Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Races For The Heart In Season 3 Finale “The Stars at Night”

“The Stars at Night”

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 10 – Debuted Thursday, October 27, 2022
Written by Mike McMahan
Directed by Jason Zurek

Season 3 wraps up in an exciting, funny, heartwarming episode as long-running character and plot arcs come together with some unexpected twists.

How can a guy with “buena” in his name not actually be good?

WARNING: Spoilers below!

RECAP

“We’re doing this for the entire class!”

After the Breen banged it up bad last week, the Cerritos is back home getting patched up. And Captain Freeman finds herself not only defending Project Swing By’s ill-fated test run, but the future of the California-class itself. In a surprise move, Admiral Buenamigo gets Starfleet Command to put his fancy new automated Texas-class ships in charge of second contact duty, with the Calis being decommissioned. Uncool, Les. Word quickly works its way to three remaining ensigns (via “gossip king” Towel Guy, who knew?) who start to freak out about being reassigned, although Rutherford is oddly fascinated by the Texas-class ship’s cool code. Nerd. Missing Mariner and feeling guilty over not supporting her more before she left the ship, Boimler breaks up the trio’s mood by doing some spot-on impressions of the bridge officers… unfortunately Shaxs comes in right when Brad’s nailing him, sending the big Bajoran off angry-crying. Aww, Big Bear.

Carol challenges her old friend to a “second contact race” to determine the fate of the Cali fleet, so the Cerritos crew rallies for a multi-stop mission, with Tendi fretting about their chances, Boimler panicking over things ending badly with Shaxs, and Sam still staring at his PADD. The race starts off well, Billups running the operation like a drill sergeant, but then the Aledo shows up and just drops a big pre-fab power station. They can do that? Oh, s—t!

On the next planet, the Cerritosians quickly set up an outpost but have to stop when Tendi thinks she may have found some life on the supposedly lifeless rock. Turns out it was a trick of a tricorder, but the delay puts them behind the Aledo’s dropoff driveby. The next stop is tricky, as it’s one of those “Brigadoon-type” planets that only phase in a couple of hours a year. The slowdown from the previous stop makes them miss their window, but not the Aledo… cue Buenamigo’s maniacal victory laughter. Tendi feels bad her life sign scanning cost them the race, but Freeman realizes it shows the Aledo skipped that pretty important step, putting them back in the fight. More ominously, Sam finally figures out the Aledo code is based on an AI that he wrote back when he was that angry racing guy—the same AI that led to Badgey! That means Buenamigo is the one who erased his memory. No Bueno.

Remember us from episode 1?

“I’m playing it very cool”

Meanwhile, Mariner is having the time of her life as a xenoarchaeologist, tomb raiding and getting chased by Ferengi grave robbers. After a close call beam out, she and Petra Aberdeen set off to deliver a golden idol and prep for more archeology adventures rescuing artifacts from black market thieves. Mariner is really loving the no-rules lifestyle, but she is wondering how her new partner Petra is funding this endeavor, but the space archaeologist remains evasive on that topic. Not willing to let it go, Mariner does some digging and discovers the secret benefactor is… Admiral Jean-Luc Picard. Apparently, he just loves mummies. Mariner was kind of hoping to find an evil plot involving Romulans or at least some Xindi.

It seems you can take the ensign out of Starfleet, but not the Starfleet out of Beckett. Mariner is finally realizing she has a need to do something for the greater good, because how many more brown pots does the galaxy need? (Rude.) Aberdeen tries to argue that Mariner is better off living the free life, especially with all the problems her old ship and friends are in. Problems—what problems? Petra was holding out; the Cerritos is once again breaking news on FNN. And the phaser in Aberdeen’s hand says her ship is not going to help. So many twists!

My precious!

“I will burn your heart in a fire”

Things go from bad to worse quickly when Freeman and Rutherford confront Buenamigo, who flies right past badmiral to evilmiral, with his only regret not erasing all of Sam. He gets no sympathy for a backstory of struggles as an admiral unable to advance who has to cut some corners blah blah blah, but he isn’t trying to convince anyone anyway and orders his roboship to kill them and say it was self-defense. Really? Ignoring Rutherford’s warning about the unstable AI, the bad guy gives the Aledo full independence, and (of course) it immediately betrays him, “I don’t take orders from you anymore, father.” Sam’s AIs have issues.

The autonomous ship destroys Buenamigo’s office and starts taking apart the Starbase, activating two more Texas-class ships to help. The station and Cerritos are outmatched by the advanced weapons, even after a big Sovereign class shows up. Freeman pulls a Kirk and bluffs, telling the Aledo she has its creator on board, Sam, and he’s ready with the delete button. He is? Right, um, yeah.

The Cerritos warps out, which saves the station, but the three robo-Texans are catching up fast as the bridge crew runs options: Shaxs suggests the usual and everyone else tries various tropes like deflector dish weapon, paradoxing AIs, and even calling the Titan—all dismissed as unworkable with debate raging as the ship is being torn apart. But Brad sees no one really paid attention to Shaxs, so he musters all his Bold Boimler to cut through the noise… because yeah, this time ejecting the warp core is actually the smart move.

The Bajoran is as happy as a bride and there isn’t a dry eye on the ship as he runs to meet his destiny in engineering. The warp core ejection works. With a cinematic explosion and music, the Cerritos is thrown out of warp… but oh no, the Aledo survived and it still really, really wants to kill its dad. Carol is ready to abandon ship, but help arrives in the form of Mariner, who has convinced Petra to do the right thing. The Aledo considers her ship a “negligible” threat, but she brought help… the Oakland? One Cali just can’t turn the tide, but this is Mariner, and she called “all of them.” One by one, the sky fills with California-class ships ready to fight for their brethren. This ragtag fleet shows the Aledo how it’s done, returning the last Texas-class to stardust.

Back at the Starbase, the Calis do what they do and get to work repairing the Cerritos and the station. At the traditional bar wrap-up, Mariner returns and everything is forgiven as she is ready to Starfleet it up again, with hugs for mom and promised torment for Ransom. Not only has Shaxs forgiven Brad for his impersonation, he embraces him into the Bear Pack. Sam is happy too, and still sticking with his implant with new features to explore. Tendi is praised for standing up for science and she now has a new “study buddy,” a familiar Vulcan who is going to fit in just fine. Things wrap up with the crews coming together to celebrate with a new chant… one for “Cali-class!”

Shaxs’ whole life has led to this moment.

But wait, there’s more? A post-credit scene takes us to the battle debris field in the Kalla System, where Rutherford’s old implant remains. A mystery ship arrives to tractor it in as it activates… Badgey lives!

I feel a disturbance in the piece

ANALYSIS

Tied up with a bow

In the series’ best finale yet, Lower Decks brings the action but never forgets to bring the funny. It’s densely packed with jokes, character drama, lore, and heart, and it is now clear that writer/showrunner Mike McMahan was playing the long game with this season. The show sticks the landing on a season that has focused on character by bringing each of their arcs home in a satisfying way and even finding ways to weave them together. However, Mariner’s exit and reentry to Starfleet and easy forgiveness—she even blames herself for it—had the same kind of sitcom oversimplicity that plagued the previous episode. At least she didn’t forgive Jennifer’s cruelty; that bridge should stay burnt, opening up more possibilities for future seasons.

You can’t break up this family.

Dawnn Lewis continues to shine this season, carrying much of the load for this episode as Captain Freeman becomes more central to the show. While often a bit erratic, Freeman here shows why she is worthy of the captain’s chair, even adding “Maximum warp me” to her catchphrase and borrowing Jean-Luc’s “make it so” for that beautiful moment of giving Shaxs his greatest wish. And like Shaxs, everyone got to have their hero moments, from Billups to Boimler, as this show celebrates its own mythology, exemplified by the fleet of California class ships coming to the rescue. Sure seeing a legacy hero and ship could be fun, but it’s no match for Fly Boimler. There were also ties going all the way back to show’s first episode, including Douglas Station and the Galardonians, all part of embracing the series’ own growing lore. And speaking of going back, T’Lyn from last season’s best episode (“wej Duj”) is a very welcome addition to the crew.

Carol makes this look easy.

Jack Quaid is also worth praise—if for nothing else, his hilarious impersonations of Ransom, T’Ana, and Shaxs. And that’s just the tip of the comedy iceberg with laugh-out-loud moments throughout, from T’Ana’s riding crop tirade about spending “seven f—ing years on an Oberth” to Billups demanding Data-level isolinear chip work to Mariner trading quips with classic Ferengi… but Ransom’s “command that chair” demonstration of the Riker maneuver may be the standout. Even with all the heavy character and plot lifts going on—and unlike extended portions of the previous episode—this finale never forgot this show is a comedy and kept delivering.

Does Frakes get royalties for this?

An evil AI and badmiral, who would see that coming?

The finale leaned into Trek’s longstanding distrust of anything to do with artificial intelligence going back TOS, with the Aledo AI looking like the classic M5. This all fit nicely with Trek’s skepticism about taking the human out of the equation. And even though this was a twist we all saw coming, the show still kept it feeling fresh and even topical, with allusions to modern-day drone programs. Pitting the California class against the Texas class is also a bit on the nose, but still good to see Lower Decks dipping its toe into the Trek tradition of political debate, even if it is a bit heavy-handed.

Buenamigo turning out to be a bad guy is another Star Trek trope Lower Decks openly embraced, and many fans also saw this coming. Tying it all to Rutherford’s arc was clever, and it’ll going to be fun looking back on the whole season to see the clues. However, the degree of his corruption and brutality for completely selfish motives was on a whole other level than the usual bad faith admirals Freeman talked about, making it a bit hard to buy someone this evil could make it so far in Starfleet. Sure, we have seen some baddies, but they usually had some kind of vision or different viewpoint justifying their actions and weren’t up for killing off whole Starfleet ships just to get another pip. And it looks like there is more evil AI in the show’s future, which risks getting tiresome but may be worth it just to get more Badgey.

Nice touch with the cigar.

Final thoughts

Season 3 was the best yet for Lower Decks and this episode was the perfect example of how the show has a whole new confidence in finding humor with its own characters and lore while still embracing classic Star Trek. The finale tied things up nicely, leaving very little hanging for the next season (which was ordered long ago and is already well into production).

Bolian-blocked by Beckett!

MORE BITS

Laugh lines

  • Hans just told me that the Phylosian in Tactical’s girlfriend’s Vedek heard that Starfleet Command is shuttering the Cali-class and replacing it with drones!
  • I can’t work in an outpost. I won’t look good in a drab olive vest.
  • Rutherford, stop being impressed with the thing stealing our jobs.
  • Ah that’s cute, pretending to you have any concept of how money works?
  • Wait until you see the uniform, it has four epaulets.
  • Toss me the scanner that looks like a phase discriminator.
  • Oh no, a starship can’t have daddy issues.
  • I’m still wiped from all that Ferengi mocking.
  • I was hoping for a Romulan or at least a Xindi cabal.
  • They robbed me of my memories and it was used to cover up crimes deadly crimes, but it’s so cool!

Without Mariner, these guys just fall apart.

Random stuff

  • The episode title comes from the lyrics of the folk song “Deep in the Heart of Texas.”
  • Stardate 58499.2
  • Towel Guy’s first name is Hans. (His last name Federov was revealed in episode 4 of season 3.)
  • The Van Citters Sovereign-class ship (NCC-72504) is named for Paramount Star Trek Group VP John Van Citters.
  • The Alhambra, Oakland, Merced, Sacramento, Carlsbad, and Inglewood are all California-class ships that had been seen or mentioned before.
  • The Alhambra was the ship Dr. T’Ana confused for the Cerritos with the bizarro crew that included male Freeman and Fly Boimler.
  • The Inglewood is the ship with the all-Bolian crew led by former Cerritos ensign Vendome.
  • Newly established California-class ships include the San Diego, San Clemente, Sherman Oaks, Vacaville, Burbank, Fresno, Santa Monica, San Jose, Culver City, Anaheim, Riverside, Valejo, West Covina, Pacific Palisades, Redding Eureka, Mount Shasta… named for  (primarily) small and medium size cities in California.
  • There are a few previously seen or referenced Cali class ships that weren’t named but were presumably part of the battle, including the Bakersfield and Ventura.
  • The other two Texas-class ships were the Dallas and Corpus Christi, named for cities in Texas.

Glowing red = evil

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 PodcastsSpotifyPocket CastsStitcher 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.

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Ah, what a great episode. Just plain “felt” like Star Trek should, with LDS humor. Well done.

Agreed, a good balance of trek and humor! I had a few laughs, made me think the show might finally be growing on me.

Me too. After suffering through the really bad first two seasons, this season was so refreshing. Only five bad episodes.

Funny. All 10 episodes were bad. Overall this show is now 1 for 30.

USS Riverside!!

Best finale yet? No. Good finale? Yes.

Great episode. Can’t say season 3 is the best season. Maybe a very close second to season 1. I still have season 2 mugatu nightmares. lol.

Season 3 was the best yet for Lower Decks

Definitely not. Good, yes. But also the weakest of the three.

I respectfully disagree. This was by far the strongest of the three seasons. It’s more mature and believable now, which is very important to me.

Same for me. Each season has far eclipsed the season prior. It’s been fascinating watching it grow into itself so thoroughly.

That is what is great about this show, every season seems to be stronger than the last (even though I personally think season 2 was still stronger but I mean in terms off a consensus). And frankly this a common thing with most Trek shows, minus TOS. For me, all the classic spin off shows got stronger every season.

Really? This was more mature? They still all act like Jr High School kids.

I find it so fascinating to see people split on whether season 3 was the best! I feel like if you’ve resented the humor aspect of the show from the beginning and have been waiting for the show to “tone it down” like the Orville did, then this is definitely its best season. If you’ve accepted the humor from the start and don’t mind it as much, I think it’s fair to say that both of the first two seasons had much more creatively rich episodes. That being said, this season was great nonetheless.

Less Simpson’s more Star Trek — that’s why this season is heads and tails above the middle school-level comedy crapfest that was season 1 and season 2 of Lower decks.

This season had five legitimate (my personal opinion only) Star Trek episodes – so 50% of the eps to me I thought were worthy of being part of Star Trek canon. I don’t think I can come with up with five episodes combined for the first two seasons to equal this.

This show it’s finally starting to hit its stride and I have much higher hopes for season 4 now as well.

Hey I might disagree that the humor of the first few seasons disqualifies it from being good, but I also liked this season a lot! Im glad that the more serious tone is bringing even more into the fold

Definitely disagree as well but as long as it’s gets more fans aboard, that’s a good thing too. I have never been bothered by the humor (and I thought I could be) but I don’t really care how funny the show actually is, I really just love the stories in general. LDS feels like classic Star Trek again in all the ways that matter and that alone is why I’m a fan. If I laugh as well, it’s a bonus!

But I do want the show to stay more optimistic and light which SNW also feels that way most of the time and probably why I really love that show too.

I’m still waiting for them to add humor to this joyless gaggle of horrible people. I mean, if it were at least funny then the unbelievably terrible characters could be overlooked. Easy to do if you are laughing.

I thought they knocked it out of the park for this finale. At the start of the show I thought the Cali Class was just a little lame. Here was are at the end of season three and I had actual tears in my eyes as all the Cali Class star ships showed up. It was completely fulfilling and funny.

Agreed. Yes, quite a stunning turnaround this season given how lame the show was the first two seasons.

Yeah we get it; you already said that.

So a ton of starships showing up was funny? That means you were laughing like crazy when that happened on Picard.

A funny and exciting finale, bested only by the season 1 finale I think. As a season overall, I think each season has been slightly weaker than the previous, but I’ve loved almost every episode in the same way I loved TNG.

This season blew away seasons 1 and 2, and it’s not even close. My opinion.

I loved this finale a lot. It was even kinda emotional at times (yes this dude cries even with hysterical animation) but I have to agree with a few other commenters: season 3 wasn’t my best season either. It kinda got too serious at times. Therefore I liked 2 better. I don’t like comparing, but hey, since you brought it up. ;)

This was Awesome!!!!. The best season yet. Just like other Trek Shows. They have fund their Legs in Season 3.

Agree 100%. It’s FINALLY hitting its stride.

Is it? If their stride is to be an unfunny snore fest with some of the worst people you could ever meet was their goal they hit that stride with the very first episode. And haven’t let up since.

I didn’t like Lower Decks up until this year, but Mariner and Boimler have become so much better — so much more like what I think of as REAL Starfleet officers — that I’m enjoying it this year. Even so, I still never expected that Lower Decks would actually make me cry … but it did, in this episode. When all the Cali-class ships show up to bail the Cerritos out of trouble, I was moved to tears.

I do wish Star Trek didn’t rely on badmirals to create conflict, but even I have to admit that it’s an old Star Trek tradition. :-)

Exactly! The show is growing up, and thank goodness that we’re seeing less of the moronic, annoying crap that we saw so much of in seasons 1 and 2.

Are you serious?

Of course. You disagree, fine. IDIC

I’m not seeing it either. It’s still the terrible unfunny people from the very beginning. It’s been annoying moronic crap from day one.

I guess whatever floats your boat but I don’t see what was so emotional about a ton of star ships showing up to save the day. It’s not like it never happened before. Hell, it happened on Picard and tons of people hated it. What made this one different? It was exactly the same.

I’m pretty sure this episode made it official: “Lower Decks” is my third-favorite Trek series, behind TOS and TNG. Hopefully it will continue to be this great as long as it runs, and hopefully it runs forever.

It’s still crazy to me out of all the NuTrek shows and movies starting with the Kelvin movies and then Discovery and Picard, Lower Decks was the first thing I been truly on board with from the beginning. It’s definitely surprising because I wasn’t sure if I would even like it at all. I thought the comedy stuff would scare me off but it did the opposite.

LDS just has heart in a way the other new shows prior to it don’t IMO. It shouldn’t be anywhere as good as it is and yet the responses for this show from most fans gets more positive every season. It’s just a joy to watch and really honors Star Trek canon which is another reason I love it so much.

I rolled my eyes at the announcements of both this and Prodigy, and love both. Can’t judge a book by its … uh, press release.

Yep so true. I was curious about both but no way did I think the animated shows, especially how they were first described, would end up being some of the best Star Trek we had in decades. Both LDS and PRO really deserve the love they are getting from fans. They tapped into everything I love about Star Trek and yet can be totally their own thing as well.

I think this thread really captures this sentiment of how fans originally felt about LDS when it was announced to how most felt once they moved away from their bias of an animated comedy and gave it a chance:

https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/yewlxy/a_love_letter_to_lower_decks/

The OP says it, but it grabs people by really bringing back the hard nostalgia of the universe fans have been watching for 50 years but does it with a laugh. It captures the prime universe in a way we haven’t seen since the 90s (and I think both the Kelvin universe and Discovery went out of their way to avoid which frankly put off a lot of fans). But it still manages to have its own unique voice within it we never seen in Star Trek before.

And that Star Trek can STILL be Star Trek as goofy fun without it feeling overly stuffy and uptight which it has been criticized for in the past. If you have a franchise that quotes Shakespeare in their stories, you’re not going to get a certain segment of the population onboard no matter what you do. ;)

But that’s the irony, Star Trek fans got the reputation that if it’s too fun and light then its not ‘real’ Star Trek to them although that’s never been the case since a lot of Star Trek IS actually fun and light. But yeah. But LDS proves Star Trek fans can actually lighten up and can embrace the silly WHEN its done right. ;)

I don’t know what show that post is talking about but the only thing that accurately describes Lower Decks is the bringing back nostalgia line. Because that is pretty much all it is. ‘Member berries. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I’m the complete opposite. I was so looking forward to a Trek comedy. I thought it was a GREAT idea. There was tons of stuff from the post classic Trek era (meaning everything that came after TOS) to poke fun at. But instead all they gave us was easter eggs, awful people, bad actors and humor only 7 year olds might find funny. It has zero heart as there is no reason any viewer should care about any of these awful cliche ridden people.

I do agree it does indeed honor the canon. Which is great but the show really wasn’t about that. It was supposed to be a light “adult” comedy. And if any show was going to tweak the canon for their own purposes it should be the comedy show. I just wish SNW honored canon as much as LDX does. Might have made it a more tolerable.

I got to admit, this season was good enough that it jumped from my 10th favorite Star Trek series to my 8th favorite Star Trek series, overtaking both Enterprise and Voyager!

Keep up the good work, Mike M!

To me, this show is rapidly giving Star Trek Discovery a run for its money as the absolute worst Star Trek ever. It’s still a few steps ahead but I’m thinking the next season of Star Trek Discovery might want to try and widen that gap. We shall see who succeeds in this race for the worst.

GREAT FINALE!!!!

LDS, per usual, just hit it out of the park. It did everything right and tied up all the plot lines well. It wasn’t perfect but LDS proves it’s every bit a Star Trek show as all the others and even a better Star Trek show than a few of them IMO. I will say season 3 isn’t my favorite but overall still a great season for me. Can’t wait for season 4 and hope we hear about a season 5 soon!

SEVEN SEASONS AND A MOVIE!!!!!!! (And let’s be honest, we may not ever see another movie until LDS hits it’s seventh season so why not just make it a LDS movie? They already showed twice now they can do spectacle in the Crisis Point series ;)).

It was a very good finale.

I can’t see why Paramount wouldn’t renew LDS for another 3 seasons immediately.

It’s becoming the foundational anchor series for this era which is pretty boggling if you think about it.

It success both in bringing in new viewers as an entry point to the franchise at the same time as its satisfying a lot of classic fans.

And yes, I absolutely agree that this is the one that could pull off a movie.

A three season renewal may be a bit much since I can’t think of any show anywhere that gets that many at once. But two is more common and I could see that happening easily.

But you’re right that LDS has become the anchor for this era in many ways. I assumed that would be Picard when it started but I think LDS does it much better (being a better show in general also helps ;)).. But this show really does a great job of representing all the classic shows and a big reason its really exciting fans. That’s one of its biggest appeals, it does represent the 24th century era in a way we haven’t seen since DS9 ended.

LDS will probably go on for years at this point since it seems to be the show that is gaining more fans, at least anecdotally. I have no idea how it’s doing in terms of actual viewership but we’re in the dark with all these shows when it comes to that unfortunately.

Remember who predicted this first…

2027 — “Star Trek: Mariner” (live action) premieres. And yes, she will be the freaking Captain.

LOL man,you have the weirdest obsessions over stuff. And if its good great! I would love that! I think most fans (of LDS) would.

If Secret Hideout is still in charge I can absolutely see them doing that. It’s real bottom of the barrel stuff and exactly the kind of stuff Kurtzman would love.

Please Mr. Robbins… Cancel the SH contract. Shut down all the Trek and start from scratch. Make them all reboots if you have to. But get better people there! Even ending Prodigy, which is decent, not great, would be a worth while sacrifice if we could get some quality people running things.

LOL, dude, maybe don’t post right after chugging that six pack. ;-) I don’t even think the Law and Order shows, Gunsmoke or the original Hawaii Five-Oh got that renewal treatment.

Also, LDS is for the existing Star Trek fans (as is Picard) market, and that’s where it’s successful. The shows bringing in new fans are DSC, SNW and Prodigy. And it any of these shows were to be labeled “foundational,” it would have to be SNW, which brings Trek back to it’s TOS roots, and which has been universally successfully worldwide.

That’s just your own assumption. No one knows what shows are bringing in new fans. LDS could be bringing in more new fans than Prodigy and Discovery combined. I’m not saying they are, I’m saying no one knows.

The only show we know that was specifically designed to bring new fans was Prodigy and we have no idea how well that is doing because there is zero data on it. My guess is most people watching are the same old fans like most of these shows but that’s just my assumption only. And I really hope I’m wrong.

But saying PRO, SNW or DIS is bringing in more new fans is just assuming. Or let me guess you went to a convention and you talked to a lot of new fans of Star Trek and that’s what they told you right? ;)

Okay I get that I have a lot of assumptions in my post here and I like your joke about my convention stuff.lol.

But you are taking my post out of context because I was responding to the total load of ridiculously positive BS from TG47 — essentially that they should get a three-season renewal that no TV series in the history of television has gotten to my knowledge, that LDS is bringing in tons of new fans, and also that this is some foundational show that should now be the basis for all future Star Trek. I mean give me a f****** break…lol

Alright fair enough, but as said, we’re fans, I understand why TG47 feels that way. But as I also said it’s unrealistic because yeah I can’t think of a single show that’s ever gotten 3 seasons at once. There are tons of shows out there they know is not going away anytime soon like Law and Order, Simpsons, NCIS, etc etc. Some of these shows have been around forever but they still renew season by season.

As for his point about being foundational I think he just means the show cross breeds with other shows in ways the other new shows haven’t yet because LDS really is a love letter to Star Trek as a whole.It’s inclusive to all the shows and movies even if it takes place in the 24th century (it even references the Kelvin movies, who knew that was even possible?? ;)). That’s why so many fans love it. Now that’s just MY interpretation but maybe he meant something deeper than that. I don’t want to put words in his mouth.

“Rick and Morty” was renewed for 70 additional episodes after three seasons. In all likelihood that translates into an order for another 7 seasons.

That’s the only example of a renewal over 2 seasons that I can think of.

Wow great example thanks! And since McMahan was involved in Rick and Morty too, maybe it’s a sign for LDS! ;D

As I recall, Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother both got 4 season renewals from CBS. I think It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia once got a 3 season renewal on FX (which was somewhat easy with 6 episode seasons).

Vince Gilligan’s new sci-fi show with Rhea Seehorn, I believe, was pretty fiercely negotiated over and is launching with a 2 season order and a Game of Thrones level budget.

Picard, of course, got a 2 season order after season 1.

LOST (2004-10) got decided on in Season 3 I believe when the producers specifically said they now planned to end the show in Season 6. So greenlighting 3 seasons. I’m not sure if that was ever truly locked down though. I think the show probably would have carried on or spun off if the viewer figures stayed very strong to the end, which didn’t happen so the producers just stuck to their Season 3 plan near the end.

That’s the weird part. Looking at this show and comparing it to his work on Rick & Morty I’m just floored at how his comedic flair just went right down the tubes. I can only think of a couple of likely reasons for this. 1. He was never all that responsible for writing on Rick & Morty to begin with. He was an assistant writer. It’s possible his contributions were not in the joke writing department but more in the storyline department. 2. He was such a fan of Trek… So reverential that he just couldn’t bring himself to write any kind of biting high end “adult” comedy on his Star Trek comedy. Or allow any writer to, either.

To be fair, I’ve never seen Solar Opposites. So I have no idea if that was funny or not.

Honestly there is no way of knowing for sure what is “successful” and what isn’t as P+ never announces any specific numbers. Maybe it is. Maybe not. The last they mentioned about that was last year when they claimed Star Trek Discovery was still the most watched Trek show. Of course, I still consider that a big fish in a small pond kind of thing because that show hasn’t garnered any kind of inclusion in the popular zeitgeist. At all.

I’m sure it will but I’ve found that apart from this site it’s really not getting a lot of raves.

I’ll only say I dislike the short length of the episodes for animation.
I really like Star Wars The Clone Wars for example (it’s some absolutely top tier stuff IMO) but I just wish they’d at least make some of the episodes ‘a bit longer’. Disney have I think been starting to get more ambitious occasionally with the newer episodes, such as I watched the bad batch and they started with a 50 minute episodes or something which is heaven lol. Be good to see the occasional more ambitious episodes (for trek) or perhaps they can create occasional movies based off the show.

It’s such a good show. Goofy, clever, reverent and irreverent all at once, with surprisingly good character work. So much of what’s been done with the four main characters from season 1 to now has been believable, methodical and well-thought out. Mariner’s self-realization and the sweet application of Bold Boimler this week really worked.

I admit evil AI and ships coming in to save the day as the Cerritos is about to be destroyed are a little played out, but the show has always been about this ship being a lovable underdog powered by lovable underdogs.

I was so wary about what a new animated Star Trek would be like, but that was totally unfounded.

Where was the evil clone of Boimler? Did he just go to Section 31 and that’s the last we saw of him, or maybe next season?

Anyway, great episode.

I’m pretty sure the Section 31 Boimler story line will be back next season. They built it up so much in that episode, it’s obvious its going to have its own story.

Prediction: William Boimler grows a stylish goatee and utters the phrase “this ship was built to fight” while on the Section 31 Defiant class ship ;)

Post credit scene….
Captain, we’ve located an intact storage device.
Great, throw a tractor beam on it and bring it aboard.
(a short time later, in a cargo hold)
Here it is, captain.
What the hell is this? We were looking for a lost transporter buffer…
(Enterprise warps out, fade to black)

When I saw Mariner stealing the idol I immediateky thought “Raiders of the Lost Quark”

No you didn’t.

So Buenamigo went from Lt. Commander to Vice Admiral in…what? I’m assuming Rutherford isn’t that old, and his accident was only a few years earlier, right?

Well, if he got promoted to Commander the next day, and got promoted to Vice Admiral the day before we first met him…that’s still three grades in about three years.

But then Janeway somehow went straight from Captain to Vice Admiral.

The flashbacks have the TNG-style combadge, so the latest the flashback could have been from is 2370, 11 years before “The Stars at Night”. Taken at face value, that likely makes Rutherford in his late twenties to early thirties if we assume the accident happened when he was around college age.

Hmm, so Rutherford is probably as many as ten years older than Boimler and Tendi. Tendi is, I think, right out of the academy, and Boimler may be a bit older than that. Mariner of course has so much under her belt that she might be in her late 20’s herself.

I imagine eleven years is more than enough to get promoted that far, especially if Buenamigo had his big project as a supposed success.

I suppose another question would be why Rutherford is still an ensign. Maybe engineers get promoted slower than command-track officers. (E.g., obviously, Harry Kim.) Or maybe Rutherford’s injury and rehab set him back a bunch.

Thanks!

Perhaps Rutherford is fresher out of the academy both because of the injury and because pre-implant he might have had less interest in succeeding in Starfleet, just building cool ships and partying. So he might have joined late and had middling grades that held him back.

He’s one where it would be interesting to meet some of his family one day to get some insights. The show has focused on how sweet this version of him is now, but if he had immediate family at the time of the accident, imagine what his personality transplant might have been like for them.

Finally a Starbase battle (though Douglas’ part was kinda underwhelming)..!

Predictable end to a terrible season. This was also probably the least entertaining season of the three. Season 2 at least had a single GOOD episode. Not so this one.

So let’s review the problems.

No funny gags.
Rarely clever.
Unlikable/awful people as main characters
Really bad casting.
Predictable dull writing.

One thing that wasn’t predictable… No clifhanger. So thank you for that.