“Hear All, Trust Nothing”
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 6 – Debuted Thursday, September 29, 2022
Written by Grace Parra Janney
Directed by Fill Marc Sagadraca
A visit to an iconic Star Trek location provides a fun backdrop to catch up on some old friends and learn more about our characters, especially Tendi.
This seems familiar
WARNING: Spoilers below!
RECAP
“Just keep circling”
The Cerritos is en route to rendezvous with the Vancouver with a load of space booze gifts to help reopen trade with the Gamma Quadrant when Captain Freeman gets the unwelcome news she is going to do the negotiations on her own. Without having prepped for this mission, Carol needs some time to stew, leaving time for the Cerritos to fly around the majestic pylons of… wait for it… station Deep Space 9. Everyone else (sans jaded Mariner) is excited to be at the famed station, and Freeman quickly connects with Col. Kira—yeah that Kira—and it turns out she is old war buddies with Shaxs, so the pair of Bajorans immediately start arguing over which one saved the other the most, which gets a little awkward as these old rebels take their war bonding seriously. A tour ends at Quark’s—not just any Quarks’ but the first Quark’s—where the legendary Ferengi himself (oh yeah) basks in his celebrity… and the accompanying profit from the popular gift shop. He attributes the successful franchising of Quark’s to his unique “Quark 2000” replicator which gives his multi-colored cocktails an “extra zing.” Of course Boimler is loving all of it, especially playing Dabo, where he begins to win big.
Tendi and Rutherford meet an Orion named Mesk who is super pumped to meet another Orion in Starfleet. But unlike Tendi, this guy revels in the nefarious reputation of Orion pirate culture, even showing off the pirating multi-tool he scammed Starfleet into letting him keep as a religious exemption. Inviting himself along as station tour guide, this guy really starts grinding Tendi’s gears as she makes it clear she isn’t into the “pirate criminal thing.” Soon enough the cantankerous Karemma show up, unhappy about the change of diplomacy plans. They agree to stay when Freeman talks up her gifts, which Tendi and Rutherford are tasked with transferring to their ship. Things with the skeptical Karemma and their leader Korzak get real frosty at Quark’s when the proprietor starts making cracks about the Dominion War. Freeman hopes that Quark’s lobes for profit would impress the Gamma Quadrant merchants, but when she highlights the Quark 2000 the aliens turn hostile, destroying the machine and setting off a device that shuts down power across the station (and on the Cerritos), then follow up by grabbing Quark and beaming away. But at least Boimler (sorry, “The Dabo King”) is still winning.
Quark’s now has a gift shop
“These candles aren’t going to dip themselves”
With the other ensigns on the station, Mariner agrees to attend a “salon” (seriously? a salon?) held by Jennifer’s friends. This is a big step for the couple and Beckett is nervous about making a bad impression, which isn’t helped when she shows up as the only person not dressed in “Betazoid casual.” And there was nothing casual about this minefield of passive aggressiveness mixed with candles and performative art about “personal battlefields,” complete with beat poetry and interpretive dance. Oh, and one of them thinks Boimler’s purple hair is sexy. So yeah, Beckett is going to need a lot of booze to get through this.
Mariner’s struggle to not be herself through all of the pretension gets noticed, with Castro detecting disrespect in her intentions. Luckily, the total power outage offers a good distraction. When everyone starts to panic over running out of air, Jennifer wonders why Mariner is still holding back, letting her know she brought her to this event to spread a bit of Beckett’s brutal honesty on this crowd—exactly what Mariner, phaser in hand, needed to finally speak her truth (aka telling everyone to “shut the f—k up”). After stunning everyone else (to save oxygen, of course) Mariner and Jen have a cute moment and a quick kiss before stunning themselves to finish out the look. Aww.
Castro knows how to pull off a salon
“Shh, I’m pirating”
On the Karemma ship, Tendi and Mesk’s cultural dispute is disrupted by the sight of Quark being dragged off as the vessel heads for the wormhole. Good thing they have a genuine pirate around to take over the ship… but now comes Mesk’s moment of truth: He is actually a total poser from Cincinnati, Ohio, who learned all his Orion stuff from bad holonovels (“the ones with the boobs on the cover”). Tendi sympathizes with the cultural pressure, and it turns out they don’t need him to go all Orion Pirate; she has that covered as that’s actually her family’s business (which we first learned about in season 2’s “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”). With a little help from his Orion multi-tool, badass D’Vana quickly breaks out of the hold, takes down some guards, and yanks a latinum tooth out of one of them and uses it to hack the bridge security failsafe and stop the ship from going through the wormhole. Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
After the ship is tractored back and the Karemma are put in detention, like many stories on this station, this one gets nuanced. It turns out Quark wasn’t kidnapped, rather, he was arrested for stealing (he would say “borrowing”) Karemma tech for the Quark 2000. Freeman sorts out a compromise where the Karemma get 76% of the profits from Quark’s franchises. Needless to say, the Ferengi is not happy, but at least he isn’t in a Gamma Quadrant prison. Everyone else is having a good time as things wrap up nicely at the Ferengi’s famed bar on the Promenade with Mariner finally coming over to spar with Quark a bit as she and Jen enjoy the salon girls’ new respectful fear of her. Boimler’s Dabo winning streak ends with him trading it all in for some Quark’s Bucks to geek out at the gift shop… because Starfleeters don’t need money anyway. The Kira/Shaxs battle over who owes whom ends in a drink détente, with Kira getting the upper hand. And Tendi is happy Rutherford thinks no less of her for being from a family of pirates, so she decides to embrace her true teeth-pulling self, then Quark gets the last laugh as he confiscates that latinum tooth, citing Rule of Acquisition #9. Perfect.
Tendi’s secret skills include emergency dentistry
ANALYSIS
A pirate’s life
From start to finish, “Hear All, Trust Nothing” was built to delight any fan of Star Trek and it certainly delivered when it came to the promised visit to station Deep Space 9. But Lower Decks showed admirable restraint when it came to indulging in nostalgia, staying true to this season’s focus on character with the comedy and development that offers. Noël Wells shines as Tendi gets more of a focus as her Orion heritage once again comes into conflict with her personal ambition to be the best she can be in Starfleet. Adam Pally is a perfect foil to draw out Tendi’s family history as Mesk, the wannabe Orion pirate from Cincinnati.
The backdrop of this station, which has been home to so many stories in the gray areas, was the perfect place to tell this story of how people are complicated and can’t fit into the stereotypes that the franchise sometimes indulges in. The subplot with Mariner and Jennifer also revealed more about both characters and showed that Lower Decks can do romantic comedy too. Tendi’s delightful story, along with Mariner’s and even Captain Freeman’s, were all nicely tied together with the Star Trek theme of acceptance and being true to yourself.
This guy at the bar just won’t shut up… same with the Orion
The return of Nana Visitor as Kira and Armin Shimerman as Quark was certainly welcome as both fell into back into their roles easily, even with the heightened versions we get on Lower Decks. The show has always impressed with the way they can bring in legacy characters to fit into the show while still remaining true to what we know about them, although it is a bit hard to imagine Quark not negotiating a better deal with the Karemma and Captain Freeman. And neither was a cameo just for fun, as each played key parts in the development of the diplomacy plot that drove the episode. While DS9 fans may have wanted even more familiar faces, limiting the episode to two was the right call as it kept the perfect pacing of the episode going, and the same is true for the various nods and references to the show itself. While there was the opportunity to squeeze every jumja stick and singing Klingon chef into the episode, the Lower Decks team restrained themselves, so when they did throw out something like Boimler saying “Fortune favors the bold!” it had time to land.
Quark keeps it humble, still serving drinks
Final thoughts
The episodes in the second half of season 3 are getting better and better, with the promise that they are only going to get more bananas and bigger as we head to the finale.
It’s a Bajoran thing
MORE BITS
Laugh lines
- Circle around and pretend we are in awe of the pylons.
- Without me, they would probably get lost and end up in a Mirror Universe with Smiley.
- I’m already not liking that they call their hangouts “salons.” Like, what are you, Hemingway?
- I know what you’re gonna ask, and, no, he’s actually not reverse-aging.
- I get to dangle my legs off the second story like in the holovids.
- I call this piece “The Kobayashi Maroon.” There’s no right way to dance it.
- Surprising for a man with a coin purse. / It’s a clutch and it’s feeling a little light.
- It was a dark and stormy Stardate 57162.3. A Stardate just like this.
- Wow, someone got all “human’ed up” at the Academy.
- Everything I know about Orions I learned from the holonovels. Bad ones, too. The ones with the boobs on the cover.
- I wasn’t in the Enterprise, the Enterprise was in me all along.
- Oh yeah, it’s always something with the wormhole.
- Thanks for having my back when the klisht the fan.
The Dabo girls are impressed by Boimler’s purse clutch
Random stuff
- The Karemma were first introduced in the DS9 episode “Rules of Acquisition.” The Ferengi negotiated to import tulaberry wine from the Karemma, eventually expanding their trade to a variety of goods with the Alpha Quadrant via the Ferengi before the Dominion War.
- “Hear All, Trust Nothing” is Ferengi Rule of Acquisition Rule 190.
- Tawny Newsome got Mike McMahan to rewrite the episode so Mariner could spend some time on DS9.
- Stardate 58456.2
- The Cerritos previously worked with the USS Vancouver in the episode “Cupid’s Errant Arrow.” The captain at the time was unnamed but is now known to be Captain Nguyen.
- This is the second appearance of Carlos Alazraqui as Admiral Buenamigo.
- Captain Freeman says that a brown hole is “not even a thing,” which is true based on current astronomy, but there is such a thing as a brown dwarf (and of course a black hole).
- Using snapping instead of clapping (also called snapplause) traces its roots to beatnik poetry readings.
- The Alpha Quadrant alcohol gifts included Vulcan Port, Aldebaran Whiskey, Romulan Ale, Galardonian Milk, and Risan Cabernet, along with a mention of “Andorian kegs.”
- Shaxs shows his Bajoran resistance roots by calling DS9 a “tacky Cardassian fascist eyesore.”
- Franchises of Quark’s have been seen before on Picard and Lower Decks, with this episode revealing there are currently 21 (although it isn’t clear if that also includes Quark’s Express outlets).
Never forget, Big Bear
More to come
Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network. On Saturday, we’ll post our weekly analysis of Easter eggs and references for this episode.
New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on Crave. It is available on Amazon Prime Video internationally on Fridays. It debuted in Latin America on Paramount+ in September.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
As a Trekkie who loves DS9 the most, this episode was wonderful and was a long overdue visit to the most important station in the galaxy! The story balanced the Cerritos and DS9 crews effectively, and had great character development.
I loved having Nana Visitor and Armin Shimmerman back onscreen again, and after two decades they were as good as ever. The animation was gorgeous.
Some thoughts:
1. I saw that Orion, Mesk, as a direct (friendly) jab at Worf. A guy adopted and raised by humans, who learns and lives his culture through whatever media he finds, and ends up seeing his own culture in a way that other members of his species see as really unrealistic and borderline offensive.
2. Damn, this was a HUGE missed opportunity to see Garak (and Bashir with him). I really really hope we get more visits to DS9. Heck, I’d love to see Garak and Bashir giving dating advice to Mariner and Jennifer!
Garak isn’t on DS9 anymore. He went back to Cardassia after the war.
It’s been 5 years and there is no way Cardassia is in any condition to be a threat to Bajor or anyone so I imagine Garak could come back and make an appearance anytime he wishes. Esp if the Federation was providing relief efforts via DS9.
I doubt Garak has the time to be visiting the station these days.
It could be in an official capacity. Heck he could be the head of the whole government at this point.
Garak left DS9 so he wouldn’t be there anymore.
I know everyone has already told you about Garak, but just to clarify, the only people left on the station from the main cast by the end of the series were:
> Kira
> Jake
> Julian
> Ezri
> Quark
From the recurring cast:
> Rom
> Leeta
> Nog
> Kasidy
Main cast that left the station permanently:
> Sisko is still in the Wormhole (as confirmed by Mariner in the previous episode of Lower Decks)
> Miles left to teach at Starfleet Academy
> Odo returned to the Great Link
> Worf left to become Federation Ambassador to the Klingons (before returning to the Enterprise-E)
Considering that Bashir and Ezri were still relatively early in their careers, I don’t think its entirely unreasonable to assume that they would have left the station 7 years following the series due to promotions (and if I remember correctly, the post-DS9 novels made this assumption as well). Nog is likely gone due to similar reasons, but there’s also the fact that Aron Eisenberg passed away so I doubt we’ll ever see another appearance from him. Probably best then to not include Rom and Leeta due to their relationship with him in particular.
I also think its likely that Jake wouldn’t have hung around the station indefinitely, but considering “The Visitor,” he could potentially still be around. Kasidy is likely still around as well but is probably still a freighter captain and is not on the station permanently.
So considering where everyone was at the end of the show, and then another 7 years after that, I think it makes sense that Kira and Quark might just be the only DS9 alums that are still present on the station, so if we’re going to see anyone else from DS9, it probably won’t be on the station itself.
I’m not too sure Sisko is neccessarily in the Celestial Temple right now. He might be back in the 20th century living as Benny Russel right now. He still has a book to write after all, I mean last time we saw Benny he was locked up and certainly hadn’t written a juvenile reader fantasy yet. Sisko and Benny are clearly the same non-linear being, being unable to process that fact is why both struggled in the 7th season premiere.
I like that theory. It would be cool if that became canon
Despite the SNW easter egg, I don’t think Benny was real. He was a vision from the Prophets in his first episode and the Pah Wraiths in his second. Both times, he just existed to send a message to Sisko.
The Elysian Kingdom was probably written by a completely unrelated Benny Russell. Especially since DS9’s Russell seemed more focused on scifi than on fantasy.
I can’t name a single sci-fi author who never wrote fantasy as well. Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, Issac Asimov, Harland Ellison, etc etc. They all wrote both. Plus writing a fantasy after a stint in a mental hospital is also a thing real authors have done. Just saying
Arthur C Clarke
Michael Chricton
i’m sure I can come up with a few more
Greg Bear
Gregory Benford
Phillip K. DIck
Kim Stanley Robinson
Iain M. Banks
Bear did write one fantasy novel. But good list!
Didn’t Rom and Leeta leave the station as well since he became the Grand Negus?
I was always under the impression they did.
Yep. Rom and Leeta moved off of the station prior to the final episode.
Ah, you’re right! Don’t know how that slipped my mind.
No worries, we’re humans, not augments! It happens. :)
I said this on another site but I think Jake would have def stayed around. Not only is Kassidy and her kid, which is Jakes sibling there but also since neither the destruction of Romulus nor the attack on Mars have happened yet, DS9 is still probably where all the biggest news is happening in the quadrant. Also, just like that time Sisko got stuck in time from being struck in Defiant’s Engineering, Jake would probably want to stay for that reason alone.
As others said Garek isn’t on the station anymore but would’ve loved to have seen him there too. It would’ve been a great twist if he showed up at the end and was there to help save Quark.
Garak could pop up in another episode or they could even just get Andrew Robinson to voice another character. He doesn’t just have to be limited to DS9.
Both very true!
I saw that Orion, Mesk, as a direct (friendly) jab at Worf. A guy adopted and raised by humans, who learns and lives his culture through whatever media he finds, and ends up seeing his own culture in a way that other members of his species see as really unrealistic and borderline offensive.
Good point!
Why would they do so? Bashir is with Ezri and Garak was never established to be gay, despite what actors say in interviews
Best episode of the season awesome and lot of fun .
Trek that doesn’t hurt my brain and makes me happy !!!!
Please get a hold of the Shatner and get him on this show as James T. Kirk ,,
Use Time Travel , Holodeck, clone, Alien creation , Nexus
Do it while he is still with us. Hell use all the ways and have he come on multiple times.
Maybe one of the people on the show is a descendant with funny colored hair ?
Instead we’re getting a visit from Pike.
Well, technically I think Pike is getting a visit from the Lower Deckers.
Both, Mariner and Boimler going to SNW, and Pike is going to LD, they are trading off.
Wait really? Do you mean in the same episode or will Pike literally show up animated on another episode of LDS too?
THIS WAS GREAT!
Hearing Nana and Armin and seeing Kira and Quark again was just wonderful…. and Morn!
I love Lower Decks so much. And Prodigy. There really is so much potential in these animated shows to produce yes, fan-service content, but in a way that just makes you feel good.
LONG LIVE ANIMATED TREK!
What’s really great is that it’s so easy for people to come back in animated form. Esp people like Armin Shimmerman who don’t have to go through hours of makeup in the chair!
This episode came at the perfect time, my wife and I just started the last ten episodes of DS9 last night (my fourth time, her first!), and it was so delightful to see what some of those characters are up to after the series concluded. Hard to believe this is the first time Quark or Kira have appeared in canon since the end of DS9! Hopefully we can get glimpses of Miles, Bashir, or even Garak in the future.
Absolutely my favorite episode of LD since Season 1, just phenomenal! My jaw was on the floor half the episode. What a gift!
I cried at the end of this episode. It’s just so nice to come home to Star Trek DS9 again. I loved seeing Nana Visitor again and Quark is clearly still Quark. I mean these episodes are the kinds of love letters ST: Lover Desks is so great at. And the answer is yes, yes I will marry you Lower Decks. Even if in a traditional Betaziod ceremony.
I won’t lie, I almost cried too lol. It was just a cathartic moment to see that station again. You’re right it was a love letter to Deep Space Nine and Lower Decks writes a lot of love letters.
I certainly wish we could’ve saw a few more characters but when you only have a 30 minute show, they can’t go too overboard. And I was just so happy to see Kira still there running the station. It would’ve been blasphemy to have anyone else in charge.
Sorry but you brought it up…
It was a “love letter” in the same sense that “These are the Voyages…” was. Thanks to that episode that term has been tarnished. Like the name Benedict Arnold has been.
So as a big fan of DS9 i loved this weeks episode. I enjoyed seeing Kira and Quark again but i wished we got to see more of them then we did and more of the DS9 cast too.
I liked seeing the Karemma again and that the Federation is stating trade relations with species from the gamma quadrant. I enjoyed seeing Tendi in more of an action role in this episode.
This episode is my favorite of the season though i do find S3 it’s self to be the weakest season of Lower Decks but hopefully the rest of the season is strong.
Wonderful to see DS9 and two of my fav all-time Trek characters, but man, the story was weak, sitcom material.
This ep may be Lower Decks version of Unification on TNG, where Berman and company didn’t do a great story with Nimoy and also inexplicably couldn’t get Spock and Sarek together on screen.
All that being said, I enjoyed seeing DS9, and this ep was better than the last two brain-fart eps which deviated from the much better eps at the beginning of this season.
I will say minus one or two lines Unification was a let down for me too. Part 1 was a HUGE tease because we only saw Spock for 2 seconds. And Part 2 didn’t have nearly enough nostalgia in it like Relics did. I get Spock is a logical being but by Star Trek 6 he had finally learned to live with and even embrace his human 1/2. Then suddenly in the 24th century he is all pure stoic again.
Exactly!
Back then, the goal wasn’t to bring back Spock for nostalgic purposes. It was mainly to promote TUC. But there was no desire to do what LDX does. The episode wasn’t that good but it would have been worse had they just lazily threw out tons of Spock past references.
Shaxs shows his Bajaran resistance roots by calling DS9 a “tacky Cardassian fascist eyesore.”
Now, that’s actually pretty funny.
FANTASTIC EPISODE!!!
Like many DS9 is my favorite Trek show of all time, it’s not even close. It was great to see that amazing station again! It really felt like the original in every way. I loved it. And nice to see more characters from another show passing through it (even if animated). I was hoping to see a few more characters but was prepared there would only be two thanks to an earlier review. But Kira and Quark were both a must so it was great to see. In fact on another thread here discussing the upcoming episode I went back to a post I made taking a swing at five possible characters we could see on the station and Kira and Quark were my first two guesses. They felt vital to have out of everyone and were fortunately there.
So many wonderful moments in the episode. Kira and Shax being part of the resistance together arguing who did more to save the other. Boimler wining all the money at Dabo but knowing they don’t use money and took the gift card instead lol. Tendi getting back to her pirating roots to rescue Quark was amazing. And yes Quark still being Quark! It was also great to see the Karemma back! It was nice that it felt like both a Lower Decks and DS9 episode.
The only real disappointment is I wanted to see Mariner on the station more to relive her time stationed there. But I did love the scenes with her and Jennifer hanging out with her overbearing friends. And the ending with her interacting with Quark was great.
When people like me kept pushing to go forward in the timeline again instead of backwards with prequels and reboots, this is why. To have episodes and stories like this again. It just felt like I was home and catching up with family I haven’t seen in 20 years. LDS just keep hitting it out of the park!
Well Lower Decks comes just a few years before the Prime Universe events (destruction of Romulus) in Trek 2009, as well as the events we have seen in Picard seasons one and two. So it’s actually slightly backwards in the overall timeline still from other series covering that overall TNG-derived era.
I just mean anything post-Nemesis since all of that was a blank slate minus the Romulus destruction. And there were a lot of fans who wanted to see the timeline pick up right after Nemesis since that’s where it was last left off and probably why McMahan picked it.
Agreed
But revisiting old show locations really isn’t going forward. At all. It’s going backwards. There was nothing new here. Just tons of DS9 references (that was odd our characters knew some of that obscure stuff) and the same old same old with Quark trying to swindle someone. Been there, done that.
A couple of corrections for the “Random Stuff”:
• It’s not “Aldebrian Whiskey,” it’s “Aldebaran Whiskey” 🍸
• It’s not “Galaronian Milk,” it’s “Galardonian Milk” 🥛
• It’s not “Risian Cabernet,” it’s “Risan Cabernet” 🍹
• And it’s certainly not “Bajaran,” but “Bajoran” 🙄
That said, I think the show should just let the Cerritos go off to other adventures, and STAY with the Lower Deckers on DS9! Not a fan of Freeman’s constant OVERacting, but I LOVED me some Kira and Quark! 😍🤩
Not a fan of Freeman’s constant OVERacting
Yeah, that character is becoming unbearable.
Yeah, she’s the only character on the show I still cannot access and fully appreciate…
I like Captain Freeman because she’s human and imperfect. Basically, she’s a lower decker, too: Like in this episode, when her superiors made ad hoc demands of her and she had to improvise and make negotiations work with just a few minutes of preparation. She’s a bit of a type A personality who always is a bit wired while doing her job and sometimes loses her cool, but still does her best on the job. To me, she went from being the “strict mum” type of captain in season one to seeing herself more as one of the crew (when she embraced her “California class pride” in the conference episode). I liked her journey of “becoming part of the group”. She’s not perfect but she’s got the grit. To me, she’s the kind of worker who always tends to be a bit stressed out by their job, but inhabits her authority role (bordering on haughty and probably based both on work ethos and stroking her own ego), and deals with annoyances by venting verbally with an eye roll, but then immediately tackles the challenge and is proud of results. She’s a bit like a growling panther cat who sometimes swipes out at you with their paw, but is focussed on pouncing on their target (and mostly, but not always hits it :-)).
Captain Kirk for his actionability, Captain Picard for his wisdom, and Captain Janeway for her dignity (among other traits of these characters) were kind of ideals to be looked up to. Captain Freeman is the underdog and possibly grit-worker among these captains.
She gives the impression of being largely but not yet fully experienced in her role as captain. She does not (yet?) have the calm of Picard or Janeway.
She’s been the imperfect boss whose silly attempts at bossing and sometimes conceited ego low-level workers sometimes lament (like in the early “buffer time” episode which I still love :-)), but has also made many competent decisions. She has struggles but also nice successes. I can identify with that :-). If at a Star Trek night, each one had to pick a captain to identify with, I’d pick Captain Freeman :-).
I do blame the writers for making her look too childish in the episode where she had that spat with the younger captain over the diplomatic gift which equated a toddler temper tantrum. It felt like a regression for her character. I said it then and still think that was a lost opportunity for writing some really nice Game of Thrones type dialoge with a volley of barbs wrapped up in diplomatic pretense. I think Captain Freeman still has things to learn herself (like she came across as patronizing when she said in this episode “I am sure we are all rebellious” to interrupt Shaxs and Kira). Subtlety is maybe not her greatest strength, but I appreciate her directness.
Maybe the writers were a bit torn between using her as comic relief for general “eye-rolling about your bosses” or giving her serious character development as a respectable captain, too? Instead of alternating between the two (which made Captain Freeman look incongruous in the abovementioned tantrum scene), I would like to see writers trying to balance both better. I would surely like to see Captain Freeman’s journey in the future of this series. I think for her character, we are past the cartoonishly flat cartoon comic relief stage now, and though I welcome her having flaws as boss and the series making fun of that, the temper tantrum scene was really over-the-top and I’d welcome more nuanced/subtle writing for her so she remains a credible character. And also (unless a certain amount of unpredictability is just part of her, because that’s often how workers experience their management, too), a consistent character.
Yep! And I kinda feel bad for Dawnn Lewis, because by all accounts, she’s ALWAYS been a true fan of the franchise! I wanna blame the writers, but she’s the one going completely overboard. 😕
I think that the fact Capt. Freeman sometimes blows her top is just her sometimes explosive personality (…and need for some more anger & stress management skills ;-), better support from Star Fleet admirals, etc.). But I also speculate she might share a certain rebellious streak with her daughter: Like Mariner, she keeps up a tough exterior, and maybe Captain Freeman secretely enjoys playing the role of her authoritarian work persona and sometimes even getting away with misbehaving because she is the captain :-) …
But that’s why Starfleet should never let her captain a starship. I’m not saying she’s not entitled that rank, but starship captain, even on the less important ship, does not fit that personality profile.
“Becoming”????
Oof. Someone wasn’t editing today…
Give them a break, it’s a big post, they’re only people and writing content is hard. Sincerely, another blogger.
Thanks for correcting (most of) these in the article! But you made “Galaronian Milk” into “GalaroonianMilk,” instead of “Galrdonian Milk”… maybe you were thinking “moo” when editing?! 😒🐄🥛❓️
Took me until my second rewatch of this episode to realise that Starfleet crew like Mesk wearing the grey shouldered uniform seem to have transitioned to using the Lower Decks style comm badge rather than when they were using the previous style badge on the Titan.
Lower Decks is really racking up more legacy characters now. Season 3 already shown as many characters as the first two seasons combined. But a list of all the characters shown so far:
-Riker
-Troi
-Q
-Tuvok (in picture form only but still counts?)
-Captain Morgan Bateson (same)
-Kira
-Quark
-Paris
-Captain Shelby
-Okona
-Captain Gomez
-Dr. Brahms (hallucination but still counts?)
-Chancellor Martok (Ferengi rip off game but still a really good likeness)
-Zefram Cochrane
And I’m guessing a few more will be showing up this season too. I think Frakes confirmed Riker will be back this season. It would be cool if they can find a way to bring in a few TOS and ENT characters but Enterprise is too far out from the timeline (minus time travel) and not as many TOS actors around as before sadly but still a few, Shatner being the biggest. Yeah, Kirk is dead in the timeline but as shown LDS has found creative ways to bring back a lot of characters in alternate forms.
But it was so great to FINALLY have DS9 characters appear in canon. We been asking for it for awhile now and hope we see some show up next season on Picard and maybe even Prodigy.
Oops, forgot the Borg Queen. I knew it was someone else I was missing. I already edited this page twice to add more people lol.
OMG, I forgot Morn too!!! How could I forget that guy, he just showed up!
Statue of O’Brien (“the most important person in Starfleet”) in the far future.
Well a statue is a little different. At least with the others, you can still interact with them.
But don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not down playing O’Brien’s prominence obviously. He is the most important person in Starfleet! That should always be respected and acknowledged!
I don’t know who Capt. Gomez is.
While I loved the episode, that orion dude needed to die by episode’s end.
Aww, but that was Adam Pally from “Happy Endings!”
It was GREAT to see DS9 again, and to hear Kira and Quark (though remember, Armin Shimerman was recording his lines without the Quark teeth, so naturally that + age = it sounds different). But it was, IMO, a pretty weak episode and just sort of “took place” at DS9. Still cool though.
I agree – Quark didn’t sound quite right and I’d blame the teeth for that. I remember reading that Rene Auberjonois couldn’t really do Odo’s voice without the make-up.
Shimmerman said he DID wear the teeth, because Quark wouldn’t sound right without them. Unless he was joking…
If Quark comes back in animation again, maybe they should put the teeth or something similar in his mouth to help him get the voice right. It was still great to see Quark again, even if he sounded a bit off.
The fact that he now looks like a two-dimensional piece of cartoon artwork instead of a living, breathing alien being seems much more an issue to me than a slight voice difference.
Well, it would have been weird if he was a live action character in an animated show.
You think it’s an issue that a character looked animated in an animated shos. You truly are strange
That’s not what I said. What I said was if we are to comment on the audio of the character sounding different than the last time we saw him then let’s also realize that the video difference is much more significant that the audio difference here for that character.
Personally I don’t really care either way, but if we’re going to critique the audio difference of the character then certainly the more obvious video difference in the character can be critiqued.
You make no sense.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Per his Twitter feed, he was, in fact, using the teeth.
Finally, an episode this season that’s up to part with the amazing first two seasons. This was beautiful.
After a few ok but middlin’ episodes, this was a real return to form! Loved it, made me forget my troubles!
So much love went into this one. Watching that was like being wrapped in a big warm blanket.
Yeah, just like going back to the Nexus… Christmas Day 1994 all over again…
I am not ashamed to admit this, but I definitely rewatched the Cerritos circling DS9 multiple, multiple times. That DS9 theme is the hight of majesty.
So this mean that an HD remaster of DS9 is just around the corner, right??
You weren’t the only one! ;D
I did that too…But actually, I wished the second circle sequence would have gone on MUCH longer :-) Just keep circling… for as long as the Space Balls opener…
Wow that was bad
Agreed. It really was.
between the season opener in the vineyard and this ep in the salon, Boimler is getting quite the reputation as a chick magnet. Oblivious, but still. It’s interesting.
It was a little bit amusing in the opener but it didn’t work this time. That joke should be a one and done.
Though DS9 had never been my favourite show, this was a very, very emotional episode! After all, that station used to be my second home for seven years during the best years of my life and going back there, even in animated form, was just tear-jerking.
Also, seeing the Karemma again, had a special place for me. No, they were far from being the most prominent species on DS9, but… they are special to me in the most unusual manner…
Well, my mum used to put up a collection of postcards in our old restroom back in the days and around 1995, she put up a postcard from an Italian region named “Maremma”.
I instantly identified that postcard with the Karemma when I watched that DS9 episode back in the day and for 20 years, I constantly had to think of the Karemma when looking at that Maremma postcard :-) The house is gone, my mum has sadly died two years ago, but now, at least the Karemma are back at last…
Looks like the Defiant did not return to DS9 after the events of First Contact….
Wild that it managed to fight in the Dominion War without existing, I guess?
We saw the Defiant for literally the next four years until the war ended. It was actually destroyed a few years later by the Breen, but then they replaced her with the same class ship.
It’s been five years since the war ended in this episode, so chances are Starfleet now has less of a presence as we saw on the station itself and/or there was no longer a need for it since the war was over.
Sorry, the next three years.
Maybe it was cloaked ;-)
Jokes aside, I don’t think the second Defiant had a cloak. There was only the one, and it went down with the first Defiant.
More likely Defiant was out on a mission with the rest of the crew that we didn’t see in the episode.
By far my favorite episode so far. I really loved seeing Mariner chase those pretentious women around the room to stun them.
LOL, because Mariner of course is not pretentious. :-))
☝️😉
Yep :-)
Not sure you know what pretentious means. Burnham is a perfect example. Mariner isn’t, at all.
I enjoyed the episode. Great to see DS9 again and see Kira/Quark. I kind of figured they would be the most likely to show up. I’m surprised Kira is still Colonel and that Bajor hasn’t joined the Federation yet. I would have expected her to be Captain Kira or even Ambassador. I didn’t say Kai like the books or STO or whatever, because I feel Ambassador is more logical.
One correction: I believe the gift wasn’t Galaroonian Milk, it was Galardonian Milk, the milk that the spider creatures produced, shown in the series premiere.
Totally ♥️ this episode!! A DS9 and LDS story perfectly combined. 10/10
Seeing Kira and Quark was the highlight for me and a reminder of why I fell in love with Star Trek in the first place. I could’ve listened to Shax and Kira resistance stories the entire episode. It’s great they made them part of the same team! “WE WERE BOTH LOCKED UP, C’MON!!” 😂😂
It was so cool just to see the Cerritos docked there. It follows the Enterprise and Voyager! Maybe we’ll see Discovery docked there in the 32nd century one day. You never know, Cardassians build things to last! 😄
Even though everything about this episode was a Trekkies wet dream, the best part wasn’t on the station for me. It was when sweet adorable wholesome Tendi transformed herself into the MISTRESS OF THE WINTER CONSTELLATIONS and whipped some serious bleeping ass!!!!
Man I was in awe to see Tendi in full on pirate mode! Didn’t think we would ever see that until they ran into the Borg or something but bro it was a fabulous moment. She saved Quark and became the hero of the episode! I’m so proud of my girl! ☺️ But it’s also a good reminder that YOU DON’T BLEEP AROUND WITH ORIONS!!! And definitely not the women!!
Episode was great! It honored DS9 in the best way possible and why I love this show so much! I hope they make a return to the station someday. C’mon McMahan make it happen in season 4 or 5!
Yeah I love Tendi too and that was such a fun moment! I like how they have made her into this very idealistic example of a Starfleet officer and yet she comes from a very questionable background herself. And of course this happens a lot in real life. A lot of people have family with very shady or questionable backgrounds but they manage to rise above all of that and lived very different lives. I grew up in Compton, there are a lot of those stories around there.
There were also SO many stereotypes of people who grew up there had. I endured every single one of them lol. So I really related to those scenes when Mesk was talking to Tendi basically bragging about how all Orions are just criminals and poor Tendi cringing at all of it. I actually been in that situation in the past too. You don’t feel good that people think you’re a thug or gang member or drug dealer just because you grew up in an area known for that. Most people never had those experiences but it’s all people knew. So I definitely related to her. Unlike me, her family obviously did come from that life but it’s not something Tendi is proud of either; especially as she said so many people judge her just for being Orion.
Tendi is a well written character. She has such an upbeat personality who is also highly intelligent and committed to Starfleet, but clearly has a dark family past that goes against everything the organization she joined. So I hope we will see some of her past life and even her family in the future.
I just wanted to add: 100 comments on here (so far)… might this be the most beloved LDs episode yet, or at least in a while?
I blame the glory that is DS9!!! 😍
Paramountaineers, take note! ☝️😉
Is is possible this show is getting worse? This felt like one of those “The more you know” things aimed at 6 year olds. Well, that does seem to be the age this show is aiming for.
I read things about this ep when it aired. About how it was “reverential” towards DS9. Well, it was so “reverential” there was absolutely nothing funny in it. Worse. It was cliche ridden and amazingly dumb.
But in an attempt to not be completely negative towards this… There was about a one second scene that was slightly entertaining. It was T’Ana lapping at her drink in her glass like a cat. Thus endorsing my comment that they need to make some gags every once in a while to remind us she is a cat.
Very glad I didn’t waste two months of fees for this show.