Dammit Lower Decks I bloody laughed this week.
A story, not so brilliant; B story - absolutely classic. I could leave the review there but that would be horribly unfair on something that will be attached to Treklore for a long time to come.
Attempting to recover some long-forgotten Starfleet scrap (nice touch that it's NCC-502 and an Antares Class freighter utilised in the remastered Original Series), the Cerritos is stuck in a dispute with the Drookmani (badass Gorn-wannabes) who also want to lay claim to the junk.
Meanwhile our beloved ensigns are watching one of their peers chug from the replicator and getting nacho cheese stuck in the Chief Medical Officer’s fur.
Among their number is the highly popular all round great guy, Fletcher who, while trying to be the highly popular all round great guy that he is, manages to create a malevolent lifeform just because he wanted a quick win while Mariner and Boimler sneaked off to watch the Chu Chu in the ship’s bar. A fabled event that we will probably never see and therefore create huge fan lore around,
Anyway, this creation goes on a rampage sucking in and utilising anything it can get its multiple claws on before its utilised to inadvertently save the ship.
Enjoyable it is but the hunt to eliminate this creation isn’t super memorable. Boimler and Mariner’s friendship is made out to be all that more solid here with them double-teaming to save the day so there are signs of character development even if the stories are standalone.
Hats off too for the mention of the Q, potentially aligned with the news that John De Lancie will be guesting as the omnipotent one in a future season one episode albeit briefly.
Heading up to the bridge the inanity of Lt Shax's repeated begging to fire on the Drookmani echoes the multiple occasions that Worf was belayed by Picard and then when the chance finally does come it’s impossible for him to take action due to the substantial damage the Cerritos has taken while Captain Freeman has attempted the more diplomatic Starfleet approach.
The secondary story however eclipses that with the introduction of Badgie.
Now what we have here is a thread which revisits Tendi’s recent graduation and that she never passed her zero-G training. Of course, equally tech nerd Rutherford has a solution with his handy holodeck training programme (cue a select list of characters featured in The Next Generation) all led by his created avatar, Badgie.
With his introduction and coupling this with a malfunction, you have all the right ingredients for a Star Trek size catastrophe as Badgie transforms into a psychotic killing machine chasing the pair across a Bajoran marketplace and up the side of a freezing mountain. The story of these two underlings within the main cast of Lower Decks cemented a few things for me and their utilisation of both Tendi and Rutherford was much better with one assisting the other at least with all the best intentions.
It's clear to me now that Tendi represents the young, new fan of the franchise; the entry point we all used to get aboard the Cerritos in Second Contact but for the last few episodes I’ve felt - and noted - that shes felt at a loose end and without purpose. Terminal Provocations revitalises the Orion ensign offering her to the audience as the one seeing this all as a new experience and a gateway to other things.
Rutherford is set in as the nerd, the tech geek in the group and on reflection to Cupid’s Errant Arrow, this was starting to be evident although both he and Tendi seemed to be sharing traits as they scanned and battled to get their own T-88 tricorders.
Terminal Provocations is a season highlight and a surprising twist in that Tendi and Rutherford had the better storyline this week. Badgie is inspired even down to his loading time and sweet-saccharine personality that grates from its loveliness. Surely he’s going to be in demand to turn back up at some point in the future?
McMahan’s series is growing each week with the brilliance of taking an average scifi plot and spinning an outlandish twist on it. This week’s has been partially successful with the killer assortment of parts being totally eclipsed by a shiny combadge with a personality. Its this kind of line that Lower Decks is excelling at - that bizarre element that only an animated series could get away with making relevant. In the live action shows this would be laughed off the screen yet the very nature of Lower Decks especially its ability to take a cheeky wink at its own past hits the mark.
Terminal Provocations really is two extremes - a rather steady A plot which works to further the relationship of our two, clear, main characters while the B plot explores those crazier possibilities with aplomb. Truth be told it felt like the series was trying to build on its comedy elements over the scifi concept that was instilled in the franchise over 50 years ago. What I also love is the balance between new and recognising that lengthy TV and movie heritage.
Unlike some of the novels, Lower Decks sprinkles in just a touch of references that are relevant to the story and the conversations such as this week’s holodeck listing or the inspired cold opening discussing warp engine sounds. It’s kept to a respectful level that importantly doesn’t overshadow the idenity of the show yet brings it into the established fold and canon.
Terminal Provocations, for all its averageness in the Boimler/Mariner plot does stand above the rest so far but only due to our shiny friend Badgie. Is it a sign that gimmicks and one offs could be the key winner for the show? I’d rather it isn’t and we keep with interesting stories and that twisted lower deck perspective on those big missions.
But what did you think to episode six? Did it break out of the confines of Star Trek seriousness or was this a big mistake? Let us know below!
Enjoyed this article? Why not subscribe and share to spread the word!
Like our page on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Find us on Tumblr
No comments:
Post a Comment