Star Trek: Lower Decks: Shades of Green
October 25, 2024 9:19 AM - Season 5, Episode 2 - Subscribe
How to solve disputes within your interstellar organized crime society: space race through an asteroid field! Plus, see how a society reacts when it's introduced to Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism™.
Memory Alpha does what it wants 'cause a pirate is free:
- Solar sail-powered spacecraft were first seen in episodes of DS9 and SNW; it's based on a real (if still mostly speculative) proposed method of propulsion, although the sail would have to be orders of magnitude larger than the ones shown on Trek.
- "Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism" is slang for the type of post-scarcity (although some things do remain scarce because they can't be replicated) shown in Trek.
Poster's Log:
A decent follow-up to the season opener, with Tendi's family being sincere about letting her go (literally breeding her replacement), and showing the transition to FALGSC, although I wonder about the practice/policy of simply giving away any and all media of exchange; paper money would be useless (because it would no longer be honored by the issuing government), and if that's supposed to be gold-pressed latinum on those pallets (gold is canonically worthless because it can be replicated), well... why aren't the Ferengi already there? And do Tendi's family have any sort of legal status with Orion? The initial impression that I got is that the Pirate Queen was doing the equivalent of Klingon discommendation. I think that it may be more likely that they no longer get Syndicate income.
Good for T'Lyn for figuring out what the real purpose of "fixing the shuttle" was.
Memory Alpha does what it wants 'cause a pirate is free:
- Solar sail-powered spacecraft were first seen in episodes of DS9 and SNW; it's based on a real (if still mostly speculative) proposed method of propulsion, although the sail would have to be orders of magnitude larger than the ones shown on Trek.
- "Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism" is slang for the type of post-scarcity (although some things do remain scarce because they can't be replicated) shown in Trek.
Poster's Log:
A decent follow-up to the season opener, with Tendi's family being sincere about letting her go (literally breeding her replacement), and showing the transition to FALGSC, although I wonder about the practice/policy of simply giving away any and all media of exchange; paper money would be useless (because it would no longer be honored by the issuing government), and if that's supposed to be gold-pressed latinum on those pallets (gold is canonically worthless because it can be replicated), well... why aren't the Ferengi already there? And do Tendi's family have any sort of legal status with Orion? The initial impression that I got is that the Pirate Queen was doing the equivalent of Klingon discommendation. I think that it may be more likely that they no longer get Syndicate income.
Good for T'Lyn for figuring out what the real purpose of "fixing the shuttle" was.
I am in awe of how this show manages to have an A, B, and C plot in 25 minutes, and manages to have them all be engaging, and ties everything up in a bow at the end.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:29 AM on October 25 [8 favorites]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:29 AM on October 25 [8 favorites]
Speaking of Boimler and the beard growing, I just realized that back in the other episode, "Dos Cerritos" his counterpart does a reverse Riker to pop out of his seat near the end. Heh.
Concerning Tendi's family, it felt like they basically lost their franchisee license to be pirates, which is the ultimate role to have in the (Green) Orion society. I think treating it like a syndicate where there's a sharing of profits is the best way to go with it. Tendi's time being a bad ass pirate princess was fun, but she belonged on the Cerritos. T'lyn has really been a nice addition to the core group.
posted by Atreides at 12:52 PM on October 25 [1 favorite]
Concerning Tendi's family, it felt like they basically lost their franchisee license to be pirates, which is the ultimate role to have in the (Green) Orion society. I think treating it like a syndicate where there's a sharing of profits is the best way to go with it. Tendi's time being a bad ass pirate princess was fun, but she belonged on the Cerritos. T'lyn has really been a nice addition to the core group.
posted by Atreides at 12:52 PM on October 25 [1 favorite]
although the sail would have to be orders of magnitude larger than the ones shown on Trek.
They'd also be far slower than anything star ship we've seen on the show to date. I half expected the race start to be an anticlimatic joke, but I suppose if your ships are slow to accelerate off the line, they'd also be slow to turn away from asteroids and thus turn a race through an asteroid field from a test of skill and pirate cunning to one of random chance.
The initial impression that I got is that the Pirate Queen was doing the equivalent of Klingon discommendation
Seems like the Queen found a way to confiscate money and consolidate power in her "both teams lose" maneuver.
posted by pwnguin at 4:35 PM on October 25 [2 favorites]
They'd also be far slower than anything star ship we've seen on the show to date. I half expected the race start to be an anticlimatic joke, but I suppose if your ships are slow to accelerate off the line, they'd also be slow to turn away from asteroids and thus turn a race through an asteroid field from a test of skill and pirate cunning to one of random chance.
The initial impression that I got is that the Pirate Queen was doing the equivalent of Klingon discommendation
Seems like the Queen found a way to confiscate money and consolidate power in her "both teams lose" maneuver.
posted by pwnguin at 4:35 PM on October 25 [2 favorites]
House Tendi just came into (close to, at least) the entire wealth of a late-stage-capitalist world. I think the Pirate Queen would be happy to let the house buy its way back into their good graces rather than keep it excommunicated and miss their share.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:13 PM on October 25
posted by Navelgazer at 10:13 PM on October 25
"We'll just give all these jewels and precious metals to these convenient pirates, solving their problems! And break the fixed shuttle so the repairs can go on forever!" was such a good pair of episodic TV "reset the universe so we can watch this out of order in syndication" continuity hacks! Did they also have Boimler shave his little mustache so his face will be back to normal at the start of the next episode??
posted by potrzebie at 11:58 PM on October 25
posted by potrzebie at 11:58 PM on October 25
One of my favorite comedy-wells that this show will occasionally go to is the "background character who clearly sees themselves as the protagonist in their own story." Like Gavin in S3E1 "Grounded," (the single rider seated with our heroes on the "Ride the Phoenix" amusement-park spaceship that they steal) or Knicknac in S3E8 "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus." The Gardener Robot in this episode was a fine addition to that legacy.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:09 AM on October 26 [4 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 12:09 AM on October 26 [4 favorites]
if that's supposed to be gold-pressed latinum on those pallets (gold is canonically worthless because it can be replicated)
Freeman said it was all headed for the replicator, so it was presumably gold-pressed gold.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:42 AM on October 27
Freeman said it was all headed for the replicator, so it was presumably gold-pressed gold.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:42 AM on October 27
Freeman said it was all headed for the replicator, so it was presumably gold-pressed gold.
Which makes some sense. I'm not sure if Trek has ever gone deep into this (they probably have somewhere) but it would track if the Ferengi latched onto latinum as currency specifically because it can't be replicated, since they weren't at all ready to give up hyper-capitalism even in post-scarcity times (and further makes sense that they would make it "gold pressed" since they would probably have tons of gold that became worthless once they switched standards.) The world in this episode would have had no reason for Latinum in the pre-replicator days.
Now, why Orions still care about gold is less clear, of course...
posted by Navelgazer at 11:28 AM on October 27
Which makes some sense. I'm not sure if Trek has ever gone deep into this (they probably have somewhere) but it would track if the Ferengi latched onto latinum as currency specifically because it can't be replicated, since they weren't at all ready to give up hyper-capitalism even in post-scarcity times (and further makes sense that they would make it "gold pressed" since they would probably have tons of gold that became worthless once they switched standards.) The world in this episode would have had no reason for Latinum in the pre-replicator days.
Now, why Orions still care about gold is less clear, of course...
posted by Navelgazer at 11:28 AM on October 27
STYLE, Navelgazer!
These eps are as solid a season opener as we have come to expect. One thing I sensed as new was an apparent desire on the part of the creators for more action, and I also sense this won't end just because Tendi's (temporarily?) done pirating.
I was really worried about how formulaically the pregnancy plot point might resolve, but I shouldn't have been.
(OT but the Section 31 trailer looked honestly worse than J.J. Trek, and y'all know I do not say that lightly.)
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 8:40 AM on November 2
These eps are as solid a season opener as we have come to expect. One thing I sensed as new was an apparent desire on the part of the creators for more action, and I also sense this won't end just because Tendi's (temporarily?) done pirating.
I was really worried about how formulaically the pregnancy plot point might resolve, but I shouldn't have been.
(OT but the Section 31 trailer looked honestly worse than J.J. Trek, and y'all know I do not say that lightly.)
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 8:40 AM on November 2
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posted by Halloween Jack at 9:27 AM on October 25 [2 favorites]