Trusted Sources

 DVD, Lower Decks S3 (Trusted Sources)

The early part of the episode is functional, adequate, mildly amusing - all the usual things you hope to expect in the better parts of the series, but it really takes off when the Breen are introduced! Talk about making a race look dangerous! So often the Cerritos has had to deal with unimpressive adversaries like the Pakleds, showing how weak the ship is or inexperienced the crew, relatively speaking, so we rarely see them face off against a threat that would test even the great hero crews of old Trek, but not this time - the battle sequences are probably the best modern Trek has ever done, as short as they were: the Captain and some of her crew beam down to planet Brekka expecting some mild diplomatic difficulties at worst and come face to gleaming green visor with the fearsome and still mysterious (no, I haven't yet seen 'DSC' Season 5...), race that began as an occasional mention dating all the way back to 'TNG,' eventually being seen on 'DS9' a couple of times, then rising out of the blue to be a key ally against the Federation in the Dominion War. The first thing we see them do is vaporise a Brekkan before the Away Team has to skedaddle back to the ship. That was terrific enough, but then we get an attack by three Breen warships on the little Cerritos, and I felt a little thrill of excitement running down my back when one of the famous asymmetrical ships takes a banking turn past the camera! This is the kind of Trek that you only see on this series, the kind that harks back to when makers of Trek understood the superior aesthetics of ships in space, and all it took was three seasons of an animated comedy to get us there!

That's not quite true, as far back as the Titan swooping in to save the day in the Season 1 finale I've recognised the makers of 'LD' have known what makes the visuals appealing in Trek, but even so, it is much more of a 'TNG' clone than a 'DS9' one (even though we get two mentions of Quark in this episode!), and the situation of being this secondary vessel rather than one in the main fleet (as silly as that still seems), necessitates them facing only the occasional single enemy. The Breen just look deadly, and if there was a way to bring back a race that we've heard hide nor hair of (if they even have hides or hair - so much remains unknown about them), and make them a genuine threat to the extent you feel like you're watching a serious live action episode, then this is the way to do it and I applaud the writing, directing and design that pulled it off, even while lamenting that live action Trek never gets to this state of heightened alert and real feeling of peril for the characters. Once again, 'LD' has done it: creating what I would call proper Trek, and even when they throw in a characteristic gag, such as Migleemo's 'Meema,' or Mother, on the big screen when Freeman strides onto the Bridge to take command in this life and death situation, the joke exists, and it is funny, but they breeze right over it like it's not even there, there's a sense of intense seriousness that overrides any possible silliness, and it's so rare to have that thrill of danger in modern Trek when most of the time nothing means anything, even, perhaps especially, in this series.

It remains a comedy, it's just that they squeeze all that into the first half where we have what appears to be the A-plot of a Federation News Network (I still want to know what happened to the Federation News Service which always sounded so much more like something the Federation would have, a service, rather than a TV station, or whatever, which just makes it yet another thing like our time), representative experiencing what it's like to work aboard a California-class ship during an important new initiative: Project Swing-by. Captain Freeman's proposal of revisiting planets not recently contacted has finally been accepted, even though I'm not sure it's really any different to the supposed mission statement of that class of ship, which is second contact and clean-up operations after the 'big boys' have gone their way. But it's nice that this Captain is getting some sway since she can often come across as a bit of a joke, much like the rest of her crew (in fact, the bit where the FNN reporter suggests the crew is 'chaotic, irresponsible, silly' could just as well be describing the series itself), although watching it with the perspective of what comes next means it was all a ploy to use her by the evil forces in control, to manufacture an excuse to show the new Texas-class in operation (is there a bit of overt political nudging going on here: the California liberality are the good guys, the big, bad Texas is the brash danger to the organisation...?).

It's not simply the terrific resurgence of a long-dormant foe (at least in Trek production - we don't know what happened with them after the war in-universe), especially as that didn't end up going anywhere, sadly (I'd have loved them to be the main opponent of the series, or even more if they'd been involved in 'Picard,' though no doubt other writers would have messed them up - again I have yet to see the 32nd Century version of them in 'DSC'...), but the B-plot (if you can call it that), of Mariner being transferred to the ill-reputed Starbase 80, all over a misunderstanding - it's actually a valuable lesson in the importance of keeping your nose clean and garnering a positive reputation because that's really what sunk her in both the eyes of her Mother and the crew, in this case unfairly. But she's always been so individualistic to the point of bordering on insubordination, that it doesn't take any more than the merest innuendo for everyone to instantly jump to the conclusion Mariner's responsible for the bad report made by FNN. On this occasion it very much wasn't her fault, but she dug her own grave with every shovelful of bad behaviour or pleasure in subverting her position or those in authority that although she doesn't deserve it in this instance, she does deserve it for past misdemeanours, both seen and unseen.

I'm not sure what this Victoria Nuzé (newsy?), is if she's apparently never even seen a Warp Core before (unless she was merely being polite when Freeman suggested it, but she certainly sounded genuinely excited), as you'd think reporters of the 24th Century would be fully up to date with Starfleet ships and such. I know they may not play as much of a part in civilian life since all we see are the Starfleet-based lives of characters (I've read ideas from people online that they should do a series based around civilians in the Federation, or even out of it, but what would be the point, it would be boring, people going about their daily lives rather than having adventure on the frontiers!), Trek being heavily biased towards active service, but surely even the most inexperienced citizen would be well in the know on starships and technology! While I'm being nit-picky I also don't believe they'd have little lapel mics for interviews like now - the floating camera would have directional sound receivers that would perfectly pick up any and all sounds and be able to isolate them, too. That's one big problem in the modern era: where old Trek tended to avoid going into too much detail on many things, partly to leave some mystery, partly so they weren't tied down narratively (because they used to keep to what they revealed!), they seem desperate to show as much as possible, which then doesn't make a lot of sense because they haven't taken the time to think through where technology would be in a given instance. So you have uninspired junk like Picard watching the news on a flat holo-screen hovering in the air (it's transparent so we can see it's not physical, but who'd want to watch like that!), and in this case, wired lapel mics.

Credit to Ransom, though, he recapped the events of the Season 1 'TNG' episode this story was following up on, very well (and Freeman's outraged response of it now being their job to check in on an entire planet Picard left cold turkey was quite realistic, but very true to the series that they'd choose to catch up with such obscure races!). The way they tell the story visually on a PADD with icons and simple graphics, a commentary by the First Officer, made me wish they could do recap edits of other famous Trek episodes, just to see how they'd tell them! That wasn't exactly a joke as such, but it was quite fun to see, and that's another part of the episode that worked: it had drama and humour, and the latter didn't overshadow the former. It was also a deal cleaner than most episodes, perhaps the Cerritos crew were holding back a bit because they had this special guest aboard and had to be on their best behaviour giving her the best impression of the ship and its crew, which I liked. It shows they don't need to be dropping in bleeped-out swearing every few minutes (perhaps one reason Dr. T'Ana wasn't as much in evidence!). I'm not saying there wasn't any, because there was, but as a whole the place seemed a better version of itself that I wish was the norm! It also makes Mariner look much worse when she's wandering around covered in blueberry juice and getting it everywhere, oblivious to her childish attitude and unprofessional demeanour. It is easy to forget that that isn't, and shouldn't be, the norm in Trek, even though you come to enjoy these characters (certainly much more than any of the live action ones of recent years, bar the 'TNG' crew).

The episode is chock full of Trekferences, but in a refreshing turn of events, they're mainly to Cerritos turns of event! We get Mariner wondering if the way the crew are talking about her is some 'Frame of Mind' thing (which is one of those that doesn't make sense since she's referencing an episode title, though I suppose you could spin it that she's talking about what happened as being in Riker's frame of mind or the name of the play he was performing at the time, but is a little too on the nose in such a relatively serious episode), or Admiral Les Buenamigo (less good friend), telling Freeman to make the Ornarans show her their government in case they're secretly run by children (as in 'Miri'?), or someone pretending to be the devil (got to be 'Devil's Due'). There's Freeman's own suggestion for showing the usefulness of Project Swing-by by returning to Beta III where the inhabitants have probably fallen for Landru again (as we saw in 'No Small Parts' - a good joke here, but I never liked that the just ending of 'The Return of The Archons' was undone by this series). And can't forget the conspiracy theory guy - even he turns on Mariner's apparent betrayal of the ship though he thinks it's all part of some Temporal Cold War 'shenanigans'! Oh, and the interface of the USS Aledo, the first fully-automated starship, looks very much like the M5 graphics (coloured lines on a black rectangle), from 'The Ultimate Computer,' subtly hinting at the danger therein. Even 'Enterprise' gets its call-out (other than the Temporal Cold War), with a Pyrithian bat causing trouble for the crew of Starbase 80, which is so out of it they wear 'TNG'-era combadges...

All that's without me even going into the fact this is all based around following up on 'Symbiosis,' dating the episode firmly as 2380 or '81 (depending on if the episode fell in 2364 or '65) since it's set seventeen years after Picard made first contact! I've always rather liked that episode, not just for reuniting the two sons (possibly...), of 'Star Trek II' where the actors that played David Marcus and Joachim were oddly both cast, but also because it was one of those tough calls Picard made and it's interesting to see the ramifications. At least they didn't undo any good from it as they did with 'Archons,' as while we never found out what happened to the Brekkans, or why the Breen were there killing them, there didn't seem to be any connection with the Picard mission. But I did say that the Trekferences were mainly about the Cerritos and while that may not be true after all, having just written about all the non-'LD' connections, we get a whole spiel from the reporter about events that had happened on the series: Ransom turning into a giant head ('Strange Energy'), Freeman's spa trip and meltdown earlier this season ('Room For Growth'), the incident of transporting a Doopler into the exclusive Starfleet party they couldn't get into ('An Embarrassment of Dooplers'), the time the Pandronian instructor came aboard ('I, Excretus'), the episode where Head of Security Lieutenant Kayshon (though he isn't head since Shaxs returned), was turned into a puppet - love the way he says the crew didn't hold it against him! ('Kayshon, His Eyes Open'), the time spear-wielding aliens took over the ship (I vaguely remember it, but couldn't recall the episode), Quark being kidnapped ('Hear All, Trust Nothing'), and the trouble with the Exocomp ('No Small Parts').

Tantalisingly, Victoria mentions she's seen a lot about Q as the scene fades out so are we supposed to take it that his one visit in 'Veritas' wasn't an isolated incident? We know he does take a liking to bothering specific people so maybe all starship Captains have to go through it from time to time? Makes me wonder what other mischief he got up to and wish we'd had a proper Q episode since early on when 'name' characters appeared they tended to be mere cameos, and I think Q would fit in quite well with this crew. Just another couple of little questions: would it really be that quick to transfer someone, since the journey between neighbouring planets Ornara and Brekka can't be very long, yet the denizens of Starbase 80, implied to be slackers, have no trouble getting a shuttle to the Cerritos and doing it exceedingly efficiently! Are they actually just victims of a bad name and, like Mariner in this episode, it's not actually justified and in reality, while being poor at hygiene and public relations, perhaps they are geniuses? No, probably not, and I'm not sure we really want to be portraying any branch of Starfleet as losers without a clue, that really doesn't play well into the positive attitude of Trek, although it's far from the first time 'LD' has joined the modern bandwagon of going from not only making the 'heroes' of Trek imperfect, but even downright failures (see Raffi, for example), who can't excel even with the advantages of no want or trouble in their lives! Not the best message.

My other note was on the archeologist/thief, Petra Aberdeen's ship, which Mariner goes off in to a new life, apparently, unable to accept the unfairness of dismissal from both ship and Mother - it appears to have only one Warp Nacelle, so how could it create a warp field! I know, it's not the most important thing to focus on at the end of such an eventful episode, but I couldn't help noticing. I've been generally less impressed by this season than I thought I'd been on first viewing, but looking back I actually was quite harsh and I've enjoyed most episodes more than I did before, perhaps because I found Season 4 a bit underwhelming after the previous highs, perhaps because I'm watching with a more analytical eye, perhaps I'm simply more used to it all now. In this episode's case I wasn't as sold on it then (partly worried they'd undermine 'Symbiosis,' but also didn't realise the Texas-class was meant to be something negative as we'd heard in the past how Starfleet could send out un-crewed vessels, but preferred to send people, and also how the Breen have a powerful weapon so how could they develop a new one when the original was beaten...), despite my memory being that the one with the Breen was a highlight of the season, and I really was impressed by how good the battle with them was (whether it be space shots or Shaxs and others gearing up for zero-g combat in the approaching boarding raid), both in attachment to the moment and characters, and in executing a thrilling climax. Hopefully, the season finale will remain as strong as I remember it, because I do pretty much consider this season the second or third best of current Trek after Season 2, competing with 'Picard' Season 3, even if I was surprised how many lesser episodes there were than in my memory.

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