Temporal Edict

 DVD, Lower Decks S1 (Temporal Edict)

Due to 'temporal' being in the title I thought this was going to be some kind of time travel story, though I didn't remember anything about it. All you have to do is say 'buffer time' and then you remember! It could just as easily have been called 'The Boimler Effect' since it ends with him being awarded a shiny plaque to commemorate a new rule about not always following rules in honour of him, even though he was the only one who was able to keep up with all the Captain wanted done. I think it helped separating Boimler and Mariner for an episode so they could do other things rather than argue with each other all the time. The actual story is way over the top, but also fairly amusing. I'd say it didn't even need the subplot of the Gelrakians taking offence at Ransom's Away Team and coming to invade the Cerritos, because the funniest part of the story was the crew desperately trying to get every little task done at absolute maximum speed, to the detriment of health, morale and ship systems everywhere! And it all comes from a little joke from Scotty (both in the films and his 'Relics' appearance, I think), where he admitted to quadrupling his estimates for repairs to make himself look like a miracle worker when he finished so much quicker. Not that they specifically referenced that, but that's its origin, the restraint in explanation making it even better, especially as they're usually so far into reeling off references to characters, places and events that it can be off-putting even for those of us who love the cross-connectedness of the universe.

It makes it seem like Scotty's way was something others had cottoned onto. It's not the honest, hardworking integrity of Starfleet (but let's be honest, the film era of 'TOS' was really more about having fun with the stereotypes people had created about those characters in the years since 'TOS' ended), but it is true to how people operate sometimes, not doing things as quickly as they can and maybe adding in the odd break here and there (which it could be argued actually makes them more efficient since there's a better work/reward balance). Even Rutherford, who loves the work, goes along with it because it's lower decks tradition, and of course 'buffer time' is a rule Mariner absolutely lives by! I must admit the iconography was all extremely modern day, right down to the red speaker off with an 'x' next to it that appears on Shaxs' console, or the circle counting down all over the place, and obviously buffering is something we have today referring to streaming and other things not keeping up, so it is a little jarring, but if that's the worst excess of the series' use of modern day slang, it's not too bad compared to the far worse manner of speech and colloquialisms or anachronisms (to their time), that are spouted in 'Strange New Worlds' or 'Picard,' or really in any of the modern Treks that never feel like a futuristic period piece any more, in large part due to the contemporary attitudes and language use all the time. 'LD' is no exception, but thanks to its over the top style and cartoonish storytelling, it's not quite as awful here.

Excess is something of a problem with the series, but for the most part I'd say this was a more accessible episode in general since the humour tended towards the innocently amusing more than the cynical or crude. For example, the return to classical music performance aboard ship that it's hard to believe would be seen in the other modern Treks, but was a hallmark of the kind of high class impression of humans of the future seen in 'TNG' - and then Mariner comes in to burst that bubble, blaring out some electric guitar noise, which isn't exactly funny, but very true to the characters, then the Klingon the Cerritos is talking to on a Viewscreen feels dishonoured when he hears the bass and Shaxs bolts down to end the performance to find Boimler back on with his violin and he's the one that gets it for Mariner's indiscretion! It's not hilarious, but it's a nice little aside that plays on the characters and the Trek way. I was wondering how the Klingon could hear it since sound shouldn't travel through space, but then I realised he must be hearing it over the Viewscreen. Not sure why he'd feel dishonoured, I'd have thought Klingons would be attracted to such throaty sounds, but on the whole the gag worked. As did the crew going from contented and relaxed in their work to harried and barely able to keep up in response to Freeman's raging round the ship after she's been turned away from the Cardassia Prime conference she was supposed to be attending (shame, it would have been good to have found out how the Cardassians were doing at this time a few years after their world was so debilitated after the Dominion War), and takes it out on the crew.

It is typically over the top to see the change one week makes, but it fits the series, and equally funny is how much Boimler's loving it. The main gag of the episode therefore worked well. It's not quite as good once we go down to the planet and meet the crystal loving Gelrakians, an ugly, pale green race who look like something out of some other, cruder animation, and this is where the over the top-ness isn't quite as fun. There's too much stabbing and blood-spilling for it to be quite nice to watch, but I did like Ransom, his confidence shining through to ludicrous levels, as ever. The best thing was him telling Mariner to roll down her sleeves as "this isn't a barn," and then she's later put in the Brig for failing to do just that right after they've found common ground. Now that's funny! The clichés of the ripped shirt and the big hulking enemy who's actually intelligent despite his looks, weren't too terrible, mainly because they hadn't yet been done on the series, but you can imagine if they were doing this all the time it would get very tiresome. The best joke for me was a very deep cut, in fact you might not even hear it as a joke if you didn't remember 'First Contact': When Tendi and Rutherford are so out of their minds with stress they can't even remember what deck Sickbay's on, Rutherford suggests Deck 26 and Tendi asks if they even have a Deck 26, which is a reference to the film where Lieutenant Daniels says the Borg control decks 26 up to 11 and the Enterprise-E only has 24 decks! Good stuff, but you have to listen carefully or it'd be easy to miss these asides.

Another great joke is when Boimler worries he'll be known for this uncharacteristic rule the Captain has laid at his door and Mariner says it'll probably be forgotten, only for us to see a glimpse of 'The Far Future' where a class of children of various races are being taught about The Boimler Effect and remember him as lazy. But the best bit is the episode ends moving onto something completely different, describing Chief O'Brien of all people as perhaps the most important person in Starfleet history. Some would say that's a well deserved reputation, but it could also be a joke within a joke since they got Boimler's character so wrong, perhaps they've done the same with O'Brien? Either way you look at it it's a nice way to reference a 'DS9' character - okay, technically this is still a 'TNG' reference since he's shown at his traditional station of the Transporter console rather than in the guise we know him best, as Chief Engineer of DS9, but that series had been very badly served in terms of connections and references compared with all the other 'golden era' Treks so this was a small redress (very small). The series would eventually bring back characters voiced by the actors, and obviously other series' have dripped in some 'DS9' stuff in the years since, but in a way I'm quite glad it's actually the series that's been meddled with the least by these modern writers as it is by far the best and so has most to be lost, and when you look at what they did to other so-called 'legacy' characters (Seven of Nine, Picard, Icheb, Hugh, Maddox), there's not a high proportion of them treated with respect and dignity.

They also get in a reference to Gene Roddenberry when Boimler's statue is shown with 'one of' the Great Birds of the Galaxy. Not sure if that's a bit of a slight on Roddenberry since he was known as The Great Bird of The Galaxy and now they're saying there's more than one? Obviously it's all just a joke, but you can read into it more than face value! Ransom also mentions being on missions dealing with horned gorillas, suggesting Mugato (which would actually appear next season), and sentient tar (which sounds like Armus, the creature that killed Tasha Yar, another creature that would appear on this series - did it mean he served on the Enterprise or is this another incident?), and spores that affect behaviour ('This Side of Paradise'). But generally the references were small and weren't pounded at you, which is a better way to go than reeling off lists of characters and that kind of thing the way the series began. It's nice to be reminded of things that occurred in this universe, but not everything and everyone needs to be connected like in 'Star Wars.' It was fun to see Mariner not get her way since she's so bolshy, and her statement that 'sometimes you have to do what's wrong to survive' is typically off-message and very anti-Starfleet, even if it's shown to work this time since Ransom stabs her in the foot and takes control of the situation due to his combat skills. The other minor characters weren't used as much so it wasn't overwhelming and gave the episode a nice balance, and this whole 'scheduling deceit,' or 'creative estimating' as Rutherford sugarcoats it, while not exactly ethical, was at least humorous, as was the depiction of what it would be like if it was removed. I still wouldn't say the series is yet firing, but this was generally less offensive and more fun, showing promise at least. And I do like the formality of the title. Oh, and there are no dopey little droids to clean off the graffiti, unlike the massive retcon of 'DSC' introducing these cleaning robots - the crew can do it for themselves!

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