Fully Dilated

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S5 (Fully Dilated)

They both win! Tendi and T'Lyn are both in the running for Senior Science Officer on the Bridge and throughout the episode Tendi desperately competes with the Vulcan woman, even while they're both trapped on a time-dilated planet living out life while they wait for Boimler and Rutherford to beam them back way out of schedule. On the face of it, it's a charming end to a fun episode where the Captain, listening to the advice of... none other than Lieutenant Commander Data (or more precisely: Data from a purple universe - yes, typically wacky idea), decides they can both have the position. At the same time it's typical of modern Trek (and modern life in general), that people have to be placated when things don't smooth out for them, so instead of having to face a hard decision and deal with it as a fact of life, we have to find a way to please them both. It might sound a touch crusty and complaining to point this out, but Trek was always good at dealing with difficult things, disappointment being one of them, and teaching the audience while our characters learn something. Of course this series tends to subvert things a lot, even while paying tribute or making callbacks to a better era of Trek production, so it's not exactly out of character, and really, it is a... let's say 'sweet' ending. Tendi's always been sweet, T'Lyn is the epitome of the professional Vulcan character modern Trek's always lacked, so I can live with what is a concession to the sensitive in this case, and while I don't remember how it plays out, I'm now curious to see how the roles will work.

The big, nay, massive boon of this particular story is having Brent Spiner along to play Data's head, in what I assume will be the last ever time he plays his famous character (or a variation of such). It may not be The Commander Data of our (and 'Lower Decks'), universe, but apparently this purple alternate is pretty close judging by the way Data talks of his best friend, Geordi, whom he has to get back for, or Lieutenant Worf who he's seen chew ropes with his bare teeth, and Data himself experienced the same events of 'Time's Arrow' where he was stuck in a cave for hundreds of years only to be rescued by Picard, himself, and 'a guy in a silver jumpsuit'! It's all very appealing, jumping back into a version of Data that's much closer to the original 'TNG' character than the later (or current, in this episode's time), Data of the films, since he'd be dead at this point, yet would return in 'Picard' set much later than 'LD,' filmed before this episode... It's simply charming to hear the old Data way of speaking, still on the Enterprise-D, albeit a purple version (Data's take on his universe's penchant for purple is why wouldn't you use the colour if it's available, which is as good a justification as any!), and of course he and Tendi go together perfectly, both nice, thoughtful characters interested in science, while Data is more sensible, able to provide moral support and see past Tendi's issues. It does highlight the difference between this series and 'TNG' in that even one of the calmest and sweetest-of-temperament characters seems scatty, manic and a touch cruel (she turns Data off mid-sentence), compared with 'TNG,' but in Tendi's defence she was going without sleep and her urge to 'win' against T'Lyn had clouded her judgement.

It's never a good idea to try and compete with a Vulcan, and T'Lyn is typically adept at whatever physical tasks she puts her mind to, whether it be instantly performing expert juggling she's never attempted before (a bit like Data dancing in 'Data's Day' - he'd have made a good Vulcan), a gardener of great distinction, able to grow giant vegetables, then becoming rich through turning the vegetable skins into beauty products the natives love, it's both ridiculous, yet grounded in typical Vulcan behaviour of excelling at all they do - most importantly for me after so many bad versions or performances of the race in recent decades, she does so much to remind us why Vulcans are the coolest race, and the reason they're my favourite. The only missing element for me was when she decides to withdraw from the running for the Science Officer position due to believing she was unable to communicate well enough after Tendi had withdrawn into her competitive bubble. It's endearing she blames herself for Tendi's mistakes, but I felt she should have made the choice as she saw the issue had come between their friendship, something she valued and would not want to damage. It's possible she meant that and was choosing to focus on the 'faults,' but she seemed quite genuine and there are plenty of times we've seen her make a pretence for the sake of reverse psychology or whatever, so you can tell the difference.

As it is, the story is quite a pleasant undercover mission on an alien planet, the trio of Mariner, Tendi and T'Lyn are trapped there and just start living lives with different emphases for each so it becomes a fascinating look at what they'd do in such a situation as it has been for plenty of characters before (the obvious ones being both Trekferenced when Mariner realises this is her chance to have a 'probe life' like Captain Picard, and also calls it a 'Carbon Creek' situation after the 'Enterprise' incident of Vulcans crashing on Earth and having to make a life there). Aside from Mariner's bad language and the writers still finding a way to bring some disgust into proceedings (Boimler and Rutherford have to lick the Transporter console to remove their spilled drinks, getting repeatedly electrocuted, and suggesting the operator doesn't wash his hands... unlikely consoles would be affected by a liquid spill as Starfleet would be wiser than that, or that they'd get spiked by electricity - on the other hand the consoles do often explode in battle, so maybe it was a comment on their apparent unreliability at sensitive times), this is one of the most gentle episodes of the series, what with Data there to share wisdom, and an agrarian community, there's very little seen of the Cerritos and the other characters so it gives them an opportunity to do something different, all while still playing with familiar Trek tropes.

The idea of every second aboard the Cerritos equalling a week on the planet is played out well as we keep cutting back to the brief, but unrestrained panic in the Transporter room as time ticks by - the fact Voyager encountered a similar planet is mentioned and the Trekferences seem generally very apt and organic to the story, only adding to the pleasure of it all (such as 'Edo-level' stupidity as Mariner describes her two-month sentence in gaol for a mere eye-poke, yet that hints at the reality of a culture in which the people have horns growing out of their heads, so they would need to be careful!), an alternate Tasha Yar gets a mention (shame we never had Denise Crosby back in modern Trek, other than the old hologram recording she gave Data, seen again in 'Picard,' as a voice role would have been perfect), and the beam-out location is definitely reminiscent of Vasquez Rocks seen throughout Trek productions across the decades! Reflecting before rewatching the episode I wondered if Data's colour was meant to be a Trekference back to when they were experimenting with his skin tone before 'TNG' began, with bubblegum pink and battleship grey variations until the gold we know was settled on (even carried across to action figure variants of the time!), so it was a shame the purple wasn't named as bubblegum pink, though they do get in 'neutral grey' when describing our Enterprise.

It's somewhat surprising they mention neither the D's demise nor Data's, but I suppose they didn't want to bring down the mood, even so, it would have added to the continuity and seems conspicuous by absence - it's more the simple pleasure of meeting a legend for our characters rather than the poignancy of meeting him after he was dead and long gone, which of course isn't the case for viewers with 'Picard' to come a couple of decades later, with a new Data, but the 'LD' characters don't know that and shouldn't react in that way. If I'm nitpicking (and you know it's a good one when there's less to point out), it was not so Vulcan of T'Lyn to be taken out so easily by the Ferengi-like, sneering Snell (voiced by Eric Bauza, his last of numerous roles across the series), the village lurker who's a constant thorn in their side, able to leap from the rafters and knock her unconscious. But in general the Vulcan greatness was on pronounced display, even the attitude toward them was spot-on, Tendi worrying she's in competition with her back on the ship, and Rutherford reassuring her it's probably that Vulcans just forget about feelings (I know, technically Vulcans are supposed to know feelings very well in the sense they experience them tenfold compared to most races, but the point is they use such strong control to bury them that they are alienated from them, not barely contained just under the surface of their persona as is so often wrongly portrayed in Trek from 'Enterprise' onwards!). Oh, and I noticed a rare misspeak from a cast member that apparently wasn't caught at any stage: when commenting on the beverages Rutherford and Boimler have rustled up, Nöel Wells says: "This is something the other Boimler drink, isn't it"!

I enjoyed the classic plot of crew having to be physically transformed into aliens to infiltrate their pre-warp society, Tendi and T'Lyn's inadvertent competition and Mariner's eagerness to live out an alternate life while she has the chance, only succeeding in being imprisoned for her lack of awareness of the society's rules. Having Spiner was a high point of the season (better than the other cameos to come later), he really is Trek royalty, and I especially appreciated they treated him right, didn't have him do anything wacky like swearing or saying ridiculous lines for a gag, but played it straight as the real Data would (even while they technically had licence to do whatever they wanted since it's not The Data, after all!), and while he's now at the age the voice can't be disguised for being old (it sounds like he's got marshmallows in his mouth), he still gets the tone and readings perfect, and if this is, as I suspect, the last time he plays the role (though twenty-odd years ago we thought it was over then, so never say never!), it was a charming performance that expertly harks back to an earlier time. All that and the typically boisterous ending with Mariner playing her soap flute badly which closes out the episode beautifully and amusingly, means I liked this a bit more than when I first saw it, and it was always the high point of the season even then, meaning this is another season to have at least one episode that breaks into the 'standard' quality of old Trek, well done. Even the title is a play on Worf's famous line about Keiko being fully dilated so she may now give birth, another nice 'TNG' Trekference, yet also well suited to the dimensional fissures arc of the season - nice one.

***

Of Gods and Angles

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S5 (Of Gods and Angles)

One of the more forgettable episodes, to the extent that I actually had the thought while watching: 'Oh yeah, Dr. T'Ana... Oh yeah, Shaxs... Oh yeah, Billups...' Some of these characters have been largely forgotten this season and they haven't built on them as they were doing in earlier seasons. The ideas were there: a link back to the race Apollo came from in 'Who Mourns For Adonais?' and what would it be like if one of the so-called 'demi-gods' had descendants that eventually ended up in Starfleet - with all their powers how could they fit in? Then there are the delightful old tropes such as scanning residue for a murder investigation, two opposing races that need to be brought together... Yet it all somehow felt cobbled together and didn't gel as they sometimes do. It didn't help the B-story of Boimler thinking the way to being more successful is to copy his alternate self by becoming pals with T'Ana, the most bad-tempered, unfriendly crewmember aboard - again, it sounds like an idea ripe with potential, but then T'Ana just comes across as a sweary, swearing swearer. 'Hur-hur-hur, swearing is so funny...' kind of attitude. It's just a nothing story, and of course it's 'hilarious' that both Boimler and Rutherford learn the wrong lesson that to be a success you need to become more like someone else, all the while drip-feeding a subversive agenda - no religion among humans in 24th Century Trek? We'll have Sikhs and Muslims in the background (not that they hadn't done it before). The photonic lifeforms are referred to without gender, which makes sense, but it just added to that sense of nothing going on except for a spot of agenda-ising. 'Anti-cube propaganda' sounds like the kind of thing someone would be accused of in today's world, like the nebulous 'hate speech' which can be used for any definition they want. It was all just rather dopey.

So what else is there? Very little. Yes, you can see some of the rebellious Mariner of old in Ensign Olly, and she can see it in her, too, and takes it upon herself to help her fit in, all very altruistic, except the way Mariner is it comes across as very self-serving and all about me, because this is who I was and I understand. Two Mariners are double the annoying. And how does she even have access to a door override code? I suppose I shouldn't ask - she's Mariner! There are the usual Trekference gags, whether visual (Worf's black chair of multi-ball design and a Dabo wheel are among the items Olly packs onto a grav sled, and perhaps her driving the sled down the corridor, smashing into walls as she goes could have been seen as a tribute to a similar scene in 'Nemesis'), or specific links back, such as copying Wesley Crusher by playing with a mini, handheld Tractor Beam, or the mention of her former crew being made up of reformed Maquis (they must have been the few fortunate ones that either didn't get stranded on Voyager or hunted down and executed by the Dominion), and obviously the big one being hearing of Zeus and how Olly is descended from him - the laurel is actually a bio-luminescent construct that can't be removed, so even now they're filling in a spot of 'TOS' canon that we probably never thought would be.

Even Mariner saying the Q are more annoying than scary is a little reminder of how things change over time, since when Q was first introduced he was pretty heavy and dangerous, putting humanity on trial and bringing them into contact with the Borg to burst their prideful bubble. But over time it seems we no longer think of Q as being all that much of a threat. Other than these little details the episode didn't have all that much to say. Okay, there's the cliched different races finding common ground, almost a 'Romeo and Juliet' situation, except we didn't see it play out, merely the conclusion. The squares and the orbs were simple, but well designed, stripping things right back to the minimum is always trickier than embellishing or elaborating. And it's interesting that they're a rare photonic species... And the battle between them was full-on ridiculous, but in a good way... I'm really grasping at straws to write anything about this episode, as you can tell! Apparently the voice of SquAaron, the result of the union between the two races, was voiced by Roan K. Lai, who'd been Moopsy in 'I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee,' so that's something. And the main cast do plenty of guest voices. That's about it. I'm sputtering out here. Oh, there's no connection to the subspace fissures arc, though of course Beard Boimler is firmly part of this story. Okay. The ship looks beautiful, as always. Yep. Wait, there was one thing: Tendi says something about adding Ferengi blood to their Sickbay collection they'll have a whole rainbow of colours, so is their blood different to the usual red of most races? I don't remember if we'd ever seen it (I'd love it to be orange, of course!). Nope, that's it. It all came across as filler, and when there are so few episodes to go, that's disappointing. At the same time it also makes me realise it was probably a good thing for the series to end when they weren't doing enough good stuff any more.

**

Starbase 80?!

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S5 (Starbase 80?!)

Before the season was released it was said there'd be some sort of 'Enterprise' episode, or maybe they just suggested they were trying to come up with one, but I took it from the 22nd Century uniforms (and a few other Trekferences... or maybe Entferences!), being used here that this was the episode. Consequently I felt a little disappointed it wasn't more substantial and in no way on a par with the 'DS9' tribute where they visited the station and checked in on a couple of the characters. The 'Voyager' tribute of the previous season was a bit weaker, but still, we got to revisit the USS Voyager and have a little fun with that, so perhaps they were following the rule that 'DS9' was superior, 'Voyager' was a little lesser, and 'Enterprise' was certainly the inferior Trek (until the Kurtzman era came along and made it look like solid gold-standard Trek brilliance in comparison!), by having their tribute episodes follow the same pattern. I don't really think that, especially knowing T'Pol was the real 'Enterprise' surprise to come for the season, so perhaps this was a trick to lower viewers' defences in order to impress them all the more by bringing back Jolene Blalock who was one of the least likely Trek stars ever to return!

Even with the Spock subversion trick (in other words, pretending to kill him at the start of 'Star Trek II' to quash the rumours only to genuinely kill him at the end - could also be called the Trip Tucker trick since a similar thing happened in the 'Enterprise' finale), this still doesn't come across all that well. Despite its fun Trekferences, both visual and otherwise (making it more a 'TOS' tribute than anything else thanks to some nice recreations of various settings from the old Constitution-class ships of Kirk's era, that striking, but simple mid-23rd Century look with none of your rubbish 'DSC' or 'SNW' rejigging of 'visual canon'), as well as some beautiful establishing shots (of which I could have wished for more - not so much the rundown Starbase, but the Cerritos always looks so lovely), and the twist that those entering the 'Hell' of this much-maligned Starfleet facility, notorious fleet-wide for its flaws, actually bring their own flaws with them, I'm not sure it does Mariner any favours. In fact I'm sure it doesn't, the point being her expectations and assumption Starbase 80 and its denizens were responsible for everything going wrong when it was actually the Cerritos crew having brought back an anaphasic entity from a recent underwater mission. But the point seems to be, as Mariner herself states, that if only she hadn't been the 'new, improved' version where she was embracing Starfleet life instead of rubbing up against it, she'd have realised what was going on much sooner. It seems to be a typically modern idea of 'being yourself' the most important thing, not following protocols and being professional - as long as it's good for you, that's what matters, which isn't a good message to send out.

Not that this is by any means a message episode, nor that the series itself is all that good at the more serious side of Trek (which is fortunate in this time when political and ideological direction is so one-sided rather than the old balanced and nuanced approach to storytelling that served so well and appealed across the spectrum), and I can at least give it credit for using its own mythology or backstory, however you want to call it, Starbase 80 having been a quiet threat in the background for a long time. Yet the episode also feels like an amalgam of the pilot, 'Second Contact,' for the 'zombies taking over the ship' and 'Much Ado About Boimler' for the creepy facility full of weirdness so though they'd done a mere forty-four episodes prior to this (which would've been coming towards the end of Season 2 in old money, and even then this would be almost half the number of minutes due to shorter running time), they were already starting to ape themselves, never mind about playing with old Trek tropes. The tropes aren't the issue, it's how they tell stories, and again, while we're meant to believe in this ship, crew and world as being as much a part of the Trek timeline as any live action series, they can't help but make some silly choices that diminish its own reality. Take the Cerritos' Self-Destruct system for example: it's a big moment for that to be activated, and while I'm fine with them playing with such ideas, the simple, mechanical issue is that they shouldn't be able to flick it on and off.

It's done for a joke, which is what you'd expect, and you can even come up with reasons why it could happen (the entity had affected all ship's systems; Billups was the one activating it and he's Chief Engineer so could have found a way to do that), but it just takes away from the reality. The whole point is you can't activate or deactivate this momentous, built-in, last resort, otherwise it would be useless, but as well as Billups doing just that, on and off like a light switch, Mariner, who isn't even command crew level, jumps in and switches it off. Again, you can make up reasons, but it's not very satisfying and like so many things in modern Trek, diminishes the reality and gravity of situations. At the same time as doing ridiculous things for laughs, they also have some good little moments that would only be understood by those in the know: Commander Kassia Nox ('Stargate' reference for another all-knowing race?), the El-Aurian woman Mariner assumes is really old (another trope - see Artim in 'Insurrection' who's asked jokingly if he's much older than he looks, is only a child), but she's only in her Thirties. So that makes her only an 'ordinary' humanoid, Mariner claims. All good fun. Dr. Horseberry is half mutated into a Tarchannen alien like Geordi in 'TNG' - if you know the episode you instantly recognise such unique physiology and enjoy the joke. And they've always thrown in a lot of visual gags Trekferencing old episodes or characters - the shop selling old uniforms and props is a treasure trove with all sorts of connections, such as android Ruk's outfit.

Not sure if they were saying something about Roddenberry since you don't name a character Gene in Trek without realising the connotation, plus he had the same build and was also a Southerner, but if so I didn't read anything into it. Stephen Root voiced him (and an Acamarian), and had apparently also been in the 'Unification' two-parter on 'TNG' which is a nice connection. Oscar Montoya who reprised Mackler (I admit, I don't recall him!), had been the same character in 'Shades of Green' this season, but was most recognisable as Vexilon from 'In the Cradle of Vexilon' - they often liked to reuse voice actors. Sometimes it can be a bit too recognisable when one of the main cast fills another role, as here with Jerry O'Connell playing Clem the anaphasic entity, another of those powerful aliens that's really only a child of his race. The gag with the Decontamination Chamber where you have to rub gel... yes, that's nonsensical. While the Starbase's Transporters may not be suitable for organic matter (another nod to the NX-01), why can't the Cerritos use its own Transporters to beam over anywhere they want to? And what good would the gel do, clearly it had no effect on the anaphasic energy which should surely be on Starfleet's radar. But then you get the 'twist handle control' Turbolifts with the joke of Ransom asking if Freeman used these when she was an Ensign, or the fact the Chief Engineer is a good ol' Southern boy like Trip Tucker III.

Freeman somehow has the ability to fix any Engineering problem on the station and I don't remember them ever saying she had skills or interest in that area (though I could have missed something - only having seen the episodes twice I don't remember as many of the character details as I might). But then you've got wall Communicators as they call them ('wall-comms'), and the gravity sweet spot in all of Engineering, but it's not actually a sweet spot as in 'Enterprise,' it's just the grav plating playing up. I wonder if they were going for more of a 'Babylon 5' tribute in some ways as the station is more like that facility in tone (even called 'SB80' at times), especially with the rough lower levels full of lawless aliens - it is good fun whenever they pointedly use a badly designed Trek race of the past as a joke: in this case the Acamarians who looked so poor and were in such a weak episode ('The Vengeance Factor'). They've done that a number of times, bringing back such weak aliens of the week, like the Pakleds whose very presence is a joke, and that works. They could have redeemed these 'lost' races, so in some ways I'd have preferred that, but it's more about recalling the silly parts of Trek past, the kind you'd never expect to see again, so I understand it (still waiting for Letheans, but looks unlikely now). One thing that is a nice takeaway is that though SB80 seems forgotten, it was described as a place for 'second-chancers' so was meant for redemption (and 'second-contacters' should fit right in!).

Captain Freeman finds commonality with Starbase 80, admitting early on that the Cerritos isn't exactly cutting edge either when they go there for an essential component (shades of 'Empok Nor'?), but it isn't till the end she sees them in the similar situation of being disregarded by Starfleet and realises she was thinking less of them in the same way as people think less of the Cerritos and its California-class so a good lesson in humility and seeing what's being done to us is a trap we can fall into in how we treat others. Starbase 80 is on a whole other dimension of neglect, though, once again making you question Starfleet values that they could allow such things (and especially making a treaty with such as the Acamarians for joint ownership of the station itself!). So it's a mixed bag as is so often the case with this series. Would they really be wearing 22nd Century uniforms and relying on food vendors? Sometimes the cartoonish 'hilarity' requires more illogic than anything else to play out, it's a problem in the series and once again I come to an episode really ready to write about it and eager to see more, and come away feeling more like I used to do in Season 1 where it's more about shock value (though not much of that here, grossness reduced to zombie drooling), or jokiness than good storytelling, but this is still better than some of the early episodes. They don't explicitly join things up with the fissure quest, only loosely with Freeman wanting to do better with the Starbase her alternate counterpart ran in the other universe, and Boimler's facial hair gradually forming into something, but not every episode has to tie in. The fact doing good and having the right attitude doesn't automatically mean things run smoothly for you, as Mariner found, is a test of character, something Trek is all about. It does come across a bit sudden that they're trying to redeem her past behaviour, but that's Mariner summed up: a bit sudden!

**

A Farewell To Farms

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S5 (A Farewell To Farms)

Each season they like to do an episode that breaks the format, in other words something completely different, opening titles over a more thoughtful version of the theme music, an alien point of view, that sort of thing. That can work, but for every 'wej Duj' there's 'A Mathematically Perfect Redemption,' whose stench is hard to remove. Fortunately this falls more in the former category as a fairly enjoyable stab at Klingon culture, but it's also another episode where I feel the series isn't quite working as it should be, and as I know it can. There are some fun, minor wisecracks about Trek lore, there is some exploration of Klingon culture or subculture, and it is nice to continue the story of Ma'ah, the Klingon we first met in 'wej Duj,' and who's had an arc weaving here and there through the series ever since. I like that kind of continuity, it's missing from most of modern Trek where even the main characters don't get much of the kind of development Trek used to be so good at. Even with all that it does leave a sense of... not wasting time, that would be too harsh, but treading water a little, the season's 'main' arc (which at the moment gets as little exposure as Boimler's beard-growing 'subplot,' which does at least show in more than mere face follicles as he tries to embrace pain and the way of the warrior like his more confident and successful alternate universe counterpart), of mysterious 'space holes' as Ma'ah succinctly describes them, is really just thrown in at the end as a reminder of the growing instances of these anomalies.

Not that I'm saying they're doing badly by not focusing episodes on the arc, and I do quite like that they introduced it into this episode which at first seems as if it would have nothing to do with anything else, Mariner's pretext for being in the area good enough. The real focus is on Ma'ah and the dejected life he's leading having disgraced the family honour from his crew mutinying (I don't quite believe his brother, Malor, when he says the whole family being shamed was 'hilarious,' but maybe he was being ironic, or perhaps he really is as lacking in Klingon ways as his slovenly appearance and motivation by money suggests - what is he, a Ferengi?!), reduced to working on a farm on Qo'noS, surely a most lowly occupation among a warrior race. We do get an idea of what life outside the warrior caste might be like, and by extension the kind of life Martok may have had before he rose to prominence - the Chancellor of the Empire gets a couple of mentions here, once as Boimler thinks the bar is where he took on some opponents, while Ma'ah corrects him that it took place in the Ketha Lowlands, and then at the end when Ma'ah takes to his duty as Captain of a rust-bucket, saying proudly that this is the kind of ship Martok started out on, so they're definitely trying to draw parallels, and who knows, maybe Ma'ah is destined to lead the Empire as well!

In the old days (in other words, a few short years ago, maybe four!), we could have speculated on whether Ma'ah may indeed be Chancellor by the time of 'Picard,' and perhaps we'll see him in live action? Or maybe there'll be some reference to him somewhere else in current Trek, but while it's possible he could be remembered a millennium hence (in 'Starfleet Academy'), we no longer get that impression of an unfolding Trek universe that we were clinging onto amongst all the dross produced in the last decade, even possibilities seem dead at this point. Martok's absence is a bit of a gaping hole, which is strange since this series has made use of both J.G. Hertzler and even Martok, but also true to this series is that they gave us a 'cartoon' version of Martok (I don't mean animated, the whole series is in that format, but in that it wasn't the real one, just a mock-up Martok), so it is a shame not to finally see him sitting on some throne somewhere overseeing the High Council. But then this story doesn't deal with anything so high and mighty, merely the 'Oversight Council' which apparently oversees the fleet, a bit like a Klingon version of Starfleet, and of course it's run by a big, burly bully without honour, in keeping with the general trend of Klingons to worship honour while yet somehow the majority of them are cowardly and conniving.

Mary Chieffo's role as K'Elarra was a nice bone to throw at us (and her), after she was unceremoniously dumped out of 'DSC' when it zipped into the future, as she seemed like one of those potential recurring characters that would continue, and was at least more interesting than the bland, undeveloped Bridge crew I could barely remember the names of for most of that series. For one thing, while I dislike 'DSC' a lot and put so much of the problems and mistakes of modern Trek at its door, like it or loathe it, it is part of the lore (any future Trek producers: feel free to alter the ridiculous canon from that series at every opportunity to somehow smooth over the bumps!), and I appreciate when there's some connection to other series', even the worst ones. In this case it's not a connection to lore, merely bringing back an actress, which is fine, but it's telling that even though I knew she was going to be in an episode this season I'd forgotten it was this one, and this character as I didn't recognise her voice (checking back I find she wasn't even the character I thought she was, actually the woman in the bar!). When I heard she was going to be in it I naturally assumed she was going to be the character she'd played before and somehow L'Rell would appear, either as a very elderly Klingon, or in holographic form, flashback, or one of the numerous other sci-fi ways they can always use to bring back someone. As it is it's merely a minor role.

The other role, whom I thought was played by Chieffo, was actually Enaj ('Jane' backwards?), which I'm not even sure fits with Klingon culture where women aren't allowed to serve on the High Council and whose rights are curtailed in leading their House, etc. Nowadays I'm sure some would decry this as Trek not living up to its themes of equality and betraying itself, but then they'd be forgetting 'diversity' - not all cultures are going to be the same, and while the Federation would be happy to have females in positions of power, the Klingons aren't (or weren't - L'Rell's position itself was a reversal of what we knew of Klingon canon, but like most things, 'DSC' mostly just ruined any Trek concepts it toyed with). Leaving aside all that, after all the lore-meisters would no doubt say it wasn't ever stated in canon they couldn't serve on this Oversight Council, mainly because I don't think we'd ever heard of it before, even though it's not in keeping with the spirit of Klingon culture, but leaving it aside, it's only a tiny role anyway. We get to see more of the race's culture in the farming operations (once again it's important to note how Replicators can't recreate the 'liveliness' of Klingon dishes and foods, which is why farms would exist at all when they can simply turn energy into edible matter), its music (can we call that 'Thrash lute-playing,' etc, Klingon folk music?), we learn of another animal species on the planet called a 'Brush Devil' which must be huge judging by the bones with which Malor decorates their transport ship (though apparently Targs can grow to the size of a small elephant if Bargh's pet is anything to go by), and connecting to our time, they can expect Ferengi calling to scam them on their Communicators just like junk mail or phone scams now, since that's an excuse Ma'ah uses not to talk to Mariner.

There was some beautiful imagery in the opening titles with dawn or dusk shots of Ma'ah's farm (and as ever the Cerritos looks superb on Blu-ray, the little we see of it), but my favourite moment was a brief establishing shot of the Oversight Council Chambers where a couple of hover-bikes have an altercation and one shouts "Experience bIj!" and the other replies "You experience bIj!" a deep-cut if ever there was one that even I, a decades-long viewer and ponderer on Trek lore, would never have known about if not for a podcast about this interactive video board game from the 90s - the ridiculousness of the situation, its brevity and the obscurity of the Trekference all combine to craft a perfect moment of humour. I can't really say the episode was particularly funny in the main - they did get that formalised way of speaking Klingons always had, epitomised by Ma'ah, but then they undercut it with his brother who has none of the ways of Klingons about him in dress, speech or attitude (Malor played by Sam Witwer, a genre veteran of such things as 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Smallville,' whom had played a Xindi Sloth on 'Enterprise' and has dual roles here since he's also Legnog the honoured taster in Migleemo's story). I wonder if they meant to make the brothers look like Matt and Jeff Hardy, the famous wrestlers, or it's a coincidence? Ma'ah is the most Klingon of Klingons, very much a Worf type, though one who has lost his sense of direction and purpose thanks to previous events, so it's nice he succeeds, that's the Trek way: showing a problem and having characters work through it to inspire and impress. Also something too often lost in grim and miserable dystopian approaches seen in so much of modern Trek - that's one reason why this series works and feels more like good Trek.

It's not universal, however, there are still reasons why I wouldn't call this a good episode: as is so often the case on the series they continually annoy with the casual, contemporary speech, bleeped-out swearing and general lack of things making sense - somehow, joining together as four people means the 30,000 volts of electricity coursing through them will be 'equally spread'? I don't think that's how it works - anyone touching anyone else would be fried, and while the message of combining to defeat the task was Trekky, the scientific silliness doesn't work. In the same way, Captain Freeman claiming Starfleet lighting aboard its starships has been scientifically attuned to suit all living beings was unlikely at best, since with so many different races aboard there's no way they could anticipate everyone's exact needs and be able to match it. It's like if she claimed the temperature was designed to suit everyone, while Cardassians like it hot and Bajorans like it cool (or whatever). Of course she could have been making up stories to defend her ship against such objectionable guests, but then that makes her look weak if she feels the need to lie to counter people she dislikes. The worst thing was visual with Malor's burly Klingon chest quite visible yet not having the exoskeletal ridges we'd seen before (most famously on another brother: Kurn), something I'm sure I've complained about before on this series. The fact that even this series just won't be 100% pure Trek remains my irritation with it.

The B-story of Migleemo being visited by famous food critics of his race was a nice way to explore his culture since he's largely an unknown even five seasons in. I wasn't even aware his people were called the Klowahkans, for example, I'm not sure it had ever been mentioned before, but that's another example of this series at least trying to be Trek: you have a member of a 'new' species we've never encountered before and over time you explore them little by little, the cultures part of the interest instead of all aliens sounding and behaving like humans which happens far too often in modern Trek (another area where 'LD' tends to do a little better, for all its faults). This series is skewed comedically so the other races tend to be over the top, such as Dr. T'Ana looking exactly like a moth-eaten cat rather than the more noble example of M'Ress from 'TAS,' Shaxs as a very extreme version of a Bajoran who also has very tender feelings, Tendi as an example of an Orion (even in a bit role here her culture is nicely integrated: assassin skills mean she's expert at chopping veg!), and Migleemo who appears to be a humanoid budgie, so it's usually feather jokes or birdseed, the kind of simple, obvious humour that can work because we're immediately in on it, having the same conception of birds or whatever they can play on, but which used to come from our accumulated knowledge of Trek's worlds and races, something which encouraged the audience to invest in the more they saw, in turn giving them an insider perspective, too often lost in modern Trek as it tried so hard to appeal to casual viewers who'd never become the collectors and avid followers of a devoted fanbase (but I could go on for hours about the wrongheaded approach to most genre attempts to appeal instead of having a vision and believing its high quality and uniqueness would ensure viewership).

Migleemo's story is basic, he's feeling like an outsider to his own, partly due to his lack of certainty about his chosen path, and partly down to the visiting dignitaries' snobbery, which seems to be a trait of his kind, though he's always been different - again, a great Trek trope that the outsiders in a group tend to get drawn to Starfleet where their uniqueness will be added to the rich pot of stew (so they do have more in common with the Borg than we think - both want biological and technological distinctiveness to be added to their own, only in the Federation's case it's so they can excel, while in the Borg's it's about falling into faceless line). Migleemo's just a nice guy whom they've used quite nicely over the course of the series, often representing positivity, so we're automatically on his side against these unpleasant visitors, and it's a treat to go to his homeworld (or nestworld as the caption has it for Klowahka), and of course his insight and training in psychology comes into play to earn the respect of these tasters who were only really covering up their own defects - there's a deft connection between the two stories when Boimler reads that these tasters had given the Cerritos' Replicators two stars (ironically what I'm giving this episode, but it's not because I've lost my sense of taste regarding Trek, quite the opposite!), not strictly necessary, but appreciated - I always loved it when the various subplots matched up or paralleled in some way, and since this is only a 27-minute production it's about all they could do in the time they had to wrap up.

I'll say it again: this isn't a bad episode, one of the better ones so far this season I'd say, which a few years ago I'd be celebrating just for not being bad as I found it hard to like the series in Season 1, but I've seen a lot better. I don't need it to be funny, and I like the Trekferences that are done well (Malor thinking he's dying and claims he sees Kahless, the original one - there was a whole 'TNG' episode about there being a clone version created to further Klingon religious beliefs, and I couldn't quite hear his last line, but it sounded something like not the one who did impressions, so a reference back to 'TOS' and the Excalbian recreation?), but I've never really thought much of the wackiness - Mariner striding in and throwing out swearwords, Boimler screaming or being thrown about, that kind of thing. I like the characters, but I like them when they're being serious. Boimler's line about loving Klingon bureaucratic minutiae works, as does the various rituals they use to challenge Ma'ah's position or that are used against them. It doesn't make much sense that someone could conscript someone of high rank, like Bargh, but the idea of Klingons reeling out obscure precedents like legal traps is amusing since they're usually so dismissive of words and documents, but is also so true to their conflicted culture. The way they get out of their difficulty at the end wasn't so clever, nor was the gory killing of Bargh - true as it is to their ways we didn't need to see so much blood (pink as it was!), and while you can see they're just following the logical trope that Klingon problems = solved by killing, it does remind us the series didn't have pretensions much beyond replaying tropes and making us point and chuckle when they could do good, original stuff when they wanted to.

Credit must go to Jon Curry for being one of the most Klingon Klingons since 'DS9' (enjoyed his literal understanding of Mariner's invented human custom of 'unreturned favours' and how she'd be fed to a bear if she didn't follow through, to which his reply is it's better she trains to fight the bear - very Klingon!), and this wouldn't be his final appearance in the series. Colton Dunn as Bargh was also good, and he'd previously voiced Dorg in 'wej Duj' (Dorg and Bargh... are they secretly sending us the message that he was a... Borg?). Some of the main cast who didn't appear got to voice other characters, as is often the case, and I do believe it's sensible they don't feel the need to show every main cast member every episode just for the sake of it, and they also tend to reuse a lot of voice artists, so this time Jess Harnell reprised K'orin, the Klingon General from 'Envoys' and old friend of Mariner, and played a couple of other characters, too (and had done so before in that previous episode), and I already mentioned Trek guests Mary Chieffo and Sam Witwer. We just haven't had any big Trek characters returning yet this season, though that, too, would be remedied. At least the title was a literary reference this time rather than a strictly pop culture one (though I still think they could come up with better and more Trek-centric ones).

**

The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S5 (The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel)

Going from some of the best episodes of not just 'DS9,' but Trek itself (the seven-episode station occupation serial), to... this... I know modern Trek wanted to be all things to all people, all flavours, etc, it does stick out how vastly dissimilar Trek made in this century, or at least this past decade, has been. And I know which I prefer. So while we can have absolute classic stories of great character and writing from all those years back, we also have this current stuff, or fluff, a bit like going from playing 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild' to some squarely average game, as I also did earlier in the year - whatever comes after is not going to hold up. But even if you take 'DS9' out of the equation this is not one of the starring instalments of the series. I have zero interest in the soapy Mariner subplot about her trials with Jennifer (it even irks me that an Andorian would be called Jennifer), although at least this story writes that character out of the series for good. And it's true that if you remove that C-plot from the episode there's some passable interplay in the other two subplots, but they're also pretty slight.

I think one thing that irritates, and has done throughout this era of Trek from the first season of 'DSC' where they had to mention The Beatles, to countless other examples, is their insistence in ingratiating themselves with whomever they assume is the audience these days by referencing pop culture rather than just Trek culture. The title itself is a play on the film(s), 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,' and I suppose you could draw some kind of parallel with the AWOL Admiral being an old man, and it does take place on an interstellar cruise ship which is basically a holiday resort, but otherwise it seems designed to make people point at the title with some kind of joyful recognition, and little else, whereas for me it takes me out of it. The bigger reference is obviously 'Apocalypse Now' (and perhaps if we're generous, 'Heart of Darkness,' the story it was based on - with a side order of 'The Blob'). It's not a film (or story), I love, so it doesn't win any points for that. I didn't think it quite made sense, either, since why would an Admiral have a ship in order to go and milk 'space whales' in the first place, that's not what Admirals do. Checking back on the line it could be inferred he was talking about earlier in his career when he was a Captain, but then why wait until he'd become Admiral to rebel? I also always find it such a typically modern attitude to Starfleet duty and life in general when a character complains of boredom. It's a state of mind, while Trek's supposed to be inspirational, full of the kind of exploration and joy of discovery that made it seem so optimistic and adventurous and why the best of the best applied in the first place!

Okay, so the Admiral's point was he didn't get to do exciting missions, but it all reminded me of that stupid scene in 'Beyond' where 'Kirk' (or the modern facsimile of a character called Kirk), suggests every day blends together in space and is basically saying the same thing: it's a boring day job most of the time. Indulgent rubbish for the younger generation who expect to be stimulated at all times rather than putting their own minds to it. They could have pulled it back a bit by connecting with the trope of Admirals being behind a desk and emphasising that side, which can be valid (again, just having seen Sisko restricted to desk work with Admiral Ross and his yearning to go back into the field with his crew as opposed to the greater number of lives his decisions are having on the war effort is just one example of how much more complexity there was in that series), and we've seen so many of the rank behave badly that it's ripe ground for exploration, even on the surface-level jokey style of this series. I did quite enjoy the three 'bros,' Ransom, Billups and Boimler on a mission together, it's the kind of thing Trek would do as a series progressed, pairing up some characters you don't necessarily see together all that much. The gag about Billups wanting to be called 'Gilbert,' while Ransom says he should have a more 'normal' alias like Zandy, was fun, as was Boimler's reference to being a canary (from Manhaver's concern Ransom treats his subordinates cavalierly and experimentally, like sending the canary into the coal mine in case of poisonous gas or lack of oxygen), which was also used well, Billups assuming it's because it's hard to think of an animal that skis! (Later hilarious when Boimler pleads he's not the canary and they agree with him even though they haven't a clue what he's talking about).

They can always come up with the kind of lines you'd never find elsewhere in Trek (like one of the Admiral's acolytes who voices the fact they can't get hold of Boimler who'd rubbed suncream all over himself: "It's like trying to grab a string bean"), but it's also nice to see Boimler's perceived deficiencies (being skinny and hyper-prepared), as useful in certain situations, though the joke about them wanting him along for the undercover operation because he's good at crawling through ducts seems more like a 'Mission: Impossible' joke, even if Trek characters were forever crawling through such spaces. Ransom claiming Boimler's a capable, prepared officer to an unhealthy degree is too true, but the fact Boimler's so delighted he noticed says everything about the character! Just a shame he's looking so scruffy with his 'arc' of growing the alternate dimension Boimler's beard at an early stage. The true arc of the season is of course the inter-dimensional fissures, so I did enjoy the connection to the Nanites' story here, which made that more palatable - otherwise it didn't make sense that these computer creatures would dash around in a glob, sucking up everything, but you just put it down to the typical zaniness of the series and try not to take it too seriously.

At least there was some kind of rationale for it with this alternate dimension Intrepid-class starship from a microscopic reality, trapped within the glob and trying to get enough energy to create a portal back home. Obviously they're doing a lot of 'Voyager' callbacks with the ship trying to get home and saying it's been a 'month of Hell' (rather than the temporal year of Hell Voyager was trapped in), and it neatly tied up the other story with the Admiral's new mission to focus on getting this ship home (even if he should be court-martialled in reality!). 'Evolution,' the 'TNG' episode that introduced Nanites, wasn't one of the best (especially as a season opener - people often forget that the season the series found its footing and became good, began with such a dreary episode!), and Nanites certainly weren't required again, but it's exactly the kind of one-episode wonder concept 'LD' likes to toy with, so no surprises there.

In case anyone watching was concerned 'LD' only Trekferences the old series' (other than poking fun at the ridiculousness of such things as 'DSC' or the Kelvin Timeline films), they do throw in Boimler's mention of the Gormagander as an example of a 'space whale' (though he follows it up with a Trekference to 'those Galaxy's child things' - a bit too on the nose, as we've seen before when Mariner's mentioned actual episode titles, though at least you can rationalise it as either the official, or casual, designation given to the creatures in 'Galaxy's Child'), and he's clearly thinking of it joyfully, so 'LD' doesn't actually hate 'DSC' (how could they, it provided so much for the series to laugh at!). The big Trekference of the piece was finally showing us what Gallamites look like after all that talk from Jadzia in 'DS9' about Captain Boday and his transparent skull - I wasn't too impressed with the design. I know it's only a gag, but if you're going to show something that had existed only in the imagination of fans for decades you need to put some serious thought into it. I feel they should have considered how Michael Westmore might have achieved the look in makeup and prosthetics - I know it's only my imaginings, but I always felt they'd have quite long, skeletal, humanoid faces, but with pretty much entirely transparent heads, while here they were just grey, Clayface shark monsters with a little brain dome on top. But that's the thing, it's never going to satisfy everyone which makes you wonder if it was a good idea to even try, especially as it was merely a throwaway visual gag.

Fun to see the Kreetassens from 'Enterprise' again, though you'd have to wonder how they would even end up on a facility that contained other races when by this time they'd know every other race has no problem eating in public. The joke worked in 'Enterprise' because neither the Kreetassens nor humans had ever heard of the other, or met before, so such extreme cultural offence would be natural. Not so two hundred years later, you would think... While I'm nitpicking, I didn't understand Krog's admission he was a big fan when addressing T'Lyn's work. Did he mean Vulcans in general since he's taken on some of their philosophy? Otherwise it's a little hard to believe (even in an episode about a giant Nanite cluster barrelling around a resort, I like things to make sense!). I do find myself hearing the other actors when they do voices for guest characters, such as Marcus Henderson who returned as his usual Jet Manhaver, but also played Krog, or Dawnn Lewis as the Kreetassen woman - granted there's not a lot of Captain Freeman in the episode, so maybe that's why they give people a little something extra to do? I think on the whole the episode was rather disappointing, like they're not really using the little time they have left very well, and I come away feeling they're on a downward curve this final season.

**

GT64

 N64, GT64 (1998) game

Another game this year I found to be far too easy. I wasn't expecting much, it was from the early part of the console's lifespan, and I didn't get much! Not that it was terrible, it was functional, but it was only a small order of magnitude higher in technical proficiency than the Lotus games on the Amiga. They were only a few years previous, produced in the same decade ('Lotus Turbo Challenge II' and 'Lotus III,' at least), but there's the same kind of squealing turns and slide out of the turning circle at high speeds. The trackside architecture is far more advanced, but the reality is for most tracks it's easier to simply bash into the side barriers round hard corners than brake. Road racing tends to be more basic compared to the interest from rallying through bog and mire, spinning up mud and rainwater as you go, but it can also be purer - just the racing line and responsive tyres as you weave into the fastest route for the next corner on a hard surface. The game certainly gave the impression of hard simulation from the Set Up screen before each race which allowed various attributes of the car to be tweaked to suit road conditions, but I was glad to find there was an auto-adjust which selects the best setup for you as I have no interest in all those technical details. Same with the gears, I always go for Automatic.

It also feels sim-like with the insistence on Qualifying for your place in the starting lineup, and one thing about this game is it is trickier to overtake vehicles - you can knock into them and push them off line a bit, but equally they're adept at speeding past you if you head into any grass verges or take a corner too wide. Despite the simulation trappings it's definitely an arcade experience to the extent that I usually prefer an in-car view in racing games, but found this easier with an external view (just like the old Lotus games!). Not that I needed anything to make it easier, as aside from the early tracks featuring grassy roadsides which slowed me down significantly, I had no trouble beating the game in short order on the Normal difficulty. Hard mode took a few more attempts, but once you know the tracks you can win most even on that difficulty (and the ability to save between each race helps), so it was a very short-lived experience. I got it as part of a bundle on ebay, so this was just a bonus, I've always loved the racing genre, but the N64 had plenty of contenders from the two 'Top Gear Rally' games, 'World Driver Championship,' 'V-Rally Edition 99' and 'F1 World Grand Prix,' to all kinds of other racing types in the real world ('Excitebike,' '1080º,' 'Wave Race' ), to sci-fi ('F-Zero X,' 'Extreme G,' 'Wipeout,' 'Star Wars Racer'), to fun runs ('Mario Kart,' 'Diddy Kong Racing,' 'Top Gear Overdrive'), so this one would have had to stand out to be counted. In a word, it was fine, but there was nothing to it.

**

Shades of Green

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S5 (Shades of Green)

Whoops. The kind of episode that makes me think maybe it's actually a good thing that Trek is no longer in production any more if this is the kind of extreme ideological stuff and weak plotting they were knocking out... It seems identifying the title with the weakest episode of 'TNG' may have been portentous! Where to start, then? I actually didn't have much to think about during this story, it just seemed to have so little of interest. Start with the good, I suppose: T'Lyn trying to keep Rutherford occupied since she's noticed he hasn't been himself since Tendi left. She may be the best character the series produced, and I've said it before, certainly the best Vulcan in modern Trek (not a high bar, admittedly, but she does a creditable job of being a believable example of the logical race, unlike most aliens who never seem that alien - case in point the Tellarite, Gorm, who doesn't argue incessantly!). I enjoyed the little tribute to Data standing and staring into space while waiting for Picard to go to sleep, in this case T'Lyn waiting patiently for Rutherford to finish his work - although... would that be an efficient use of her time, surely she could have done some work on a PADD or something? The fact I'm starting to nitpick shows I was at least invested in this C-plot of the episode, though I can't say as much for the A- and B-plots.

I can understand the writers poking fun at the ridiculousness of Trek's 'post-scarcity' future, since it's never made any sense, or why would there be wars for resources or control of areas? (For that matter, aren't gold and jewels all obsolete anyway since they can be replicated, that's why Latinum was precious: because it can't be! So why would Orions want this junk?). I always go back to Picard's mumbled, 'holier-than-thou' speech about how the Federation doesn't need money any more, or use it (and the fun 'DS9' ribbing of the concept when Jake wants to buy his Dad an antique baseball card, but doesn't have any money because he's an 'evolved' human of the 24th Century - 'if you don't need money,' says Nog, 'then you don't need my money!'). It demonstrated why it's best not to think too deeply into how Trek's universe works, details modern Trek has mistakenly shown too much of (not just regarding money, but even basic domestic details like people cleaning their teeth, the kind of thing it would be better to leave to the imagination, but lack of imagination is one of this era's defining characteristics!). The reality is there is still a cost to everything, and that's energy, and while we can say they have technology that enables vast amounts of energy to be released (warp, Phasers, etc), something doesn't come from nothing. If they were seriously pointing out how terrible capitalism is then I don't think they'd have had the questionable act at the end where Freeman hands over all the planet's wealth to the family of her crewmember! Nepotism? It comes across as if they 'conned' a planet out of its wealth with Replicators and then ditched their economy. All of which was a bit uncomfortable in today's polarised political climate.

It's always important to remember the series is primarily a comedy, and while it's 'supposed' to make sense in the world of Trek, and be considered canonical, they are going to be wacky at times. Frequent times. The real story, in any case, is Boimler trying to be a fun boss, never a sensible idea in the first place since authority needs to have some distance to enable it to function properly and enforce discipline. Not that discipline is high on the agenda of modern Trek where everyone does what they want and argues with their superiors as a matter of course, but generally 'LD' has been better at such things than the others, one reason I suspect it feels more like Trek than they do, and is so liked by many in consequence. With Boimler's four-hair moustache and the new 'Bointers' to give advice (the inspiration being Lefler's Laws from 'TNG,' but in this case he clearly got the idea from his alternate rather than her), Boimler's arc this season of trying to emulate his alternate self is rather transparent, and therefore somewhat pointless since you can see where that storyline would lead: just be yourself. I have to say I found his and Mariner's roles rather lacklustre, didn't really go anywhere (other than to a fancy hall in a posh house that looks like it was out of 'The Matrix Reloaded,' though perhaps it was merely a generic posh hall, since no martial arts take place, in slow motion or otherwise). No, nothing really to comment on, it was just the pair of them tracking down his lost Away Team.

The A-story is Tendi's messing up of her entire family's position in the Orion Syndicate (I suppose you could see loose parallels with Worf's discommendation, but if that was intended it wasn't very well executed). The war between her family and the blue 'Oree-ons' has meant less profits, or something, so they pull the old space race challenge out of the back pocket of discarded sci-fi concepts. It's never a good idea and suggests a series rather running out of them, even with the solar sailing ships that gives it a more piratical feel. Add to that the culture is incessantly and simplistically feministic (green Tendi girls good, blue 'Oree-on' men bad), and it quickly becomes tiresome, the two sisters competing with each other or Tendi trying to protect D'Erica since she's read her Personal Log and discovered her pregnancy. I also don't buy the Orions would have a Queen (Sabor, voiced by Debra Wilson, Captain Cusak in 'DS9,' her second and final role in modern Trek here), since the whole point was that the true situation of women being the dominant force was meant to be a closely guarded secret. The best we can suggest is they don't allow outsiders on their planet, but in an age of recording devices and easy broadcasting from anyone it's hard to see how the secret would stay secret. It's also all too girly with choice lines like D'Erica telling her sister at the end that she doesn't want her girl growing up to see her doing anything other than what her heart tells her. Ick. This is where Trek had come to, though to be fair 'DSC' started it all in that direction right from the beginning and 'LD' has still been far more realistic than the other recent series'.

It's rather rich of a mega-franchise that requires payment to watch nowadays to be pointing out the 'evil' of the system in which it's made, Trek being a product manufactured in order to make money! It's hard to take any satire about profit or the extremes of capitalism seriously in such a setting, but there's always been a tug-of-war between 'art' and 'profitability.' Still, some people do genuinely watch Trek believing this world will one day come to reality, but unfortunately that's meant modern Trek had to dumb characters down, and in keeping with the modern ideals of 'being yourself,' even if that encourages selfishness, focus on oneself, and lack of care towards anyone else, made them more like 'us,' to the extent people from old Treks that went back in time and found people to be so different to them, could now go to their fellow Trek series' and find the same thing: modern Trek characters are us now! (With the exception of the odd superhero character like Burnham who could almost do no wrong, and even when she did, escaped real punishment and was soon shown to be righter than right!). When an episode only leads me down the rabbit hole of denigrating its stablemates I know it hasn't succeeded, and while I wouldn't say it's on a par with the worst Treks of recent years, it is one of those episodes that shows up the weaknesses in the modern crowd. Not least the excessive swearing I noticed again! And the fact Tendi just turns up back in Starfleet as if you can waltz in and out however and whenever you feel like it (rather than the real world reason of having her leaving be a cliffhanger ending). But the real issue was barely seeing any of the supporting cast at all (even if some of them do voice other characters instead). The blazzard squawking was amusing. As was seeing Goodgey poking his head up in the Cargo Bay. Yep, that's all I've got.

**