We have already recapped and reviewed “Envoys,” the second episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and discussed it on the All Access Star Trek podcast. Now we take a deeper dive into the fun details, references, Easter eggs, and more. In some cases, the references are clear, with others it may just be our Trek interpretations, but art is in the eye of the beholder.
Obviously… SPOILERS ahead.
Risa is for lovers
One of the many districts on Tulgana IV was Little Risa, a “pleasure planet” originally introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also seen in other series. The Risa District featured a large Horga’hn sculpture in a central fountain. These statues are used on Risa by those who want to show they are up for some jamaharon. When Boimler sat in front of the statue, a telepathic Anabaj said she could sense he was interested in jamaharon. You can also see some native Risians, who wear a small decoration on their foreheads.
The Janeway Protocol
When Rutherford tries out different jobs on the ship, he is run through some bridge command simulations by Commander Ransom. After his first simulation goes poorly, Ransom suggests if Rutherford ever finds himself in a similar situation to try “employing the Janeway protocol,” named for Captain Janeway of the USS Voyager. Ransom didn’t provide any details on what exactly the Janeway Protocol does, but the situation in that first simulation was the ship being “drawn into a temporal rift.” So it is possible it has something to do with time travel, something Janeway was known to do from time to time. When Rutherford was then run though a more basic simulation that simply dealt with avoiding a small asteroid, he ordered the crew to deploy the Janeway Protocol. This immediately causes the ship to collide with the asteroid, and the ship’s children to be tragically ejected into space.
UPDATE: Thanks to our comment section, it seems likely The Janeway Protocol is referring to when Captain Janeway said:
In command school, they taught us to always remember that maneuvering a starship is a very delicate process, but over the years, I’ve learned that, sometimes, you just have to punch your way through.
— VOY “Parallax“
Mariner knows Kirk Fu
In his TrekMovie interview, Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan said Mariner was partly inspired by Star Trek’s first captain, James T. Kirk, who has his own unique fighting style known as “Kirk fu.” During a bar fight scene in “Envoys,” Mariner showed she was familiar with this style of combat, yelling out “Kirk hands!” as she took down an Andorian. During the episode, we also learned that Mariner used to work in “grey ops” before joining Starfleet, and she implied that she has faced a court martial (just like Kirk), telling Boimler, “don’t knock it until you tried it.” She also revealed she, like Kirk, is open to some alien romance, revealing she once dated an egg-laying Anabaj, but it was mostly to piss off her mother.
Payback for “The Child”
“Envoys” kicked off with a cold open that saw a “transdimensional energy creature” infiltrate the ship. Energy creatures are not uncommon in Star Trek, and the one in “Envoys” sounded a bit like Futurama’s Melllvar, but it most resembled the energy being seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Child.” That energy being impregnated Deanna Troi without her consent, so perhaps having Mariner and Tendi capture this one was a bit of payback for that violation.
The Wrath of Khan *was* awesome
Talking in her sleep we hear Mariner say “Buried alive,” “Marooned for eternity,” Moons of Nibia,” all of which are lines from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. When awoken by Boimler, Mainer reveals, “I keep having this awesome dream.”
Later on, Shaxs puts Rutherford into a Borg-filled fighting simulation called “Smorgasborg,” which he later says recruits are put into “so they can learn how to deal with defeat,” just like the famed no-win Kobayashi Maru Scenario from Wrath of Khan.
Enterprise envy on the Cerritos
“Envoys” reminded us that this show is set on one of Starfleet’s least important ships. As the ensigns talk about a crewperson named Castro, Mariner says “Castro is the best,” but Boimler disagrees saying Castro is “overrated because she served on the Enterprise for like a second,” referring to the flagship USS Enterprise (either D or E) featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the TNG movies.
Just a cursory glance around the USS Cerritos makes it clear, this is no flagship. Even though Mariner claims “it doesn’t get more exotic than this,” the ship is in disrepair with numerous leaks and Rutherford appears to have to spent days in the Jefferies tubes just to keep the EPS conduits functioning. And when Mariner had that energy creature trapped and it said it would create anything she wanted, she requested a new fancy tricorder, indicating the crew of the Cerritos may not be getting the latest equipment.
Section 31 is truly insidious
We all know that the secretive Federation organization Section 31 is nefarious due to its lack of morality, transparency, and accountability. But Brad Boimler still seems to admire Section 31 for its ruthless efficiency, defending his use of speedwalking by saying, “It’s to conserve energy, Section 31 does it.”
Vasquez Park
One of the most iconic Star Trek shooting locations is Southern California’s Vasquez Rocks, with its distinctive jutting rock formations. The location has been used throughout Star Trek history from The Original Series through the movies and most recently on Star Trek: Picard. On Lower Decks, a park on Tulgana IV featured a number of Vasquez Rocks-style rock formations.
Also, if you look around the park you can see embassies for the United Federation of Planets, The Klingon Empire, The Romulan Star Empire, and the Ferengi Alliance.
Ferengi are people too
Speaking of Ferengi, “Envoys” featured one who was first encountered in that same park. This Ferengi initially emulated the way the race was introduced in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was considered a failed attempt to establish the Ferengi as a major adversary for the series. Boimler demonstrated a lot of prejudice towards this Ferengi, saying they were the “most untrustworthy race in the galaxy,” and pointing to “the big ears, the beady eyes, the greedy thing they do with their hands.” For his part, the Ferengi played up the stereotype, calling them hyoo-mons” and demanding “give me your profit!”
But it is later revealed that the whole thing was a setup to help boost Boimler’s morale, and this Ferengi (named Quimp) was actually friends with Mariner. Quimp turns out to be a sophisticated and articulate family man, who even wears a monocle. This different perspective on the Ferengi may be a nod to how they were reinvigorated on Deep Space Nine, adding richness to the race and putting the failed introduction on TNG behind them.
Drinking with Klingons
“Envoys” introduced us to the first Klingon in Lower Decks and the episode packed in a lot of references to Klingon lore, including a visit to “Little Qo’noS,” named for the Klingon homeworld. General K’orin looked (and drank) just like a TNG-era Klingon is expected to. He even carried his own supply of blood wine and Klingon flagons and sang a Klingon drinking song with Mariner. To sober K’orin up, Mariner suggested they get him some Raktajino, the Klingon coffee that was popular with the crew of Deep Space Nine.
General K’orin also had a bolted-on eyepatch, like General Chang from Star Trek VI. When they lost K’orin, Boimler expressed concern they were violating the Khitomer Accords, the Klingon/Federation peace treaty from Star Trek VI again. K’orin had an apostrophe in his name, which Mariner pointed out was common with the Klingons. Boimler greeted K’orin with the standard Klingon greeting “nuqneH,” and Mariner joked about his growing “ngech” (cleavage).
Don’t take a ushaan-tor to a disruptor fight
A lot of Klingon weaponry was on display in “Envoys.” Like any good Klingon, K’orin was armed with both a bat’leth sword and a d’k tahg knife. And a Klingon food vendor threatened Boimler and Mariner with a mek’leth blade. There were also displays featuring a number of Klingon disruptors, from across the franchise.
The Klingons weren’t the only ones who brought their own weapons to Tulgana IV. During a bar fight, some Andorians were using ushaan-tor ice knives, introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise. One Andorian wielding a ushaan-tor was taking aim at Lurian, the same race as DS9’s perennial barfly Morn.
Even more aliens
Tulgana IV was described as a “bustling exotic planet” full of districts and embassies for various races, so it’s no surprise that Lower Decks crammed even more aliens into “Envoys,” including a number of the more obscure ones from Star Trek lore. Soon after the ensigns land on the planet, a couple of Evora from Star Trek: Insurrection can be spotted outside of Little Qo’noS.
And inside the Klingon Market Boimler points out a couple of isolationist Kaelons from the TNG episode “Half a Life.”
Other aliens seen around the planet in the background included Arcturians, Aurelians, and even Ariolo. The alien deep cuts continued in the Andorian bar, starting with a Vendorian shapeshifter from Star Trek: The Animated Series.
And then Lower Decks went even deeper, with a couple of “Rock Men” from a deleted scene in Star Trek V.
Lower Decks in memoriam for “Lower Decks”
During their drinking session, Mariner and K’oriin talk about adventures they had on the planet Jaxa Prime. Since Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan has stated that the show is inspired by the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Lower Decks,” we like to think this is an homage to the character of Ensign Sito Jaxa, who was killed in that episode. It’s even possible that Jaxa Prime was named in honor of her memory and sacrifice to the Federation.
Ensign Sito from TNG “The First Duty” and “Lower Decks”
What did we miss?
Did you catch anything else? Let us know in the comments below.
BONUS
CBS released a new short video with Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan acknowledging the easter eggs he and his team put into “Envoys.”
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New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks premiere on Thursdays on CBS All Access in the U.S. and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on Crave. It has not yet been announced where and when Lower Decks will be available outside of the USA and Canada.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
The transdimensional energy creature was also reminiscent of Redjac from “Wolf in the Fold” and especially the Beta XIII-A entity from “Day of the Dove” in its ability to produce material objects from thin air. I love the implication that these kind of creatures have become routine pests at this point. Seeing all the deep-cut aliens and weapons was pretty fantastic; animation goes a long way in smoothing over the differences in budgets and styles of the previous shows and presenting a unified Trek galaxy where all these species coexist.
The Ferengi are my favorite thing about the episode. Ferengi stereotypes are similar to cultural stereotypes and prejudice in real life. Boimler was acting rude and racist to that Ferengi dude but he wasn’t being intentional. Ferengi are people too indeed.
Andorians are my favorite Star Trek alien race. Their blue skin and white hair is so beautiful.
came here to see if the shape shifter “Carter Winston” was name checked…
was not disappointed
That isn’t Carter Winston. It’s another Vendorian a century later.
I meant that the same species was referenced. I couldn’t remember the name when I was writing the post
Yep. The only things I picked up on upon watching (and I never freeze framed or rewatched) was the Vendorian and the Andorian blade we saw on Enterprise.
It sounded like Shaxs said “Smorgasborg”.
EDIT: post already corrected
I think it’s a play on “Smorgasbord”, a swedish buffet, probably a security-team play on the abundance of Borg being “on the menu” ;) for the candidate. It could also be an elaborate nod to Seven’s possibly swedish name (Annika Hansen).
I think they went above and beyond with the Easter eggs in this one! Truly a show for the fans…it’s charming, dunno if it’s really that funny yet though. Certainly doesn’t seem to be “for adults.” But about that glowing light alien, is that a seed planted for the next episode to pick up? Cuz last we saw it was in the captain’s chest…
I think it died when she walked into it.
Great debate seems to surround this. I’m on the “entity entered the Captain and didn’t die ” side.
It probably was absorbed into her.
I haven’t exactly found it funny yet either. Rattling off “Easter Egg” references just gets to be a bit “meh”. I did like this second episode more than the first. It didn’t feel like I was being force fed a set up plot. I’m not really the audience for this but I will hang in. Mandatory quarantine & social distancing in a pandemic will do that. Also, with the increasingly horrible baseless accusations in this election year, I need to zone-out-stupid from time-to-time to escape that.
They say hard curse words (though bleeped out) so it’s definitely for adults.
If my kid was 8 I would still not have a problem with him watching it.
It seemed to me that it crashed into her communicator? Not sure if I saw it right or why this should kill it though…adsorbed into the electrical conduits possibly?
Well, from this fan’s perspective: yes, it can be fun to ferret out the Easter Eggs. But if that’s what the series is relying on to be *funny*, it has another think coming. Relying on an endless parade of Easter Eggs isn’t a recipe for success.
No its not. But believe it or not, some of us are actually enjoying the stories its telling and the characters too. For me I don’t care if the show is ‘funny’ or not, I just care we get a good story out of it. But yes being funny is definitely a plus, but its not a priority for me at all to like it.
The central spire is similar to farpoint and the milennium gate.
The Klingon song was identified as:
“We tear off their heads and drink from the skulls.”
http://klingon.wiki/En/StarTrekLowerDecks
Memory Alpha should include that.
And a lot like Farpoint Station too!
You missed another animated series reference, with a cameo from a Skorr (“The Jihad”).
I loved seeing the Lurian!
And I thought the Evora looked familiar…
TAS references! Whoo!
Rios and Nachum, I’m so glad there are others here that know TAS so well.
I’m really appreciative of how LDS is respecting TAS. It was a treasure of my childhood and the first Trek that I shared with our kids.
I was overjoyed by that! 2 TAS references in one show!
This is why I like the animation format. You can create more varied aliens with lesser budget. Imagine trying to create all these different districts and aliens in the TV shows, it’d be harder. This is also I think this is why the most we used to see in the TV shows were single districts or single parts of a planet.
You can do anything in animation. The possibilities are infinity and beyond. Star Trek: Lower Decks is so original for Star Trek to do.
Honestly I think we saw more aliens in this one half hour episode than we saw in the entire first season of Discovery. ;)
Frankly I think it goes beyond the format. It’s about the storytelling. Discovery and Picard, or rather, their writers, never *really* wanted to draw on the rich canvas of Classic Trek, beyond marketing ploys and attention grabbers (Spock! Pike! Seven! Hugh!) They wanted /want to create their own 23rd and 24th century, respectively – for “the cool kids”. Well, now Discovery officially gets to do that (create its own canon from scratch), while the jury’s out on Picard S2… not gonna hold my breath!
And, really, the sad thing is that the creatives on the PIC side of things seemed to have inadvertently stumbled across something that really resonated with a lot of fans in Hugh’s evolution from reluctant leader to devoted advocate, and the plight of the xBs. And they squandered it for more action movie moments with Seven.
Oh I fully agree. And I don’t think it has anything to do with the format either (although it is cheaper/easier to do all these things in animation obviously). I think it’s just the team running this show has a profound love of the franchise and its basically run by a guy who is a fanboy in every shape and form. This show really bares that out.
And of course it doesn’t mean the people making PIC and DIS don’t have the same love for it, but their mandates are clearly different. As I said a hundred times, DIS was most likely meant to be a reboot of the prime universe under Fuller in general and not a deep dive into classic Trek like LDS is. Picard is at least trying to show that universe again but since it’s Stewart who wanted something radically different from TNG, this is what we have, where things look like the era but the execution and setting feels very different from before, for better or for worse.
And I don’t have an issue with either for the record, but neither were written very well which really got them into trouble more than anything.
I think why LDS is more successful in that regard because it was the first new show that was just ALLOWED to be a classic Trek show but still doing its own thing, in this case being a comedy. But it wasn’t trying to reshape the universe like the other two and ironically the most in canon show we now have since Enterprise IMO.
It’s funny listening to people saying it shouldn’t be canon. Are you kidding me?? This show is the one honoring canon on a profound level the other two are just scratching the surface on. And I don’t mean just fanboy easter eggs and obscure references but that it feels very much a part of the prime universe we haven’t had in decades.
If it was live action show it would fit exactly in with TNG/DS9/VOY even if the tone is different, the spirit of those shows are there.
I love how LDS is leaning into the possibilities of the animated format.
In two episodes it’s already delivering on a Star Trek TNG-era universe that’s bigger than 7 people on a ship.
LDS is a bad series acronym. I saw this and my first thought was “space mormons?”
Well, they don’t even use Mormon anymore either… “Church of Jesus Christ”… Yeah, good luck with them pulling that off.
.
SOLUTION: Let’s use LDX for Lower De”x”.
That is a good point. I’ve been using LDKS myself but LDX, as suggested by David, seems to be the better three letter abbreviation.
I just assumed the Janeway Protocol meant preemptively activating the self-destruct.
Phasers set to kill, replicators set to coffee! :D
“In command school, they taught us to always remember that maneuvering a starship is a very delicate process. But over the years, I’ve learned that sometimes… you just have to punch your way through.”
I’m just loving loving this show to death! Classic Star Trek is (finally) back!!
Reading this article, I realized there are still quite a few things I still missed like the Kaelons from TNG and the Rock Men from TFF which I had heard of but never actually seen the deleted scenes. And never seen TAS, so the shape shifting alien was a new one for me. I mean WOW, these guys are digging deep and this is only the second episode. They even managed to sneak the Borg in.
But just tallying up all the ones we saw from the entity in the opening to the Ferengi at the end we saw a total of around a dozen or so aliens. I’m pretty sure we seen more aliens in this one episode than we saw in the entire first season of Discovery (another reason why that season really sucks for me). You can do so much with animation! TCW really proved that to me with Star Wars.
And somehow I missed the Vasquez Rocks shot and I’ve watched it four times already lol. I also loved the idea Jaxa Prime is named after Sito Jaxa. My guess is there are no coincidences on this show, every name and scene has some deep connection to something no matter how vague or obscure.
And Mariner is quickly becoming one of my favorite Starfleet characters. I know McMahan said she is a mixture of a few of the captains (yes, clearly she learned her Kirk fu watching the master himself in holodeck simulations probably ;)) but the Trekyards guys made a great observation she comes off a lot like Jadzia Dax as well. Her knowledge and easiness being around so many aliens, especially Ferengi and Klingons which Jadzia loved hanging around with too (but clearly not as great with the ba’leth as Dax ;)). Also her relaxed demeanor in general and always the life of the party. The way Mariner and Korin were drinking and singing Klingon songs aboard the Yo-Semites ;) is the same way I can see Dax getting drunk and singing Klingon with Worf and their friends. Of course Dax is 300 years old so had tons of experiences. I guess Mariner just has an old soul or something.
Oh and finally I know a LOT of theories have been thrown around about what the Janeway Protocol actually is but this one from Screen Rant makes a lot of sense and references the second Voyager episode, Parallax:
URL Removed
Who knows obviously but the best one I heard so far. I am in love with this show!!
Oh wow you’re right about Mariner! She is a lot like Jadzia Dax! That’s awesome! We have not had a character like Jadzia since DS9, so this is awesome.
Btw: Jadzia > Ezri.
Your comment VZX is why I really love how the Relaunch novels allowed Ezri to
– get past the shock of an unplanned symbiosis,
– use her counselor expertise to wrangle Dax’s past personalities
– rethink her ambitions and goals, and
– transfer to command track to become CAPTAIN Dax.
And Captain Ezri Dax just absolutely feels like the natural culmination of everything we saw in DS9.
I missed the part where Dax was an incompetent, demoted, Jared Kushner-wannabe.
Being an extrovert with an eagerness to sample alien brews doesn’t make one Dax.
Sigh, we’re talking personality traits only, not their actual Starfleet careers. And I don’t get the Jared Kushner reference at all.
Man you clearly hate this show, that’s fine. But you’re the one choosing to watch it every week for some reason which is odd if nothing about it is redeemable in your eyes.
“And I don’t get the Jared Kushner reference at all”
I tkink he plays on the nepotism aspect with Kusner being the son in law of Trump and Mariner being the daughter of the captain. Or maybe because Mariner is animated and Kushner looks like someone out of a Tim Burton stop motion movie.
Oh I see, thanks.
That analogy makes no real sense though since as far as I know Mariner wasn’t just given a job because she’s related to the captain, she actually still had to go to Starfleet Academy, pass all the tests and prove she was capable. And she’s been on multiple ships (although I guess they could’ve all been on the same ships with her parents).
Kushner has his job literally because he’s related to Trump and nothing more since he had zero experience or actual training before he got the job as a policy maker….sadly just like Trump. And Ivanka Trump would’ve been a much better analogy (but still with the same issues ;)).
River seems to love to compare things to anything in the current administration for some reason. I find many of them way off the mark but just let them slide as I’d rather stick to Trek.
I mean the current administration is a complete disgrace, corrupt and unfit beyond belief but yes in this instance it really doesn’t apply at all.
If true we have ourselves another “no win scenario” at hand.
It’s definitely true! Trump is just a disgusting human being and President. Sickening really.
Then it would seem we have yet another Alien vs Predator situation. No matter who wins, we lose. And I thought we had a no win situation last time, too.
Biden is not perfect but he’s not a conspiracy nut job, habitual liar or corrupt either. Trump is a guy who is charged with using illegal campaign money to silence porn stars he had sex with who lied up and down it never happened until he finally had to admit it and that his own lawyer went to jail for.
This is a guy who got caught misusing funds from his own charity and ran a fake university, two things he had to settle with. It was just reported literally yesterday people in his campaign actually DID collude with Russia, mostly Manafort in the 2016 campaign and he knew about. Both Republican and Democrat concluded that in a report.
This is a guy who is now pushing ridiculous Covid 19 cures relying on nuts like some doctor who believes alien DNA is an answer and the latest from MyPillow Guy over a ‘cure’ his own government debunked long ago over his own experts.
And we wonder why 170+ thousand plus people are dead in this country in just six months? Its a total failure and embarrassment when we have the most people dead from this virus more than any country anywhere and nowhere close to contained because we have a President who has no clue how science works and has not taken it seriously enough. At least Biden wears a damn mask to inform people we should ALL be taking this seriously. Trump doesn’t care and justs wants to get re-elected or he would actually force people to wear masks at his events. Total disgrace.
This guy should’ve never been anywhere near the White House and now we’re really paying for it.
Yeah I looked at her a different way too once they made that observation. No, she isn’t Dax obviously but they do have similar traits I never thought of until now.
And I really like Ezri, but we grew to fall in love with Jadzia in a way Ezri never got.
I don’t understand, why was the URL removed?? Are we not allowed to post information from other sites? Just looking for clarity in terms of future posts? Up until now, I’ve never had one removed before and it was directly related to the topic.
I had an external link in one of my comments removed just this afternoon by Anthony himself. The editing seems to be arbitrary—for example, there is a URL further above to a klingon wiki site that hasn’t been purged (yet).
I checked the TrekMovie rules page, and there is no mention whatsoever of a prohibition against links to external websites. The capricious moderation without explanation is becoming obnoxious, and I have posted a question on the site feedback page that is being held for moderation (so it may or may not eventually see the light of day). (It will be interesting to see if this comment is held for moderation as well.) I suggest that you also post a query on the Feedback page. This sort of thing is becoming very offputting.
The moderation on most social media has been questionable lately. Here, I really feel like they ought to either just remove all comments that involve real world politics as well as obvious trolling or just allow anyone to say anything without fear of post deletion or banishment.
You as well? Yeah it was just odd because it was the first time I think they have ever removed a link. And it was just another theory about the Janeway protocol. But I posted another link on a different thread yesterday and its still there so yeah. Maybe it was just a fluke or something.
But yes if they remove a link it would be nice if they explained WHY so we know what not to post in the future. And I will take your advice and post on the Feedback page too. Did yours ever come out of moderation?
Yeah. She’s far more Dax than Kirk or anyone else.
I’m glad some of you guys enjoy the new show, but I just can’t stand it. I wish I did like it, the more Star Trek the better I say, but I find the show cringy its also such a missed opportunity. Imagine say a serious post TNG cartoon, or one set around Enterprise times. They could have made a cartoon about anything, but instead they chose low level office humour aboard a starship.
Perhaps “Star Trek: Prodigy” will be more to your tastes.
Even that would be better. As I said, glad some of you like it. It’s just my personal preference I’m stating.
Except “low level office humour aboard a starship” is not at all an accurate description of the show.
except it is low brow office humor.
Indeed lol
I’m not quite sure whether “grey ops stuff” wasn’t just Mariner running off from her parents and having a run-in with some Klingon…time will tell :-)
Boimler may be wrong about her years of service.
Mariner may be from the same Academy graduating class/year, but may have served as a civilian or enlisted before going to the Academy. Or may have gone through the special stream at the Academy for those who come up from the ranks.
I can see her as a Mustang. She certainly talks like one. She may have refused to test for the Academy when her parents expected, but then found her own way in.
Yeah that’s certainly possible too. In any case, being the child of a Captain and an Admiral, I imagine her youth to have been anything but ordinary and it makes for an interesting mystery. She might have grown up only on starships or being the equivalent of an embassy child, exposed to lots of different cultures and extraordinary situations. She might have started to meddle with official missions on the ships she was on, because she thought she knew better than the adults, to mess with her parents or just because she met K’orin on the corridor. Here’s another version: Adults reverently meet K’orin on a high stakes diplomatic mission. Teenage Mariner meets him on the corridor and helpfully shows him how to tune up the food synthesizer to make blood wine, drinking ensues. Her parents might just have enlisted her to get it under control :). I think she has great nonchalance and behaves like a grown-up when meeting her older acquaintances at eye-level, which might either come from operational experience or she has retained a child-like openness which is also a great quality in an adult. But then again, when in the first episode she complains that senior officers are overrated, always stressed out and yelling about directives, I tend to feel she’s complaining about her parents. That’s why I like your idea that she found her own way in. Otherwise, if she really had been an operational member of the fleet at a younger age than her peers, it must either have been connections, or she must have been a prodigy…Mmh…
This “special stream” is also interesting. So do kids who basically grow up on a starship get to start (at least part of) their training early and “on-the-job”?
For me the most interessting point is that colonies in the future seems to have different districts seperated by race? So the goal seems not to be a mixture of all races but a parallel live-along-side way of races? I am not sure if that fits to me in Roddenberrys vision.
You’re assuming that is a Federation planet when it could simply be a planet in a non-Federation system that groups were allowed to set up shop there for diplomatic reasons. But let’s also be honest, most Federation colonies are usually inhabited by one major species with a few others. Earth was really the only planet where we see various aliens living together. In TOS time the overwhelming colonies were just other humans living there.
It’s one of the reasons I love the Yorktown Base in Beyond so much because it’s literally one of the rare times we see a civilian Federation base/colony populated with multiple species. For all the episodes and movies through the decades we’ve never really seen that until now. So the Abramsverse isn’t that bad with respect to its vision of Star Trek. ;)
First, there are thousands of planets throughout known space. We only saw a tiny percentage of them. Second, there was no “Roddenberry’s vision” so narrow that it would preclude deviations from the 1960s storytelling–that’s one of the big myths of Star Trek, and fans have been inaccurately bandying it about for decades.
Roddenberry’s vision does not refer to the 1960s. Back then, GR had many co-workers on TOS whose influence changed some aspects of what GR may have had in mind.
Roddenberry’s true vision is basically the TNG production bible and the interviews he gave around the launch of TNG: no internal conflict, no zippers, no military designs, no drugs and smoking…
But that vision is not the Holy Grail. Otherwise TOS and especially TWOK/TSFS wouldn’t be Star Trek either.
Which I never get caught up in that. His ‘vision’ gave us TMP and the first two seasons of TNG. The stuff most fans like really was a collaboration from a ton of people from Coon to Fontana, Bennet, Meyer, Berman, Pillar, Behr etc, etc. I highly doubt DS9 would exist under Roddenberry and that’s my favorite show by far.
But yes, the general basis of what Star Trek is only existed due to Roddenberry. Just when you get into specifics is when these discussions get dragged down.
If that were the case, there wouldn’t be ships that were mainly human-crewed, or mainly Vulcan-crewed.
We know that this was the case at least in the TOS era. The USS Intrepid was a Vulcan crewed sister ship to the Enterprise 1701.
More, given that there were no Andorians or Tellarites seen in the halls of the Enterprise-D, and they are founding species of the Federation, we have to assume that’s still the case.
If the ships are allowed to be crewed this way, it suggests that the kind of complete social integration or melting pot isn’t the norm. What we hear about instead is that diverse cultures are thriving and respected. A mosaic of many cultures seems more consistent with that.
DS9 too. That terrible baseball episode featured a Starfleet ship crewed entirely by Vulcans.
Man I LOVE that episode lol!
I liked it as well, if I am to be perfectly honest.
Loved this ep….
At one point, I’d really like to see a Ferengi in a Gorilla suit…
That’s actually funny!
I seem to be the only person asking: At the very beginning of this episode, when the energy being first appears in a storage closet, is that R2D2 stored in there on the left? Like Nomad in Ep. 1
It looks to be a generic storage canister or a power cell. Though it does have a bit of a resemblance to an R4 series droid.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/R4_astromech_droid
Would have been fun if the Lurian had a massive pompadour hairdo or something on him.
Just sitting here, waiting for the writing to catch up with the references.
Why write and fail when you can fanservice and meta your way to semi-success?
It’s actually not Romulan. If you look at the cities on Ferenginar they have bird on nearly every building. And the Romulans would still be an enemy of the Federation a year after Nemsis, so odds are very good they aren’t on this planet.
There’s a cool matte painting that went up for auction a few years back and I think they probably used it as reference.
And the bird creature is a Skorr not an Aurelian. While they come from the same character model, the plumage is different. Aurelian’s have what looks like a feather bikini bottom, the Skorr don’t. And the Skorr are very Klingon-esque so I could see then hanging out in Little Qo’noS!
The Janeway protocol is mentioned in an episode of Voyager, where 7×9 is sent back in time. The Starfleet time officer tells her to avoid th Janeway protocol , 7 asks and he says that Janeway has the tendency to meddle with temporal anomalies.
Wow great catch!!
It was the Janeway factor, not protocol and it had to do with this specific mission – avoid coming into contact with Janeway. Seven used the term protocol as in ‘I’m not familiar with that rule’. Earlier in the episode Braxton asks that she be brought up to speed on their time travel protocols.
BRAXTON: One more thing. Watch out for the Janeway Factor.
SEVEN: I am not familiar with that protocol.
BRAXTON: Your Captain has a knack for sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, especially when it comes to time travel.
SEVEN: Captain Janeway is quite resourceful. Has it occurred to you that she may be helpful?
BRAXTON: Helpful? That woman has been responsible for three major temporal incursions.
SEVEN: No doubt creating numerous paradoxes.
BRAXTON: And who do you think had to repair the damage? Me. She’s reckless. She has no regard for the integrity of the timeline. I asked for her help once. She refused and I ended up stranded in the late twentieth century. Have you ever been to that time frame?
SEVEN: No.
BRAXTON: Well, I don’t recommend it. After three decades with those post-industrial barbarians I had to go through extensive rehabilitation before I could return to duty. Avoid contact with Janeway. That’s an order.
SEVEN: Yes, sir.
I swear on the lower right corner of the city Overview is a prrserver obilisk