Star Trek Social Club

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.

Written by: Mike McMahan

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

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?

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

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

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

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 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).

Written by: Cullen Crawford

Directed by: Bob Suarez