Second Contact

 DVD, Lower Decks S1 (Second Contact)

Two and a half years have passed since I wrote my final review of the current era of Trek, the season finale of 'Picard' Season 1, the season that broke me at last, took away my desire to write about this stuff and consigned me to a mere grudging watcher with no wish to air my thoughts. Since then I've had time to be somewhat rehabilitated, mainly thanks to a return to 'Voyager,' a Trek series I actually love (number two behind 'DS9'), reminding me what appeals about this universe. But I've also come to a different point in viewing current Trek, too - I still can't say that I like it, far from it in most cases, but I can at least say I don't want it to go away and leave me alone! In large part that's thanks to this series - I wasn't enamoured by it when I first watched Season 1, to the extent I almost didn't buy Season 2. But the price went down so I thought I'd give it a shot and found I actually enjoyed some of the episodes in the way I enjoy old Trek. Since then there have been ups and downs, with 'Picard' Season 2, incredibly, being worse than Season 1, the series then somewhat redeemed by 3, and for every bungling season of 'DSC,' or canon and continuity-ruining 'Strange New Worlds,' there has been this 'Lower Decks' to bring me back to a semblance of hope for new Trek.

I never would have thought it, especially not after first seeing this premiere episode which had everything I could have feared a so-called 'adult' comedy would bring to Trek: it's obnoxious, sweary, shouty, screamy, runs at ten to the dozen speed, with ker-azy kharacters and too often little more going on than machine-gunning in references to other Trek in order to disguise its thin premise. That's what I thought at first, and to some extent, at least about this episode, I still do - it takes things way too far, and as in all these other current generation Trek productions, is often written by apparent teenagers (or those with juvenile minds), to appeal to teens, with characters that act like modern teens and speak like modern teens... This episode was worse than most and herein lies the key: when the series settles down a bit, stops trying to rattle along at warp 9.975 all the time, it allows you to get to know the people. It gets to show what Starfleet in this time period is like, and what it's like is 'TNG'-'DS9'-'Voyager' era, which is my favourite. Would I have preferred a serious, live-action series set at this time period, written in the manner and style of 90s Trek? One thousand percent Yes, but I have to look at 'Lower Decks' in its own context and decide what I think in reaction to it, and it alone. That goes for this episode, too - I know I'll like other episodes, but that doesn't colour how I feel about this one, and I have to say it's one of the worst Trek pilots ever made.

That sounds quite a harsh criticism, especially in a world where 'DSC' exists, not to mention the aberrations of 'SNW,' and I actually did enjoy it more on this, my second viewing of 'Second Contact.' I can't help but be coloured by what I've seen later and so it didn't seem quite so hare-brained, madcap, OTT, wacky-crazy nonsense as when I first saw it. But that's not to say I think it's good now. I still think it's a pretty weak episode when the 'pilot' was traditionally among my favourites of a new series (in fact both 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise' remained my favourite episode of their entire series, so much did I love the setup). But it has grown on me a bit more, it's not right down there at the bottom, close to being considered as poor as the worst episodes of 'DSC,' and that's because I've become somewhat accustomed to the antics and style of it. I would still say in a large part it isn't aimed at me, but weirdly at the same time it is: who's going to recognise the obscurest references, some of which could be merely me reading into it, but judging by how deep-cut they go in this series, I suspect they were deliberate: like Beckett Mariner, the hyperactive rebel, secretly daughter of Captain Freeman and her superior, Admiral Freeman. She's tipsy on Romulan Whisky and points out how you'd expect it to be green, but it's blue. Something like that would flash by for the average viewer, but for someone schooled in Trek who's followed every iteration with intense scrutiny, that's exactly the kind of thought we have! The colour that denotes Romulan culture is green, just like it's blue for the Federation, red for the Klingons, etc.

They knew what they were doing, so when you see a huge multi-legged creature chasing the characters on an alien world, that has to be wink at the kind of silliness that went on in the Kelvin Timeline films. It's a sendup, just like having two of your main characters end up in their underwear in the first episode - that has to be a sendup of 'Enterprise' and its infamous decontamination scene. Or the shot of a recovered Vulcan still with black ooze round his mouth like Mirror Spock's beard... They're the kind of references that, while not exactly funny, evoke a knowing nod of the head and a certain satisfaction that has been bled out of the shallow, superficial Treks that make up the output of current Trek programming in general. 'LD' could be described in those terms, too, but at least they have the knowledge... And they're willing to use it! I never accepted the misguided idea that each series should be a different flavour to the others: 'DSC' is all feelings and teen melodrama (even though most of the characters are well out of their teens, which just makes it even more bizarre), 'Picard' is off the beaten track, outsider losers who come together, 'SNW' is a steamrollering of 'TOS' canon, lore and continuity, with a comedic bent to counteract the general melodrama of the others. And 'Prodigy' is the kiddie cartoon. The great thing about past Trek was that it could be whatever it wanted from week to week, that's how it worked, but they became hogtied by trying to squeeze the formula into a heavily serialised galaxy- (and in some cases, universe-) ending storyline that didn't allow for much deviation or exploration, either of the physical galaxy or any of its concepts!

'LD' at least positioned itself in the lower echelon of expectation: it's a comedy. It's animation. It's not going to be deep. Oddly, the reverse was true, it's generally not that funny, but it does go deeper than just about any of the other Treks made today, and a large part of that may be its episodic sensibilities with ongoing arcs, the ideal mixture as seen in 'DS9.' You can see they strive to fit into the existing history of Trek, they care about the continuity, and that's why this has gradually taken the (admittedly dubious, given the opposition), position at the top of the tree as the best of modern Trek. 'Picard' Season 3 (another piece of the current pie I'll be examining in weeks to come), gives it a run for its money thanks to revolving around so many classic characters, and it is close, but 'LD' has impressed to the extent I'd say some of its episodes have been the best, almost at classic status, which is saying something considering my negative views on what's been done in general with these series'. And that's not to say I don't find any of it amusing - I baulk at the unfriendly gore, swearwords (with 'comedy' bleeping, or without), and the silliness, though you can get away with a lot more in this format than could be stomached in live-action. Trek has never been po-faced and miserable, some of its best episodes have been comedies (my personal favourite episode of my personal favourite Trek series is 'The Magnificent Ferengi' and everyone remembers the Tribbles episode from 'TOS'!), it's just the style of humour which can work or not as the case may be.

What worked for me in this episode were simple things, not guffaw moments - when Boimler has the choice of anything his imagination can conjure up on the Holodeck when Mariner and he are giving Tendi the tour, he chooses the Warp Core, something he could see for real, but just loves it so much he's happy to see a recreation of it. That's another thing, this series really applauds the type of people we used to see all the time on Trek: the professionals, the experts, those that care about the minutest detail. These have been the kind that have either been swept away by the need for 'heroes' (usually that means people being sassy and quippy, or breaking out into martial arts moves in a glamourising of violent confrontation), who always have the right answer without doing any work, or the other extreme, genius savants (Chekov in KT, Tilly in 'DSC,' etc), who innately have knowledge and lightning-struck inspiration all the time. At last we have some, dare I say it, more realistic people portrayed - yes, Tendi is extreme in her love of all things Starfleet, space, all things everywhere in fact, and I wouldn't say she's an endearing character in this one. But we only have twenty-five minutes to tell this story rather than the ninety minutes Trek used to spend on a pilot, or even around an hour for more recent examples, which partly explains the hyperactive pace at which everything happens and the characters speak. But an Orion on the crew, that's something to pay attention to.

We know very little about that culture so it's one ripe for exploration - while the other Treks, in keeping with an apparent wish to homogenise all eras to being the same (or is it a budget issue, I never have quite worked it out), tend to show the same few races all the time: Vulcans, check; tusky Tellarites, check; blue Andorians, check; green Orions, check... Doesn't matter if it's set in the 23rd, 24th, 25th or 32nd Centuries, they all bring in these races and they always look the same (ie: different to how they'd previously been shown, even when we'd had multiple different designs for different eras, so the Andorians from 'Enterprise' look different from the Trek films, for example and help to create a different time period), and worse, don't give them depth or go into their cultural attributes when constructing stories. One thing you notice with this series is how many other races they throw in - there's no limit on budget in terms of what you can draw, so you can have a familiar alien (Bolian), a new one (Galordonian), or an obscure one (Benzite, relatively), they're interchangeable. That doesn't mean you need to flood the place with them, and they didn't, just enough to play spot the alien. This does come under the category of references to distract from a weak story, but again, the story was something that hadn't quite been got down yet, trying to tell one in about half the time of a traditional Trek runtime. The last time Trek had done this (other than the 'Short Treks,' which don't count), was with 'The Animated Series' in the Seventies and they had the benefit of a strict template of 'TOS' to follow and most of the original voices for the characters.

I must admit, while I didn't mind Tendi, I was less sure of Rutherford whose status as a new cybernetically enhanced man was questionable - he's only had the implant for two weeks and is still getting used to it, but at this stage we don't know why he has it, what happened to him, or anything along those lines, it's entirely played for comedy: so it goes wrong at awkward moments or changes his personality, and it was all a bit difficult to accept. Trek tech should be flawless, not seen to be full of malfunctions, it makes whoever came up with it look bad - it seemed to imply the Vulcans had made it, but I wasn't completely sure, he may have been referring to the programming, or part of it, when explaining to his friend Barnes, I wasn't clear. It didn't help that it doesn't look great - think back to Geordi, the prototype tech-augmented character, and it was ergonomic, and counter to Dr. Soran's opinion, stylish! It looked like something someone of the future might wear rather than some punky accessory (like Detmer in 'DSC' - you'd think they'd be able to make something far more cosmetically appealing, especially for a young woman). Rutherford himself was highly likeable, especially in that he was too concerned with running a diagnostic on the door that was overridden by Red Alert, and the puzzle of why that happened, than he was open to romance at an inappropriate time. It's amusing, but it's also laudable, the kind of character trait you can respect, but isn't seen on the other modern Treks so much where it's more about feelings than good sense, expressing them no matter if it's an appropriate time! And it nicely gave him and Tendi something to bond over at the end, helping to cement friendship, though you get the impression she'd be friends with anyone, just say one nice word to her and she'll be mates for life!

The others are a bit more hit and miss. Mariner and Boimler seem to have served together for a little while at least, though it has to be less than a year since she says she was on the Quito last year, which is when she first came to the Galordonian homeworld, this planet of short, piglike aliens and their giant domesticated cow-spiders that appeared to have a role in their farming, whether giving milk or maybe ploughing (you see them scuttling across the farmers' fields at the end). These aliens were a weak spot, they looked pretty silly in the way Trek rarely did (though sometimes - look at the squat Evora from the diplomatic function at the start of 'Insurrection,' for example), and the cow-spiders are exactly the kind of ridiculous CGI monster creature I loathe in these things, whether it be the ones in 'Star Trek XI' or 'Star Wars Episode VII' - though I do love the Horta or the creature Odo morphed into in 'DS9' episode 'The Alternate,' so it's all about selling it and its level of believability. We know roughly when the series is set from dialogue, since in the C-plot (how much fun it is to have those traditional A, B and C stories playing out, even if they aren't all that strong!), Freeman interviews Boimler in her Ready Room to task him with reporting on Mariner's behaviour, and says he was commissioned in 2379 (actually she says '79, but from the tech and aesthetics it's clear what century we're in, one big reason to like the series), so it can't be much after that, and for those who know their Trek timeline, 2379 was the year 'Nemesis' took place - at last, what we've all been wanting: a series that takes place post-'Nemesis'!

Okay, we'd already had 'Picard,' this is the third series of the Kurtzman-era, but that was so bad in so many ways, not showing much of Starfleet, not portraying the manners and style we knew (one thing 'Picard' had in common is a desk clerk who isn't impressed or a good example of Starfleet attitudes - the guy that accepts Tendi on board and the guy Jean-Luc speaks to when he visits Starfleet HQ), and while this was tough to take for its wackiness, at least the ship does seem like a proper Starfleet ship with hierarchy and discipline - Boimler must still be fairly new as we see him visit the Bridge and he's severely fazed by the experience, practically traumatic because he's so awed by it. That's a trait that is appealing, that he's so serious about the regulations and modes of conduct, while Mariner is all breezy, seen-it-all-before attitude. Somewhere in between (closer to Boimler than Mariner, I'd say), is the sweet spot and together they complement each other well. The thing that gave me pause before I'd even seen the series (other than the fact I never liked the idea of Trek being specifically comedy rather than having that as one string to its bow), was when the series was summed up by talking about the lower deckers as being the type of people that would put the yellow cartridge in the Replicator to get bananas, or some quote like that. I was instantly concerned how much lack of knowledge that showed about Trek, but I think it must have been hyperbole or simplification because the series was actually pretty true to Trek tech and design.

Even the hoe and shovel which are among the farming implements Mariner has chosen to bring out to the farmers has a distinctly Starfleet look to them, without having to slap a Delta Shield insignia on everything the way 'DSC' did right from its first episode which made everything look tacky and ridiculous. An aside: the only story issue I saw with this episode, perhaps partly because there was a lot less running time, but also things did seem pretty tight, was Mariner thinking Starfleet bureaucracy would mean these farmers would starve before they got the needed equipment. It could simply be that this was emphasising her character, and that while she's rebellious she's goodhearted, or she just fancied a drive out, or was trying to annoy her Mother, or even a combination of all these motivations. It made no sense Boimler would accuse her of selling weapons because Starfleet don't sell anything, either! And I didn't like the Argo-style wheeled vehicle, something I've never appreciated in Trek ever since they introduced it in 'Nemesis' - why have wheels when you can hover, it makes no sense (one reason I'm happy 'TAS' is not canon since it was the first to introduce such land vehicles, wisely ignored ever since if not for that film - though now that animation is canon does that mean that is too? It's so confusing!). Back to the design: it's an absolute triumph and one thing I love about the series, it's clean lines, grey tone and every aspect of the design is true to the era it's in. That includes the oval shape of shields, and lacing out lines of Phaser Beams, and even the tiniest detail: the warp flash once the ship's sped off into warp as seen in the brilliant opening credits!

The one thing I wasn't so sure about was the uniforms. I would much rather they'd been what should have been Starfleet's look for this era, the grey-shouldered design of 'DS9' and the 'TNG' films, though that would be explained later that this particular range of ships and their second contact mission wear these brighter designs. From a production standpoint it's obviously to appeal to those that loved 'TNG' and the emphasis on bright colours does suit the visuals more, and at least 'normal' Starfleet ships are shown to be wearing the much cooler dark uniforms (which does tally with previous episodes where the 'DS9' uniforms of coloured shoulders were shown for the station, yet those on Starfleet ships were still wearing the coloured middle and black shoulders). Though I really didn't like the little boots they wear which just looked silly. Otherwise top marks, the look of it all is beautiful, even if they're taking their cues more from 'TNG' the series rather than 'TNG' the films. That goes for the credits sequence, too, taking a 'TNG' approach (unsurprisingly the USS Cerritos is very evocative of the Enterprise-D, perhaps from that generation since second contact isn't considered as important so it would have older vessels), with its bold, brassy theme as if 'DS9' and 'Voyager' and their more ethereal music had never happened. But the in-episode music is very close to that on all those old Treks, if, like the theme, it can sometimes be overdone (Chris Westlake, Composer of both, is name-checked by 'Nurse Westlake' being one of Dr. T'Ana's staff).

"I love science," claims Boimler, and that has to be a direct poke at 'DSC' for Tilly's dopey 'I love math(s)' comment and even more ridiculous, Spock's 'I like science,' yet even as a joke making fun of the worst Trek it still comes across as sincere and Quaid is a better actor for all his screaming, squealing, purple-haired evocation of weak manliness compared with Mariner's tomboyish, experienced bluster, both of whom seem more accomplished than most of their live-action counterparts. I wouldn't say 'LD' makes a disillusioned Trekker feel safe, that you've come home again at last and it's in a safe pair of hands, but there are signs even in this first episode that they know what they're doing, which couldn't be further from the truth with either 'DSC' or 'Picard'! Out of the three plots, second contact with the Galordonians, Commander Ransom (whom I presume is no relation of Rudy Ransom, Captain Janeway's nemesis in the 'Equinox' two-parter), being bitten by an insect and turning into a ravening rage zombie, and Boimler tasked with keeping eyes on Mariner's doings, I'd say the last was the best. If you also include Tendi being given her induction to the ship and Rutherford taking time to share a meal with a lady friend you could say there were also D and E plots to contend with. But whether it's because I like the characters now or got used to the zaniness, I didn't find it quite so off-putting as originally, and generally appreciated it more, they do manage to marshal all these storylines together in the jumble quite neatly.

What I really didn't like was the content, especially the extremes of the rage virus. It's far from the first time we'd seen such a thing on Trek, 'Impulse' from 'Enterprise' is the most obvious to spring to mind, but that had tension because it was serious. We're supposed to be laughing at the antics on display here, like Rutherford and Barnes getting to know each other in spite of the ship-wide crisis, which isn't as jarring to me now, and is mitigated by Rutherford's preoccupation with the door problem later, but still, the whole thing was ugly and disgusting, vomiting up black slime and chewing on each other, the kind of excess that turns me away from modern Trek. That it was done like this in the first episode was a very bad choice, I feel, and has an unsavoury taste about it all that didn't endear me to the series. While again, I didn't feel it was quite as horrible as that first shock viewing, it remains distasteful and goes too far, setting out the series' stall when it comes to tone and content. The graphic slicing into Boimler's leg by Mariner's Bat'leth (like an exclamation mark after  her gabbling, chattering introduction which itself confirmed my worst fears of what hyped-up animation might be like), was a smaller, but no less worrying example, emphasised by it closing out the teaser. And after opening the episode in full Trek mode, with starships orbiting a beautiful mushroom-shaped Starbase, Boimler giving a Captain's Log (something which had largely been missing from 'DSC' onwards at that stage), it was like they were gently bringing you in, lulling you into thinking this might be the first Kurtzman Trek that's good, wholesome, proper Trek, and then they cruelly laugh at you like a bully, shrieking in glee that you were fooled.

Obviously I don't feel like that about the series now, and as I pointed out in this review, there are clear signs that they want to make it good Trek grounded in Trekkiness rather than both previous series' that seemed to want to be something that wasn't like Trek, desperate to attract those not interested in traditional Trek. While the humour has gone too far on occasions, it isn't about laughing at Trekkers, but embracing them, pulling them in to smile at the most obscure corners of Trekdom. The way at the 'end' (in other words, the end of the experience for the command crew), they recreate Trek finales of old by having the Captain tell the Doctor she'll get to publish more award-winning research now and T'Ana replies, 'great, more paperwork,' and they all go off laughing, was a great showcase of the writers' understanding of the material, but also a way to show the differences in this series: unlike 'DSC' which purported to be about the lower decks, that was really only a concept at the start and utterly failed since Burnham was always the one with the answer, who always had to be listened to and the other characters were mostly the top bods in their departments, it just wasn't stated. Here we see the aftermath for real lower-deckers, much like the episode of 'TNG' this was named after, so you could say it's 'DSC' done right. That still doesn't mean I can hold up this episode (or much of this season), as being good Trek, but it did lead to good stuff later. And that's why I'm here tapping away on a keyboard, because otherwise it's hard to be interested enough!

There's added interest for me as I pick up little facts about the characters that I didn't care enough about, or didn't assimilate before, due to the frantic pace of the dialogue, but knowing Mariner was on DS9 for a while means I do perk up when I hear her history here: that she was demoted and sent to the Cerritos (sounds like a breakfast cereal!), after being on the Quito and has served on five ships (so can't be as young as she seems). One funny moment was her competing with Boimler on how many planets they've visited and he claims he's been to five, though it comes out that includes Earth and Vulcan which is 'so lame' to say it in Mariner-speak. That's the main thing above everything else that actually irks: the modern-day dialogue. They could still have spoken quickly, they could have raised their voices, they could have made everything a joke, but if they sound like 21st Century humans you'd meet in real life it does take you out of it all. It's not as egregious in animation because everything is stylised anyway, but it remains a sore point, one of many major choices inherent in the current generation Treks. Yet it was enjoyable to see these various characters we don't yet know, the Ransoms, the Shaxs' (is it Shax or is it Shaxs?), the Freemans, the Billups, and have these little synopses of their character that will come to the fore as the series travels onward. And the ship itself is attractive and not out of place in design continuity. It's wonderfully detailed (we even get a brief EVA walk on the hull for good measure), and with technobabble and mention of various ship operations (like Cetacean Ops!), there's a sense of a working Starfleet vessel you can believe in. It may be far from the sedate, considered warm bath of 'TNG,' the series it takes as its main inspiration, but it shows promise, and even in a weaker episode there's positive, upbeat enjoyment to be had.

**