Star Trek: Lower Decks: Upper Decks
December 5, 2024 8:46 PM - Season 5, Episode 8 - Subscribe
The Lower Deckers have a pumpkin carving party. Meanwhile, the bridge crew get their time to shine! Not necessarily saying that they do, they just get their time.
Memory Alpha never misses a chance to work in a set of curls during a crisis:
- Zurkel mentions the previous encounter that the USS Cerritos had with the Clickets in "Veritas".
- In essence, this episode is an inverse to TNG: "Lower Decks"
"That was set to kill!"
"SO AM I!"
- A Clicket invader and T'Ana after the doctor is unharmed by a disruptor shot
"What a bunch of weirdos."
- Freeman is unimpressed by the Clickets
Poster's Log:
So, yeah, it's an inversion of the original "Lower Decks", only... the whole thing about that episode was that we never saw those Lower Deckers before, except for Sito, who we never saw again, and we've already seen a lot of the bridge crew and their travails (Freeman being relieved of command, Shaxs and the Black Mountain, Ransom and Churrolivia, T'Ana and a bunch of stuff). But the really cool and sneaky thing is that they got the New Kids On The Deck some in-front-of-the-camera time. Lower Decks: The Next Generation. Plus, of course, telepathic cavewoman with a sousaphone, you love to see it.
Poster's Log, Supplemental: Only two episodes left? Jeepers.
BeardWatch: he really should just shave the sides and keep the goatee. I'm the same way: a solid, even occasionally somewhat Klingonesque, goatee, but the sideburns are for crap.
Memory Alpha never misses a chance to work in a set of curls during a crisis:
- Zurkel mentions the previous encounter that the USS Cerritos had with the Clickets in "Veritas".
- In essence, this episode is an inverse to TNG: "Lower Decks"
"That was set to kill!"
"SO AM I!"
- A Clicket invader and T'Ana after the doctor is unharmed by a disruptor shot
"What a bunch of weirdos."
- Freeman is unimpressed by the Clickets
Poster's Log:
So, yeah, it's an inversion of the original "Lower Decks", only... the whole thing about that episode was that we never saw those Lower Deckers before, except for Sito, who we never saw again, and we've already seen a lot of the bridge crew and their travails (Freeman being relieved of command, Shaxs and the Black Mountain, Ransom and Churrolivia, T'Ana and a bunch of stuff). But the really cool and sneaky thing is that they got the New Kids On The Deck some in-front-of-the-camera time. Lower Decks: The Next Generation. Plus, of course, telepathic cavewoman with a sousaphone, you love to see it.
Poster's Log, Supplemental: Only two episodes left? Jeepers.
BeardWatch: he really should just shave the sides and keep the goatee. I'm the same way: a solid, even occasionally somewhat Klingonesque, goatee, but the sideburns are for crap.
God, I loved the realization during the cold open of what they were planning on doing with this episode. Overall it wasn't my favorite episode of the series, but, like, it's pizza, right? Even the worst episode of Lower Decks is still a great episode of Lower Decks.
Seconding the "Only two episodes left? Jeepers." I feel like this show could run for five more years and still feel great, but also I should appreciate that it even ran for as long as it did. Even if, in terms of actual total show bulk, it's only about as much Show in aggregate as a single season of nineties Star Trek…
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:25 PM on December 5 [5 favorites]
Seconding the "Only two episodes left? Jeepers." I feel like this show could run for five more years and still feel great, but also I should appreciate that it even ran for as long as it did. Even if, in terms of actual total show bulk, it's only about as much Show in aggregate as a single season of nineties Star Trek…
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:25 PM on December 5 [5 favorites]
I was amused - T'Ana ranting is always a plus for me.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:32 AM on December 6 [2 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 6:32 AM on December 6 [2 favorites]
I saw some folks saying this was one of the best episodes of the season so far, which I suppose set an unfair expectation on my part....because it was just fine with dashes of some fun stuff. The escalating chaos in Engineering I like. T'Ana was both hilarious and kind of bordering on something belonging on Solar Opposites with her pursuit of enough pain to require pain killers.
The Captain kind of just did her captain thing, zeroing in on a solution and taking care of business.
it was fun to see some Beta and Delta shifts, but Ransom's strategy kind of felt like something we'd seen before, where we get an example of Ransom being successful by adopting a strategy that doesn't immediately seem like the best course of action.
Shaxs...well, we get he has his ghosts, but they were more interesting when they were mainly his ghosts versus a montage of him snapping necks.
Honestly, I'd rank this episode near the bottom of the season for the most part, or perhaps it's suffering because I really liked the last episode. Who knows.
BeardWatch: he really should just shave the sides and keep the goatee. I'm the same way: a solid, even occasionally somewhat Klingonesque, goatee, but the sideburns are for crap.
Humans and Vulcans can't just do goatee's, tho', that's some Mirror Universe level facial hair. Boemler has to push through his evil hair growth at the moment or he's doomed!
posted by Atreides at 7:41 AM on December 6
The Captain kind of just did her captain thing, zeroing in on a solution and taking care of business.
it was fun to see some Beta and Delta shifts, but Ransom's strategy kind of felt like something we'd seen before, where we get an example of Ransom being successful by adopting a strategy that doesn't immediately seem like the best course of action.
Shaxs...well, we get he has his ghosts, but they were more interesting when they were mainly his ghosts versus a montage of him snapping necks.
Honestly, I'd rank this episode near the bottom of the season for the most part, or perhaps it's suffering because I really liked the last episode. Who knows.
BeardWatch: he really should just shave the sides and keep the goatee. I'm the same way: a solid, even occasionally somewhat Klingonesque, goatee, but the sideburns are for crap.
Humans and Vulcans can't just do goatee's, tho', that's some Mirror Universe level facial hair. Boemler has to push through his evil hair growth at the moment or he's doomed!
posted by Atreides at 7:41 AM on December 6
But the space isopods! Didn't anyone else love it for the space isopods?
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:31 AM on December 6 [9 favorites]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:31 AM on December 6 [9 favorites]
I know, I know... eponysterical...
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:32 AM on December 6 [9 favorites]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:32 AM on December 6 [9 favorites]
This one was a miss for me, too. Too chaotic, too much going on. Some high points, for sure - Dr T was great, as always, and I liked the Shaxs storyline. But Ransom's management through appearing incompetent just felt off, the engineering bit was A Lot To Follow, and I don't really care about the Cricklets.
Major points for the Director's Cut V'Ger carving, though.
posted by hanov3r at 10:06 AM on December 6 [2 favorites]
Major points for the Director's Cut V'Ger carving, though.
posted by hanov3r at 10:06 AM on December 6 [2 favorites]
But the space isopods! Didn't anyone else love it for the space isopods?
Kay, the isopods were cute.
posted by Atreides at 12:32 PM on December 6 [1 favorite]
Kay, the isopods were cute.
posted by Atreides at 12:32 PM on December 6 [1 favorite]
Love me some space isopods!
posted by rmd1023 at 1:17 PM on December 6 [1 favorite]
posted by rmd1023 at 1:17 PM on December 6 [1 favorite]
I wish we got the episode where Mariner gets trapped in a painting.
I get why the writers would like the idea of inverting an inversion, and if LD didn't already have the bridge crew as secondary characters it would have been brilliant. As is we got... a lot of B stories that they weren't going to be able to fit in to the series? Is that what prompted this? Suddenly it's a sad episode.
Sean Ferrick had a fridge moment that Memory Alpha has yet to confirm or deny: was the big Other Decker dude Towel Guy? 10/10.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:56 AM on December 7 [1 favorite]
I get why the writers would like the idea of inverting an inversion, and if LD didn't already have the bridge crew as secondary characters it would have been brilliant. As is we got... a lot of B stories that they weren't going to be able to fit in to the series? Is that what prompted this? Suddenly it's a sad episode.
Sean Ferrick had a fridge moment that Memory Alpha has yet to confirm or deny: was the big Other Decker dude Towel Guy? 10/10.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:56 AM on December 7 [1 favorite]
Ah it was indeed Towel Guy. I forgot he'd been named.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:41 AM on December 7
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:41 AM on December 7
It seems to me this episode exists largely to give the actors who play the officers a bit of the spotlight before it all ends. And I’m fine with that.
But, yeah, not LD at its best
posted by Frayed Knot at 11:12 AM on December 8 [3 favorites]
But, yeah, not LD at its best
posted by Frayed Knot at 11:12 AM on December 8 [3 favorites]
I enjoyed having a bunch of B/C stories strung together.
A year or two ago on the Greatest Generation podcast, Ben and Adam proposed a Start Trek version of "22 Short Films About Springfield," building on their idea of Star Trek as a place, and I think it's a great idea. Maybe the new comedy series Newsome's running will have a chance to do something like that.
posted by audi alteram partem at 11:51 AM on December 8 [1 favorite]
A year or two ago on the Greatest Generation podcast, Ben and Adam proposed a Start Trek version of "22 Short Films About Springfield," building on their idea of Star Trek as a place, and I think it's a great idea. Maybe the new comedy series Newsome's running will have a chance to do something like that.
posted by audi alteram partem at 11:51 AM on December 8 [1 favorite]
Well I enjoyed this. I also honestly thought that they were going to kill off Billups in his subplot (thus mirroring Sito Jaxa's fate in TNG's "Lower Decks."
posted by Navelgazer at 3:58 PM on December 8 [3 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 3:58 PM on December 8 [3 favorites]
A year or two ago on the Greatest Generation podcast, Ben and Adam proposed a Start Trek version of "22 Short Films About Springfield," building on their idea of Star Trek as a place, and I think it's a great idea. Maybe the new comedy series Newsome's running will have a chance to do something like that.
I thought that that was what Short Treks was going to be, and that it would be ongoing, but it kind of sputtered out.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:28 PM on December 8 [2 favorites]
I thought that that was what Short Treks was going to be, and that it would be ongoing, but it kind of sputtered out.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:28 PM on December 8 [2 favorites]
By far my favourite of the new Trek shows (gave up on Discovery, thought Picard was atrocious) but this episode was a big miss for me. It really highlighted the fine line Lower Decks usually gets right. It's very frantic but not too frantic (this episode was). There are a lot of great jokes, this episode the jokes just weren't there for the most part. The show manages to have great character work amongst the chaotic pace, this one not much at all. Usually we have clear and great A/B stories, this one fell short.
It had all the ingredients but the bread didn't rise for this one.
Still sad to see the show go.
posted by juiceCake at 1:35 PM on December 9 [1 favorite]
It had all the ingredients but the bread didn't rise for this one.
Still sad to see the show go.
posted by juiceCake at 1:35 PM on December 9 [1 favorite]
This one was a miss for me, too. Too chaotic, too much going on.
There's a delightful episode of House that focuses on hospital administrator Lisa Cuddy, and I think works because it focuses on a single character with three subplots over a 44m episode, and uses the regular cast's typical chaos as a punchline, zooming a patient in a crash cart by her with somebody riding on top administering chest compressions.
Here, we have a fine premise, but there isn't enough cocaine on the planet to masterfully have five plot lines across the entire bridge crew compressed into 22m, and still have room for nuance, growth, or thought provoking dilemmas. It would have been far more amazing if Captain Freeman had to learn the art of the backhanded compliment to save the day, instead of like, struggling to remember what was said in the morning meeting while being followed by a PA I don't remember seeing before and clearly failed to take good notes on who the f the Clickets were. Or if Shax conquered his demons, and saved the day as security chief by complimenting them to defuse the situation and accidentally drives the off.
Oh, and: the dialog is way too into Trek history. Our cast regularly name drops lead characters from past shows, and it minimizes the world building to reduce the Federation to a small set of TV stars.
posted by pwnguin at 11:43 PM on December 9 [3 favorites]
There's a delightful episode of House that focuses on hospital administrator Lisa Cuddy, and I think works because it focuses on a single character with three subplots over a 44m episode, and uses the regular cast's typical chaos as a punchline, zooming a patient in a crash cart by her with somebody riding on top administering chest compressions.
Here, we have a fine premise, but there isn't enough cocaine on the planet to masterfully have five plot lines across the entire bridge crew compressed into 22m, and still have room for nuance, growth, or thought provoking dilemmas. It would have been far more amazing if Captain Freeman had to learn the art of the backhanded compliment to save the day, instead of like, struggling to remember what was said in the morning meeting while being followed by a PA I don't remember seeing before and clearly failed to take good notes on who the f the Clickets were. Or if Shax conquered his demons, and saved the day as security chief by complimenting them to defuse the situation and accidentally drives the off.
Oh, and: the dialog is way too into Trek history. Our cast regularly name drops lead characters from past shows, and it minimizes the world building to reduce the Federation to a small set of TV stars.
posted by pwnguin at 11:43 PM on December 9 [3 favorites]
I enjoyed this. It takes the silly animated trek show and shows us that actually it could have been way more silly and animated (which is fun, but thankfully we normally get the more restrained version).
posted by Acari at 6:52 PM on December 10
posted by Acari at 6:52 PM on December 10
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by wittgenstein at 8:56 PM on December 5