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Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation"

Logline

Season finale where lots of wild stuff happens!

Written by: Mike McMahan

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

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35 comments

  • A pretty cool episode. Top takeaways:

    1. I'm going to miss Captain Ransom. I think it would have been fun to have a season or two of him. Only Discovery has had the balls to hand over the Captain's chair to another during its main run, and I think that is a good thing.
    2. Starbase 80 is now set up as a new DS9-style show. A starbase guarding a dimensional portal. God I hope that happens. I just hope they pull off the ensemble cast that made DS9 such a classic.
    3. I hate the tease for Rutherford x Tendi, it's so mean to tease it in the finale :'( But really it's so cute.

    Plenty more I missed of course.

    7

    • I feel like this finale did a very impressive job of tying things up, not in the way that they are concluded and done but that we see a transition in which that which we know has ended, and now the characters are going off toward grand new things. Which is a great approach to providing resolution without essentially killing and mounting your characters like butterflies in a collection.

      But also, I sort of wonder if part of the intent was to loudly tell the fans and the network that if anyone was curious, the writers had a ton of juice in the battery. This is pure speculation, but I feel like the thematic message of this finale was something to the effect of 'Just in case anyone wondered if we're finishing because we didn't have more to say, wrong, WRONG, WRONG. We could've made another five jam-packed high quality seasons of this easily.'

      That's what I felt watching it. Tendi and Rutherford's bond was always strong, but I long wondered if a romantic pairing was a possibility or not. It didn't feel obvious or obviously out of place. Seeing Rutherford remove the implant provided in just a single scene a lot of fodder to consider what we could learn about him as a person and technology in seeing how he is the same and how he is different without the implant. And seeing him essentially look up from his cell phone and realize he has a crush on his best friend he was long avoiding thinking about is a great direction for him to go, imo. I think that would be a great story, regardless of whether it culminates in a lasting romance or leads to a decision to remain platonic.

      I'd never quite liked Ransom. I don't hate him, but his gimmick always annoyed more than endeared. But in the last minute, I had to admit that it has worked. He's supposed to annoy, but also to remain hard to dislike. You want to dislike him, but he won't quite let you. "Engage the core!" landed very well with me. That's a catch phrase that kind of gets both more tired with use, and funnier as it gets more tired. I'd love to see him deliver this incredibly groan-inducing line in a moment of genuine high stakes drama, at which point you'd have no choice but to admit... it's become iconic (and you'd hate him for doing that).

      Anyway, 3 out of 5 stars (Jk, I loved the finale. Paramount should just announce that they've reassessed and green-lit another season. Seems like an obvious thing to do, but we'll see).

      4

  • I feel like I’ve been pulled off Ketracel white cold turkey. So many good episodes. My ultimate conclusion is the best episode is probably season 2 finale, with season 4 finale very close behind.

    The Rutherford thing was weird - they could have written in a bit more foreshadowing. I’m gonna tell myself it’s a way to make Eugene Cordero’s makeup easier for a live action film. 😉

    7

    • Overall, I think it was foreshadowed enough. In the first episode of the season, we see him having transitioned entirely to inorganic parts to fully bury his emotions, and in the end of this we see him deciding to go the other way. And I liked it.

      I'm often a little critical of what seem like anti-transhumanist takes that assume organic parts are inherently superior, and mechanization is a defilement of god's creation. But in this case, I didn't feel like his choice was that. It felt like -- and this is a complicated comparison, so follow me -- an examination of what is often called "detransitioning".

      I say "often called" because I don't think a transgender person adopting a prior gender presentation IS "detransitioning". I think it's just transitioning further. There's a sort of irony, to me, in the taboo within trans-allyship toward transitioning back towards a prior gender expression, because bigots will always say that anyone who does so is proof that their transition was a mistake, and then claim that every transition is a mistake. I think this is ironic, because I celebrate anyone living their truth, and truths are complicated, and they change as we change.

      Which is to say that I like cyborg Rutherford. And I also like non-cyborg Rutherford. And if Rutherford got cybernetics again or got biopunk mods, I think I'd like that Rutherford too.

      I hope we do get to see more of all these characters.

      5

  • What a perfect finale. It really shows what I most loved about Lower Decks. The crew - aside all comedy - is formed by professionals which are capable of working together and advancing beyond their single capabilities. There is no drama or trying to hide important info from each other like in PIC or DIS. This is what I always loved about TNG, DS9 and VOY and it is great to see it still works - even on modern television.

    One silly, little joke got me out of nowhere (maybe I was a little bit emotional about the impending end): Ransom: Mr. Rutherford, a little birdie told me you made some pretty inspired updates to the plasma injectors. Rutherford: Was it Dr. Migleemo?

    15

    • I think most of this show's jokes are great moments rather than lines, but there were definitely plenty of lines, too.

      I loved "Science besties!"; "What is the viscosity of the goo?"/"Does it have anything nice to say?"; and of course "Engage the core!"

      I can't help wondering if this gets renewed.

      4

  • As a finale, I think that was satisfying. I'm glad they got the cameos out of their system last week, and primarily focused on the core cast this week.

    The main thing that I wanted to see this season - a tie-in with the impending Romulan supernova - didn't come to fruition, but I'm trying not to hold that against them. They've very clearly left themselves a path for continuation in some form, so we'll have to see what comes of it.

    Boimler eventually turning away from the alt-universe PADD was an inevitable conclusion, but I like the reason they provided, avoiding the low-hanging fruit of alt-Boims turning out to be a dick or something.

    The overall Rutherford arc was less successful. I guess they seeded it previously, but I always just assumed his implant was on the fritz, so it was odd to see him suddenly blaming the ship.

    11

    • The impending supernova doesn’t occur until 2387 and the latest stardate available indicates a year of 2382 (“Fully Dilated”). The synth attack on Mars, which as a reminder was orchestrated by Zhat Vash to stop the evacuation fleet, happened on First Contact Day of 2385. The closest we’ve gotten was PRO. And I can’t figure out how to add a spoiler so I won’t mention it.

      4

      • One has to dig into the novels for some of this, but Picard took his promotion to oversee the evacuation plans, so in theory, Starfleet already knows about the supernova and is beginning their initial evacuation effort.

        The Utopia Planitia fleet was a major project, but evacuations took place even before the fleet was built - Elnor's colony was an evacuee settlement, and Laris and Zhaban stuck with Picard after he rescued them.

        I had been hoping that such a major re-evaluation of Starfleet's mission would affect this show, but it was not to be.

        1

    • The overall Rutherford arc was less successful. I guess they seeded it previously, but I always just assumed his implant was on the fritz, so it was odd to see him suddenly blaming the ship.

      I am at a loss as to how Rutherford's implant could be flexible enough to function as part of his brain in day-to-day life, and yet somehow be incapable of helping him solve engineering problems on an old ship? Is there some kind of weird DRM installed that prevents it from opening schematics older than a couple years? Or is all the data on California class systems stored in a file format that they latest and greatest starfleet tech can't open? Both of which would be rather colossal failures of Federation computer tech.

      2

  • Edit: spoilers ahead, stands to reason I remember on the final LD episode

    Loved loved loved the Wrath of Khan style shots of the Cerritos' saucer section, the DIS style Klingons, the ultimate fate of Starbase 80 and Carol along with it. Nice way to wrap it all up with a tribute to the ship's crew, but I'm still so sad it's the end at least for now. Time to hunt down the comics...

    10

  • I am very displeased that they left the Rutherford and Tendi relationship hanging.

    10

  • Was this the story I expected? No.

    Did I enjoy this? I thought it was awesome.

    9

  • This show has been a balm for my worst nerd impulses since episode 1, and I will miss it. As finales go, I think this was damn near perfect, too.

    Like others have mentioned, Rutherford's sudden frustration with the Cerritos felt a little off to me, but that's really small fry in the larger picture of

    PREVIEW_HERE

    a bona fide, stable quantum portal to parallel universes hanging around the Alpha quadrant since 2382!

    Wow, you'd think that would have been brought up even tangentially in Prodigy or chronologically later set shows? It could even feasibly have been used to

    PREVIEW_HERE

    bring Mirror Giorgiou home to her own universe in Discovery s3.

    But what do I know, it might not be as stable as it looked in this episode...

    8

    • I was thinking that it's interesting that crossovers with the Mirror Universe stop completely at some point around the 27th Century. There's a story there.

      3

      • What was Cronenberg Kovich's line about that again? "The Mirror Universe has been drifting away" or some such?

        I'm willing to bet the Terran Empire tried some multiversal invasion that exploded in their collective face and blew them across the quantum plane (if that's a thing). The Quantum portal could easily be written into that.

        5

  • This was a pretty solid episode with some very good jokes (the thing about creating a warp field with one nacelle was fantastic, for example), but I left feeling underwhelmed because of the bizare "the first officer is two LTJGs" thing. Lower Decks has had a shockingly strong track record of not doing things that strike me as immediately stupid, but this is really silly. "Ransom must be pulling another twisted prank, because he's not this bad at his job" level silly. I think it's still better than promoting Tilly to XO, but that's a bar I had hoped this show would remain well clear of and a close shave is disappointing.

    I think I understand why they did this: there's no obvious non-specialist XO candidate of an appropriate rank in the main cast (arguably Shax, but he's "only" a LT and does not seem ready for the job), and they didn't want to just trot out a handwave and say they'll be picking up the XO at the next starbase or something. I'd also theorize that they had planned to have two more seasons in which to work Mariner and Boimler into positions where they might actually make sense for an XO billet. But they aren't there yet, and they both know it.

    Also, gosh would that alternate universe explorer thing have been useful in DISCO S3. And probably Prodigy too. It's also a dangerous can of worms to open for future stories, because having reliable access to random slightly different universes, apparently at different points in their timelines, is incredibly useful for both anticipating and solving problems in the "prime" universe. There's also cool stuff they can do with it and I'm sure they will, so I'm trying to keep an open mind.

    Finally, props to them for coming up with a more plausible reason for our heroes to literally save the universe: because someone connected to them got unwittingly thrown into a position of enormous influence, and deliberately picked them. It's Zeus and company antagonizing Hercules, not Michael Burnham being central to solving five (?) entirely unrelated but galactically significant disasters, apparently by pure chance.

    8

    • It’s Zeus and company antagonizing Hercules, not Michael Burnham being central to solving five (?) entirely unrelated but galactically significant disasters, apparently by pure chance.

      Yeah, there's a lesson in good writing right there.

      I think another way to approach this is demonstrated in The Expanse series and in a lot of Captain America stories: after you save the world, more big world-ending events get brought to you by people looking for help and enemies looking for revenge.

      3

  • Spoiler throughout:

    Is that an angry bullpup version of the unicorn dog from the Original Series? I like the Sense-oars pronunciation I spotted. OMG I should've expected them to address the different Klingon looks but I didn't expect to see a T'kuvma / Discovery era Klingon reappearing. When they said "solidton" particles I imagined it was going to be a metaphor about keeping "canon" stagnant. First time I see a ST character say "those words aren't real" to Treknobabble. I'm glad they're keeping the Star Trek tradition of holding up way too many Pads on the table where one should've done the trick. I never wondered if Klingons had claws for toenails, now I am. I like how Brad tries to convince others that William's the worst. How'd they know they were dropping out of warp if the next shot shows them cloaked? I expected as much with the ship changing. Never really cared much for the different classes of ships though. This Rutherford bitterness feels like it came out of nowhere. Those whales are thirsty again. I thought she was going all Kamehameha. I have a feeling the clam is a reference to something but I'm not sure what. IDK why, but that one shot of Boimler turning his head and us being able to see under his chin particularly stood out as a "bump the lamp" moment. Was there a cut scene, what was (silver?) Badgey doing there? Or was that Goodgey? Have I forgotten about them? I like how Ransom made his own rule for provisional first officers. Engage the core is a perfect Warp catchphrase.

    6

    • Is that an angry bullpup version of the unicorn dog from the Original Series?

      I believe it was a jackal mastiff, which hasn't been seen (outside of STO) in quite a long time.

      I never wondered if Klingons had claws for toenails, now I am.

      We got to see Worf's feet once, and I apologize for the reminder.

      Worf's feet from "Ethics". They have a ridge running up the foot from his second toe, and a large protuberance over the outside of the foot.

      Or was that Goodgey? Have I forgotten about them?

      Goodgey did remain with the crew, and was last seen in episode 5x02.

      5

  • I can’t believe it’s already been five seasons.. that was a great show.

    Unexpectedly really relatable too, as a young working professional (well, less young than when it started..)

    5

    • Yeah. Also: there has been throughout the show a nice little undercurrent of labor consciousness that was often lacking when we only follow "leadership" in stories.

      This has been my favorite Trek in a long while. I like these characters a lot, and their personal and professional growth was well written.

      3

  • Annotations for 5x10 up at: https://startrek.website/post/17452674

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