[Lower Decks Review starts at 26:09]
Anthony and Laurie start with the news about what to expect at New York Comic Con this year and the expansion of Paramount+ into Japan and Switzerland. They pivot to Jonathan Frakes’ comments about Star Trek: Discovery‘s final season having “new energy” and talk about how polarizing the show is for fans. Then it’s on to Ed Speleers’ description of filming that Picard closing scene with John de Lancie, the upcoming Strange New Worlds season 2 DVD sets, Roxann Dawson’s decision not to direct more Star Trek, and some new fine art posters coming from Vice Press.
Review time! They start with the very Short Treks episode “Worst Contact,” discussing the short itself as well as the fan reaction, then happily dig into Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ “Something Borrowed Something Green” and the fun of Trek’s very first visit to the Orion homeworld.
They wrap things up with a deep exploration of the Dauntless from author David Mack and new spider species named after the TOS crew.
Links:
Star Trek Universe NYCC Panel To Feature Advance ‘Lower Decks’ Episode Screening And “Surprises”
Paramount+ Launching In Japan In Partnership With J:COM and Wowow
Jonathan Frakes Says ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Is “Back On Track,” Likens Season 5 To ‘First Contact’
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 2 Coming To DVD, Blu-ray And 4K UHD In December
Roxann Dawson Explains Why She Turned Down Chance To Direct New Star Trek TV
Watch: Riker And Crusher Have The “Worst Contact” In ‘Star Trek: very Short Treks’ Episode 3
Book Review: ‘Star Trek: The Official Guide To The Animated Series’
Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Allegiance”
Bits:
Anthony: David Mack thread on USS Dauntless [Twitter] for upcoming Picard book “Firewall”
Laurie: Star Trek spiders [New York Times]
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Maybe for Discovery’s last season, you’ll be more honest and be explicit in naming why so many (not all) people love to tell you how much they hate it — the trifecta of misogyny, racism, and homophobia.
Will you ever report on the studio mandate to tone down the gay stuff in current Star Trek? Even though the tweet’s been deleted, the truth hasn’t changed.
I think we have definitely talked about that in other episodes, but I suspect it will come up more and more when we finally get to season 5. Not aware of any studio mandate, though… where did that come up?
It was in a now deleted tweet from Carlos Cisco. When he first posted it, I linked the tweet in a comment on Trek Movie, but my comment was never published (maybe due to comments not allowing links?).
The gist of his tweet was that the show runners (across all shows) had to fight for what little queer content they were allowed to include, and that this was coming from much higher up.
Interesting, especially given that Discover had Stamets and Culber from the very beginning, then added Adira and Gray in season 3. Bottom line, we can’t report on anything we don’t have sources for, so unless someone wanted to go on the record, there’s no way to cover it. Will keep it in mind, though, in case an opportunity arises to ask about it.
Wait that was said?
“why so many (not all) people love to tell you how much they hate it — the trifecta of misogyny, racism, and homophobia.”
I don’t like Discovery because I think it’s badly written, therefore I must be a misogynistic racist homophobe. Also that studio mandate sounds like a bunch of bull.
Let’s not get too crazy over this, but there are people who don’t like a show, and there are people who need to tell you at every single opportunity that the show is terrible and everybody else should think so too. That is what we’re talking about vs. the people who just feel it’s not something they’re interested in.
My main problem with Discovery is what seems to me incompetent storytelling. For the last two seasons we have had multiple filler episodes because the main season plot would not fill the narrative space that they laid out for it. Serial storytelling has failed Discovery.
The show blows. The irony for me is I give it a chance because I believe in it’s diversity and happy it has gay characters and women in charge. The latter is why I loved Voyager because of Janeway. I had no issues it was revealed that Seven was bisexual in Picard and was what Jeri Taylor who created the character originally wanted her to be in Voyager. They are my top 3 characters in Trek including Picard (straight white guy I know but he has the most wonderful speeches).
I don’t have a single issue with any characters in Discovery being black, gay or a woman since that literally describes one of my sisters.
The show is just a bad show with too much emo junk Frakes himself pointed out and some of the worst told stories in Trek. I still have no idea how this show even made it to 5 seasons?
If others like it, more power to them but Discovery has been mostly four seasons of dreary and inept story telling for me and counting the days to its ending.
I’ll admit, while I’ve loved Lower Decks from the beginning, I struggled with Mariner’s character until season 3. In the first two years, her hard-headedness was often the source of conflict in several episodes, and she was sometimes so openly cruel to the others (literally maiming Boimler and Rutherford once) that it could only be waived away because it was played as “humor.” But then she achieved some dimension starting last year, and now she is much more relatable.
As for Discovery, I’ve been following it from the beginning. However, it is the Trek series that I’d be least likely to recommend to casual fans who weren’t already “Disco Curious.”
First, that first season is very dark, with murders and traitors and wars. Interesting story if you’re into that thing, but not what most people find inspiring about Trek.
Second, Discovery handles the “look and feel” of Trek with all the delicacy of a lead pipe, beginning with that opening scene with the closeup shot of an unrecognizable Klingon… and then proceeding to the next scene with the heretofore unmentioned adopted sister of Spock. The production values are awesome, but often I wish they’d resist the urge to tug on loose canonical strings.
Third, the second season unfolds in a blur, while the later seasons plod along. Season 2 gave itself a hernia trying to walk back some of Season 1’s poorer plot choices (killing Culber, the bald Klingons, the whole Spock-Burnham sibling thing). Then a few years later we spent 8 episodes stressing about how “unknown” the DMA was.
Fourth, Discovery has been losing some of its best characters, specifically Tilly and Giorgiou. The entire cast is great, but Michelle Yeoh was precisely the type of disruptive influence that many of the Berman-era Trek series craved. Her absence (and Tilly’s too) contributed to Season 4’s blandness. I would rather have Yeoh back on Discovery than see a Section 32 movie, to be honest. Likewise, I’d rather have Tilly back than see her pulled away to head an academy show that few people seem to need.
Um, I think season 2 leaned into the Spock-Burnham sibling thing in a pretty major way.
Ah the franchise added an unmentioned sister of Spock. Just like they added an unmentioned father and an unmentioned mother and even an unmentioned brother! But it’s just the sister specifically that’s a problem. I see.
I remember when Final Frontier came out; the unmentioned brother was ABSOLUTELY a problem! People hated the the idea! A lot of fans, including me, haven’t warmed to that “brother” even now, 30+ years later.
As to parents, the assumption is that most everyone has parents, so no surprise there, and Spock’s were introduced in season 2 of TOS, pretty darn early in the franchise history.
But is it as big of a problem with the fandom as it is with Burnham though?
Also the point is that it’s a well established Spock trait to not talk about his family by this point. Which is something the fandom should know.
My issue with it (for what it’s worth, which is exactly nothing,) is that it feels like world-shrinking/small world syndrome. You could do absolutely everything else in S1 of Discovery with it set in, say, the early 26th century without missing a beat.
I enjoyed this episode of ST: Lower Decks so much. To me it had the most laughs yet. And I love love love all the new Orion cannon. Speaking of things I love, I love this podcast! Great job you all!
Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying the podcast. And yes, this was a great Lower Decks!
Great pod, and a great Lower Decks episode. It was this season’s funniest episode, me thinks. T’Lyn is hilarious and has become such a supportive member of the gang.
Thank you! And a resounding yes to T’Lyn.
I loved the diverse Orions, but I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see any blue or-ee-ons.
I love that there is still no real explanation for why it was pronounced that way on The Animated Series.
I enjoy this almost as much as Ensign Ro’s car-DAY-see-uns.
I still can’t figure out why they went Foghorn Leghorn with Twain, especially when you consider he was from Missouri. He didn’t have a Southern accent. Maybe just for laughs, I guess.
I have enjoyed the last couple of seasons of LD, though. It has grown on me now that they moved away from the absurd and found humor in the characters instead. They do still go a bit absurd with Mariner, though. I mean, you’re not going to be moving that arm when you get stabbed like that. I try not to take it too seriously because it is animated, but since it is canon, there should be at least some grounding of the actions in each episode.