Daystrom Institute

In LD S3 E8 "Crisis Point: Paradoxus", the holographic version of Dr. T'Ana was able to recognize they were in late 20th century Earth, seemingly by a single sniff.

I am assuming this is a reflection of T'Ana's actually ability rather than mere cinematic indulgence, for two reasons:

• We do see T'Ana has enhanced olfactory senses in S2 E10 "First First Contact", as it implies she is able to track Tendi by scent, as well as in S4 E5 "Empathalogical Fallacies" when she hunts the Betazoids.
• Considering that Crisis Point was built off private logs, while the plot points may be ridiculous, crew abilities and limitations tend to be mostly accurate. We see this in the original Crisis Point, for instance, when Rutherford has to do the magic transport instead of Billups - simulated Cerritos crew members won't do what the real them would thing is impossible.

Anyhow, it makes me wonder if Starfleet Academy has some sort of sensory training courses for species with certain stronger senses. For instance, T'Ana might have had the option to take a course working with smell samples that they are likely to encounter in their Starfleet Career with other species that have enhanced senses.

How might SNW explain the physiology of the Klingons that have ridged foreheads versus the smooth foreheads that come from the failed augment experiment in ENT? A refresher: during the run of ENT, Klingons attempted to replicate the experiment of Human Augments. It ends up failing, which results in the physiology of the population changing, thus giving a in-universe explanation for why the makeup in TOS varies from how they appear TMP and onward.

How might SNW address this bit of lore? TOS takes place during 2265-2269. SNW first episode “Strange New Worlds” is 2259, six years prior. We already know Klingons with ridged foreheads exist thanks to DIS. We even see some during “The Broken Circle”. Might one possible way of explaining the change be a shift in the military and/or political factions of the Empire that lead to more of the smooth foreheads Klingons dominating?

In Prodigy, Nova Squadron has been revived by the mid-2380s.

This feels like a very terrible idea for a multitude of reasons. Besides the initial incident, I would think Starfleet would hesitate against elite cadet groups even further after both the attempted Red Squad coup and the USS Valiant incident.

Also, I have two takeaways from the LD Nova Fleet incident. One, Locarno feeling the need to “revive” Nova Squadron suggests that it didn’t still exist in 2381, meaning the revival must have been relatively close to 2384. Second, I feel like the coming back of a former “elite” cadet to bite them would further make Starfleet wary of establishing an elite cadet group again.

Overall, it just seems every time the Academy does this, they just produce a group of arrogant cadets very susceptible to manipulation and/or recklessness. Even 2384 squadron seems this way - we see their elitist attitude towards the former Protostar crew matching that of Red Squad and such.

So why did they do it again?

Perhaps Nova Squadron is a long-held academy tradition, and despite the initial fallout of the 2368 incident, that’s overshadowed by its long history of outstanding cadets, a legacy the academy didn’t want to suddenly erase.

Still, I feel like they could have turned Nova Squadron into an honors society that recognizes students without the special treatment rather than resurrect what seems to be the original format.

Honestly, I hope (big emphasis on hope) the new SFA show elaborates on this and overall fleshes out the Academy as an institution, at least before, as I predict will happen, our “cadets” will be starship officers in all but name by the end of the season and will barely get a proper academy experience.

I kind of wish we had an academy show either early 24th century (lost era Monster Maroon) or a chill (post-PIC) 25th or 26th century setting that just followed a normal group of cadets without weird stuff like an early commissioning.

Edit: When I say "Center Right" I also mean relative to Ferengi society.

A small addition to my post, Gender and Sexual Orientation in FERENGI society from a few months back.

I caught this frame in the background of LD S4 E6 Parth's Ferengi Heart Place, depicting an unclothed Ferengi woman.

This provides an interesting insight into the Ferengi social/political landscape of the Nagus Rom era. It suggests a center right that is fine with women traveling in public to some extent (maybe with limits, like it can only be with husband or father or out of necessity), but not them being clothed. This doesn't seem to be that common, as most Ferengi women we see in this episode (including on the television in Boimler's apartment) are clothed, but it seems to be a position that exists.

Honestly, I'd be interested in a novel (perhaps written from the perspective of an autobiography) or something about how Nagus Rom and Leeta survived leading Ferenginar the first few years and adjusted to such a different role from his engineering days. We could learn a lot about the Ferengi political system.

If you haven’t watched all of Picard, “All Good Things…” (TNG season 7 episode 25) and “Endgame” (VOY season 7 episode 25), please be advised there are major spoilers.

This may come down to a personal interpretation: did the events of “All Good Things…” ever exist? There is one reason I ask this: the false positive diagnosis of irumodic syndrome. The way I see it, the events of that episode are rendered non-existent.

Jean-Luc assumes prior to his death in season 1 of Picard that his illness was irumodic syndrome. However, it is never specified in that season that he has the illness. In season 3 Jack Crusher is diagnosed with it and assumed inherited. However by the end we learn it was a condition related to his time as Locutus of Borg.

In VOY, the future timeline with Admiral Janeway appears to be connected to the anti-timeline future from “All Good Things…”. The Admiral wearing the same uniform and badge. However the big difference is that the present day Prime Voyager is aided by future technology. We do not see the influence of Admiral Janeway get reversed, only the events of her future.

So did the events of “All Good Things…” actually occur or did the temporal incursion being fixed rendered it non-existent? After all, Q was testing Jean-Luc. Only Jean-Luc had memory of what happened. Sub-question: did Jean-Luc actually have a correctly diagnosed irumodic syndrome in the anti-timeline future?

So, this may be a frequently discussed topic, and I'm sorry if so. But I was watching S1 of SNW and there was a scene where an early "shields up" saved the ship from serious damage. And now that I think of it, I just can't come up with a good reason why shields aren't up all the time, with a few obvious caveats.

1. Yes, shields must be down to transport, this seems like the most obvious reason to have them down. But we see plenty of episodes where shields are brought down momentarily for a transport. Why not do that always?
2. One reason brought up frequently is that raising shields could be taken as an act of aggression. But if you arrive with shields already up, then you're not doing anything aggressive, you just arrived that way, so I don't think this makes much sense in a world where most Starfleet ships just keep their shields up.
3. I don't know for certain, but it seems possible that shields may not be usable at warp. I don't remember any specific episode where that happened, but it seems possible. But even then, a ship could just be programmed to bring them up as it drops out of warp.
4. I guess it could be possible that the power usage of the shields is too much for the day-to-day use. But again, it seems like a lot of missions clearly begin with "dropping out of warp into an unfamiliar area" and those are the times where your shields should just be up by default.

Of course, I know the answer is that "shields up" is great dramatic dialogue, but I guess I wondered if there are any more satisfying answers than that?

In ENT episode “Divergence” parts go flying off the ship during warp 5. What would happen to something at that speed without the protection of the field? Would it stay in high speed motion until interacted upon by something else (meteoroids/dust/gravitational fields)? Or would it disintegrate under this kind of speed?

Did Syrran’s teachings change the accepted spiritual and philosophical ideology of mainstream Vulcan society? ENT had the unique position of being a prequel to TOS. It at first presented mind-melds as a deviant act that was socially unacceptable. Moving into the 23rd century of TOS and the movies (I’m going on recall right now), the deviance seemed to have gone away. However the dangers of mind-melds held true even by the time of VOY. When ENT reached the three parter of “The Forge”, “Awakening” and “Kir’Shara”, the story specifically focused on katras.

It feels like the direction ENT was pointed, the people in charge of the big lore wanted to flip what we knew about Vulcan society. One of the major conflicts over the course of the series was the Earth-Vulcan relationship. Of course this was rooted in the Federation arch.

To clarify my question: did the rebellious teachings of a cult (T’Pol specifically calls the Syrrannites a “violent cult”), become the accepted beliefs over a century?

What is Las Vegas, Nevada like in the 24th century?

It seems to be implied that Vegas still exists (not just some legendary destination of the past like Vics) and is still associated with gambling - Chakotay's hallucination of Tom Paris in VOY:"The Fight" mentions Vegas along with Mars and Orion III when mentioning the odds in a fight.

I think the fact that this is a hallucination of Tom in Chakotay's mind, combined with the fact that it was mentioned with contemporarily active places, heavily suggests that Vegas is alive and still has some form of active gambling.

However, I would imagine that a lot would still change for Vegas. Modern-day Vegas has Nellis AFB in it and Creech nearby, so it would have probably been a major target during World War III and as a result been heavily damaged. For urban planning, this probably gave a largely blank slate during redevelopment, so in many ways, Earth probably ended up becoming a typical 24th century city or town with vastly improved public transportation.

It's also important to consider the potential impact of drought - has Vegas significantly downscaled as a result of its water issues, or did they get that sorted out in time and Vegas is still a moderately large Earth city in the 24th century?

Also, what does gambling look like in a post-scarcity society? What are the laws on the books for United Earth? I'm imagining people mostly do it for the thrill, like how Jadzia plays Tongo.

What's different in star trek schools compared to real life schools on earth

What do they learn in star trek schools

Wondering what happened to roads in star trek

I went through LD 5x09 "Fissure Quest" to try and count/estimate the amount of Kims on the Anaximander.

The most we see on screen together not including Lieutenant Kim is 8 Kims on the Beagle Bridge (6 First Contact Uniforms, 1 Voyager uniform, 1 Delta Flyer uniform):

In the scene immediately after the opening credit, we see two non-Lieutenant Kims with the Voyager uniform:

Combining the 8 Kims seen on the Beagle with the extra Voy Kim on the Anaximander, I estimate there to be at least 9 Kims (besides Lt).

However, there are some inconsistencies.

We only see 6 (non-Lieutenant) Kims in the prison, despite it being somewhat implied the Anaximander is mostly empty besides Garak and Bashir:

In one count the mess hall scene, I counted what was at least 6 and at most 11 Kims.

Overall, I'm sticking with my initial estimate of 9 for now.

I wonder what could account for variations in Kims. Were some actually locked up somewhere on the ship? Did Lieutenant Kim forget one?

Also, assuming there are 9-11 Kims, is 14-16 crew (adding Boimler, T'Pol, Curzon, Garak, and the LMH) enough to run a Defiant-class, which usually has compliment more in the 40s? It could be possible that since it's a Section 31 ship that it's outfitted to run with less agents.

P.S I find it a nice bit of canonical accuracy that most Kims are wearing First Contact uniforms (and likely made it home), as since most timelines are close to Prime, uniform designs shouldn't be that different.

question in title

Is being a pretty 15-19 year old the primary prerequisite?

In an attached clip from the video "game" Star Trek: Klingon (in-universe an educational holodeck program), a holographic Gowron violently shakes the player and yells player, "When I say jump out of an airlock, you will JUMP OUT OF AN AIRLOCK!"

My question is, outside of edge cases where it's actually necessary to win a battle, would this level of order-following actually align with proper Klingon theology?

I feel like this would be an honorless death (kind of like if your commander told you to stab yourself with a d'k tahg), and thus if you were actually given an order like this, the proper Klingon thing to do would be to challenge your commanding officer to honorable combat. I could see a more Martokian view that honor demands you follow your commander, though, but I feel like even he would have limits.

I can think of three explanations for what Gowron said: 1) It's simply a hyperbole. 2) Gowron isn't exactly a beacon of Klingon honor (as seen in the last episodes of DS9), so maybe it's a misinterpretation. 3) It's a mistake in the program. Either it's a glitch if it was made in cooperation with the Klingons or it was done entirely by Federation researchers who messed up a bit.

Obviously, this game falls more in Memory Beta territory, but I'd argue it's reasonably canon, as it's basically screen (live action or animated) Star Trek and a song in this game was later canonized in DS9.

Let's say we have a certain Trill symbiont with a host. What would happen if the symbiont was duplicated under the condition that:

• The host and symbiont were transporter cloned. (2 Jadzia Daxs)
• A person from an alternate timeline with the same symbiont ends up permanently marooned in the prime timeline. (Larry Dax from a timeline where Curzon didn't reinstate Jadzia coexisting with prime Jadzia)
• A past host comes back from the dead with a version of the symbiont a la Spock or Shaxs, or even something similar to Doctor Who's concept of an extraction chamber (Jadzia got bored in Sto'Vo'Kor and decided to climb the Black Mountain, meaning her and Ezri exist simultaneously)

I imagine in all of them, the commission would at least let the duplicate live for the rest of the lifespan of the original host, much like the Federation at large treats transporter clones.

However, what happens when it comes time for the symbiont to be transferred? I can't imagine the commission's ideology would smile upon duplicate experiences under much of the same rationale against re-association: there would be a duplication of experiences rather than the acquiring of new ones.

I think in the first case at least, it is reasonable to assume that they'd begrudgingly transfer both symbionts, as both have the equally valid claim to being the original and randomly killing one is straight-up murder, which I imagine the rest of the Federation would dislike.

They might also do so in the second case, as at least our Larry boy has some different experiences even if some are duplicate with prime Dax.

The third one is where it gets very muddy. The nature of souls in general is a muddy subject - twofold when there are two beings involved. For the sake of argument, we'll say the Jadzia in Ezri's symbiont accessible by Zhian'tara is a "backup" of Jadzia up to her death and that a separate Jadzia Dax went to Sto'Vo'Kor^1^. What then?

1: I make this assumption because a) Ezri doesn't have Jadzia's memories of Sto'Vo'Kor and b) it was the combination of Dax and Jadzia that engaged in Klingon ritual and "just" Jadzia would not be the person that participated. Of course, this starts getting into the more mystical parts of the franchise, and it's probably good they keep it vague even through it makes canon discussion like this a nightmare... a FUN nightmare.

In other words, is that dog technically an augment dog? How is Tendi not dismissed from Starfleet and sent to a penal colony?

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 5x10 The New Next Generation.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

I have an odd question that will probably never be answered now unless they decide to bring this species to other Trek shows: why are members of Merp’s species called “Big Merp”, “Sleepy Merp”, or just “Merp”?

Obviously out of universe, they’re likely just a parody of the Smurfs.

My personal favorite theory that would be that Merpkind (or whatever they are called) doesn’t actually have a native concept of individual names. However, they’ve got to put something on the Federation paperwork, so they typically just do whatever and stick with it.

Alternatively, fitting more with the Smurf thing, Merp communities identify each other via adjectives or roles much like the Smurfs.

What’s your ten cents?

EDIT: Thinking on it, it could be a combination. No one has a set name - some might call their spouse “Mate Merp”, while that spouse might be referred to by a boss as “Strong Employee Merp.” When doing Federation paperwork, Merps typically choose which descriptor they’re more fond of. For instance, Sleepy Merp may have been referred to as that by a parent.

The Last Federation is an obscure game made by Arcen, the makers of AI War. I haven't played this game yet, though I intend to try it at some point but I think the premise just absolutely SCREAMS Star Trek to me and I think if the people who own the Star Trek IP were smart they would go to Arcen and offer them a reasonable development budget to make a more polished spiritual successor to The Last Federation in the Star Trek universe and have basically a guaranteed cult hit created by a studio with a known record of creating games that are interested in mechanical nuance in an oddly similar way to the way Star Trek is interested in narrative nuance to storytelling and perspectives. (I mean have you played Tidalis?, "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Variations" is the whole shtick of that game's approach to the match-three genre!!!)

Not that Star Trek doesn't fumble the ball or tell war stories, I am talking about the trek that isn't too cheesey... (note: slices of cheese are necessary though to engage the audience, I mean in terms of taste not taste), you know.... the good trek

description from GOG

From the creators of AI War: Fleet Command comes an all-new grand strategy title with turn-based tactical combat, set in a deep simulation of an entire solar system and its billions of inhabitants. You are the last of a murdered race, determined to unify or destroy the 8 others.

As the last remaining Hydral, it is up to you to create a lasting federation of planets and usher in an era of peace and prosperity to the solar system. Bring spacefaring technology to underdeveloped societies, manipulate their economies, political systems, and diplomatic relations. Do whatever it takes to end strife in your solar system. Remember, when helping civilizations evolve, sometimes they evolve faster when a large multi-headed monster is glaring menacingly at them.

I think in particular any Star Trek game is probably going to need to lean a bit on the lore and story of Star Trek to be authentic.. but that requires potentially a lot of work and custom story writing but the translation is so obvious here that I am sure Arcen studios could look at the Star Trek universe and basically just map most of their pre-existing mechanisms in The Last Federation to their Star Trek closest equivalent and be off to the races with setting up naturally evolving dynamic stories, plausible "what ifs" in the Star Trek universe, without having to do a large amount of storywriting from scratch or feel constrained by needing to get an entire plotline and details approved by an overarching IP holder....

I just thought of another amusing synergy here, the most common complaint about The Last Federation seems to be that the actual ship combat feels a bit disjointed from the rest of the strategy game and there is a tension over whether those two radically different parts of the game cohere into a satisfying wholistic experience. Well.... a HUGE part of Star Trek is nerding out about the ships.. so no Star Trek Fan is going to say "Damn it WHY would I want to manually command all my favorite Star Trek ships in battle when I have an EMPIRE TO MANAGE" who is simultaneously the kind of nerd who will purchase a Star Trek strategy pc video game so boom there goes the biggest flaw of The Last Federation with just a bit of reframing.

After all most of the most venerable captains in Federation see the place where you can make a true difference is in actually being the captain of a Starfleet ship and going out there yourself to help people, it is part of the DNA of the show to never really want to leave the "buccaneering ship captain" part behind.

What was formerly an odd quirk that could be offputting to new players is now a clever excuse for fans to get to take command of their favorite star trek ships and blast it out in battles in between playing an empire/diplomacy strategy game that is actually authentic to the heart of Star Trek.

I mean COME ON the plot for The Last Federation is straight out of a Star Trek Voyager episode, a last-of-a-species ancient being with a badass ship, immense power, and a benign interest in stopping intergalactic war (or not?) that isn't widely known in the universe is totally within the realm of reason for Star Trek lore. There are probably a dozen characters/species that could fit that description pre-existing in the Star Trek lore ready to go.

....or you know make it a freakin' Star Trek Prodigy themed game where your ship is the U.S.S. Protostar and it features all the characters from Prodigy as the crew of your ship oh my gosh yes yes yes

sorry for a billion edits I am tired

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 could be a variant of the Alfa 177 canine first seen in TOS: “The Enemy Within” as it appears to have the same unicorn horn. The breed has been seen in various episodes of LD.

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”).

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

“[Martiner] 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.

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. 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.

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”).

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.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 5x09 Fissure Quest.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

Spoilers for “Subspace Rhapsody” (Strange New Worlds season 2 episode 9)

This question is 100% hypothetical. Would the episode have the same plot if Spock at completed kolinahr at this point in his life?

The title, an inversion of the series’ name, indicates the focus in this episode on the bridge crew. It is the flip side of and a play on TNG: “Lower Decks”, an episode focused on the lower deckers when the series is mainly about the bridge crew.

Whatever Stardate it is, it’s Halloween on Cerritos. Although Picard seemed to be unfamiliar with the holiday in TNG: “The Big Goodbye”, McCoy makes reference to it in TOS: “Catspaw”. Mariner used to dress as Toby the Targ for Halloween (LD: “Crisis Point”) and Boimler dressed once as Christopher Pike (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”). As a bit of trivia, the registry number for the USS Discovery, NCC-1031, was allegedly chosen by Bryan Fuller because he loved Halloween.

V’Ger is the antagonist in TMP, and Mariner quotes the Ilia probe from the movie’s climax. This season, V’Ger joined the ever crowded starship battle in the opening credits.

Boimler’s mustache has finally joined up with his goatee, although his muttonchops have yet to. His line about how the lower deckers are the stars of the show while the commanders fade into the background is a meta comment on LD itself.

Steve Stevens makes another appearance, this time a speaking one, and he appears to be assisting Freeman now rather than following Ransom around as he used to.

Barnes is a Trill Operations Officer who used to date Rutherford (LD: “Second Contact”). The most memorable example of a pathogen causing devolution is from TNG: “Genesis”, where a mutated T-cell allowed dormant genes to be transferred from one person to another. Nurse Ogawa, in particular, devolved into an ape-like form.

The Clickets, an insectoid race that treated thanks as a hostile gesture, first appeared in LD: “Veritas”.

Shax’s hallucination reminds me of the multiple Shaxes Rutherford thinks about when he’s trying to figure out how Shax returned from the dead (LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”).

Freeman says she doesn’t want the buhgoon defecating all over the hull. Coincidentally enough, the Cambodian word for “toilet” is bangkon, which is pronounced similarly.

Billups talks about Cordry Rocks in the ceiling which Ransom complains always fall on him when they take damage. This is the first time anyone in-universe has ever acknowledged the rock-like material that flies about whenever consoles explode since TNG. Billups starts to technobabble that that “their non-centrosymmetry disrupts the charge leptons in the isolinear pathways of the main deflector, which then causes…” but is cut off. The rocks may be named after Miriam Cordry, who works at the Star Trek Archive and Library at Paramount Global.

The Professor is a Grazerite, the same species as Federation President Jaresh-Inyo (DS9: “Homefront”). Ransom calls the buhgoon “space cows”. They are an extremophile, much like tardigrades are known as “water bears”. Tardigrades in the Trek universe can grow to much larger sizes than their microscopic terrestrial counterparts, of course (DIS “Choose Your Pain”).

Delta Shift, formerly the nemeses of our Beta Shift, has been assigned the task of bringing a buhgoon on board. The auburn-haired ensign is Moxy, who first appeared in LD: “Terminal Provocations” (from her forehead markings she could be a Trill). The one blaming “Ensign Friendly” is Karavitus, who also first appeared in “Terminal Provocations”. The burly male is Hans Federov, better known as “Towel Guy”, who was finally given a first name in LD: “The Stars at Night”. “Friendly” is Ensign Castro (from Beta Shift), who first appeared in LD: “Envoys” and is also voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz (T’Lyn).

We see the shuttles Kings Canyon, Yosemite II, Joshua Tree II and Redwood, named after Californian State Parks.

Tempasa was a settlement on Bajor, outside of which was located a Cardassian heavy weapons unit. Kira and her resistance cell raided and destroyed it (DS9: “Ties of Blood and Water”), although her father died while she was away on the mission. Shax’s flashback to Tempasa explains how he got his right eye scarred.

Nurse Westlake is named after Chris Westlake, composer for LD’s soundtrack. He first appeared in “Second Contact” and has been around throughout the show, although this is the first time we’ve heard him speak.

The PADD schedule notes Barne’s sousaphone recital, a fertility event, and Winger Bingston Jr’s One Man Show, “The United Federation of Characters”, last seen performed in LD: “Moist Vessel”.

The buhgoon have a natural cloaking ability. Other species with biological invisibility include the Jem’hadar (DS9: “The Jem’hadar”), Tosk (DS9: “Captive Pursuit”), Xaheans (ST: “Runaway”), the itronok of Trill (DIS: “Jinaal”). Technically, the Devidians as well, since their natural state is being out of phase (TNG: “Time’s Arrow”).

Bingston’s line “Stuck out of phase, like Geordi and Ro wandering alone,” refers to the events of TNG: “The Next Phase”. The USS Manticore is a Manticore-class destroyer in Star Trek Online, but Bingston’s line implies this is an Oberth-class vessel of that name.

The alien ship is of Clicket design, last seen in “Veritas”.

“Dumber than Fletcher,” says one of the Delta Shifters. Fletcher was a dangerously incompetent officer who was eventually transferred off Cerritos (“Terminal Provocations”). His stint on the USS Titan lasted only six days, after which he was demoted and sent back to Earth.

Ransom has a habit of working out when trying to make decisions (LD: “No Small Parts”).

Ensign Meredith first appeared in LD: “Room for Growth” and is voiced by Charlotte Nicdao, whose Aussie accent some might recognize from Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest.

The Bynars are a race of cybernetically enhanced humanoids who are gifted in programming (TNG: “11001001”). They last appeared on LD in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”, and made an appearance in PRO: “Ascension”.

The Grazerite Professor (whose name is Zurkel) is revealed as a Clicket, in a reveal that reminds me of when the Visitors in V were exposed as reptilian rather than humanoid. It’s also reminiscent of the Bug coming out of its human disguise in the first Men in Black movie and the Raxacoricofalapatorians from Doctor Who.

As noted above, Freeman dealt with the Clickets in “Veritas”, which makes Zurkel’s infuriation understandable.

Billups’ situation is reminiscent of Spock’s death scene in ST II, where he too was dying in a tube, except that opening it would release radiation, not coolant.

Billups’ first name, Andarithio (his friends call him “Andy”) was revealed in “Veritas”. The unnamed cadet first appeared at the end of LD: “wej Duj”.

“Zo”, or Admiral Alonzo Freeman, is Carol Freeman’s husband and Mariner’s father. We last saw him in “Old Friends, New Planets”. The holodeck is set to Paris, and is similar to the view from the Cafe Des Artistes seen in TNG: “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

Shax is drinking out of a purple Highwave Hotjo 14 oz travel mug used in DS9. The purple ones were custom colored for the show, but they are currently available from Highwave if you want them (Deep Space Purple).

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 5x07 Fully Dilated.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.