I even think there was a conversation about how he didn’t have an extra set of eyelids or something. I could be wrong, it’s been a while since I have seen that episode.
Edit: It just occurred to me that if what I remember is true, doesn’t T’Pol just have built-in sunglasses that she is wearing?
Great work. Just watched today, they could have done better with the music, but overall great episode. Makes me wish they were 45 minutes to get a little bit more content in, feels rushed at times.
Now that you mention it, the design is actually also close to the Academy Training Ships that Nova Squadron were using for the Kolvoord Starburst maneuver.
With that stated. When the mysterious ship reorients itself to attack position, I can’t help but feel like it looks kinda like a face. But humans are hard coded to see faces in things, so didnt think much of it.
Not sure what to make of this, since I still strongly feel like the Bynar ship looks like something ripped from an action figure, but a robo whale probably wouldn’t have use for some legs.
My main takeaway from this episode was the Romulans and Vulcans being the same and what the implications on that for Starfleet and Spock especially.
Romulans are like Vulcans? Does that make Vulcans bad? Romulans good? Spock is already the different one on the bridge? Will the rest of the crew believe in Starfleet ideals or will they turn on Spock and allow racism to rule the day.
Tie this to treatment of Japanese civilians in the US during world war 2 (something Sulu’s actor was unfortunately quite familiar with). Are all members of a race bad because the governments are at war? Obviously not but this is a common refrain from the ignorant and afraid during conflicts.
Ultimately the Enterprise and the Romulan captain stop seeing themselves in terms of soldiers fighting for their side and instead as 2 people caught in the middle of the fight between their governments. The Romulan captain’s sacrifice in the end exemplifies the realization. Rather than continue the conflict and drag both sides into a brutal patriotic conflict, he sees the humanitarian cost of such a conflict and therefore, the intrinsic value of life of both sides.
The episode wants to drive hope the point that people are people, no matter nationality or political conflict. At the end of the day we are all the same. Despite Stiles racism toward Spock, Kirk and by extension the Federation-idealized humanity, will have none of it.
I guess I’ll bite the bullet and kick off the Tuvix debate.
Tuvix isn’t the first Trek episode to involve transporter hybrids, and it wasn’t the last; but it stands out amongst the Trek fandom and cemented Janeway as a ruthless executioner.
I maintain that the only reason it’s controversial is because Tuvix was more loved than the sum of his parts.
I personally like Neelix, but it’s undeniable that he’s a contender for one of the least popular main characters in the franchise, and certainly the least favorite on Voyager.
Tim Russ is an amazing actor, but Tuvok is a very subtle character. If you pay attention to him, he’s funny and insightful. But if you don’t focus on him, you can forget he exists.
So, by replacing a despised character and a forgettable character with an outstanding character, you’re left with an audience who has no attachment to the status quo.
If, instead, “Tuvix” was built with popular characters, like Janeway, the EMH, or Seven, the audience would have no qualms about a return to the status quo—or at least not nearly to the degree we’ve seen over the years.
Skip ahead to Twovix
The transporter meat blob was dismissed as non-sentient by Tendi, but it clearly had all the intact personalities of its components. Without further analysis can we be certain of that assessment? Why not send it to The Farm™️?
If we come to the ethical conclusion that the transporter meat blob’s very existence was suffering, why restore the transporter patterns to their components rather than their Tuvix’d counterparts? The simplest answer is that they’re more trouble than they’re worth.
No one cares about the meat blob.
No one cares about T’Ilups and co.
Everyone cares about Tuvix.
We let our attachments dictate our ethics then use logic and evidence to justify them.
why restore the transporter patterns to their components rather than their Tuvix’d counterparts?
Counterpoint: why would you restore the transporter merges? The Tuvix’d contingent occupies the exact same state as the original individuals: “dead”, destroyed in the process of recreating another, larger being. Reverting to those obviously unstable and dangerous merged beings instead of the individuals who had been merged to create them would be absurd.
I know I’m reading too much into this, but Badgey’s ascension kind of says something very thought provoking.
I can’t let go of the fact that Badgey had his personality stripped down to little more than pure vengance. Yet when he achieves omniscience, this is immediately put aside by a feeling of being something greater, then ascends to points beyond. Is this a deliberate story point to suggest the possibility of asension being a process outside of morals, inner peace, and logic, or is that an accident? Or did Badgey somehow summon new facets to his psyche out of this experience? Or is the door left open for a malevolent presence to come crashing down on everyone later?
Then again, we already had one gag where ascending was a “wait, it’s that easy?!” moment, so maybe that’s all there is to it.
More ascension stuff this episode. I wonder if that’s ever going to be explored, or if it will only ever be left as a gag. It seems like the kind of thing that would be difficult to dig into in a satisfying way.
I mean, to be fair, we got a LARGE info dump with the first ascension. The secrets of the universe, omniscience, the meaning of life… what more is there?
That said, Lower Decks extremely loosely follows along the original movies… considering V is up next, we may get the answer to “What does a Koala need with a spaceship?” and all it entails.
Each season we get some key art that mimics the movie posters for the original movies. Season 1’s was a homage to the Motion Picture, 2 the Wrath of Kahn etc… the connections are extremely loose and rarely impact the plot in any meaningful way, but they’re there. (For instance, in S4 we have the whale probe in the opening sequence)
Considering V was a quest to meet God, and the Koala is the closest thing LD has to that, baring Q or Trelane and the like, I think it’s safe point of conjecture.
But, for realsies, the only things we currently know about S5 is that it’s in production, T’Lyn is sticking around, and we’re visiting Orion again.
I really like the on-going gag that Starfleet/The Federation is actually as idealistic as it attests to be. It would be far too easy to leave Daystrom as Star Trek’s version of Arkham Asylum. But while the methods of rehabilitation may have been played for laughs, letting Peanut Hamper, Agimus, and Tyrannikillicus walk the path to re-enter society was honestly really appreciated.
If this has been DS9, Picard, or Discovery… I probably would’ve expected an Arkham Asylum angle… where the inmates are all in varying stages of vowing revenge. And, it’s easy to imagine the more Megalomaniacal inmmates may indeed be as such… I still appreciate that Daystrom’s shown in the light that they can be reformed.
The episode does a great job of communicating actual military considerations in space. The Enterprise locates itself in a specific location to appear to be a sensor echo in Romulan sensors, which belays an in depth understanding that the Federation has for the Romulan Star Empire. Everything that both sides do shows an understanding of what the other side can reasonably do and in that creates a chess game.
I can’t think of too many sci-fi properties today that get into the lived in reality that this episode does. This episode goes way deep into the how of war, even with a new technology disrupting it.
Not retconed per se, they just can’t make their mind up on what the series is and keep radically changing direction and dumping prior development and characters. Changes are often for the better and don’t directly contradict but there’s certainly a lack of any common thought in the story they’re trying to tell.
It’s important to remember that Earth has an outsize influence on the Federation. The capital is, and always has been, there, and will continue to be until such time as it secedes entirely from the Federation after the Burn. The Academy is there. Starfleet is headquartered there, and grew out of United Earth’s space service. Most of Starfleet is human, most Federation colonies are human. Azetbur was mistaken to call itself a “Homo sapiens-only club” but the fact is that from the beginning, as the only planet with friendly relations with Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar Prime, as the very reason the Federation exists… Earth found itself with a power dynamic that highly favored it.
As such, I don’t think it’s too surprising that a specifically Earthican problem could weigh heavily on the Federation, even as it grew larger and more cosmopolitan.
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