It’s another episode of Lower Decks, and amidst all the quick-fire jokes and impressive visuals, we learn Another Valuable Lesson: sure we love treaties, Tellarites, timelines and the exciting new T88 model tricorder, but what we’re really here for is hang time with people we love and the sheer joyous ridiculousness of it all. Live long and prosper, friends!
This week on Strange New Worlds our ongoing mission continues — what if Star Trek but relaxed and visually spectacular? In the meantime, Chris teaches some pirates a thing or two about cooking, Christine teaches Spock a thing or two about relationships, and Jesse James Keitel teaches the whole cast a thing or two about being chill, sexy and fabulously evil.
When the Lounge is taken over by violent mobsters, Vic Fontaine (James Darren) has no choice but to call in his fictional friends from the twenty-fourth century to help him out. A stylish and entertaining heist ensues, the good guys win, and we’re reminded (again) about how much we love these people.
In this Very Special Episode, we learn a Valuable Lesson about discrimination and bigotry without a single mention of the minority group being discriminated against. In the meantime — by the most amazing coincidence — Trip has an awkward moment when confronted by some nice people who don’t share his sexual ethic. It’s all a bit of a slog, to be honest.
The crew of Discovery and the peoples of the galaxy are both facing the same dilemma this week: the cautious path of wariness or the risky path of connection with a faceless threat? But it’s Star Trek, and so love and bravery prevail. Meanwhile, Book leaves Michael to look after the cat, and Saru bashfully offers a succulent to the President of Ni’Var.
This week: a clever script, a complete absence of banter, a frog alien that scores zero on the B’omar Scale, astonishingly good incidental music by Mahler and Tchaikovsky, and two outstanding performances from Mark Harelik and Kate Mulgrew — all working together perfectly to create one of Voyager’s Best Episodes Ever. Enjoy. (You will.)
This week, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Quark wants Grilka, Dax wants Worf, Nerys wants Miles, Worf wants Grilka, Miles wants Nerys, Worf wants Dax, Odo wants Nerys (probably), and Julian wants not to know any details about any of this. Meanwhile, Joe wants more of this sort of thing, while Nathan just wants some special effects and reflective surfaces, but will settle for a turbolift that goes up and down without jerking.
When the Enterprise takes on board an inexplicably touchy and unreasonable box of flashing lights dangling from a fishing line, hilarity ensues. Also, racism.
You know how it is: it’s your first spinoff — a cast of delightfully high-concept characters set against a colourful backdrop, with story possibilities around every corner. But then you find yourself limping towards the end of your first season. You’ve done the plague one, the weird alien fugitive one, the buddy comedy one with the CGI shaving cream, and the terrible boardgame one that everyone will have such fond memories of. So what’s left? How about a story where all of your beloved regulars play people no one cares about, embroiled in a conflict that no one has any interest in? We can do that, can’t we?
