Envoys

 DVD, Lower Decks S1 (Envoys)

A moment of silence please as we reflect on the recent news that Season 5 will be this series' last... When they announced 'DSC' was ending with Season 5 I wasn't in the least perturbed, perhaps even a little relieved that the source of so much wrongness, what has really set the tone and style of Trek's current age, should finally be laid to rest. But 'Lower Decks' is something I've come to quite enjoy, in fact it's the only Trek I actively look forward to seeing these days, quite an achievement given that I don't like its type of 'adult' comedy, nor am I that keen on animation. It shows how far the other Treks have gone from the genuine article, but also that this particular series does have at least some of that within its concept. And so we come to the difficult second episode, traditionally not great after the superb pilots Trek used to do. That's not the case this time because the pilot wasn't all that great so that means this episode doesn't have much to live up to. Yay! I will say there was a small, but definite improvement with this one...

As if to contrast the first episode, which was ship-based, this one's main story takes place on a planet, Tulgana IV (which sounds a bit like Turkana IV, Yar's homeworld, but fortunately isn't as it would have been a very different kind of story!), with Mariner teaming up with Boimler when he's selected to ferry, or envoy, a Klingon ambassador, K'orin, to some talks. It's funny that, though worldly and streetwise, Mariner is actually more of a cause of Boimler's woes than his own mishaps - he wouldn't have got into them if she hadn't been there to take him off the straight and narrow of Starfleet rules and regs that he so religiously sticks to. Mariner just wants to have fun, and if she can teach her self-appointed protégé a lesson, all the better. We learn there's more to her than we'd so far been told - in the first episode we heard the Cerritos isn't her first ship and now we find out that she's been in 'grey ops' with the very Klingon Boimler was assigned to, plus she has a lot of firsthand knowledge of various aliens and their cultures, exactly the kind of thing Boimler wishes he had after all his book-learning and simulations. It sets the template for how the series is going to be, with Mariner getting Boimler into all sorts of trouble and then getting him out of it, with, along the way, myriad Trek references for the observant (and some for the less observant), to enjoy.

Naturally, this being an alien world it was absolutely rammed with familiar species, from a shot of Evora from 'Insurrection' (which I mentioned in my first review!), to Andorians, Risans, Lurians (before they became ten a penny in 'DSC' S3 onwards), and even a couple of 'The Animated Series' species that hadn't been seen since then (the bird creatures, Aurelians, and the shapeshifting Vendorian), making it of great interest to historians of animated Trek. In the same way that other current Trek series' brought in references, concepts and races from the Trek novels (not something I was keen on since the novels are all over the place, generally not very good, and contradict each other constantly, but then that suits the modern Trek model perfectly...), this series began to connect more and more with 'TAS,' the unloved corner of Trekdom, and as much as 'TNG' was the inspiration, essentially the progenitor of Trek animation. 'TAS' is undoubtedly non-canon as has been repeated on many occasions, and while its status becomes more confused when such things as 'LD' and 'Prodigy' are both supposed to be part of the real timeline, the idea has always been that it only becomes canon when referenced in other (live action), Trek, as they did in 'Enterprise.' I'm not an aficionado of 'TAS' but I have watched and reviewed all the episodes in recent years and I generally like it for being true in tone and style to 'TOS,' so it's a pleasure to see 'LD' pay tribute, especially when it comes to the more outlandish creatures seen there.

You wouldn't have thought that a simple Klingon would cause such waves appearing in an episode, but this is the first time one of the most prolific races in Trek had been seen since 'Enterprise'! Okay, Klingons had been in 'Into Darkness' and 'DSC,' but they were both redesigns, and ugly ones at that - here we have a genuine, ridged, be-haired and Bat'leth-wielding warrior, without any silly bulbous head or claw hands - there was concern we might never get a proper Klingon again after what had been done to them, so this was very nice. It's bizarre that there haven't been any in 'DSC' since Season 2, none in 'Picard' (other than Worf - what happened to Martok?), while 'Prodigy' and 'Strange New Worlds' would go on to feature them eventually, so it was another step in the right direction for 'LD' to set out its stall as ignoring the 'update' and giving us 'TNG' era once again! Not that we get any news of what the Klingon/Federation situation is these days, or really anything of development (presumably Martok is still Chancellor), but then that's par for the course with this series, they tended to be quite light and breezy (in fact the political and galactic status of current events is something largely ignored in the modern era, perhaps because it ties things down too much when so many series are, or were, happening in various time periods?), and it is supposed to be focused on those at the bottom of the Starfleet food chain, for all Mariner's knowledge.

While she and Boimler are running around on the planet getting into all sorts of scrapes that cause him to lose his self confidence and belief he's right for Starfleet, Rutherford is finding his feet in a similar way back on the ship when his entire career path is put into question due to him not being able to watch some stellar event with Tendi because he's got too much work to do. Now this storyline was typically ridiculous in the sense that being such a good worker I'm sure Chief Engineer Billups would be more than happy to have one of his star performers take a break in order to see the event. Instead Rutherford goes to extremes, trying out careers in Command, Medical and Security before realising his dream can't be had in any other way than Engineering. Though silly, it's still quite a sweet little tale and serves to underscore the various departments and who's in charge of them, possibly in a direct answer to complaints about the uncertainty over Discovery's hierarchy and structure to the extent we still didn't even know who was CMO or Chief Engineer on that ship seasons in! It's one of those things that makes 'LD' seem much more like Trek should be and it is fun to see Rutherford in different uniform colours being tried out for new roles.

No one ever questions why he should be jumping from one role to another, instead we get that strong sense of 'TNG' optimism where everyone is happy to be where they are and equally as happy for someone to take on a new task, very much acting in the impression of a society that works because they want to, as self-fulfilment rather than because they have to pay the bills in drudgery. If Rutherford kept going round and round I'm sure he'd get some serious help in finding the right place for him, but since it's only a few things it makes more sense that people are so accommodating in true Starfleet style - in the same way, he says Starfleet doesn't lie, recalling Wesley Crusher's statement in the early years of 'TNG,' easy to laugh at for his simple naivety, but also a laudable attitude. These qualities are exactly what was lacking in the miserable, moping, broken world portrayed in the other modern Treks up to this point and endears the characters in a way the others couldn't hope to. The fact that Billups is delighted to lose such a good worker shows just how positive and optimistic Starfleet is, and a very different time to ours.

The other supporting characters aren't used as much, but that only fits nicely into the notion that Trek explores certain characters more in one episode than in another, and in this particular series, concentrates on the lowest ranks. Captain Freeman has a fun aside which appears to be another instance of poking fun at the mores of modern Trek: in this case their insistence that every Captain must have a catchphrase to say upon going to warp in the way Picard used to say "Engage," but has been taken to a level of silliness synonymous with the current regime - Freeman suggests "It's Warp time!" though I believe in other episodes she eventually settles on "Warp me!" First Officer Ransom gets his time in the spotlight putting Rutherford through command simulations on the Holodeck in which the slightest, mildest decision he makes destroys the ship. Similarly with Dr. T'Ana who (ironically), lectures Rutherford on needing to have a bedside manner in order to work in Sickbay, and Shaxs, who puts him through his paces in what is basically a Kobayashi Maru scenario to test his reaction to failure when he fights a room full of Borg, though using his cybernetic implant enables him to become a brilliant fighter, bringing him into the 'Bear Pack,' as Security is known. (They missed a trick of his cybernetic ability being either an asset or a liability in dealing with beings of similar kind, though they were only holographic, perhaps real live Borg would be different).

As ever, there's a lot of silliness throughout, which can be off-putting (the blast shield, for example), and when I first watched these early episodes I really didn't like them because they were so full of the kind of contemporary dialogue, pointless running around and screaming that seemed to put this right in with the other recent productions. Seeing it now when I know the characters and have seen a number of episodes I really like has knocked some of the edge off some of the most glaring moments. Not that this is one of the good episodes, but I know what to expect having seen both Seasons 2 and 3 now. I like the way the characters are all quite clearly laid out, you know who they are, their names, their ranks, their divisions, it's such a far cry from the confusion instigated in 'DSC' and the non-Starfleet 'Star Wars' outsiders that began 'Picard' that I do find myself appreciating this more. Not to the extent that I can stomach all the swearing and puerile humour, and there was some of that, but generally not as much this time since we didn't have zombies running around vomiting black slime all over the place. There's still an over-reliance on references, some of which don't fit (like Boimler telling Mariner his manner of walking is what Section 31 do to conserve energy - how would a lowly Ensign know about the top secret group hidden at the heart of the Federation?), but other times it's fun to hear there's a 'Janeway Protocol,' though it's never explained, or reminding us of the Kaelons, having Napeans on the ship, and were those rock people in the bar fight meant to recall the abandoned concept of 'Star Trek V'? I wouldn't put it past them, they do love the obscure.

As do I! But it's not just the obscure we have, it's bringing back things that were once integral to Trek - I already mentioned the Klingons, but here we also have the first Ferengi to appear in Trek since 'Enterprise.' And it's another play on what we know when it's just a trick of Mariner's to get this aristocratic member of the race to show up as a snivelling, grovelling villain so Boimler can 'spot' him and regain his courage - the real sacrifice Mariner makes in the episode is putting up with Boimler's public ridicule of her being 'unable' to realise he was Ferengi and having to be 'rescued' by Boimler. It's about as ludicrous as can get since the Ferengi are about the most recognisable species out there thanks to their bald heads and massive ears, but Boimler is too flushed with pride to think of that! Uncharacteristically, I did spot an actual visual error - Boimler throws his combadge away, but when he meets the Ferengi there's some kind of glitch where the combadge appears and disappears on his dress uniform for milliseconds. I don't know how that could happen, or if it's a deliberate little detail meant to be noticed only by the most observant. Odd. It was nice to see Boimler wearing a dress uniform, though, as he should on meeting a dignitary.

There's also some throwaway fun at the beginning where some kind of sentient floating orb penetrates the ship (a bit like the one seen in 'The Child'), with evil intent, and instead is recognised flippantly by Mariner as 'one of those trans-dimensional energy creatures' and dealt with accordingly. When I was first watching the season through I felt it was laughing at 'TNG' and that era, but now I tend to take it as more celebratory towards that. Leaving aside that she shouldn't be able to handle something that is pure energy, so wouldn't be able to physically stuff it in a pod, it shows how the series can quite easily pivot from one Trek stereotype (Trekeotype?), to another in seconds, and has no bearing on anything in the episode. It's just a gag, and that's fine, although I wonder if the fact it ended up going into Freeman was meant to be another reference to modern Trek as I'm sure there was an episode of 'DSC' (Season 2?), where some piece of energy lands on Ensign Tilly's shoulder and there was all this speculation over what it might mean (leading her to see her invisible friend, as I recall). Perhaps they were trying to mischievously cause more speculation in that vein?

I didn't have time to comment much on the opening credits sequence last time, and I do like it, even if it makes no sense that the asteroids at the start can knock the ship away like they do at the beginning before it comes flying towards camera. But just the look of the ship, the cleanness, the detail, the other ships, like the Romulan Warbirds and Borg Cubes (and that each season a new part gets added to that battle), is all reassuringly Trekkie in design and style, so refreshingly true to what we knew, and so unlike what else had been created in recent times, care for the detail and accuracy. Add to that something else I failed to mention in my first review, setting right one of the major missing elements to modern Trek: episode titles on screen at last! This was a big thing for me, and the fact it's in the same font as 'TNG' makes it even better. I really don't know why they didn't add titles to all the series, other than they seemed to be aiming 'DSC' especially at an entirely different audience and in some weird reasoning thought it might put them off? It's the same kind of wonky idea of a few years ago that suggested films with colons in the title didn't do as well, which has been patently proved to be untrue and smacked of idiot marketing 'research' more than anything. It all seems much more like Trek should be, while 'DSC' came across like a twisted, feminine approximation of Trek (feelings, lack of care for science in the concepts, or visuals of ships, etc), and I think that's down to Mike McMahan's influence. So practically all is right with the world, and this episode ends with Tendi and Rutherford both in a Jefferies Tube appreciating beauty in their own way, but doing it together. Aah.

**