Star Trek: Lower Decks: Fully Dilated
November 29, 2024 7:30 PM - Season 5, Episode 7 - Subscribe
It's a pre-warp society undercover Girls Trip!
Memory Alpha knows that the taquitos aren't really the point of Taquito Night:
- The purple universe's USS Enterprise-D is still intact as is Lieutenant Commander Data who were destroyed in Star Trek Generations and Star Trek Nemesis respectively. Data also mentions Worf (who is still a Lieutenant in his universe rather than being promoted to Lieutenant Commander by 2371), Geordi La Forge, and Jean-Luc Picard.
- The alternate reality Data mentions being stuck in 19th century San Francisco and being rescued by Captain Picard, himself, and "some guy in a silver jumpsuit" from a cave where he had waited. This is a reference to the events of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Time's Arrow" and "Time's Arrow, Part II".
- Despite the suggestive nature of the title, the episode has to do with time dilation, not any sort of birth.
"Wow, you really are fully functional."
- Data uses his head to help Tendi and T'Lyn
Poster's Log:
Wow, big guest star with the Spiner man! (Part of me wonders if Purple Cerritos, if it exists, is crewed by expies of Prince and the Revolution.) And a fun riff on the idea of time dilation. Mariner references "The Inner Light", although she herself did some "Hard Time", IYKWIMAITYDYT. And Tendi and T'Lyn invert the expected roles; D'Vana makes like Spock in "The City on the Edge of Forever" while T'Lyn creates... a beauty products empire? OK, that's not so much an inversion as, honestly, just out of left field. And the villain of the piece mostly just likes to watch. Maybe Snell will just write their version of Agatha All Along, with T'Lyn as Jen Kale.
Poster's Log: Not your usual type of transporter acccident.
Beardwatch: Rutherford in the lead! Very Ransomesque.
Memory Alpha knows that the taquitos aren't really the point of Taquito Night:
- The purple universe's USS Enterprise-D is still intact as is Lieutenant Commander Data who were destroyed in Star Trek Generations and Star Trek Nemesis respectively. Data also mentions Worf (who is still a Lieutenant in his universe rather than being promoted to Lieutenant Commander by 2371), Geordi La Forge, and Jean-Luc Picard.
- The alternate reality Data mentions being stuck in 19th century San Francisco and being rescued by Captain Picard, himself, and "some guy in a silver jumpsuit" from a cave where he had waited. This is a reference to the events of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Time's Arrow" and "Time's Arrow, Part II".
- Despite the suggestive nature of the title, the episode has to do with time dilation, not any sort of birth.
"Wow, you really are fully functional."
- Data uses his head to help Tendi and T'Lyn
Poster's Log:
Wow, big guest star with the Spiner man! (Part of me wonders if Purple Cerritos, if it exists, is crewed by expies of Prince and the Revolution.) And a fun riff on the idea of time dilation. Mariner references "The Inner Light", although she herself did some "Hard Time", IYKWIMAITYDYT. And Tendi and T'Lyn invert the expected roles; D'Vana makes like Spock in "The City on the Edge of Forever" while T'Lyn creates... a beauty products empire? OK, that's not so much an inversion as, honestly, just out of left field. And the villain of the piece mostly just likes to watch. Maybe Snell will just write their version of Agatha All Along, with T'Lyn as Jen Kale.
Poster's Log: Not your usual type of transporter acccident.
Beardwatch: Rutherford in the lead! Very Ransomesque.
Awesome episode, hard to believe even the network execs think Lower Decks has run its course!
posted by billsaysthis at 10:24 PM on November 29 [8 favorites]
posted by billsaysthis at 10:24 PM on November 29 [8 favorites]
Yeah seriously. I feel like this show is hitting its stride. Cancelling it now makes absolutely zero sense.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 4:41 AM on November 30 [5 favorites]
posted by mrjohnmuller at 4:41 AM on November 30 [5 favorites]
Maybe the real Inner Light was the friends we made along the way. In prison. Hey, she really does love the brig!
I felt T'Ana's "I'm a doctor, not whatever the fuck this is" in a very deep part of my soul.
"I wonder if the carpets match the hull." Marinerrrrrr
I've been enjoying this season but I have to admit I'm okay with the show ending. I feel like they told some great stories, really nailed some of Trek's problems to the wall, and made a nice return to what drew me to Trek in the first place. But it does feel like enough; I don't need it to wander off into Simponsesque senescence. By extension, I'm also starting to feel like there's Enough Star Trek for me at this point. I grew up with TOS in the pre-streaming era and feeling that I always wanted More Star Trek, and boy has that monkey's paw curled. I've barely watched a third of these shows, and I'm not really interested in getting into most of them. I'll keep watching Strange New Worlds, but I think this is probably it for Star Trek for me.
Wow, that was kind of a downer comment for an excellent episode. Sorry! Boimler stripping off his uniform to mop michelada off the LCARS console certainly won't be burned in my visual memory for the next few weeks in a bad way.
Also, when Data started talking I remember thinking "huh, I wonder why they made him sound so old" and then I had a sad.
posted by phooky at 7:38 AM on November 30 [2 favorites]
I felt T'Ana's "I'm a doctor, not whatever the fuck this is" in a very deep part of my soul.
"I wonder if the carpets match the hull." Marinerrrrrr
I've been enjoying this season but I have to admit I'm okay with the show ending. I feel like they told some great stories, really nailed some of Trek's problems to the wall, and made a nice return to what drew me to Trek in the first place. But it does feel like enough; I don't need it to wander off into Simponsesque senescence. By extension, I'm also starting to feel like there's Enough Star Trek for me at this point. I grew up with TOS in the pre-streaming era and feeling that I always wanted More Star Trek, and boy has that monkey's paw curled. I've barely watched a third of these shows, and I'm not really interested in getting into most of them. I'll keep watching Strange New Worlds, but I think this is probably it for Star Trek for me.
Wow, that was kind of a downer comment for an excellent episode. Sorry! Boimler stripping off his uniform to mop michelada off the LCARS console certainly won't be burned in my visual memory for the next few weeks in a bad way.
Also, when Data started talking I remember thinking "huh, I wonder why they made him sound so old" and then I had a sad.
posted by phooky at 7:38 AM on November 30 [2 favorites]
I've enjoyed Lower Decks so much (even if I've never had anything interesting to say in these threads). And I was sad to hear it was cancelled.
But five series' is a good helping and there's something to be said for cancelling a programme while it's still good instead of waiting for diminishing returns to set in.
posted by Lorc at 12:32 PM on November 30 [1 favorite]
But five series' is a good helping and there's something to be said for cancelling a programme while it's still good instead of waiting for diminishing returns to set in.
posted by Lorc at 12:32 PM on November 30 [1 favorite]
Five seasons, but only fifty episodes. That's about two seasons, accounting for deflation.
I think they've got another score or two in them.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:58 PM on November 30 [6 favorites]
I think they've got another score or two in them.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:58 PM on November 30 [6 favorites]
so did the soap flute at the end remind anyone else of Justin McElroy’s saxophone
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:36 AM on December 1 [1 favorite]
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:36 AM on December 1 [1 favorite]
I'd appreciate more episodes per ChurchHatesTrucker's quantitative analysis above. However, this season hasn't been hitting me like the earlier ones.
I don't know if that's due to a change in content or my awareness that this is the last season. Or perhaps for me it's been a gradual decline since "wej Duj," which remains in my top-5 list of Trek episodes across all series.
But I will never tire of having more new production Trek, even if I have to wade through Sturgeon's 90% to find the gems. And I'd really like more animated Trek given what Lower Decks and Prodigy has shown possible.
That 90% is likely lower for me as I forgive a lot in the sci-fi genre and perhaps even more for sci-fi comedy (i.e., Red Dwarf), but with this episode (which I enjoyed), I just can't get over the idea that an interface panel isn't spillproof. If food and drink are banned in 24th century transporter rooms, I can't help but wonder what happened since the days of chicken soup for time-displaced transporter room visitors back in the good old days.
posted by audi alteram partem at 11:31 AM on December 1 [2 favorites]
I don't know if that's due to a change in content or my awareness that this is the last season. Or perhaps for me it's been a gradual decline since "wej Duj," which remains in my top-5 list of Trek episodes across all series.
But I will never tire of having more new production Trek, even if I have to wade through Sturgeon's 90% to find the gems. And I'd really like more animated Trek given what Lower Decks and Prodigy has shown possible.
That 90% is likely lower for me as I forgive a lot in the sci-fi genre and perhaps even more for sci-fi comedy (i.e., Red Dwarf), but with this episode (which I enjoyed), I just can't get over the idea that an interface panel isn't spillproof. If food and drink are banned in 24th century transporter rooms, I can't help but wonder what happened since the days of chicken soup for time-displaced transporter room visitors back in the good old days.
posted by audi alteram partem at 11:31 AM on December 1 [2 favorites]
This wasn't the best episode for me (still great), if only because it was kind of hard to watch Tendi go so far down the rabbit hole of trying to prove herself the more capable candidate for the senior science officer position. I generally am not a fan of drama caused by two people not communicating with each other, especially when it's very easy for them to do so. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if this was over the course of a day or something, but almost a year, oof. Tendi why. It also was somewhat rough that T'Lyn's efforts were generally made toward helping the team while Tendi's were more focused on making herself look good. Though the personal transporter kinda counts in that regard.
WHICH LEADS ME TO ASK: Did they destroy all the tech that Tendi was building in the attic before they left?
I did really enjoy Data and Brent Spiner's return. I'm left wondering if the people in the purple universe are also purple, or just really like purple.
Mariner's little storyline was pretty great. "We are friends, and two of us murdered people!" Heh.
posted by Atreides at 7:45 AM on December 2 [2 favorites]
WHICH LEADS ME TO ASK: Did they destroy all the tech that Tendi was building in the attic before they left?
I did really enjoy Data and Brent Spiner's return. I'm left wondering if the people in the purple universe are also purple, or just really like purple.
Mariner's little storyline was pretty great. "We are friends, and two of us murdered people!" Heh.
posted by Atreides at 7:45 AM on December 2 [2 favorites]
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The purple universe's USS Enterprise-D
"Looks like our friends on The Purple D left us a little present." Not even the first double entendre of the episode. Nor the last.
This was a fun one. Love that the C plot was almost exclusively Boims' and Rutherfords' freaking out periodically inserted into the year the away team were on the planet.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:55 PM on November 29 [3 favorites]