Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus

 DVD, Lower Decks S3 (Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus)

You could look on this episode as a return to the most egregious emptiness of Season 1's reference-strewn style of poking or pointing at past Trek rather than creating a good story. You could look at it as a rather pointless aside that has no bearing on anything since it mostly takes place in the Holodeck as a sequel to Mariner's 'film' holoprogram in Season 1. Or you can take it for what it is: a fun rip through the Trek film franchise with just enough character depth to justify the amusement because what its really about is exactly the kind of Trek many of us struggle to find in the modern era, either film or TV iterations, a comment on the meaninglessness of so many blockbuster experiences in general, and in Trek in particular, while also showing there's more than one reason for the existence of the medium. They're there to entertain, as Rutherford so entered into, the guy who isn't taking it seriously, he's just going along for the ride, and his flippant attitude, joking, popping out for snacks, eating during important moments - these can all be annoyances for some of us that like to take our films seriously, but also a reminder there's room for all types. Tendi represents the hyper-seriously invested viewer (or participant, since Holodeck 'films' are really closer to computer games than the passive experience of viewing), who gets angry that others aren't taking it in the same spirit, but we find out it's because she aspires to the character she's playing, she wants to be in command, though she's never admitted it out loud before.

These kind of character explorations are exactly the small details that tend to be missing from the blockbuster entertainment the episode affectionately mocks, so it's nice that, despite widening the viewing angle to cinematic proportions, dropping the lighting and including the glow and grain of film stock (which are reportedly coming back into more widespread use), they didn't forget that they're not actually trying to be those kinds of film. But even in Boimler's desire to get away from the bombast and empty set-pieces he'd set up after hearing the news of his Transporter twin, William Boimler's, untimely death at the hands of a freak gas leak (coming back into the Holodeck in the same dazed manner Picard had in 'Generations' when he learned during a fun holo-outing with his crew that his brother and nephew had both burned to death in a fire), the story apes that of the more mystical direction some of the Trek films took, particularly 'The Final Frontier' with its quest for knowledge. The pull of the two sub-genres of what for many years were the odd and even number film styles, when the next film would go in the opposite direction: sedate and metaphysical 'The Motion Picture' to action revenge flick of 'The Wrath of Khan,' back to Vulcan mysticism reuniting Spock's spirit with his body in 'The Search For Spock,' which also successfully combined the action side with a belligerent Klingon seeking his own quest for power, to the fun frolics of 'The Voyage Home' and its time travel, to the ultimate mystic quest, doubling back to political action thriller with 'The Undiscovered Country' to philosophical exploration of death in 'Generations,' and on to Borg time travel battling of 'First Contact,' a quest for the fountain of youth and its consequences in 'Insurrection' and Romulan political battling in 'Nemesis.'

Then it falls down with Trek's descent into big budget mindless action fare with the Kelvin Timeline films, which get plenty of knocks and digs throughout! The first such slight may have been Mariner's dismay at Boimler's choices, saying it doesn't contractually oblige him to make a bad sequel, although that could easily be seen as a general indictment of the trend of cinematic sequels to good originals, even though 'Star Trek Into Darkness' is often regarded (certainly by me), as being the poorest Trek film (while still having to be acknowledged as the most financially successful even to this date, though we've only had one or two since then, if you count 'Section 31,' which I haven't seen and remain completely ambivalent towards...), but if there was any doubt they were piling in on that trilogy (as it remains after almost a decade later!), it can't be made clearer than when Mariner asks if it makes an alternate cinematic timeline running concurrent with their own with different people playing younger versions of themselves. And like a cherry on top, scientist Tendi calls it a bit of a reach, thereby pleasing many a lifetime Trekker! Mariner even calls it fan fiction, which is another criticism that could be levelled at those films, although 'Lower Decks' is hardly pure in its own use of Trekdom (especially early on when they were riding the barrage of Trekferences more than making good Trek).

If you thought it would only be the Kelvin films that were awarded a bashing, or a loving tribute (the latter especially for those old films, I would say), then the episode is full of similarities to many of the first ten films' plots, tropes and stories. Right from the start when we have evil Romulan sisters (the Melponar Triplets, complete with very un-Romulan outfits - more like female Klingon warrior uniforms...), in their Bird-of-Prey pretty much taking out the hero ship (the Cerritos), much like in 'Generations' (except I was mistaken, it wasn't a BOP, it was a Warbird, but I never liked the piddling little updated versions of 'Nemesis' which had little of the sweeping majesty of the original 'TNG' Warbird model, though I like what they did here combining the predatory shoulder pads of 'TNG' with the grey and black-checked uniforms of 'Nemesis'), you can see this is going to be a celebration - then the beauty of the Sovereign-class Wayfarer under Captain Bucephalus Dagger (not Decker as I originally thought - missed a trick there!), swoops in just like the Enterprise-E saving the Defiant in 'First Contact,' and it reminds you of the glory of Trek ship visuals we used to be able to wallow in, so often missing from the recent live action series'. 'LD' has pretty much always done that kind of thing right (the best moment from Season 1 is the Titan charging to the rescue), and it doesn't matter in this case that we shouldn't actually be seeing the ship's external view since that wouldn't actually be created by the computer as there's no way to see it when you're inside!

Mariner can't understand why Boimler's become so disinterested in the plot of his own story, preferring to go off on some personal side quest - I can understand it from both sides, leaving aside the reason he's suffering a real life crisis point (there's an argument to be made that this is the kind of detail it would've been good to go into more for Boimler, but in a short season with sub-thirty minute episodes designed as mostly humorous diversion from 'proper' Trek they weren't going to go much further than what they did here), but if you were the author of a story you want to experience others' enjoyment of it and see how they react to what you came up with (in the same way as showing a film you like to someone who's never seen it provides vicarious pleasure). At the same time he could be feeling dissatisfaction for what he'd created, maybe it wasn't going as well as it could have or he changed his mind and no longer liked the story, in which case I can see why he'd want to go off on a computer-generated adventure where, while it may not be crafted, it's completely unknown (which could be seen as a comment on AI if you were to explore that notion). Mariner has some proprietary feelings, calling it 'her franchise' which he's ruined, until she speaks to Ransom and learns the reason for Boimler's change of heart, losing his duplicate all of a sudden and wondering at his own mortality and purpose. These kinds of questions used to be at the heart of Trek: exploring the human issues that are beyond science to satisfy, while often doing it in the shape of scientific exploration, as Picard came to understand thanks to Q in 'All Good Things...'

Too much of Trek became devoid of meaning. I'm not saying the old Trek manner of pumping out episodes like it was a sausage factory on overdrive always created gold, but while the quantity is so much lower in the 'DSC' and onwards, the quality has also been so much lower as the direction has been more cinematic with many of the same problems as the film series has had. The reason Trek worked on TV so well was the intimacy, the growing friendship between the viewers and the characters on screen whom we'd get to know over so long and through so many adventures, both broad canvas and personal. 'LD' has been the series to most closely resemble what made Trek work, even if it still shares so many flaws of the modern era: the swearing or crudeness, the more violent or gory violence, the casual modern speech that isn't as jarring in an animated comedy, but is still highly evident. These things aren't going to change, but they can detract from enjoyment for me, upsetting what could otherwise have been good, wholesome beats. This episode wasn't too bad in that regard, though the grossness of the cult leader's flabby skin map, or the guy brought into Sickbay suffering burns, or Boimler aggressively and repeatedly punching the leader out, did detract a little.

There's also the danger you can spend so much time noting and mentally listing the many Trekferences, both specific and general, that it distracts from what the story's about. And even now they occasionally do something that doesn't quite come out right: when they go back to the founding of the Federation in 2161 (sadly you can't quite make out the Enterprise NX-01 crew, though I assume they're the blue-uniformed Starfleet personnel in the distance), Tendi says the Romulans are trying to blow up the founders before they found the Federation, but any Trekker is likely to associate 'the founders' with the Changelings from 'DS9,' and since 'Picard' S3 used that species as villains they're even more in mind (granted this series may not have known they would since it was released before). It's not a big thing, it's just one of those little oddities where this series, for all its in-depth Trekferences sometimes gets the cadence a touch wrong as if it wasn't the natural direction. It could be said to be quite subjective, but  it's noticeable when they got other things so right. The time travel idea was an ideal choice for a Big Story in the Holodeck, but they might have made even more of that aspect to the tale than they do: we visit 2161, 1982 (Dr. T'Ana recognises the whiff of late-20th Century Earth, a subtle nod back to Spock's line about the pollution content of the atmosphere being how they work out where they are), and 2341 for The Great Soolian Algae Crisis, an excuse to show off the terrific maroon jackets of the 'TOS' film series.

Even the font used to set scenes is in the distinctive film style of 'Star Trek II' for places like Tatasciore IX (named for Fred Tatasciore who voices Shaxs, and others), or the Third Moon of Shatanari - here we come to another of those bits of lore that keep repeating: yet another attempt to get William Shatner back into Trek! According to the commentary Mike McMahan had hoped to get him for the Sulu role (not playing Sulu, obviously, but it should've been Kirk). Instead they make do with George Takei, and it is a lovely inclusion and means both of the non-Shatner surviving members of 'TOS' made it into modern Trek, with Walter Koenig also doing a voice in the 'Picard' finale, so that's a very pleasing element of completion. Of course I'd have loved if Captain Sulu had been more involved than a mere voiceover scene (I really thought he had a chance of showing up as this incredibly old Captain of the Excelsior in 'Picard' S2, or even 3, as much of a stretch as it would've been, but I'd heard he was in something), same as with Koenig, but you can hear his age even in this little bit. It's a nice moment, but also a cruel, as we're teased with this beautiful Nexus-like ranch (Boimler even asks if this is heaven, the afterlife or the Nexus!), with Kirk's name on the postbox, but he's gone off to adventures new (perhaps to help Picard?). Still, a nice little tribute, though I assume they're saying Sulu's dead if he's appearing in a vision, though it could be taken as Boimler's mind making it all up (the best line in the whole thing is T'Ana's urging the need for water breaks: "Holodecks might be fake, but dehydration is real!").

It is fun how they morph from the ending of 'Star Trek V' (with the Godlike rock monster spouting pat, trite, AI-generated generalities that have none of the personal meaning Boimler craves, like 'the purpose of life is a life of hopes'), to 'The Motion Picture' (Ki-ty-ha turning out to be Kitty Hawk, just like V'Ger), to 'Generations' (a Nexus-like cabin, or maybe even the Nexus cabin). Of all the questions Boimler might have asked he wants to know if Sulu found it weird to use the crystal buttons on the original Enterprise - this could be another jab at the redesigned version that 'Strange New Worlds' created to stomp all over the original (although I think they do have some of those buttons), or it might be wishful thinking on my part, but whenever they hint at the changes or ignore them, such as 'Picard' S3 showing a Constitution-class vessel as it should have been shown, it's always a pleasing reminder of how Trek used to be internally consistent on a regular basis in so many ways, one of the things I always loved it for, but which is just one more to be lost in the modern era. Boimler's films may not have the deeper meaning he yearns for (something of a theme, much like 'Generations' when it was gently suggesting the idea there's more to life beyond watching Trek), but they were fun, and contrary to Mariner's 'uneven slog that totally ignores the successes of the original,' I'd say this was the slightly more enjoyable.

I may have been expecting a lot more 'TNG' film focus, and there was a lot of it (following the villains through a time portal; calling out the wacky concept of going back to assassinate President Kennedy as a little known Trek film idea from the 1970s; the Europa lab with its 'Star Trek II' design, uniforms and a Carol Marcus-alike; even the Romulan shuttle vehicle bashing the walls as it escapes called to mind 'Nemesis'!), but it wasn't exclusively that, either. The most fun Trekference is the equivalent of the Genesis Project film, complete with the side panels to disguise the difficulty in creating the computer graphics in widescreen back then. In this case the graphics are inferior wireframes using the original Enterprise and the D to demonstrate the effects of the Chronogami to warp time. I didn't even question the use of the Enterprises because we're so used to seeing them, though it was unnecessary in story - but then it's all a made-up holoprogram and doesn't require any logic to be accepted, a clever way out of any problem. It's not just the Trek films that are laughed about, general film tropes are also the target, such as minor characters having no name, (eg: Acolyte 2), Tendi doing an impossible backflip over an explosion that calls to mind Trinity in 'The Matrix' (she does have a passing similarity), and to bring it back around to Trek, Mariner scoffing at too many made up words in a row for the scientific explanation, technobabble being something Trek's always been known for! I especially enjoyed the moment she steps over the black border to get out of the Holodeck, a good gag.

Like all good/bad films, it ends with a cliffhanger as we discover William Boimler didn't die after all, he was just snatched by Section 31 aboard a Defiant-class ship. That he asks why they have a black badge to show who they work for is a good question (even though once he puts it on his black uniform it's invisible...), since they made that ludicrous choice in 'DSC' which started the whole ruining of 31 as a concept - while simultaneously enjoying the ridiculousness of it being highlighted, it's also somewhat irritating because it means 'LD' has accepted and reinforced its reality in canon where I'd rather they'd made a joke about them not having a big black badge for him to wear - a subtler way for achieving the same result without messing up the old continuity. I felt much the same about Mariner's mistake about Kirk: when Boimler starts attacking the cult leader she says he could do it the Kirk way, but it's a stereotype that Kirk was always first to his fists, rather he'd have been quick to talk, and in an episode so closely intent on the films, you'd think they'd have realised the Kirk of the films is different to that of 'TOS,' another example of things not quite sitting right for me. I also can't help but feel that, while Takei was a great addition, too often they waste a big name - not James Cromwell, but J.G. Hertzler, for example. He's the first 'TOS' character to be reprised in the new Trek era, (unless you include the Kelvin films, then not since them had we had someone return to their role - a long time since 1996 for his 'Voyager' contribution to the 30th Anniversary which is itself edging closer to thirty years old, so it's impressive they got him!). If the legacy of this episode is to be Takei's final 'appearance' then I'd have liked more of him. Then again, it's not too bad and we should relish even small opportunities which are dwindling year on year, and I'm sure this isn't the last 'Crisis Point' in the saga, though I hope the final part of the trilogy is better.

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