Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Spy Humongous

September 16, 2021 8:25 AM - Season 2, Episode 6

We've had Die Hard on a starship (many, many times); now, here's Try Hard with a Vengeance!

Who among us has not been pooped out by Memory Alpha?:

- Phil LaMarr is in this; so is Brian Posehn, who did most of the Pakleds.

- MA has a good illustration of how the Kzinti ensign (and boy, aren't they getting a lot of use out of that character this season) is mirroring the look of the Kzinti telepath from TAS' "The Slaver Weapon."

- Gonna be blunt, although the idea of using what could be a breakthrough in communications to prank call someone else on another planet is kind of funny, not crazy about joking about Armus, mostly because I still have misgivings about that ep of TNG. That whole "let's take everything negative about our race, distill it into a sentient being, and leave it alone on a planet forever" thing still sticks in my craw. Who would deserve a prank call better? Gul Madred? The Great Link? Just about any Kazon? Random Badmiral? Lots of other choices.

- "Dangerous Science Trash" should be a T-shirt. They could sell it in the Cerritos gift shop! (You know that the Enterprise would have a gift shop.)

posted by Halloween Jack (10 comments total)

Crimson Force Field!
posted by Servo5678 at 3:22 PM on September 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh, dang, this was fun, and a lot of development for Pakleds as a culture. They really aren't a joke anymore.

Well. Okay, they are a joke, but they're a much more interesting joke!
posted by SansPoint at 5:49 PM on September 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

So the Kzin were always in a deeply dubious zone canonwise: I think a single passing mention in Picard was the first time in 48 years the name had been mentioned. Now not only do we have a recurring character but this week we have a Kzinti posture joke. Fantastic.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:58 PM on September 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

Calling it now: if the "Redshirts" show up in any other episodes, we're going to see one or more of them dead by the end of the season.
posted by radwolf76 at 2:54 AM on September 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

I laughed HARD at “Pakled Planet”
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:47 AM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

"I don't have a big enough helmet to do that" is going to become a thing around our house for a while.

Y'all know me and my deep deep love for TAS. The Kzinti posture joke completely made the episode for me.
posted by hanov3r at 7:25 AM on September 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

I was really really hoping for a "you scream and you leap" lecture from the Kzin, but I guess that's from Ringworld and they probably don't want to piss of Larry Niven's lawyers.

Also: um actually the singular is "Kzin". "Kzinti" is plural.
posted by The Tensor at 11:28 PM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Larry Niven's lawyers.

I wondered about this. Presumably at some point folks sat down and figured this out, or Niven signed the rights to use the Kzinti in Star Trek when he adapted his story to the TAS episode, because even as bold as this show is about old Trek Easter eggs I don't think they're so cavalier about IP.

Edit: Oh, I guess Niven is still alive so they could've just asked him.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:26 PM on September 18, 2021

The last Man-Kzin_Wars novel/story collection came out last year, and it's #16. Larry Niven can't be too precious about the Kzinti.
posted by Quonab at 9:26 PM on September 18, 2021

Now we need the Pakled "Biggest Helmet" to square off against Invader Zim's "Tallest"
posted by rmd1023 at 6:20 AM on December 30, 2023