Lower Decks - Much Ado About Boimler

[CharlesPhipps]

Cupid's Errant Arrow was where the story started to turn around and basically where they started realizing that they weren't doing Rick and Morty or just Star Trek-inspired gags. It's not coincidentally around this time that they start dramatically dialing back Mariner's psychopathy and making Boimler less of the butt monkey and more someone who just well-intentioned if a bit of a suck up.

This is, however, one of the key episodes I think for the "fixing" of Mariner that culminates in "Crisis Point" where I feel like they realized they'd screwed up with her and they reverse course by suggesting she's not someone "cool" for her craziness but actually failing herself with her underachievement rather than just rebelling. I'm also of the mind the response to her friend is why Mariner was possibly reimagined as a bisexual character (assuming that wasn't the plan all along).

However, the real best part of the episode was the entirety of the Division 14 and its enormous piss take on Section 31. This is where Lower Decks justifies its existence as a Trek series in a way that many fans never felt other Nu Treks did. It is a joke only hardcore Trek fans will get and yet also actually works as a VERY mild social critique (specifically against conspiratorial thinking on the basis of a distrust of authority).

No, it turns out the guys trying to do vaccines and give free medical coverage are actually trying to help people. I imagine this is probably more a coincidence than a deliberate message but it works anyway. Because, of course, Section 31 IS inspired by all the X-Files/anti-government conspiracy theories that were popular in the Nineties. Possibly why the message is actually worth discussing unlike more overt and ridiculous lecturing.

The dog is just silly and fun and I want it even if it is an abomination against Q.

[Swiftbow]

One of the best parts of Lower Decks is the mass canonizing of the original Animated Series.

I forget which episode, but there's one that makes a reference to Kirk and Spock with video footage. And said video footage is directly from ST:TAS. That's just... that's just great.

[CharlesPhipps]

"It's from the TOS era."

"TOS?"

"Those Old Scientists."

[griffeytrek]

I so want them to add that Section 13 ship to Star Trek Online. Plus the very thought of Star Fleet collecting all of their worst mad science f#ckups is just perfect. The Best humor makes sense. And in Star Trek's world this setup Division 14 makes sense.

[Sir Will]

"It's from the TOS era."

"TOS?"

"Those Old Scientists."

I call it VOY.

[Procstar]

Chuck thought Ramsey was a former friend of Mariner. According to the showrunner, she dated Mariner at the academy.

You also just mentioned something about Mariner that I didn’t really pick up on during the show: Her friend, Capt. Amina Ramsey, was her lover when they were at the Academy?

Yeah. We weren’t explicit about it, because most of the relationships in this show are familial or friendship love. It’s not physical love. That character showing up, the story we’re telling about them has nothing to do with any previous relationships they’ve had. For me and for the writers as we were making this, we didn’t intentionally mean for anybody to be strictly heteronormative or straight or cis. Every Starfleet officer is probably at the baseline bisexual, in a way. That being said, I am not the most amazing person at writing those kind of stories. I think we get a little bit better about it in the second season.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/star-t ... 234798405/

[CharlesPhipps]

Well they're not writing it that way since Tendi was low key surprised that Mariner was bi.

[stryke]

Well they're not righting it that way since Tendi was low key surprised that Mariner was bi.

That's easy to headcanon if you want as Tendi is very new to the Starfleet sexual mores being an Orion who has recently joined up and is used to a very different dynamic in that respect.