Star Trek

With the new poster having dropped, I thought it might be fun to compile the various Lower Decks posters, along with their theatrical poster counterparts. So...why don't we do that?

Those are the most obvious ones - I know there are other pieces of Lower Decks promotional art out there, so please chime in if you recognize any that I've missed!

The episode has been posted on the official After Midnight channel:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raq300uiea8 (intro; no guests yet)

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq3cLmKeaL8

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3oRxysCoYs (+ Rebecca Romijn)

Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jt_8e4bsdM (+ Rebecca Romijn)

Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=970CAaBF0cQ

Part 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YHcWTOryFs

Part 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T60hiZIrhpM

Raise your hand if you knew the answer to the final question. 🙋‍♂️

As the title says, I'm curious if they ever named or revisited this Human civilization in the later parts of the timeline in any way? It seems like too good of an opportunity to not revisit it at some point.

My searches did not reveal any answer, so thought I'd ask my fellow trek nerds.

I just finished watching Star Trek Discovery a day or two ago and it didn't really hit me until I was reading about Calypso, but it feels like the show-runners are very pessimistic about the concept of a Federation. I am not sure if this is considered old news, but I would be interested in examining the show-runners' outlooks more closely.

While the collapse of the Federation is in a way no fault of its own (the Federation didn't cause the burn); the idea that all it would take would be a scarcity of gas to break up the interplanetary union feels counter to the original ideals of Star Trek's optimism.

The idea that teamwork and ingenuity can overcome most adversity feels integral to Star Trek (at least to me), so the idea that running out of fossil fuels is all it would take to split up the Galaxy's largest symbol of unity feels out of place.

This is an especially powerful slap in the face when in Season 5 they have developed the Pathway Drive after only a few years of working together again. It felt as though there was truly not a strong enough reason for the Federation to collapse and be on the brink of destruction than the fact the show-runners really like the Federation falling apart.

You could make the case that it also has to do with the destruction of most of their fleet, but in Season 1 basically all of Starfleet is destroyed, and that's hardly even referenced again.

As an aside, in the five seasons of Discovery, I think the Federation has fallen (to varying degrees) four times.

1. Reduced to a single star-base and a handful of ships by the Klingons
2. Completely overtaken by Control
3. The collapse after The Burn
4. Becoming the V'Draysh in Calypso

In regards to the V'Draysh concept, I am willing to cut the writers a little slack, because from a meta perspective it feels like Calypso was originally intended to go between Season 2 and 3. This is fully a guess on my part, but I suspect at the time of writing/filming Calypso there might have been a more vague idea of what was wrong with the Federation in the future and the method of time travel to the future may not have been locked down yet. I would not be surprised if the V'Draysh was going to be the Federation in Season 3 and the crew would somehow find themselves on Discovery after it waited in place for 1000 years.

Having said that, though, the writers decided to canonize Calypso as taking place after Discovery ends, so it could be considered a fourth collapse (though technically the V'Draysh are never canonically recognized as the Federation, so there is some wiggle room).

While these are much more minor points by comparison, I would also like to address the phaser design in the future as well as the Progenitors philosophy differences between Season 5 of Discovery and TNG.

While a minor gripe, I thought returning the phaser form factor to a more gun-shaped form was also indicative of the show-runners' head-space.

Phasers went from looking like futuristic laser guns in TOS to looking something like an electric razor in TNG. While this made them less "cool," it signaled a priority on peace and diplomacy. While phasers were weapons, their presence was solely utilitarian and not for intimidation.

Discovery's return to the gun-shaped phasers feels like an out of universe emphasis on "coolness" and action, and an in-universe departure from the emphasis on diplomacy.

You could make the case that this now scrappier Federation no longer had the luxury of diplomacy to rely on, but it still feels pessimistic to think the Federation would abandon their ideals in times of hardship.

As I said, I know it's a comparatively minor gripe to put so much weight into a relatively small prop, but I feel like there is a lot to be said about design language and what it implies about the world of the show.

Finally, there is the issue of the Progenitors. I am positive I am not the first person to say this, but there is a definitive shift from the Progenitors wanting all their disparate species to come together in the unifying pursuit of knowledge to them saying "whoever gets here first is the best and can use this godly power however they want."

This shift from the ideal being universal brotherhood to focusing on being the best species reflects the show-runners' own lack of priority on the concept, which is reflected in their repeated destruction of the Federation.

I understand the idea of wanting your show/movie to be "gritty" and "realistic" (see every DC superhero movie after The Dark Knight), but it's out of place in a show as optimistic as Star Trek.

I'm not sure such an open-ended question can be definitively answered, but why didn't the Discovery show-runners believe in the Federation?

I pick it up again every once in a while. I just had a slate of particularly miserable emeritus short losses, including one where 9 of the 13 Klingons left were in one sector. I was docked in a Starbase adjacent to that sector, and I could have sent an armed probe. Instead, to not get any more planet loss points, I decided, "I'm just gonna take em with phasers." I got killed immediately.

In addition to the recently announced news that the U.S.S. Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation would be featured as part of Universal Fan Fest Nights, Universal Studios Hollywood has revealed that the actual bridge set piece featured in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard will be a major component of the experience, inviting guests and fans to enjoy a unique opportunity to see it as part of this all-new event.

I saw this question posed on Mastodon. If you got lost in space and rescued by aliens who made you live in a simulation for the next 40 years based on a book, what would it be?

For me: The Great Gatsby. I would have to play the part of Nick and just get drunk all the time.

• Gwyn records the stardate as 61886.6 in her personal log.

• ”It’s been a long road.” Gwyn references the lyrics of the Federation anthem.

• In the temple they find at the coordinates provided by the mysterious guide, the Protogies find statues of the Traveler’s species, if they’re not of the Traveler himself.

• The voice of the Traveler can be heard as the Protogies explore the structure. Eric Menyuk reprised the role for this episode.

• The vault door the Protogies discover is modelled on the one in Gary Seven’s office, seen in “Assignment: Earth”, as well as the one Tallinn’s apartment in “Fly Me to the Moon”.

• It’s Wesley Crusher! From Star Trek! Wesley is portrayed by “The Ready Room” host, Wil Wheaton.

    • This is the third time we’ve seen Wesley wearing the orange sweater, which was previously seen in “Where No One Has Gone Before”, and “Lonely Among Us”.

• ”As if I needed another reason to dislike time travel.” In “Future’s End” Janeway claimed, ”Ever since my first day in the job as a Starfleet Captain I swore I'm never let myself get caught in one of these godforsaken paradoxes.”

• ”Edward, I only have three rules when captaining a starship: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew.” Janeway echoes the rules for captaining she said to Naomi Wildman in “Dark Frontier”.

• Rok-Tahk recites Wesley’s resume:

    • Member of Nova Squadron - Wesley was shown to be part of squadron of elite cadets in “The First Duty” when they were under review for getting one of their team killed performing a banned flight maneuver

    • Genius of the Enterprise D - Data might cock his head slightly to one side at this

    • Made acting ensign at age 15 - Wesley was made acting ensign in the sixth TNG episode, “Where No One Has Gone Before”

• “When I was a young man on the Enterprise, I met an advanced being called the Traveler. He was part of a secret faction of explorers who watch over the cosmos. Very cool. The invited me to become one of them.” Wesley is referring to the events of “Where No One Has Gone Before” and “Journey’s End” respectively.

• Wesley lists a variety of different alternate universes:

    • Prime universe - First seen in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”

    • Mirror universe - Introduced in “Mirror, Mirror”

    • The Narada incursion - i.e. the Kelvin timeline established in 2009’s “Star Trek”

    • Fluidic space - Home of Species 8472, seen in “Scorpion, Part II”

    • The mycelial network - A subspace pocket first mentioned in “Context is For Kings”

      • Wesley tells the Protogies that they’re not supposed to know about the mycelial network, apparently respecting the fact that it was classified by Starfleet command in “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”

• ”After the temporal wars, there just aren’t many of us left to repair timelines.” To the best of our knowledge, as per season three of DIS, the temporal wars ended either in the late 31st, or early 32nd century with the establishment of a ban on time travel.

• “My mom lives here!” Also his brother would be around three or four years old at this point, as per “No Win Scenario”, though I agree with Wesley that’s less of a concern.

• ”How do you know about the Supervisors?” The Supervisors were revealed to be agents of the Travelers in “Farewell”.

• Wesley makes it explicitly clear that he was the mysterious figure who was contacting Murf in “Temporal Mechanics 101”

• Wesley transports the Protogies to what appears to be Gary 7’s office as it was seen in “Assignment: Earth”. Presumably in the next episode, we will learn what happened to agents 201 and 347 when Wesley kills them to avoid some messy questions about why he’s there.

• The episode title calls back to the TOS season three episode, “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” which was the first appearance of a Medusan.

• We open with Zero’s personal log, where they record the stardate as 61881.4.

    • Zero also says it’s been a week since the previous episode, which was stardate 61875.9, though how precise they’re being isn’t explicitly clear.

• Zero mentions difficulty in repairing their containment suit, which was damaged in the previous episode. This does raise the question of who created their original containment suit on Tars Lamora, as it seems as though Zero is not involved in the repair process.

• Zero mentions the Paxans as one of the species of non-corporeal beings living at the colony that contacts them. When introduced in the TNG episode, “Clues”, the Paxans were so isolationist that they we going to destroy the USS Enterprise D to conceal their existence until Captain Picard was able to convince them to merely mindwipe the entire crew, except Data who helped to facilitate the deception.

• Upon arriving on Ovidia IV, the Protogies are wearing protective visors of the sort shown in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” to shield them from the horrifying, madness inducing appearance of any Medusans they might encounter.

• ”I’ve always had this [...] yearning to experience life. To touch and feel as you do.” This yearning has been depicted as far back as the second season premiere, “Into the Breach, Part I”.

• This is the first on screen depiction of parisses squares, a sport first mentioned in “11001001”. The ion mallets the game is played with was introduced into continuity in “Real Life”.

    • The game is being played with uneven teams, with the Nova Squadron cadets only having three players, and the Protogies having five. Though not explicitly stated, in “11001001” it is implied that teams have four players.

    • The holographic Protogies should be careful playing the game. A parisses squares accident is what led to the death of the Doctor’s holographic daughter in “Real Life”.