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jormis29 Since: Mar, 2012
#551: Jul 31st 2024 at 2:52:04 PM

IDW is returning to Star Trek Lower Decks with an ongoing series with episodic stories rather then minis

Edited by jormis29 on Jul 31st 2024 at 3:04:11 AM

KiraKiwi410 Since: Jun, 2024
#552: Sep 9th 2024 at 6:51:06 AM

Season 5 comes out October 24.

BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#553: Oct 10th 2024 at 10:33:08 AM
BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#554: Oct 24th 2024 at 9:39:19 AM

Bump again. The first two episodes are up. I’m just sitting here wondering what the big threat of the season will be that our heroes have to overcome in the final episode of the series…

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
Avenger09 Since: May, 2014
#555: Oct 24th 2024 at 9:43:04 AM

Anyone else think the Blue Orion's are a Shout-Out to the Gamilas?

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#556: Oct 24th 2024 at 1:56:16 PM

They're a shout out to the original "Pirates of Orion" where the Orion were blue.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#557: Oct 24th 2024 at 2:13:49 PM

The full first episode of the new season.

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#558: Oct 24th 2024 at 4:05:32 PM

Captain Becky Freeman should return as VINDICTA!

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
BigBadShadow25 With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg. from Basement at the Alamo (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Desperate
With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg.
#559: Oct 24th 2024 at 4:11:52 PM

I would love that for the final twist. Or a Sequel Series once Paramount comes to their senses.

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.
HeyMikey Since: Jul, 2015
#560: Oct 24th 2024 at 7:37:23 PM

Wonder if episode one is going to play a part in the finale, because there felt like a lot of planting going on with not really great pay-off. Yes, mirror universes are supposed to be different, but normally it's supposed to be either an obvious inversion or the point of difference is simple and explicit. This parallel universe stated that it was supposed to basically be the normal universe, but differing decisions caused it to spiral dramatically and very few of the main cast got a worthwhile explanation of why. The only one who got a good pay-off was Rutherford, where Tendi never returned causing Rutherford to desire to become less human to remove the pain. Boimler's pay-off is being used as the season through line. But Mariner and Captain Freeman seem to just drop the end result without properly explaining how it got there, leaving me wondering. So, it's leaving me wondering what happened.

For the second episode, I wasn't quite feeling Mariner and Boimler's plot. It seemed like it dragged on too long, and barely moved the through line, with Boimler attempting to grow the beard so to speak. I was more emotionally invested in the T'Lyn/Rutherford tertiary plot.

And Tendi's plotline in both episodes were great. Not only was she just adorable in both ends as well as how supportive her family was (and the way her attempt to resolve the plot utterly backfires in hilarious fashion), it also did a lot of interesting world building of Orion culture. So there is an Orion pirate queen, as well as another ethnic group of Orions that are patriarchal compared to the matriarchal ones we normally follow, and a head matriarch that jumps in when internal conflicts start becoming too destructive to the whole. Makes for interesting political intrigue. I'm wondering how the Pirate Queen is decided. Is it because they're the largest family or is it meritocratic in nature or some kind of lineage thing?

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#561: Oct 24th 2024 at 9:39:55 PM

I felt like the two episodes are emphasizing Character Development even when the protagonists are unaware of it.

  • Boimler becoming a far more capable leader is something he's gradually sinking into and we're discovering he's basically becoming Riker. He was able to handle the events of the second episode (mostly) without panicking and on his own.
  • Captain Freeman is pretty much a sign of how divergent the two of them have become with the former believing that being a ruthless asshole is how all leaders are (which is due to her trauma never being resolved) while Captain Mariner is someone who has come to cherish both the leaders as well as people under them as family.
  • I actually assume the Point of Divergence in the Alt-Verse is that Captain Freeman (Senior) was a far worse captain than the one in "our" universe and that's why she's at Starbase 80. Everyone under her made decisions they hated except Boimler, who was able to thrive early.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Oct 24th 2024 at 9:40:11 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#562: Oct 25th 2024 at 9:28:41 PM

Something I enjoyed was that Tendi's pirate crew were all using piracy as a way to get to what they were actually interested in, and were mistaken in how Tendi left for Starfleet in the first place. It's how the show embraces the stereotypes while adding depth in their own way. Same with their own twist on the Mirror Universe, where the parallel crew is almost exactly the same and the main crew with the cosmetic differences being mostly bigger than the personalities. In general one of the funnier twists in that they are both Starfleet crews and immediately get to working together to do a Starfleet fix on getting them back home.

The second episode felt kind of inconsequential, I guess everything just fixed itself nice and tidy at the end. I did like Boimler and Mariner's discussion that choices that lead to something bad happening doesn't mean a mistake was made. It's a nice companion to Picard's "You can do everything right and still fail, that's not a malfunction that is life."

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
dcutter2 Since: Sep, 2013
#563: Oct 26th 2024 at 2:49:15 PM

Just saw the first episode of S5 I think they could have done more with the alternates, but I guess could be setting up character stuff for further down the line.

Oh and explanation of where "Mariner" came from. Neato.

I get the point of the reuse of the sarcastic vulcan salute but repeating jokes does make me a bit wary.

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#564: Oct 26th 2024 at 6:20:38 PM

Caught those first two episodess.

Funny how most of the double crews were at odds with each other except for the Rutherfords and Boimlers.

And Tendi can be a pretty good Orion when she's not trying to be Starfleet. The problem is she's Starfleet for life.

Hmmm. The Orions should make it a habit to take all the excess gold from planets becoming post scarcity. Like, that's a damn good idea. If someone is just gonna throw the money out, why not let someone else take it?

One Strip! One Strip!
EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#565: Oct 26th 2024 at 7:34:31 PM

It's another episode that doesn't really explain the Post-Scarcity Economy but just says it exists. They do remind people that the Matter Replicator is what makes it work, but it seems almost any civilization of comparable tech level should have the technology anyway.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
HeyMikey Since: Jul, 2015
#566: Oct 26th 2024 at 8:11:17 PM

[up][up] That's assuming their wealth is in a form that's not easily replicatable. I'm guessing we can handwave this away as latinum, but if it was something that can be created with a matter replicator, the value of the wealth goes down considerably, unless Orions as a culture value something that is naturally created or that they care about the minor differences between natural and replicated items. There are people who eat natural grown food specifically due to certain beliefs that replicated food has a noticeable after-taste or degradation in nutrition.

That's also assuming that there are planets that regularly decide to become a post-scarcity culture, which takes a large change in cultural, political, and economic structures. There might not be a lot of planets who decide to just change their way of living around to make it a common source of income. And if there aren't enough, you might get a bunch of family wars trying to be the first to get the contract to do the wealth extraction. Recent post-scarcity planets might actually by quite ... scarce.

[up] Becoming a post-scarcity society takes more than just the capability to do so, it still requires the cultural and political will to do it. Just because they have matter replicators doesn't mean the society will turn their entire culture around to fully use in a way that allows for equitable distribution. It's just as possible that the elite decide to horde it and create an artificial scarcity to maintain their power and control. Kind of like how we have the means to feed everyone, we just don't because our current power structures doesn't allow it. Similarly, unless you can get matter replicators and power for your entire society, and a political structure in play such that the armed forces doesn't go around and confiscate/destroy it all, there's still a bit of work to do.

Really, any post-scarcity society probably will make a large chunk of work either voluntary or act as a minor mandatory service towards maintenance of the cultural order. But it still requires the people to actually as a group want it.

Edited by HeyMikey on Oct 26th 2024 at 8:12:45 AM

EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#567: Oct 26th 2024 at 9:01:18 PM

Right, it's a combination of social development as well as technological open access. The availability of resources as well as the cultural choice to move past the "sweating in a farmland" mindset. But that only works within a particular system. When interacting with outside systems the Federation would have to be acquiring some form of wealth or currency in order to do business with other cultures, which is contradictory to the mindset that allows them post-scarcity to begin with.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
HeyMikey Since: Jul, 2015
#568: Oct 26th 2024 at 11:29:06 PM

For most other planets, the type of wealth required to interact with them is replicatable. There was a reason why had the Federation kept all the wealth, it was going into a disposal processor. Depending on the planet they would be interacting with, almost anything a non-post scarce society could desire, the Federation could just mass produce. The Federation doesn't interact with planets for resources, except for a very few exceptions (such as dilithium to power their warp core technology and isn't replicatable).

Other than that, they interact with other planets primarily for a few major reasons that aren't resource related. To promote the principles of the Federation of liberty, equity, and justice. To create diplomatic ties, as a means of mutual protection, including allying with those who are not part of the Federation, such as at the current moment the Ferengi and the Klingons. And to promote scientific inquiry, as new worlds with new cultures and new ways of thinking promote learning, leading to further advancements.

Resources only matter (outside the exceptions noted prior) to the Federation when they're in an area where their infrastructure isn't set up, like when making first contact or at the frontlines of a warzone, where logistics and scarcity now come into play. Or when they're dealing with a culture that will not accept replicated goods, for whatever reason, like with Ferengi where Latinum to them has intrinsic value beyond just what goods one can get with it. But at that point, they're working outside the system they set up.

dcutter2 Since: Sep, 2013
#569: Oct 27th 2024 at 2:52:30 PM

Saw episode 2. It's again fine. Tendi's plot suffered a lot from having the same joke for a long time but the resolution that the pregnancy was only secret from her and her messing up the compromise was okay.

There's kind of a retcon as the deal was presented in S4 finale it was not 'you work for us until you've paid off the dreadnought' but D'Erica seems to have gone back to her earlier in s4 characterisation where she's happy for Tendi to be Starfleet.

wooden-ladybug93 Since: Feb, 2024
#570: Oct 27th 2024 at 2:58:32 PM

Is "Lower Decks" a good starting point for anyone who's never watched Star Trek itself?

WillKeaton from Alberta, Canada Since: Jun, 2010
#571: Oct 27th 2024 at 3:05:04 PM

That's a tricky question to answer. I will say that Lower Decks loves referencing that "weird stuff" happens in the older shows, and then they imply that because that example of "weird stuff" occurred, that it happens all the time in the Trek universe, to the point where it becomes comical. Example: Rogue AIs that turn evil show up in lots of Trek shows. In Lower Decks there are so many rogue AIs that there is a facility on a planet that does nothing buthouse hundreds of them. And this kind of thing happens a lot. I'm not saying it's bad, but Lower Decks does have a particular view that is a bit different from other Trek series.

Edited by WillKeaton on Oct 27th 2024 at 4:05:18 AM

wooden-ladybug93 Since: Feb, 2024
#572: Oct 27th 2024 at 3:30:32 PM

[up] I kinda wanna watch it since I generally prefer animated shows over live action (unless they’re Disney or Marvel) but fear I’ll be suffering continuity lockout.

WillKeaton from Alberta, Canada Since: Jun, 2010
#573: Oct 27th 2024 at 3:40:07 PM

They do have a lot of references to other Trek shows, but they generally acknowledge that they are making reference to something else. They kind of say, "Oh this is happening, just like that time the same thing happened to the Enterprise that one time!" I don't think the show requires a deep understanding of Trek to watch, because the show is generally pretty light, so missing a reference generally doesn't lead to the viewer not understanding the basic premise of an entire season long plot thread.

One word of warning though. While the show is generally pretty good, the first two/two-and-half episodes really struggle. At that point they hadn't quite figured out how to write one of the main characters, and she's pretty insufferable because of it. It gets better pretty quick, but do expect a couple of episodes to be bad right out of the gate.

Edited by WillKeaton on Oct 27th 2024 at 4:40:44 AM

HeyMikey Since: Jul, 2015
#574: Oct 27th 2024 at 3:46:29 PM

Lower Decks tends to be very referential of old Treks, but in a comical in-joke kind of manner, like if you ever join a community you're new to and the regulars just pepper their talks with memes. Some new to Trek kind of like that in-jokey wit that kind of colors it and that it's a comedy, as the show doesn't require knowing a lot of these in-jokes to understand and less heavy, but also leaves a sort of hook into it that warrants getting into more Trek so you can get the references, like how the opening battle continues to get crazier and crazier and you want to know what exactly this weird junk is happening.

But if you want something that is more standard Trek as an intro, TOS is fine if dated and campy, TNG if you want something a bit less dated, PRO is great and more child friendly, and SNW is great as well if you want a bit more mature edge compared to PRO, in terms of best Treks for newbies and why, imo. If you like animated shows, then I greatly recommend PRO.

Edited by HeyMikey on Oct 27th 2024 at 3:48:55 AM

wooden-ladybug93 Since: Feb, 2024
#575: Oct 27th 2024 at 3:52:10 PM

[up] The animated series from Nickelodeon?


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