heck, in Trek, we’ve seen that it’s inexplicably okay for commanding officers to date their direct subordinates (Picard and Nella Darren, Kelvin Spock and Uhura), so if that’s allowed (when it really shouldn’t be), I can’t imagine any other relationship being off-limits.
@23/costumer: “I thought they deliberately removed the inner hull from the front of the bridge as well as the outer because something something about the viewscreen might trigger the fragments, so it had to go, which was why they needed the lookouts. I’m not confident in that memory, so correct me if I’m wrong.”
No, Ransom just had some line about needing a clear view. Maybe he meant that the interference would disrupt the viewscreen, a la The Wrath of Khan.
Which doesn’t establish that they blew themselves up. It merely means they had another bomb, assuming it was actually delivered. The bomb which destroyed Pakled Planet may, or may not, have been the one they got from Dorg. And if it was the bomb they got from Dorg they may, or may not, have detonated it themselves.
@25 and @26.
I thought it was something. But that does imply that the bridge did have an outer and inner hull. The inner hull was only removed so Ransom had his view.
Either way it was a great episode. Though I’m curious why Starfleet security arrested Freeman. I would like to see what actual evidence they used to make that decision. (planted or whatever). It it was only the t-shirt, that seems like less than flimsy evidence.
@27/costumer: I assume we’ll learn more about the evidence against Freeman in next season’s premiere.
Wild guess. Gomez will have temporary command of the Cerritos while her ship is being repaired – and she will give tacit support to the crew of the Ritos helping investigate the charges against Freeman (Rutherford’s implant will be a factor)
@29/AndyLove: Keith said that Lycia Naff came out of retirement to play the role. IMDb says this is her first acting role in 13 years and only her third in the past 30 years. So I’d be surprised if she were interested in a larger gig than just one episode.
Although if they wrapped it up in one episode and had Freeman back by the end of the season 3 premiere, it might be possible.
Small correction, Keith. Those aren’t dolphins. They’re beluga whales. Still cetaceans, but definitely not dolphins. :)
I’d just like to note that I enjoy these reviews, even when at times I don’t agree with them.
I agree with all who think Jennifer is going to be a love interest for Beckett, not a member of the gang. That wasn’t a “Come sit at our table” moment, it was a, “Meet my girlfriend Jennifer” moment. But I also find it interesting that Jen calls Boimler, “Brad.” Everyone else calls him Boimler. First names are rarely used on the Cerritos, so what’s up with that? (Side note: Castro asked Boimler out toward the end of “The Spy Humongous.” We never found out if anything happened there.)
Cetacean Ops was hilarious, but having the mag-lock control at the bottom of their pool is some FPS “you need the red key to open this door” nonsense.
Did not see that cliffhanger coming. Good one there. I can’t imagine Gomez would be interested in captaining the Cerritos when she’s already the captain of a bigger ship (even though she has no ego). If they’re going to bring in an existing captain I think Amina Ramsey would make more sense. Or they’ll bring in someone new.
@17/QuesoGuapo – The captain’s yacht had already been mentioned, Mariner stole the keys for it at some point.
Speaking of Mariner, was anyone else happy that Tendi *and* Boimler finally called her on her BS? That was getting so tiring. But it was also so obviously an act; I agree with @11/C.T. Phipps that there’s a traumatic incident in her backstory. We know she’s served on multiple ships and at least one station, and that she’s been demoted multiple times. And Ramsey said she was top of the class at the academy and kept everyone else in line. My hypothesis is that she had a command op at some point that went very wrong. Probably people died, and she has never gotten over the guilt from it.
One thing I don’t like about this show, or a lot of Trek honestly, is the constant referrals to Kirk as a rule-breaking rebel who always did his own thing. That really was only in Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock. In the original series he was very by-the-book, except for going on away missions. (But what captain isn’t, about that?) In The Undiscovered Country he follows orders for his mission despite his personal feelings, and surrenders himself rather than instigate war with the Klingons. Yet for some reason modern Trek treats him like he never read a single Starfleet regulation. It bugs me.
@Christopher
Well those were clearly alien beluga whales because they sounded like dolphins and their eyes are in a different place. Maybe these are the beluga whales from Vulcan.
:)
@32/Dan McD: “I agree with all who think Jennifer is going to be a love interest for Beckett, not a member of the gang.”
Mike McMahan confirmed in an interview that Mariner and Jennifer are going to be dating next season:
https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-lower-decks-mike-mcmahan-breaks-down-season-1847858312
“Cetacean Ops was hilarious, but having the mag-lock control at the bottom of their pool is some FPS “you need the red key to open this door” nonsense.”
Well, to be fair, removing the hull plates is not something you’d really be expected to do except in drydock. Plus, it was a backup release after the main one on the outer hull failed.
@33/C.T. Phipps: By that logic, all the characters are aliens, since no human has eyes that big and round or heads that oversized compared to their bodies.
Guess that ends that debate.
Does anyone else think Boimler took a step backward in the last two episodes? In that interview, McMahon mentions “Boimler being brave and jumping off on his own.” Isn’t that what he did when he took the promotion to the Titan? We spent most of this season watching him taking on more and more responsibility, saving the day, showing the ‘Redshirts’ what leadership actually is, outsmarting evil computers, and then in the last two episodes he’s back to lame-old-Boimler desperately trying to get the attention of the Senior Officers. They know who he is and he knows they do, they’ve told him so. Of course he can swim down to the bottom of Cetacean Ops to release the last panel. It shouldn’t have even been a question.
I hope we see more “Confident Boimler” and less of “I want to be Teacher’s Pet Boimler” in season 3.
The last time a show had a second season this good and this consistent, it was DS9. Not VOY, not ENT, not even Discovery had truly great sophomore years. Lower Decks nailed season 2, being a massive improvement over an already solid first season!
Somehow, the writers have managed to juggle the expanding cast and do every single one of these characters justice. Even though it’s mostly from the point of view of the ensigns, I’d argue Lower Decks is becoming very much an ensemble-driven show (also like DS9 before).
The plot itself – rescuing Sonya Gomez’s ship – is obviously one we’ve seen countless times before. But I adored the whole sequence of stripping the outer hull away. Some truly great visuals, a great way to put the whole crew to work, not to mention a superb musical score, which isn’t something I’ve noticed on LD before.
Speaking of which, I loved seeing Sonya Gomez again, listening to Naff’s voice. She made an impression on me back on Q Who, so many years ago. Back then, she was so similar to both Tendi and Boimler, a mixture of sorts. Their lust for adventure, and eagerness to please their superiors. I almost wish they had shared scenes together.
And that ending! How I’ve missed the classic season-ending cliffhanger (Discovery‘s prior season enders didn’t really feel like cliffhangers). The conspiracy theorist in me is already wondering what the hell happened offscreen. Why is Starfleet Security pinning this on Freeman? Why do I get the feeling the writers are going to introduce Section 31 into this mix? Too many questions.
@36/Eduardo: That’s a great point about Gomez. I was wondering why they pegged her to be the season-finale guest star instead of someone more prominent. But you’re right — she was very much a “Lower Decks” character back in TNG.
“Why do I get the feeling the writers are going to introduce Section 31 into this mix?”
Please, no. They’re overused as it is.
@37/Christopher: Q Who was one of the first TNG episodes I ever bought on VHS (back when Paramount released one episode per tape; now that was a case of overpriced). I watched it over and over, well before most of the others, which meant I had memorized that coffee stain scene. My late father used to compare my sister to Sonya Gomez for being a bit careless with toys and dishes.
(and I didn’t watch season 7’s Lower Decks until the DVD came out, years later)
I knew this episode was going to be a 10/10 in my heart the minute I saw an Excelsior-class starship pop up (The ‘Great Experiment’ is a personal favourite and it’s status as a perennial wingman/special guest hero/old war horse makes it beautifully suited to LOWER DECKS, with its focus on the less stories elements within Starfleet).
Then I saw the rest of this episode and started penning odes to what must be ranked as an absolutely superlative season of STAR TREK – Boimler being as bad*** as he is is kiss-***, Cetacean Ops (!), Jennifer having absolutely no time for Mariner’s jackass misconduct, Shax being an absolute Drama Queen, Rutherford’s Ominous Flashback, Tendi and Rutherford being as adorable as the are formidable, Our Heroes saving the day against palpable odds, the Seriously Miffed dance contestant, the captain of the Archimedes being superbly chill in and out of emergency, that parent & their child smiling in the face of a Bad Star, Jennifer being the better person, Mariner getting absolutely called on her Bad Behaviour, Doc T’Ana being the cranky old work mom we know & love, the First Contact Kegger, that cliffhanger, the Great Pakled Planet Blowout, THAT cliffhanger … hopefully this is only the first Season of many delights to come!
…
Oh, and krad, even James T. Kirk needed his ship saved every now and again, so you needn’t feel too badly for your protege – Starfleet is an ensemble, not a solo act. (-:
Oh, and OF COURSE Beckett Mariner thinks James T. the original “I do what I like!” officer; she needs something to get her through the day, after all (God help us, I’m pretty sure that if Mariner tried out that attitude on NCC-1701 she’d be bounced so hard they’d need a brig with a tractor beam to pull her back down.
@39/ED: Turns out the Archimedes isn’t an Excelsior class — it’s a bigger, more modern descendant called the Obena class, named after the show’s art director, Nollan Obena.
https://twitter.com/MikeMcMahanTM/status/1448034907897274373
For one thing, its nacelles are more like those of the Sovereign class.
I want a whole show about the flirty, happy Beluga crewwhales.
@18 We’ll, that’s like, your terrible opinion, man.
Also, read the friggin’ room: definitely shows a lack of couth when you KNOW that the author of this blog post helped create and frequently wrote for the book line, and you say something lame like that.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but it’s not like you needed to post that narrow minded belief on the internet.
@44/JYHASH: Keith was also the editor of the SCE/Corps of Engineers series, remember. In which capacity he bought my very first work of published Star Trek fiction.
@36: Yeah, the music! I feel certain they spent money on a full orchestra for the last episode.
I haven’t seen people say this much on tor, but this series is doing what the Orville did: Accidentally becoming a real show. And using grand music, better than many ST shows. And ending on a cliffhanger :)
I did lol at moments, but mostly this was a drama with moments of comedy, not unlike TOS and TNG before it. And of course, we diehards are into it.
I once wrote that I was giving up on Disco because it was staffed by characters I wouldn’t really want to hang out with. This show (perhaps even more than the Orville) is full of characters I would totally hang out with.
jofesh: Interesting — there are, maybe, two members of the Orville‘s crew I’d be interested in hanging out with. Maybe. But I’d love to hang out with almost anyone on Discovery…..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
ha! well I’m glad someone will. I’d hate to think anyone goes lonely for long in the optimistic future. :)
The crew of the Orville is far too “dude-bro” for me. The crew of Discovery seems far more interesting.
@41. ChristopherLBennett: My first reaction to this Shocking Revelation trembled on the brink of screaming my outrage to an uncaring cosmos.
Then I realised this meant the Great Experiment effectively had babies with my other particular favourite from the Starfleet ship-list (I actually commissioned my very own Sovereign-class from a fan artist) and was so very happy.
(I did notice the nacelles, but rather assumed this was just an Excelsior with a few mod cons rather than a whole new ship class; something in the spirit of NCC-1701, her cinematic refit).
@krad:
“Having said that, Ransom also plays a big part in saving the day, as it’s his piloting skills that get them through the debris field—using a joystick, no less, just like Riker did in Insurrection. Which was, y’know, really dumb, but whatever.”
A joystick’s a far better control interface than the four buttons Picard had back in “Booby Trap”, at least :v