Star Trek Social Club

What’s your eulogy for Lower Decks?

Here’s mine: I wasn’t sure about Lower Decks for a well - I’d never been into the adult animation genre, and when I first heard of it, I had initially seen it as the wrong direction for Star Trek.

Finally, in late 2023, I watched it for the first time and was surprised to enjoy it.

Then came the crazy month of March 2024. I got rejected from all my dream schools, putting me in a sullen mood. I returned to the show and suddenly started resonating with Boimler as someone who had ambitions - some naive, some not - that weren’t always fulfilled, while I found the Cerritos to be kind of an analogue to the state school I would end up at.

Then, at the end of that month, a close family member shared their advanced pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and they passed a month after. That was when my attachment to Lower Decks solidified - I turned to it as a comfort show and really started to appreciate it. I think I’ve rewatched it twice since then - one randomly in the summer, and one to refresh my memory for the final season that began while I was doing the (mediocre) paint job for a 3D-printed combadge for a costume:

Overall, it’s probably my second favorite show in the franchise at this point, only behind DS9. I’m sure I’ll rewatch it plenty times more, though maybe a bit more sparingly - just one more this year to cope with the emptiness of no more new episodes. 🤭

Lower Decks! Lower Decks!

In comparison to many other series that have come in this era (because we all love to compare!), the stakes are as profound as any that we’ve seen, but with a particular character driven twist that I hope will surprise and delight people who watch the movie.

Direct YouTube link, if that's more to your liking.

The title plays off Star Trek: The Next Generation, which succeeded TOS in 1987 - the last time that label was used being in PIC Season 3’s opener, “The Next Generation”, with its finale, “The Last Generation”, evoking that as well. Of course, by episode’s end, we see the aptness of the title as a torch is passed for a new frontier.

Relga’s lapdog is likely just a toy breed of targ. I originally thought it might be a variant of the Alfa 177 canine first seen in TOS: “The Enemy Within” as it appears to have the same unicorn horn but it's the wrong color and the Alfa 177 dog has antennae and no tusks.

As mentioned last episode, a soliton wave in Star Trek is a faster-than-light wave that was thought to have practical applications in warp propulsion or faster than light communications (TNG: “New Ground”), but was also potentially destructive.

As the wave hits the ships, a Klingon is transformed into a DIS-style Klingon, specifically the alien design and white costume of L’Rell in Season 1. An external shot also shows the ship (the Krtas) transformed into a DIS-style Bird of Prey before it collides with another K’Vort-type and is destroyed.

Honus (last seen in LD: “Caves”) is tending bar. T’Ana suggests Sexy Treasure Island to Shaxs, another in their series of erotic holoprograms (they had a black-and-white Bonnie and Clyde one in LD: “Room for Growth” and a Robin Hood one in LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”).

This unnamed cadet is a different one from the younger one we last saw in LD: “Upper Decks”. He’s also wearing glasses, which might indicate he is allergic, like Jim Kirk, to Retinax 5 (ST II).

I honestly don’t know if T’Lyn and Tendi are messing with Mariner or not, but I will dutifully file away that half of all bopples are corbed, and corbopples are foundational elements of artificial gravity. Artificial gravity systems generally rely on generated graviton fields (TNG Technical Manual) and gravity plating.

A Bramble is an actual cocktail, consisting of dry gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, crème de mûre, crushed ice and finished off with fresh red fruits and a slice of lemon.

In the real world, Boimler and Mariner’s account would sound insane, but this is Starfleet. As Janeway said in VOY: “Deadlock”, “Weird is part of the job.”

This is Ma’ah’s cargo freighter (last seen in LD: “A Farewell to Farms”), instantly recognizable with its brush devil tusks decorating the bow.

Relga’s brothers are revealed to be Bargh and Dorg, the latter being Ma’ah’s former commander whom he killed to gain the captaincy of the IKS Che’Ta’ in LD: “wej Duj” and the former being the head of the Oversight Council who Ma’ah killed in “A Farewell to Farms”. Both deaths were justified, though, with Dorg killed in a proper captain’s challenge and Bargh in self-defense after an attempted backstab.

A Schrödinger possibility field is named after physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment involving a cat in a box whose state of life or death cannot be determined until the box is opened and the quantum wave function representing the cat collapses into one of the two possible outcomes.

Starfleet says Enterprise is en route. As of LD’s current year of 2382, this would still be the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E, since it would participate in the Battle of the Living Construct in 2384 (PRO: “Supernova”).

The alien researcher is an Ariolo, a centaur-like species that first appeared in ST IV and has made multiple background appearances in LD.

We see Ensign Meredith (last seen in LD: “Upper Decks”) and Ensign Olly (last seen in LD: “Of Gods and Angles”).

“[Mariner] is my cha’DIch’s cha’Dich”, says Malor. A cha’DIch is the title for a Klingon’s “second”, which also holds implications of mentorship.

Carol Freeman’s husband is Admiral Alonzo Freeman, who was on the conference call briefing Cerritos on her mission. petaQ can be translated as “weirdo”. Hu’tegh (untranslated) is a general invective in Klingon.

Boims using the ship’s shields to nudge one BoP into another is actually a pretty cool maneuver.

The first wave turns Cerritos into a Freedom-class, a kit-bash that appeared as part of the wreckage of the Battle of Wolf 359 (TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II”).

Freeman brings up an interesting point about warping with one nacelle. Traditionally, two nacelles create two balanced, interacting warp fields which can be shaped to maneuver the ship. According to the TNG Tech Manual, experiments in 2269 confirmed that two was the optimum number for power generation and vehicle control. As Tendi says, one nacelle for warp is still possible…but we don’t have time to nerd out about this now.

The Klingon BoP is turned into an ancient Klingon sailing barge, a mythical version of one ferrying dishonored Klingon souls to Gre’thor, the Klingon equivalent of the Norse Hel (VOY: “Barge of the Dead”), as opposed to Sto’vo’kor, the Klingon Valhalla.

Matt and Kimolu, the Cetacean Ops beluga whales, were last seen in LD: “Starbase 80?!”

The next wave turns Cerritos into a Terran Empire variant of the California-class. The Terran Empire is of course from the oft-encountered Mirror Universe (TOS: “Mirror Mirror”, et al.), which we last saw in PRO: “Cracked Mirror”.

Ensign Olly, being a descendant of Zeus (or the alien the Ancient Greeks called Zeus as per TOS: “Who Mourns for Adonais?”), has lightning powers which I hope she finally sees actually are useful.

The proto-Klingons Relga and her crew are turned into resemble to a large degree the same form Worf devolved into in TNG: “Genesis” when affected by Barclay’s Protomorphosis Syndrome.

The next wave turns Cerritos into a Sovereign-class, like Enterprise-E, including of course the bridge design (First Contact), then an Oberth-class (ST III), Galaxy-class (TNG), Miranda-class (ST II), and back to California-class.

The engineer to observe Rutherford’s speed is his nemesis/rival Livik, last seen in LD: “Starbase 80?!”

Cerritos splitting into two quantum possibilities is similar to what happened to Voyager in VOY: “Deadlock”, where a subspace divergent field duplicated the ship and personnel.

Next to Ma’ah on his new bridge are Malor, together with the pet targ that Ma’ah inherited from Dorg (LD: “wej Duj”), and K’Ellara, his would be paramour from LD: “A Farewell to Farms” (voiced by Mary Chieffo in that episode).

Starbase 80’s systems, as stated in the titular episode, hadn’t been updated since the 2260s, which makes it ideal for guarding the newly created quantum portal, much like DS9 guarded the Bajoran wormhole or Jurati’s Borg fleet guards the mysterious fissure of PIC Season 2. Kassia was also last seen in that episode. We see that Anximander and her crew (LD: “Fissure Quest”) made it.

I won’t bother identifying all the personnel shown in the final montage, just point out a few notable things.

Olly is showing off her Kamehameha move in her bunk. One of the players in the poker game is wearing a Zebulon Sisters Chu Chu Dance shirt. The Sisters performed on Cerritos in LD: “Terminal Provocations” but were later banned from performing on active duty starships by Admiral Jellico (LD: “Grounded”).

In engineering, Livek and Meredith are working on what seems to be an even more improved version of the Billups Tubes from LD: “I Have No Bones and I Must Flee”. The Billups Tubes were an “improved” version of the Tucker Tubes (Modern Props 195-290-1, also known as “The Most Important Device in the Universe”, a common sci-fi prop seen in many movies and shows).

In case anyone doesn’t know, that isn’t Badgey, but Goodgey, his good twin (LD: “A Few Badgeys More”), who remained on Cerritos when Badget ascended. Speaking of which, the person being ejected from the portal in Sickbay is O’Connor, who we last saw ascending to a higher plane in LD: “Moist Vessel”. Guess it didn’t take.

“Twaining” is a form of dispute resolution that involves dressing up like Mark Twain in a riverboat holoprogram, last seen in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”. We see another one of Castro’s salons (LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing”) but this time they’re lighting a plasma candle - one of which housed the infamous anaphasic “ghost” of TNG: “Sub Rosa”. Which also makes their cheering a bit suspect.

Shaxs always wants to detonate the warp core, but Freeman only allowed it in LD: “The Stars At Night”, which brought him to tears.

And so, farewell Lower Decks, for now. It’s been a gas.

• The episode title may be a reference to the 1999 film, ”Galaxy Quest”, which satirizes Star Trek, and Trekkies.

• We learn that Rutherford’s cybernetic implant is called an oculus, which is a Latin word meaning ”eye.”

    • This is the second time this season Rutherford has been attempting to get his implant to reconnect to the USS Cerritos’ systems, the first being in “Shades of Green”.

    • We also learn that oculus can fire directed beams of plasma, which isn’t really a canon connection, but does renew my long held desire for a Star Trek fighting video game.

• Against all odds, Boimler’s ongoing facial hair storyline, the A-plot of the season, seems to have culminated in his growing a full beard, resembling that of Beardler, as seen in “Dos Cerritos”. Good for him.

• ”This is our last Boimler; we don’t got anymore after this.” Boimler learned his transporter duplicate, William Boimler, died in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”. Of course, at the end of that episode, we the audience learned that William’s death was faked so he could join Section 31.

    • T’Lyn was not previously aware of Boimler’s duplication, conveniently allowing Tendi to recount the events of “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

• ”Shaxs exploded, and he’s doing great.” Shaxs sacrificed himself to save the Cerritos and Rutherford in “No Small Parts”, and returned to active duty in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• In another quantum reality, we see that William is the captain of a Defiant-class Anaximander, presumably named for the Greek philosopher who speculated on the existence of multiple realities.

    • Mariner promised Boimler, ”We’re going to get your butt in a captain’s chair!” in “Second Contact”. That was before the transporter duplication, so it became true for at least one Boimler. Granted, Mariner’s direct involvement in William’s career was fairly minimal.

    • William wears a *”Star Trek: First Contact” uniform, with the conspicuous black Section 31 badge he received in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”.

    • William is able to maintain a 5 o’clock shadow, though presumably that’s because he’s haunted by the actions he’s undertaken as a Section 31 operative, and not because he found an alternate reality where a very successful version of himself wears that facial hair style.

• The MSD of the Anaximander is…interesting to say the least. The Defiant-class has been shown to have four decks, and this MSD has at least double that, and the shuttlebay appears to be in the nose assembly, where the deflector dish, docking port, and phaser emitter usually are.

• The crew of the Anaximander is comprised of different individuals each from a distinct quantum reality, including:

    • T’Pol, portrayed by Jolene - This T’Pol comes from a reality where she and Trip Tucker were married for 63 years.

    • Curzon Dax, portrayed by Fred Tatasciore - Native to a reality where Curzon Dax hasn’t yet died. Also, appears to be more physically aggressive than the more libertine prime reality version described by both Captain Sisko and Jadzia Dax.

    • Doctor Garak, portrayed by Andrew Robinson - Garak apparently joined Starfleet to become a plain, simple surgeon.

      • Doctor Garak wears the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform with a bright blue undershirt, similar to what we’ve seen previously on LDS. He is a lieutenant.

    • The Emergency Bashir Hologram, portrayed by Alexander Siddig - From a reality where an emergency medical hologram was modelled on Doctor Bashir.

      • The EBH wears the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform with dark teal undershirt matching the live action version we’ve seen previously, and has lieutenant junior grade pips. In the prime reality, the Doctor never got pips or a rank, outside of one deception and his fantasies.

      • Doctor Bashir was a candidate for the model for the long-term medical hologram in “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”, before it was revealed he was genetically augmented as a child.

    • Harrys Kim, portrayed by Garrett Wang - So many Harrys Kim.

      • The Harrys Kim wear the DS9/VOY uniform, the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform, and one is in the racing uniform introduced in “Drive”, and is clearly the cool bad boy of the group.

• Doctor Garak and the EBH are married. Good for them.

• William records the Stardate as ”Confidential” in his captain’s log.

• The Anaximander locates a Federation escape vessel, and William speculates as to who might be aboard. ”Neelix with a crew cut? Really big Spock?” “A Comprehensive Guide to Talaxian Hairstyles” was a book mentioned in the DIS episode, “Labyrinths”, and a giant clone of Spock was introduced in “The Infinite Vulcan”.

    • The occupant is another Harry Kim, who has some sweet corn on his collar, making him appear to be a lieutenant.

• Curzon slips Klingon words into his sentences, and wields a bat’leth. Prime universe Curzon was a Federation negotiator to the Klingon Empire, and joined in a blood oath with three Klingon Dahar masters.

• ”I’m so sick of the fucking multiverse.” The only entertainment available aboard the Anaximander is an archive of early 21st century superhero films.

• ”Lovers never fall out of the rifts for Curzon!” Prime reality Curzon Dax died mid coitus on Risa, as we learned in “Let He Who Is Without Sin”.

• As the Anaximander is repairing a rift, a type-7 shuttlecraft comes through in critical condition. When the occupant is beamed aboard it’s Mariner in a operations division LDS uniform, with ensign pips.

    • We previously saw prime universe Mariner wearing operations gold in “Moist Vessel,” though she was briefly promoted to lieutenant at the time.

• In Mariner Gold’s universe, it was Troi who was transporter duplicated and stranded on a planet, and not Riker.

• In the Mariner Gold universe, Boimler wears a leather jacket at all times. Prime universe Boimler replicated a jacket that was half leather, half letterman, all, ”boy’s size small.”

• ”What’s it like having your own quarters?” The Harrys Kim interrogate two-pip Kim about his life. Prime universe Harry had his own quarters aboard the “USS Voyager” despite being an ensign, and was also a member of the senior staff.

• ”Y’know, between all the Borg infiltrations and aliens trying to steal our organs, it didn’t seem like that big a deal.” Borg infiltrated Voyager in “Scorpion”, and the Vidiians tried to harvest the crew in “Phage”, “Faces”, “Deadlock”, and “Resolutions”.

    • It seemed like it might have been a big deal to prime Harry, who lamented not getting promoted when Tom Paris was in “Unimatrix Zero”.

    • Garrett Wang has said that he was told the reason Harry was never promoted was ”Someone’s got to be the ensign.”

• ”I know that you carry the Dax symbiont, which must be protected for its next host, of which there is none on the Anaximander*.”* In “The Host”, Riker was able to carry the Odan symbiont for a number of days until a Trill could be found, and we learned in “Forget Me Not” that a symbiont can bond with a human permanently.

• Mariner Gold is able to devise a plan to have the next rift opened by the people opening them appear where the Anaximander wants it to, resulting in the Beagle arriving in the same system.

    • The Beagle appears to have been based on the UCC Enterprise XCV-330, paintings of which were seen in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, “First Flight” and “Home”, and a model of which was displayed in “Star Trek Into Darkness”.

• The EBH claims that in his reality Risa ”has an entire moon devoted to growing heirloom grapes,” and Doctor Garak counters claiming his Risa ”has two vineyard moons.” In the prime reality, Risa has two moons, total, though there’s little information regarding how much viticulture is performed on either one.

    • ”You will once you taste their reds.” Apparently the EBH has a sense of taste.

• ”Oh, he’s a big Starfleet nerd, like Archer. You had one of those, right?” T’Pol confirms that she knew an Archer in her reality

• The Anaximander is able to land on the surface of Khwopa. This is the first time we’ve seen a Defiant-class ship land on a planet.

    • The turbolift shaft is able to be extended from the underside of the Anaximander to allow people to disembark.

• Mariner Gold complains about bog planets being wet and cold, echoing prime Mariner’s sentiments when she visited Khwopa in “Much Ado About Boimler”.

• ”At least they aren’t trying to drink our bones.” Moopsey!

• ”I’ve never been in a prison before, it’s kinda freaking me out.” Prime universe Mariner has:

    • Spent a significant amount of time in the brig aboard the Cerritos, and apparently other ships as well

    • Been imprisoned by the Galrakians in “Temporal Edict”

    • Assumed an alien party venue was a prison she was in in “Veritas”

    • Spent months in prison on Dilmer III in “Fully Dilated”

• The captain of the Beagle is Lily Sloane! From Star Trek! More accurately, an alternate version of Lily from a reality where she and Zephram Cochrane built a quantum reality drive as opposed to warp. Lily is portrayed by Alfre Woodard.

    • Captain Lily is wearing an ENT era uniform.

• Doctor Garak is able to retrieve a mobile emitter for the EBH.

• ”I don’t know what a warp drive is…” Captain Lily’s crew has Vulcans as well as humans, which raises the question of how she could be ignorant to the existence of warp, unless the Vulcans in her universe call it something else or are keeping it secret because humans have not achieved warp capability.

• ”You’d love to rub that in my face, wouldn’t you, Vulcan?”
”I would not.”
Vulcans lie all the time.

• T’Pol absorbs the Dax symbiont’s katra so it can be returned to Curzon’s reality. We’ve previously seen that a katra can be passed on from one person to another, such as McCoy hosting Spock’s memories in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan” and “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”, or Archer carrying Surak’s katra in “The Forge”, “Awakening”, and “Kir’Shara”. Similarly, a Trill host’s memories can be transferred to another being via the zhian’tara ritual, as depicted in “Facets”, “Choose to Live”, and “Jinaal”.

• ”Soliton waves will spread across all quantum realities!” Soliton waves were explored as a potential form of transportation in the TNG episode “New Ground”, but the experiment resulted in a wave that was going to destroy an inhabited world before the USS Enterprise D crew was able to devise a solution.

I think this is a transcription of the podcast that was shared here last week.

This game came out in 2021 as an Apple Arcade exclusive, which means I have not played it, and quickly forgot it existed.

It's a mobile game, so adjust your expectations accordingly, but this review caught my eye, as this game apparently has no time gates or microtransactions (or, at least it didn't three years ago).

It apparently came out on Steam in June, and there's a free demo there that I might check out.

Details are weirdly hard to come by, but it looks like it will launch on Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox later this month.

Has anyone played this thing? Is it worth your time and money?

The way The Doctor is able to change appearance so quickly, jump through glass panes and that hallway wall running, scream Matrix to me.

Not your average average Starfleet officer! I'm beaming in to the first season of @StarTrek: Starfleet Academy on @ParamountPlus.

Biggest take away: Wang was cast in Picard season 3, promoted to admiral, and over time cut out before production.

The title refers to the transdimensional fissures that Cerritos has been dealing with in this season.

Raktajino is “Klingon Coffee”, although in truth its history is a bit more complicated. In short, raktajino is a Federation version of ra’taj (Klingon coffee with liquor) with added nutlike flavoring (making it raktaj) and cream, creating a portmanteau of “raktaj” and “cappuccino”: raktajino. A fuller explanation can be found here. As a side note, the Klingons got coffee from raiding human ships, and both developed a taste for it and started growing it themselves on Qo’noS.

Mariner and Boimler are drinking from Highwave Hotjo 14 oz. travel mugs, which were used as props on DS9. Boimler’s full beard has finally grown in, mutton chops and all.

Boimler was transporter cloned by accident in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”, with the clone taking the name William Boimler, taking Bradward’s place on the USS Titan. William was apparently killed by a neurocine gas leak in LD: “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”, but that was a cover for his recruitment by Section 31.

Oddly enough, Section 31 - the rogue covert intelligence organization that does (officially) unsanctioned ops in the name of preserving the Federation, first mentioned in DS9: “Inquisition - is never mentioned in the episode. However, William is wearing a Section 31 combadge (first seen in DIS: “Point of Light”).

Shax died in LD: “No Small Parts”, but reappeared with only vague allusions to dark truths about scientific depravity and the afterlife in LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

William’s command, the Defiant-class USS Anaximander, escapes Quantum Reality 582.76-Φ. With him are alternate universe counterparts of characters we know. Anaximander (c.610 to c.546 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Thales, who subscribed to the notion the the universe arose from a boundless ultimate reality, the apeiron.

The Anaximander name was given to a Ptolemy-class transport tug (NCC-3804) in Franz Joseph’s 1975 Star Fleet Technical Manual.

In our reality, T’Pol (voiced by original actor Jolene Blalock) was Archer’s first officer on the NX-01 Enterprise, from ENT, who had a relationship with Chief Engineer Trip Tucker . Curzon was the Trill Dax host immediately before Jadzia, from DS9.

Garak (voiced by original actor Andrew Robinson) was the tailor/spy exiled to DS9, and given his thinly veiled relationship with Dr Julian Bashir (voiced by original actor Alexander Siddig), it’s appropriate his counterpart is married to an EMH based on Bashir. In the Prime universe, the Mark II EMH was supposed to be modeled on Bashir until his secret as an Augment was revealed (DS9: “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”). The EMH Bashir uses a mobile emitter like the Prime universe’s Doctor EMH (obtained in VOY: “Future’s End”).

There is a fan fiction script by Ellie K-E/@almaasi, “Little Achivements”, a dialogue between Garak and Bashir 20 years after the events of DS9, which depicts them as being married, and notable for having been performed by Robinson and Siddig. It’s sweet. You should go see.

As a side note, a team made up of alternate reality counterparts was also the basis of the 2000s Marvel comic Exiles.

Neelix was the cook/morale officer on the USS Voyager during most of her time in the Delta Quadrant. A “really big Spock”, a giant clone, was seen in TAS: “The Infinite Vulcan” and its skeleton displayed as part of a collection in LD: “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

William is understandably jaded by all the variations on a theme he’s seen (he does a Picard face-cover meme gesture at one point). This is a meta commentary on not just how the multiverse has been treated in Star Trek (Mirror Universe, Kelvin Timeline, et al.) but how multiverses have been treated - especially recently in the MCU - in popular culture in general.

Harry Kim (voiced by original actor Garrett Wang) was the Operations Officer on Voyager, who famously was never promoted from Ensign in its entire seven-year run. The one just beamed on board wears lieutenant’s pips, though. Harry is treated better in the beta canon, with the IDW comic and the post-“Endgame” novels promoting him to a full Lieutenant and Star Trek Online making him a Captain.

The black and white outfit with red piping worn by one of the Kims is a Starfleet racing uniform seen in VOY: “Drive”.

Curzon was known for his close relationships with Klingons and his love of Klingon culture, explaining his skill with a bat’leth.

The uniform variations seen on the Harrys are the First Contact-era uniforms, the original Voyager uniforms and the aforementioned racing uniform. They all seem to be wearing the DS9 and VOY-era combadges. One Harry is playing the clarinet, as does his Prime counterpart.

Julian Bashir and Miles O’Brien went from being rivals to best friends on DS9, who played various sports together, darts and racquetball being most prominent.

Alt-Mariner says her Troi (presumably Deanna Troi) was transporter cloned and stranded on a planet for years, like William Riker’s transporter clone Thomas (TNG: “Second Chances”). Her Boimler wears a leather jacket all the time, perhaps like the one Prime Boimler wore in LD: “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”.

Voyager did have more than her fair share of Borg infiltrations. The aliens trying to steal organs are a reference to the Viidians (VOY: “Phage” et al.).

Two-Pip Kim complains that everyone gets promoted before ops because no one knows what they do. To be fair, Ops is a rather vague description. According to the Star Trek TNG Technical Manual, Operations Management Officers coordinate activities and mission goals between departments, prioritizing and resolving conflicting demands on ships resources. They also allocate power during crisis situations, routes information to specific departments and the ship’s computer and monitor incoming and shipboard communications.

Alt-T’Pol says she “was” married to a human for 63 years, which suggests that Alt-Trip is now dead in her reality (he would be 261 years old if still alive, which is not likely for a human, even in the 24th Century). In the Prime reality, Trip ostensibly died in 2161 (ENT: “These Are the Voyages”), and he and T’Pol never married. However, the novels retconned this death, and it is a testament to how universally hated Trip’s death was that it’s one of the few retcons about which I have never heard anyone complain about.

petaQ is a Klingon epithet which can be translated as “weirdo”.

The ship flying out of the rift reminds me of the XCV-330 Enteprise from the 22nd Century, first seen as part of the Enterprise lineage of ships in a painting in TMP. It is based on an early Matt Jeffries design concept for Enterprise from 1964. The ring structure might be a coleopteric warp drive which the XCV-330 used, also used by Vulcan starships.

biHnuch means “coward”, first appearing in TNG: “Sins of the Father” and then in LD: “The Least Dangerous Game” as part of the name of the tabletop RPG the Lower Deckers play, Bat’leths & BiHnuchs.

The appearance of the Khwopian and the bog environment tells us that they’ve landed on a version of the planet Khwopa (LD: “Much Ado About Boimler”), on which Cerritos helped repair a water filtration system.

Alt-Curzon mentioning drinking bones is a reference to moopsies, otherwise cute looking animals who do just that (LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”).

The woman in an ENT-era jumpsuit (but with a different shoulder patch) is an alternate of Lily Sloane (voiced by original actor Alfre Woodward), an associate of Zefram Cochrane in the mid-21st Century (First Contact).

Alt-Garak is not “just” a surgeon, in the same way Prime Garak is not “just” a “simple tailor”.

Alt-Lily’s ethical boundaries against contacting species who can’t cross realities on their own is similar to how Starfleet’s Prime Directive uses warp drive as a guide as to whether a civilization is ready for First Contact.

Alt-Lily’s ship is called the Beagle, probably named after Charles Darwin’s HMS Beagle, an early ship of exploration. As a Star Trek related cut, the merchant ship SS Beagle was involved in the events of TOS: “Bread and Circuses”. An even deeper cut is that A.E. Van Vogt’s 1950 SF novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle is sometimes cited as a proto-Star Trek type story.

So the final villain this season is Two-Pip Kim, which in a meta way is appropriate since last season’s big bad was Nick Locarno, who totally does not look like Harry’s best friend Tom Paris.

A “micro warp jump”, a jump over much shorter distances than usual, was the basis of the Picard Maneuver (TNG: “The Battle”).

Alt-T’Pol’s transferring Alt-Dax’s memories to herself is like the reverse of what Spock did to McCoy when he transferred his katra in ST II.

A soliton wave in a Star Trek context is a faster-than-light wave that was thought to have practical applications in warp propulsion or faster than light communications (TNG: “New Ground”), but was also potentially destructive.

The first time “To Be Continued…” was used on LD was at the end of LD: “First First Contact”.

Logline

Fissures must be closed before they get inflamed.

---

Written by: Lauren McGuire

Directed by: Brandon Williams

The Tholians are going to be joining the Gorn for the Final Frontier edition of the game.

There are two previews of what to expect:
https://gamefound.com/en/projects/gf9/star-trek-ascendancy/updates/5
https://gamefound.com/en/projects/gf9/star-trek-ascendancy/updates/6

• The episode title is a play on the TNG season episode, “Lower Decks”, which also served as the inspiration for the name of this series.

• Boimler’s beard has progressed to the point where his moustache and goatee have connected.

    • Rutherford appears to have shaved off his beard, perhaps indicating that after the previous episode’s michelada incident, he’s no longer trying to emulate Beardler.

• Halloween has previously been mentioned in:

    • “Catspaw” - Bones compared the situation he, Kirk, and Spock found themselves in to the holiday

    • “The Big Goodbye” - A holodeck character insulted Captain Picard by claiming his uniform made him *”ready for Halloween.”

    • “Crisis Point” - We learned that Mariner dressed up as Toby the Targ for Halloween on multiple occasions.

    • “Those Old Scientists” - We learned that Boimler dressed as Pike for Halloween on the USS Cerritos

    • Additionally the USS Discovery’s registry number, NCC-1031, is a reference to the date Halloween falls on

• Mariner claims she was ”trapped in a painting,” but describes the situation more as being trapped in a holoprogram, a more common experience on Trek.

• V’Ger appeared in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”.

• It’s Steve Stevens! From Star Trek! Stevens is voiced by Ben Rodgers, former story editor and writer on the series.

    • We haven’t seen Stevens since season four’s “Empathological Fallacies”, and he hasn’t had any dialogue since season three’s “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”.

    • This is the first episode where we get some insight into Stevens’ role on the ship as Cap’n Freeman’s personal assistant.

• A pathogen caused ensign Barnes devolved into a cavewoman, not unlike what happened to Riker in “Genesis”, while simultaneously developing the ability to read minds, similar to Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, or Charlie Evans in “Charlie X”.

• ”The who?” Freeman previously acquired a star chart of the neutral zone from the Clickets before upsetting them with her courtesy in “Veritas”

• ”My team refreshed all the Cordry rocks in the ceiling panels on the bridge.” We get a technobabble explanation for the debris that occasionally falls from the bridge ceiling when the ship is hit by an attack, such as in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”.

    • The Cordry rocks may have been named for Marian Cordry, the director of Paramount’s Star Trek franchise library and archive.

• ”Well, they look like cows to me.” Ransom has never seen a cow.

• The researcher/Clicket infiltrator Zurkel is played by Paul F. Thompkins, who also voices Doctor Migleemo.

• The ensigns trying to wrangle the buhgoon are from both beta and delta shift, calling into question how the shift system works entirely.

    • This is the first time we’ve seen Federov wearing more than a towel.

• The buhgoon have a natural cloaking ability. Other living beings with the ability to cloak include:

    • Beings infected by the Tarchanne parasite - “Identity Crisis”

    • The beast captains Picard and Dathon confronted - “Darmok”

    • The hunters from Yautja Prime - “Family”

    • Jem’Hadar - “The Jem’Hadar”

    • Tosk - “Captive Pursuit”

• Ransom begins his story with, ”Back a few hundred stardates ago.” A hundred stardates is roughly 36.5 days in 100 stardates, Ransom is talking about a matter of months.

• Tempassa was mentioned in “Ties of Blood and Water” as the location of a raid by the Shakaar resistance cell. Shaxs was established as having been part of that cell in “Hear All, Trust Nothing”.

• Shaxs has a Bajoran flag, as seen in “The Star Gazer” in his quarters.

• Billups mentions having had a bagel and it giving him an upset stomach in his logs. In “Starbase 80?!” it was established that Billups is branching out from only eating hot cereals.

• In “Twovix” Westlake had commander pips after being restored to his original form, yet here he’s back to being a lieutenant. Perhaps it was just a piece of sweet corn?

• ”We’re good to go the next time some virus makes everyone sing or whatever.” Sadly we haven’t seen any singing viruses on Star Trek. Nurse Westlake’s hyposprays would not do much in the case of a quantum probability field, like the one in “Subspace Rhapsody”.

• Feeman tells the pregnant crewperson she wasn’t aware they weren’t human. There are a number of species outwardly indistinguishable from humans. The non-extinct, non-shapeshifting ones include:

    • Earth Two natives - “Miri”

    • Betans - “The Return of the Archons”

    • Eminian - “A Taste of Armageddon”

    • Capallans - “Friday’s Child” - While human in appearance, all Capallans were notably tall and large

    • Argelians - “Wolf in the Fold”

    • 829-IV natives - “Bread and Circuses”

    • Neural natives - “A Private Little War”

    • Iotians - “A Piece of the Action”

    • Ekosians - “Patterns of Force”

    • Zeons - “Patterns of Force”

    • Kohms and Yangs - “The Omega Glory”

    • Elasian - “Elaan of Troyius”

    • Morg and Eyemorg - “Spock’s Brain”

    • Minarans - “The Empath”

    • Fabrini - “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”

    • Platonians - “Plato’s Stepchildren”

    • Scalosians - “Wink of an Eye” - While outwardly indistinguishable from humans, they do move too fast to be seen by humans

    • Gideons - “The Mark of Gideon”

    • Ardanans - “The Cloud Minders”

    • Sarpedion natives - “All Our Yesterdays”

    • Deltan - “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” - All Deltans are bald and are considered to be conventionally attractive by human standards

    • Bandi - “Encounter at Farpoint”

    • Betazoids - “Encounter at Farpoint” - Betazoids have all black eyes

    • Ligonian - “Code of Honor”

    • Edo - “Justice”

    • Tarellians - “Haven”

    • Angel One natives - “Angel One”

    • Mordanites - “Too Short a Season”

    • Aldeans - “When the Bough Breaks”

    • El-Aurian - “The Child”

    • Omega Sagitta system natives - “The Outrageous Okona”

    • Ramatasian - “As Loud As A Whisper”

    • Angosians - “The Hunted”

    • Rutians - “The High Ground” - Two-tone hair seems to be a species trait, and colours appear to depend on gender

    • Ventaxians - “Devil’s Due”

    • Yedera Prime natives - “Shadowplay”

    • Sikarians - “Prime Factors”

    • Teplans - “The Quickening”

    • Takarians - “False Profits”

    • Vori - “Nemesis”

    • Mari - “Random Thoughts”

    • Dinali - “Critical Care”

    • Ba’ku - “Star Trek: Insurrection”

    • Toroth system natives - “Desert Crossing”

    • Illyrian - “Damage” - Illyrian appearances vary depending on their genetic modifications, but most of the ones we see on SNW appear indistinguishable from humans

    • Kwejian - “That Hope is You, Part 1” - Their foreheads do light up when using their psychic abilities

• The pregnant alien is voiced by Phil LaMarr, who also portrays Admiral Freeman, Dirk, and handful of other characters.

• ”I felt stuck out of phase, like Geordi and Ro…” Winger Bingston Jr. references the events of “The Next Phase” in his one man show.

• We previously saw this model of Clicket ship in “Veritas”.

• ”Ransom role!” Ransom has previously called out names while engaging in physical activity, specifically during the combat with Vindoor in “Temporal Edict”, he alternatingly yelled ”Kirk!” and ”Spock!” while hitting the Galrakian with double fist strikes.

• The tear in Zurkel’s disguise looks very reminiscent of torn mask worn by a Malurian disguised as an Akaali in “Civilization”. Both are on the left side of the face, and show a very alien visage beneath false, human(esque) flesh.

• ”You are the worst commander I’ve ever had in my life.” It was established in “Envoys” that Castro served on the Enterprise, though which one wasn’t specified. Still, barring time travel, that narrows it down to Riker, Data, or whomever had the position after Data.

• Billups is briefly stuck in a tube, apparently dying, in a scene inspired by Spock’s death in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”.

• The cadet who approaches Billups about a burned out indicator light previously asked Boimler for advice in “wej Duj”. He is voiced by Nolan North.

• It’s the Freemans’ anniversary, which raises the question of whether or not they got married on Halloween.

    • It appears that the holodeck location Admiral Freeman selected for their anniversary dinner is Café des Artistes, as seen in “We’ll Always Have Paris”. The chairs are different, but the balcony and the view are the same.

• ”No. I have made a joke at your expense. Boom.” The real joke here is the perpetuated myth that Vulcans never lie.