Veritas

 DVD, Lower Decks S1 (Veritas)

Veritas. Very-'TAS'? In truth, it means truth, and there isn't really a lot of connections to 'The Animated Series' (unless you're thinking of that terrible episode where the Devil is put on trial, or was it that he put them on trial, I don't remember...), although Boimler does bring up the giant Spock of 'The Infinite Vulcan' (which wouldn't be the last reference to that specific character on the series), in a list of things that past captains knew nothing about before venturing into The Unknown, when he thinks he's defending Starfleet in an alien trial. For this is Trek trope #9: The Courtroom Drama. Except it isn't, because Clar has only rented out a warehouse (or 'event silo' as he calls it), to celebrate how good Starfleet is for saving him, it's just his funny alien ways that make it seem sinister and deadly. Throw in a couple of Q cameo scenes, skip the gore (though the bad language quotient is higher than usual, even if most of it is bleeped out 'for laughs'), and it's a classic misunderstanding-alien-intentions story with a happy ending of everything coming off okay. It makes a change to have all four lower-deckers together for the entirety of the contemporary plot (though we see flashbacks to other events), and it's nice to have an episode that's easy to enjoy without going too wacky, even if it does often feel like a list of references or random events spat out, rather than a well-thought-out episode. But I did feel the amusement quotient was a little higher than it often is on the series (my favourite line being the Romulan saying how much he hates Remans! - Shame we didn't get to see one, though).

When I first saw it I found it a tiresome, thinly disguised string of Trek references without a story - hey, hey, what about this, what about that --- Roga Danar --- Q --- Khan --- Gorn... And I can see my point, well made. At the same time, for its innocence and positive ending, in the true style of good Trek, I found it to be one of the better entries this season. Not to say that's a particularly high accolade since I've found the season to be mediocre without a truly good episode among them, but it's still a step up from my original feelings towards the series. Of course it remains a scattergun of Trek trivia and hyperactive action, but it did make me smile or snort a few times, which I can't say is as common as should be for an out-and-out comedy drama. Could I have done without Q showing up? Of course! It makes no sense from the perspective of the interactions we'd seen in 'TNG,' 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' and was a bit of a comedown from his last appearance in 'Q2' way back in 2001, almost twenty years prior, but knowing the style of the series now, and seeing so many familiar faces come back voiced by the original actors, it's not jarring to me this time round. And I've seen John DeLancie return in live action for 'Picard' Season 2, officially The Worst Season of Trek. He was completely wasted in that and it's since been revealed that there would have been a much more Trekky storyline for the season if Terry Matalas, who headed the much improved Season 3, had had his way (but just like the last film, 'Beyond,' it was deemed 'too Trekky' - yeah, this is 'Star Trek' you know?).

Anyway, DeLancie's brief cameos here are neither troubling nor make any difference to anything, and that's okay. It may be a bit of a waste of his talent, but 'LD' isn't meant as a showcase of Trek writing, it's just a little gag cartoon. It's just a shame the little gag cartoon has more Trekkiness in it than its live action big brothers. Even granting that it's largely references, it's more fun and less problematic a lot of the time. Did I find it amusing when Dr. T'Ana runs onto the Bridge and claims everyone on board is being replaced by imposters who claim not to know her, and maybe it's a parallel dimension (much like 'Remember Me,' even if, other than the long blue medical coat they wear, she has nothing in common with Dr. Crusher!), except all the Bridge crew are alternate versions of the Cerritos crew - that's because it's another ship, and Dr. T'Ana stumps off saying all these ships look alike? Yes, I did. Or a flashback to a time Ransom was romancing a woman who was actually a Salt Vampire - no, I didn't laugh because they're extinc–hang on, he finishes his line that of course it's not a Salt Vampire because they died out over a century ago! That's funny. I was so busy about to be annoyed by the failure to follow canon correctly that I didn't wait for the reveal they know what they're doing! That's funny. The Reman mention is funny. The guy with the gavel, aping the Klingon magistrate from 'Star Trek VI' being revealed to actually just be there to set up for his little girl's hundredth birthday later on. Funny!

None of it is laugh out loud humour in the way the best Ferengi slapstick episodes were on 'DS9,' but it is well observed comedy rather than the lowest common denominator, gross-out, gruesome, or gory stupidity that some of the episodes have preferred (the only bit that reminded me of 'adult' comedies was when Mariner and Boimler walk by the senior staff happy at the success of the covert mission, and they shrug it off as nothing important, laughing dismissively and high-five-ing - maybe it was just the laugh). Making it better for lore's sake is having a couple of other Trek names in the credits - not royalty like DeLancie or last episode's JG Hertzler, but Kurtwood Smith isn't far behind since he played the actual Federation President in 'Star Trek VI' (sensing a theme here? Clearly that film's trial was the inspiration, to the extent I felt Hertzler would have been a better voice to go with for Clar since he was in the remake of 'Enterprise' ('Judgement'), but that was before I realised it was Kurtwood), and had memorable roles on both 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' so I approved. And Kenneth Mitchell, the guy who played modern TV Trek's first main recurring villain, Kol, in 'DSC,' then two more Klingons, Kol-Sha and Tenavik, followed by a scientist in Season 3, and who sadly died earlier this year after an illness, got to expand his Trek cred even further by doing voices for one of the human black ops operatives in Tendi's flashback, as well as a Romulan guard and captain of the Tweerk (the bug-eyed monster), though, like Kurtwood, I wouldn't have recognised his voice. I like it when we get some interconnectivity in casting, and these were good gets.

One thing that caught my attention was very slight and simple: dust. In the 'courtroom' the harsh beams of light illuminate tiny specks of dust floating about, and it's this attention to detail that gives the animation style so much realism despite the bug eyes and simple lines of the series' design. Visually it is an often beautiful production (even if I wish they wore the 'DS9' grey shoulder uniforms to fit the era), and so much effort goes into recreating the look of late-24th Century style that that in itself is a pleasure to see - here, they recreate a raft of alien (and Federation), ships in some kind of museum Rutherford's taken to with Shaxs and Billups to steal a 'TOS' Romulan Bird-of-Prey for a covert ops mission (the one used to rescue Imperium Magistrate Clar from Romulus). It's like an antidote for the very deliberate disinterest in showing off the vessels seen in 'DSC' where they clearly didn't allow much time for good external views (in fact, the point of having a massive window on the Bridge instead of the more submarine-like Viewscreen appeared to be a deliberate move to bring space into the ship so they didn't need to cut to external views), or preferred to redesign Starfleet and other familiar races' styles so as to be quite far from what we knew. None of that here: with various Federation shuttlecraft, a yellow worker bee ('The Motion Picture,' I think), they travel in the Vulcan Shuttle (definitely 'TMP'), and there are examples of a Klingon Cruiser, Ferengi shuttle, Jem'Hadar fighter, pointy Tholian vessel, not to mention the famous T'Plana Hath, the Vulcan ship which touches down for first contact in... 'First Contact.'

We even get several Romulan Warbirds (beautiful, beautiful ships! - sleek and threatening, intimidating and cool, nothing from modern Trek's creators has come close), in a typically silly moment where their Bird-of-Prey is being scanned, and then it's not, and then it is, etc. Then there are the usual, many connections to other episodes or characters from Trek, such as a suggestion Billups was either part of the Enterprise-D crew during the events of 'TNG' or an avid reader of the ship's logs since in his oxygen-deprived state he shouts out a warning that 'Mark Twain has a gun' or to Tasha that the 'garbage bag's behind you,' referring to time travel in 'Time's Arrow' where they met Mark Twain, and Tasha Yar's death by oil slick Armus in 'Skin of Evil,' which also looked a bit like those shiny plastic rubbish bags, probably because they were part of the costume, I'd imagine! And what must be the first appearance of the Gorn in the modern Trek era when Rutherford has memories from his faulty implant of ending up at a Gorn wedding where he gets attacked. They look like the lumbering creatures of 'Arena,' as they should, rather than the silly CGI versions of 'SNW' only a few years later. And don't forget the time Rutherford's ordered to perform a fan dance as a distraction for a Vulcan guard (wearing 'TMP' riot gear!), when they're stealing the BOP. I think the museum was supposed to be on Vulcan. Though why they had to steal it rather than just ask... is classified!

All inconsistencies or questions about the episode are classified! Surely this is a joke at 'DSC's expense, since this first season of 'LD' would have come a year after the second season of that series ended in 2019 with its infamous denial of all knowledge of the Discovery or Michael Burnham as a way to 'resolve' the canon flummery of a mess they'd got into. 'LD' is very much the antidote to much of what was wrong with 'DSC' because they really know their audience (for the most part - as I say, the classic tone they're going for often clashes with gore and swearing). Even the moment Rutherford wakes up on the Vulcan Shuttle and we discover he's nerve-pinched out some Vulcans is an obvious reference to Burnham doing the same to her Captain (and how did she do that...? How did Rutherford...? See?), though I suppose it could go back even further to the time Picard appeared to do the same to a terrorist aboard the Enterprise. One canon conundrum that I did find suspect was when Mariner and Beckett are arguing over who's best known tough guy, renegade Roga Danar or Khan, and she claims he was a genetically augmented super-villain, but the whole point of Khan was that he was created through eugenics, not genetics (hence the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s), which seems to be a common mistake. But even the way the episode begins was very 'TNG' where we have an establishing shot of K'Tuevon Prime, then the teaser all takes place in one room with people talking. They could easily be more ostentatious than even 'DSC' with no budget limit on how big sets can be, etc, but they're going for a 'TNG' feel and they succeed in that.

Tendi continues to be endearing and I think this is the first time we see she has superior Orion fighting skills when she's mistakenly taken along as The Cleaner when Ransom and some burly, be-muscled 80s action heroes (with their eyes covered by black bars to protect their identity, and their names redacted!), go on the covert rescue mission to save Clar - she's not supposed to be there, but just goes along with it to the point they're fleeing with their prize and tell her to do her stuff, so she grits her teeth and takes out all the pursuing Romulan soldiers (also having their eyes covered with a black bar since this is a classified mission!), when Ransom simply meant her to beam them out of there! Misunderstanding would appear to be the theme of the episode - the whole thing is one big misunderstanding (again, amusing that it's all cut short twenty-two minutes into the episode when an official appears to tell Clar his time is up and he has to vacate for the next party - he only paid for twenty-two minutes, you see!), but there's also Rutherford who doesn't have a clue what's going on thanks to his malfunctioning implant, and even Mariner misinterprets Freeman's order to send the Tweerk ship a message, firing a Phaser beam across its bow when the Captain meant to invite them to dinner!

What else? Oh yes, Rutherford bumping into things on the hull of the cloaked Bird-of-Prey (perhaps in evocation of Gillian Taylor doing the same in 'Star Trek IV' with the Klingon version, or the rubbish men's bins getting flattened by an invisible force). And Boimler, who gets to be the hero of the piece for once, even though all he does is rant out a speech about how the senior officers don't always know what to do - you could see it as a bit negative since he's pulling apart Clar's notion that Starfleet is all perfect people, but the point was that whatever they were doing it was for good, not ill. And he throws in examples of going into the unknown: Picard with the Borg, Kirk with giant Spock, Dr. Crusher with 'the ghost in a lamp thing from the Scottish planet' (which was probably best left forgotten). And throws down the Horn of Candour, shouting "Drumhead!" And Mariner says they'll get kicked off the Cerritos and end up on Earth where there's nothing to do but drink wine and hang out in vineyards or soul food restaurants (Picard's family owned the former, Sisko's the latter). Even the idea of Tendi having to clean cat hair out of the conference room chairs is somewhat amusing. It's great there are no Dot-7 droids, or whatever they're called, as we saw in 'DSC' where they even cleared up fallen chairs and stupid things like that. No to droids in Trek! (Especially with names like Peanut Hamper!). And Q says Picard's no fun, always quoting Shakespeare and making wine. Yeah, it's just a list of remembrances of past Trek, but it's stitched together quite pleasingly and if there isn't much of a story, it's still told in a unique style thanks to Rutherford's implant's POV, so that's something. The veritas is that the series is improving.

**

Much Ado About Boimler

 DVD, Lower Decks S1 (Much Ado About Boimler)

One of those episodes I'm not quite sure what to make of. We're supposed to accept what happens on the series as canon, no matter how farfetched, but they sometimes (actually quite a lot), go a bit too far into wackiness so that it's hard to take seriously. But then it's also not supposed to be taken seriously because it's meant to be a comedy. And that's why the series took a long time to win me over because comedy and the seriousness of Trek don't fit hand in glove. Maybe one finger in glove, but more than the occasional witticism or comedy episode and it gets to be... something I'm not quite sure what to make of, to bring it full circle! This is the one with the dog, which is named The Dog by its creator, Tendi. The joke here is that she's an Orion, so doesn't actually know what's normal for a dog, despite all the extreme weirdness this particular science project exhibits... And that's about the extent of that joke. I suppose you could say it fits with the theme of the episode, which is science projects gone bad: Boimler gets more than he bargained for (well, actually less than he bargained for since he doesn't fully rematerialise), when Rutherford uses him to test a faster Transporter. In the meantime Captain Freeman is off on a covert ops mission with Shaxs and Ransom to... plant some seeds... an odd choice of mission and I'm not quite sure what was covert about it unless I missed something in the machine-gun dialogue. That leaves the Cerritos with a 'babysitter' Captain, as Mariner puts it, while Dr. T'Ana sends Boimler and The Dog off to 'The Farm.'

A very odd sequence of events, almost like they were just throwing things at the board. It does sound as if they were either running out of ideas at this stage of the season or had one too many late night break sessions and got hopped up on coffee so they came up with the wackiest story they could. As often is the case, there are seeds of good a story in here: the idea of a temporary Captain coming in like Jellico (one of the few references of the episode, as Mariner says his name as if everyone knows he goes around subbing for other Captains - side note: he's one of the characters to return voiced by the original actor, Ronny Cox, though in 'Prodigy,' not 'LD'!), in 'Chain of Command' to shake things up. Again they find a novel way of subverting expectations and it turns out Captain Ramsey of the USS Oakland is a great mate of Mariner's from the Academy so they get on like a house on fire - except suddenly Mariner turns into a clumsy, useless, bumbler rather than the usual confident, competent expert we know she can be. It's all a ploy so she doesn't have to transfer to Ramsey's ship and rank up, so in other words she's just incredibly lazy and good-for-nothing, the opposite of what Starfleet officers are all about! Will we ever find out exactly why she became this way? I can't remember if it's addressed as the series goes on, but it's a pretty bad commentary (yet again), on Starfleet, that they allow such attitudes.

But then the whole premise of the series is that it has a two-tier (at least), system, with California-vessels crewed by the B-team who go around doing clean up jobs and bedding in new races while the 'serious' starship crews explore and make the first contacts. The whole thing pours scorn on Starfleet and the Federation being as good as we thought. You can still take it that that's just an attitude some have, and that the missions the Cerritos carries out are just as important to the workings of the Federation, but it seems to be another way of undermining the more pure vision of the future, even if that vision was flawed and impossible in the first place due to humanity's fallen nature - no doubt if the Kurtzman era had gone the opposite route and enforced utopian values and ideals into every pore of their productions I'd find just as much to find fault with as I do their broken, less than ideal version of the Trek future where every series likes to remind us that poverty, hatred, bigotry, etc, still exist in the Federation. Primarily this series is made to have fun, but I can't say this particular instalment was very funny. They were going for a more creepy style, whether that be the gruesome glitches in The Dog's behaviour (turning into a spider and crawling along the ceiling, its neck becoming a giant mouth while the eyeballs fly out of it like bats...), Mariner and her new team creeping around the dark, empty USS Rubidoux in EVA suits, or Boimler's journey aboard the NX Osler, a medical transport, to The Farm where Starfleet's 'unsolvable illnesses and science mysteries' go to be cared for.

The look of the Osler, with its Gothic lines and sleek design, wasn't bad, and it's fun to see another Edosian (voiced by Shaxs' Fred Tatasciore), the three-armed, three-legged race Lt. Arex represented in 'The Animated Series,' as the... well I'm not sure what he was meant to be, he certainly didn't seem to be a Captain, more like the governor of a prison or mental health facility, so maybe the vessel itself was under his authority, but the crew had a Captain, too, since we never saw the Bridge. They do like their 'TAS' connections, and it's enjoyable when they work something like that in, but it doesn't say much for Starfleet (again), that they have a special organisation for the extreme cases which they can't help - Division 14 is the name of it (suspiciously like Section 31 - at least it wasn't them!), with perhaps the funniest line being Boimler thinking they're "the time travel police?" Everything is made creepy and unsettling, the Edosian even cackling evilly, but as we find out, that's just how he laughs, and he thinks maybe the ship should be painted in brighter colours and more lights should be turned on to make it less creepy, because The Farm really is only a resort for the 'freaks' to be taken to.

It's happy endings all round, which is a positive at least: the victims of these various medical problems (including a giant salamander like Janeway and Paris were transformed into in 'Threshold,' and a Delta radiation burns victim in a wheelchair with a beeper, just like Captain Pike), are left having a great time on this idyllic planet, Boimler fully materialises, The Dog stays with the freaks, happily flying off into the sky, and the unknown disaster affecting the Rubidoux turns out to be an 'Encounter At Farpoint' type of space jellyfish that they believe to be peaceful and simply in search of a home. Quite positive, as Trek should be, but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny: the biggest problem is Boimler and why he didn't fully materialise, yet could still walk around, interact with solid objects, etc. Usually if something bizarre happened they'd go to the trouble of finding an explanation, no matter how convoluted that might be, but the closest we get here is Ramsey saying he's out of phase. Even worse, the effect just naturally wears off and he suddenly returns to normal. Just from what we know of the Transporter it doesn't make a lot of sense - either you're out of phase and no one can see you, or barely, and you can't have any physical interaction (yes, I know it makes no sense in 'The Next Phase' that they don't fall right through the bulkheads into space, they still have to make a TV series!), or you're fully energised. Part-energised is nonsense, unless you cover it with a technobabble explanation, which they didn't bother to do. Admittedly amusing (though again, the Transporter ringing following Boimler around until they find a way to get rid of it, was ridiculous!), especially as he's so desperate to impress the guest Captain.

Then with the giant space creature at the end it was rather presumptuous of them to assume it wasn't hostile, even after breaking apart the Rubidoux and terrorising its crew. It makes sense for the story and for a beautiful happy ending (just like 'Farpoint' and that episode of 'Picard' Season 3 when something similar happens), but isn't necessarily true. I also can't say I liked Mariner's reasons for not wanting to progress in her career, that she still needs time to 'find' herself, whatever that means. She comes across as simply lazy and unwilling to accept greater responsibility, whether that be from an incident, or incidents in her past, or a general inertia in life, it doesn't provide a very inspirational or aspirational character study and was another reason to be uncomfortable with the series, though of course it fits in very well with the modern attitude to such things. Not to say other Trek characters had it all together, but for the most part I got the impression it was their service in Starfleet that gave them the satisfaction and development they needed in life, with the occasional exception of specific circumstances such as Spock leaving to take part in the Kolinahr, or Paris ending up in a penal colony on Earth, though in both cases they found their worth in Starfleet, and I suppose Mariner still could too. At the same time the premise of the series is that these are lower-deckers, so once they do rise in the ranks it would be a different series, another reason it's not necessarily a good idea to write yourself into a corner with the premise being about lower ranked characters, and why in reality most Treks are about the Captain and senior staff (one more reason 'DSC' never worked, and why I have no interest in 'Starfleet Academy').

Speaking of the Captain, Freeman has very little to do, and that's fine, it was good to have a guest Captain for a change and it's fun to see her and the others aping Picard, Worf and Crusher from 'Chain of Command' with the same skintight, black, covert ops outfits, as silly as that was even then. I'm sure Roddenberry would say that Starfleet officers wouldn't do anything as underhand as covert operations, they'd always be open and above board, but those sentiments are long since crushed into dust, not least by Section 31 apparently being accepted as a legitimate, not to say even desirable, branch of Starfleet in the Kurtzman Treks. It's not like the old days when 31 were first invented, and Bashir and the others were so horrified by the very idea of such an organisation they worked heartily to bring it down in the same way Janeway did to bring down the Borg. They had a ripe opportunity for a reference in this episode which they didn't take, despite the potential, and that was comparing Mariner with Bashir, since he, too, underachieved deliberately (we learn Mariner got the best grades in her class and they all thought she'd be the first to gain a captaincy, which fits with what we know about her having a longer career than her time on the Cerritos suggests). In his case it was to hide a genetically enhanced heritage, but the parallel seemed obvious. The series sometimes makes me think they don't know 'DS9' as well as the other series' when obvious connections aren't made, as much as I note the over-abundance of references generally.

I quite liked Durga, the Vulcan woman, part of Ramsey's crew, as she had that disdainful, restrained air ("Curious that you're still an Ensign," she says to Mariner), of a true Vulcan, something we so rarely see since 'Enterprise' ruined the race. The name wasn't very fitting, and in fact I assumed at first the Captain was referring to the odd-looking, purple-haired guy as that seemed like a name fit for him, but no... We'd get more Vulcan influence in this series as it progressed, something I like since they're my favourite race and any time they get them right is great. There's not a lot else in terms of connecting to other Trek, although when the Rubidoux's Viewscreen explodes out into space and sucks the air out it was just like 'Nemesis' and I think they also did that in 'Star Trek XI.' And Captain Dayton (voiced by Dr. T'Ana's Gillian Vigman), of the Rubidoux was obviously named for Dayton Ward (even if it's a female Captain!), a Trek author of many novels whom I believe was being used as some kind of consultant on the series, unless I'm getting confused with 'Prodigy' - I'm pretty sure he advised on one of the animated series'. We also learn that Borg smell like 'old trash bags' according to Ramsey, which makes sense to me since they do look like corpses, so why not smell like them? And finally, we have the immortal line, "Boim me up," though I suspect Boimler will think twice before saying it again after what happened on this occasion - I thought this was going to be the one where a Transporter double of him was created, but that's obviously Season 2 now that I think of it! Nolan North ('Into Darkness'), gets another role after Niko in 'Cupid's Errant Arrow,' this time as the main freak (old and young halves), and it's a fun fact that Jennifer Hale, the voice of Durga, also did the voice of The Dog. A logical decision, I surmise.

**

Terminal Provocations

 DVD, Lower Decks S1 (Terminal Provocations)

Badgey, the infamous Badgey. I knew this episode was coming up soon and I knew I disliked the character intensely. But... it wasn't quite as vicious and nasty an episode as I remembered, and I'd forgotten about Fletcher, whose side story was fairly amusing as someone more rule-breaking than Mariner, and has to be dealt with by her and Boimler. And it is always nice to see Rutherford and Tendi together. And then I knew JG Hertzler was coming up, too... So I didn't hate it, but then I didn't hate it the first time round, it just left a sour taste from the 'Itchy & Scratchy' style of over the top gory violence, even if there wasn't as much of it as I'd thought. What I did like were the three plots (or, technically, two and a half, since the Bridge scenes dealing with the intransigent Drookmani scavengers was relatively slight), all fed off each other: Rutherford takes Tendi into the Holodeck to run a spacewalk simulation to help her overcome her fear, while at the same time Boimler and Mariner have to deal with a 'stolen' shield core module that friend from his Academy days, Fletcher, claims has been stolen, while the Drookmani try to provoke the Cerritos into firing on them as they attempt to stake a claim on one hundred year old Starfleet cargo (fairly accurate dating since I'm sure one of the ships was from 'TAS' in another nice little visual reference to the forerunner of this series!), as they don't have weapons, then using their Tractor Beam to fling cargo at the Cerritos, whose shields aren't at top spec thanks to Fletcher borrowing the isolinear core for the shield array, which in turn causes ship's systems to be damaged, leading to Rutherford and Tendi trapped in a malfunctioning Holodeck with a psychotic character trying to kill them. And the safeties are off.

Therefore a good mixture of typical Trek tropes, which are complimented by the occasional little wry observances on certain characters' behaviour, such as Shaxs being so desperate to fire on the Drookmani, yet continually put off by the Captain, much like Worf used to be in the same position on the Enterprise. Or reminiscing about the time back during the Academy days that Fletcher talked a bunch of Nausicaans out of eating Boimler's heart, encouraging them to merely spit in his face (much like Picard's encounter with the species, only he got stabbed through the heart). Then there's Fletcher's stupid idea to make himself more intelligent so he can finish tasks quicker by stealing an isolinear core and hooking up his brain, much like Barclay in 'The Nth Degree,' except it didn't work this time. Even Badgey and Rutherford are acting like Doc Soong and his creation, Lore, who was thoroughly evil, yet Soong still felt for him. There are also references that could be subtler, such as when they're having to replace all the isolinear chips in the cores and Mariner complains a core should mean one big one, rather than all the little handheld modules they have to manually swap out, which look very much like the Spore Drive cylinders in 'DSC' - could it be a nudge at that series' expense?

Of course it's full of much more overt humour and the now-familiar list of references, which in the case of Rutherford pouring out a list of all kinds of people which the Holodeck isn't just for meeting, long enough that the extent of the list itself was obviously meant to be funny, over and above the fact we're getting references to various characters that have appeared over the years in Holodeck scenes (either as characters or acted by our characters), from 'TNG' and 'Voyager' (Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Sigmund Freud, Cyrano de Bergerac, Einstein, da Vinci, Stephen Hawking, Socrates!). He also gets in a more obscure reference when questioning if there are cryogenically frozen princesses in the cargo, a pointer to one of, if not the, worst episodes of 'Enterprise' ('Precious Cargo'). And even broad statements like Mariner reassuring Fletcher the missing module is only the backup of a backup is very true to what's been previously established, and Fletcher's line about there being a baseline of goodness to everyone in Starfleet is something you can almost believe, except it's ironic in his case since he turns out to be a cowardly liar so desperate to impress people that he'll steal something to enhance himself, then threaten to bring down his friends if he gets caught, when they had just graciously offered to help him. It seems he wasn't a true Lower-Decker, since they stick together!

Fletcher's solution is to blame it on the Q since they're unpredictable and might do anything. This is also a little bit of foreshadowing since Q would be showing up soon in the series. Another big preparation for the future is mention of the Titan, and ultimately in Fletcher's promotion and transfer to that ship, which is what Boimler's dream has always been, except this guy's getting it for doing something wrong which resulted in him accidentally saving the ship when his neural pattern (oh for Treknobabble again - so beautiful to hear!), turns the isolinear core into some artificial intelligence that tries to pull technology towards itself and becomes ever larger, while Boimler and Mariner desperately try to get it off the ship, resulting in it floating over to the Drookmani and disabling them! That side of the story was quite fun, although once again showing a Starfleet officer to be a pretty bad sort, which is a negative view of Trek's optimistic idea of humanity (though sadly true), but I can't help feel that two semi-sentient, or malfunctioning, technological creations (the core and Badgey), was a bit much in one episode. It could be looked on as paralleling the two stories as each set of two main characters interacts and deals with something similar, so it's a shame there isn't a scene at the end where all four get together to share and compare experiences, to hit home they were dealing with the same thing. So it doesn't have the satisfaction old Trek used to deal in, something the series has yet to grasp while it's more interested in shock humour and grossness.

Being a Mac man, I never had a PC in my life, so Badgey's resemblance to Microsoft Word's 'Clippy' character, while not lost on me, didn't have instant amusement and appeal. It is funny when it takes ages for it to load a program, but otherwise it wasn't aimed at me. It's just a shame they enjoy crafting malevolent, cruel or selfish characters so much, as Badgey and Peanut Hamper are up there with such awful live action characters as Mirror Georgiou for being disappointingly relished by the writers. It shows a cynical modern attitude that can't be pumped out by such open eagerness and integrity such as that shown from three of our four main characters on a regular basis. It's almost like the creators are laughing at their naive dedication to Starfleet when there are these opposite people or enemies that they want to indulge in. And it's not a question of having no villains, not by a long shot, it's about making villains with a sympathetic point of view: the greatest of all time was unquestionably Gul Dukat, a man who was the epitome of selfish ambition, as evil as they come, and yet he was charming and you really do relish seeing him interact with the 'DS9' crew, and over time new elements were added to his character that give you more and more appreciation for the reality of a man with dimensions. But there isn't that much time for this kind of development in a twenty-five minute cartoon comedy, and one that has only ten episodes a season. You could make the argument that we should have more of Badgey and others like that so we'd have time for development, but it makes it even less appealing when there's so little time to go around.

One thing I can say is a good thing is the first definite use (I don't count Nolan North for 'Into Darkness' as I consider that part of this era, 2009 on, and I'm not sure on Al Rodrigo of 'DS9,' as mentioned in recent reviews), of an actor from 'legacy' Trek in JG Hertzler - the grand old man of 'DS9,' 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise,' best remembered for playing the incredible Martok. It's early days on the series so it's not a strong complaint that we haven't had anyone like this so far, especially as more and more would come in subsequent seasons, but it does make you question why someone of his calibre hadn't been used before in the Kurtzman era! As early as Season 1 of 'DSC' they brought in Clint Howard for a cameo, but other than recasting pre-existing characters like Pike and Spock, they were very slow in bringing back old faces and names to Trek. Maybe it was partly a desire to tread their own ground, create their own lore at first, as 'DSC' seemed mostly quite removed from all past Trek (in spite of occasional references or use of concepts), but gradually more and more have been added. Still not to the extent I'd like, but 'LD' at least was at the forefront of bringing famous (to the fanatics), names back. It's a shame Hertzler was wasted on a mere minor guest role as a new alien that only has a few lines, though his gravelly, scratchy growl was perfectly suited (note the Drookmani Captain has a bandage over his left eye, just as Martok's was scarred). And now I know he will return occasionally it's not so bad that he only had a tiny role here, but I still haven't reached anywhere near peak Hertzler in current Trek!

It was nice to go to Bajor, even if it was merely a holoprogram, and I like that we learn something new about Rutherford, that one of his hobbies is coding holoprograms, leading him to create virtual tutor Badgey, although there's obviously still a lot to find out about all the characters. They've slowly dripped bits and pieces into episodes regarding our main characters, but as I said before, there isn't a lot of time to explore them in detail, even though the main cast consists practically of only four - while the others do appear in the titles, it's the lower decks that are the main focus, and that continues to work well at least in giving us stories, while parodying Trek tropes, which are closer to the kind of storytelling of old Trek. And there's room to have fun with lore, such as their distrust of Delta Shift, Mariner finding it creepy that they do 'our jobs while we sleep,' a rivalry that had been seen on 'DS9' when Rom joined a team, and possibly on 'TNG,' too. I liked that they had a teaser this time, and especially that it was entirely innocent and had no bearing whatsoever on the rest of the episode: Boimler makes the sound of the Enterprise-D's warp engines to calm himself, so Rutherford does Voyager's and everyone joins in with how they think the engines sound, while Ransom (for some reason patrolling the lower decks), comes upon them and assumes they've been taken over or something like that, tackling Boimler to the floor. That's the kind of innocent fun with Trek lore that I want to see, so it could have been there to counterbalance the cynicism and nastiness to come, or to give it greater contrast.

I really, really could have done without Badgey, but they seem to love making objectionable, violent and disgusting creatures on this series (in just the previous episode we had someone apparently human bursting out of their skin and turning into a hideous monster that eats someone, for example). They can never recreate that atmosphere and style (sinking into a warm bath), of 'TNG' by shock tactics and horror, not unless they're taking 'Conspiracy' as their genesis (or 'Genesis' as their genesis!), which was admittedly a great episode, but not something to base your view of 'TNG' on, coming well before the style had settled down to become what we all know and love. But then, while they focus on 'TNG' on the whole, they want to include all Trek, and other Treks were a little edgier (you see it in certain episodes of 'DS9,' and 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise'), but something that came to mind while watching this one was a specific moment in 'DS9' - in 'Sons of Mogh' Worf stabs his brother through the heart with a knife, but you don't see the actual penetration, while a few (relatively speaking), years later, we have a cartoon series which is more than happy to show someone being bloodily stabbed. It demonstrates a different sensibility, and one I don't like. Until and unless that changes or is at least toned down, it remains hard for me to fully accept a series which in some ways would show itself to be the closest to old Trek of any so far.

**

Race To The Bottom - The State of Star Trek

 Race To The Bottom - The State of Star Trek

As the Trek train gathered speed in the last few years to the extent we had five series' being produced at the same time (though still with less actual hours of content per year compared with the 90s), for a while at least it seemed like anything was possible - any character could return, any time period could be the setting of a new series and who knew how long Trek might continue, despite its creatively challenged outlook and style. Back in March 2023 I summed up my views on where Trek was, and now, over a year later, so much has changed it seemed a good moment to reflect. Not least because I've now seen examples of all the Trek series' to be created, I've first seen the end of a Kurtzman-era show and the start of two others. What has happened in the real world has clearly affected production, with strikes from actors and writers putting the brakes on the content freight train and the merging of Paramount with CBS, the company's money worries and position in the streaming wars all coming together to affect the state of Trek.

Modern Trek really has been like a train, starting slowly with 'DSC,' gaining a little steam with 'Short Treks,' gradually speeding up with 'Picard' and 'Lower Decks' and finally going full steam ahead with those plus 'Prodigy' and 'Strange New Worlds.' But it took a number of years to get to that level of output, and it appears that that period of reaching maximum momentum was short-lived. Very short-lived. With 'DSC' being unceremoniously concluded (albeit with the caveat of being 'generously' allowed to film extra scenes in order to make the season finale into a series finale), 'Picard' ending within its originally expected three seasons (despite the potential for the success of its third season's reception meaning it could very well have continued or had an immediate spinoff), 'Lower Decks' announced to be ending with its fifth season, 'Prodigy' kicked off the parent service over to Netflix (where this whole train started, outside of America anyway), with no guarantee its second season won't be its last, it's left for only 'SNW' to carry the role of flagship. And while we've had 'very Short Treks,' an historic first TV film (if you discount the feature-length episodes of past Trek series'), due this year in 'Section 31,' and the promise of another series, 'Starfleet Academy,' in the future, suddenly all the optimism that seemed to be accruing despite so many missteps in the management of the franchise in recent history, is dissipating, and we're seeing the brakes put on, only the huge buildup of steam that saw so much content previously, providing inertia before the juggernaut comes to rest, or at best slow to a trundle.

As I said last year, that may not be a bad thing. If this is as much Trek as we're likely to get maybe it was enough. Easy to say from my perspective since none of the new stuff to come (leaving out the near future - I'm still very much interested to see Seasons 4 and 5 of 'LD,' for example), gives me any anticipation for new Trek, and in fact looks set to remove most, if not all, of the kind of Trek that I actually garnered a relative increase in enjoyment from: 'Picard' Season 3, though with many of the same problems this era suffers from, was generally the best live action they've done, certainly an improvement on the series' first two horrible seasons, mainly because it's those actors playing those characters and they were all better than Patrick Stewart (who himself seemed more at ease in his performance, having the benefit of his old crew and friends around him). 'LD' continued its trend of appealing in its minutiae, to the extent you never knew who might show up, or what race (Breen!), putting to shame the live action series' being made for its attention to detail and solid work in many areas (though not all - even this still has its issues). Even 'Prodigy' went from being a 'Star Wars' kiddie cartoon to something that ended reasonably well (though I must admit it was the USS Dauntless and crew that interested me far more than the Protostar and her temporary crew).

'SNW' proved itself to be even worse than 'DSC' in some ways, subverting the characters, ruining some of them entirely (Nurse Chapel), wasting others (Number One), and only winning back some respect from me by redoing a classic 'TOS' episode via time travel and an alternate future, weirdly also subverting the Kurtzman-era's law that the season finale must be among the worst episodes, by being the best of Season 1! I continue to read positive comments from so many people about the series' qualities, and I can only assume these people don't care a jot about 'TOS' and that perhaps the pendulum swing of the original going from loved (in the reruns of the 70s), to mocked and considered ridiculous (in the 90s), to being revered (00s), and finally remade (2009-10s), and used as a launching point for Trek's return to 'TV' - I know 'DSC' was a prequel, but it was so close in time relative to every other Trek made, and the connections were drawn so quickly that it was clear the Kirk/Spock/Enterprise era was the main lure to try and capture as wide a demographic as possible. Now they're almost at the point of remaking 'TOS' and still calling it the Prime Universe, going against canon willy-nilly with T'Pring and the Gorn, the technology and the look... Just too many things to go into, including Pike being the weakest Captain we've had.

I should say I have yet to view Season 2 (soon...), but I already know about even more wholesale canon destruction which saddens me, to the extent I don't even watch it believing it's part of the same galaxy as 'TOS,' find it about as much a chore to get through a season as 'DSC,' and watch more as a fascination with seeing what more parts of history or character they'll destroy next! The same could be said for 'DSC,' except that was less personal, not taking place on the original Enterprise with some of the original Enterprise's crew. If the stories, acting style and dedication to preserving and exploring canon were strong, most things could be forgiven, but like 'DSC' I've found most episodes jarring and uncomfortable. The same can be said for all this modern era, but in the parts I do like it's been tamped down to some degree, with things I like, emphasised. But now, with 'Section 31,' a film I'd prefer never to have been made (the only saving grace being it isn't a series as it was originally planned to be - let's hope it's not turned into one!), and with the same being said for 'Starfleet Academy' (except that is a series!), there's nothing definite on the horizon that has any appeal to me at all! It's entirely possible they have other productions in the works, most likely more TV films since these would be relatively cheap to make compared to a full new series or season, and of course I'd like to see more from the era of 'Picard' if they were bringing back as many 'legacy' characters as they could before it's too late, but these are one-offs, and the overriding impression is of a studio that is spacing things out to the extent it'll probably be more like 2017-2019 where you were practically only getting one main Trek release a year, the train taking its time towards a gradually increasing pace.

With the state of the world being more unstable, both in the industry and in the wider geopolitics, it may be that such minor considerations as whether Trek continues or not won't be that much of a priority, and who knows, perhaps we'll be looking back on these last few years as idyllic that we could enjoy/be irritated by/argue about new Trek (even with the Covid virus which was another factor in the slow buildup to peak content production). That being said I still have a few seasons to go through and from what I've heard I actually do have minor anticipation for the final season of 'DSC,' even though I suspect it won't be much better than what they've done before, but I preferred Season 4 slightly, so maybe they have learned from so much bad writing and plotting, though the flaws are baked into the style, characters and choices of the whole production so even then I'm not expecting to go as far as to say I like it! Two more seasons of 'LD' (assuming they keep releasing the DVDs - haven't heard anything about Season 4 yet...), Season 2 of 'Prodigy,' and however many of 'SNW,' so there's certainly enough content I have at least some interest in for the near future, but no longer that sense of anything being possible, which strips any minor gloss that might have covered parts of the train right off.

A good time to slot in my recent seasons with the hierarchy I created last year:

- 'LD' S2 (remains my favourite from memory, largely thanks to the finale being the best thing modern Trek has produced, close to being a classic, though this is all from memory, I may change my view on second viewing when I come to review it later in the year)

- 'LD' S3 (close to the top spot with about as many good episodes as S2 and another strong finale, but also some lower points, such as the return of Peanut Hamper, which didn't favour it)

- 'Picard' S3 (better, in that it's an actual space mission set on a starship with an actual Starfleet crew, the return of all the main cast that finished 'TNG' and a better conclusion than 'Nemesis' allowed them. I'll certainly be rewatching to write reviews, and I look forward to it, though the villain was absolutely terrible!)

- 'LD' S1 (I might be a bit preemptive as I'm only halfway through reviewing it, but I generally like it a little more than I used to thanks to acclimatising to its style, and for the fact it does less damage to the late-24th Century than 'Picard')

- 'Picard' S1 (superseded by Season 3, although there are still good moments, though as a whole it's not good, not good at all, in fact quite distressingly bad)

- 'Short Treks' (no change, I can't say I want to revisit them, other than the remake of 'Coming of Age,' and with 'SNW' taking up the characters these are mostly footnotes in modern Trek history now)

- 'DSC' S4 (a slightly more thoughtful story, a pace that is far less frenetic, even though they still did nothing interesting with any of the characters, but the keys to its success are mainly the absence of evil Georgiou, and the partial absence of Tilly)

- 'DSC' S3 (as I've said before, the least obnoxious season, but little else to recommend it)

- 'Prodigy' S1 (difficult to know quite where to put this as it was pretty innocuous and inoffensive, yet also bland, occasionally irritating and a bit pointless from an adult perspective. It had none of the charm of 'TAS,' but it did improve towards the end. It also has a massive twenty episodes, vast compared with all other current Treks, but that made it a bit of a chore to get through since most were basic, simplistic introductions to the concepts of Trek, so it's like going back to a children's book when you've long since graduated to classic novels. I can see how the series could improve, however)

- 'DSC' S1 (switching places with S2 as I rewatched the first episode and it remains watchable, and although there were so many bad things about the season, from memory and even more exposure to Pike and his crew, I actually think I prefer this one, though both are among the most egregious, badly written messes that created such a weak base upon which to launch the current Trek boom)

- 'DSC' S2 (just too many bad things to go into)

- 'SNW' S1 (it's almost worth going up a few places for the good finale, but then that's only one episode and it's really only good because it feels more like an actual Trek episode... because it's a remake of an actual Trek episode!)

- 'Picard' S2 (hard to imagine a worse season of Trek - very boring, very stupid, a money-saving waste of time and possibly talent, although there wasn't much in evidence here. An so-so opportunity vastly squandered)

- 'very Short Treks' (yes, there is a Trek production worse than 'Shades of Grey,' 'The Children Shall Lead' and 'Picard' S2. While it had one episode that was actually quite good, most of them were offensive, disgusting or very stupid and were far from a fitting tribute to 'The Animated Series.' Just sad)

Anticipation Ratings:

SNW S2: **
LD S4: ***
DSC S5: **
Prodigy S2: **
Section 31: -
Starfleet Academy: -
25th Century, post-Picard: ***

Compare this with my list from 2023:

LD S3: ***
Picard S3: ***
DSC S4: **
Prodigy S1: ***
SNW S1: ***
Section 31: -
Starfleet Academy: -
25th Century TNNG: **

All this suggests I do still have some hopes of reasonably enjoyable Trek in the immediate to near future, but after that, certainly out of what's been confirmed as coming, not so much... I should say I really would not want the 'Legacy' series, post-'Picard' if it was about Captain Seven of Nine, as she's one of the most ruined characters of old and I'd be happy if I never saw her again in new adventures, so disappointed was I by Jeri Ryan and the writers' choices and interpretation of a wonderful character, nor would I be interested in Jack Crusher or any of the Titan, sorry, the Enterprise crew, unless bolstered by a return of 'TNG,' 'DS9' and 'Voyager' cast members as the chance to catch up with them would be my main interest. Though there's always the danger they could forever change or damage them as was done to some who have already been brought back.

As for the film series we've continued to hear rumours or announcements (I think they currently claim at least two films are in development, another Kelvin Timeline film, and a prequel film, neither of which I care about), but whether it will turn into anything substantial is only one minor question. The real question is whether a Trek film, now that the melodramatic, galactic-stakes style of all-action, little sense or reverence for continuity and future history has turned so much of the TV series' into mini-versions of the modern films, would be any good at all, other than a visual spectacle and little more. I doubt it, and my view on both TV and film sides is pessimistic. I always wondered what Trek would be like if it was made 'now,' after 'Enterprise' brought to a close the golden years, and we unequivocally know: stupider, brasher, in every way inferior, other than natural development of visual effects, the least important part of story. And yet there's still a small part of me that thinks it could be possible that someone could come along who actually understands Trek and could make the kind of quality output that was achieved for so long, to retcon the many issues and problems that now plague it. A Manny Coto figure who came in and tidied up many of the flaws of 'Enterprise.' I always hoped he'd return to Trek and get his own spinoff, maybe a continuation of 'Enterprise,' but that can never be. I say RIP to him, and also to Trek.

Blast Corps

 N64, Blast Corps (1997) game

This game had me fooled. Just when you think you've achieved everything in the game it comes up with yet another challenge to complete - you win golds on all the levels and you've got to win a second gold by destroying all buildings, saving all survivors and activating all the little RDU beacons. Then you have to find the scientists which can send it to the correct detonation location. Do all that on every level and you get a mission on the Moon. Do all that and you get a mission on Mercury. Then Venus. Then Neptune! But that wasn't the fooling part, I took all that as a matter of course since the game didn't take much more than a week to complete. I was thinking it wasn't that big a game. I was thinking N64 Magazine back in the day, when they claimed it was so tough, just weren't that good, because though a few levels were somewhat taxing and some of the puzzles needed to be worked out on other missions to get everything, I was generally surprised I was able to complete everything, and without too much grief. But I was wrong: once you do everything in the game and you think that's going to be it, suddenly the game comes back at you with 'now try for platinum medals.' And those medals are TOUGH. No, they're Super-Tough. Thought you'd done well getting the golds, now try and lop off another thirty seconds or more. You basically have to make a perfect run... As I was all geared up to move onto my next game I was a little frustrated to find the entirety needed to be completed again for it to be fully finished, and the tightness of the time limit seemed almost impossible at first... With perseverance you get that rush of satisfaction, and being awarded that dustbin lid platinum medal after an hour or more of trying is very rewarding.

The chance to play it all again would be meaningless if the game wasn't fun to play, but right away I experienced an immediacy that meant playing the levels and getting to grips with the various vehicles you must master was very easy, in marked contrast to many a game where I often find it's a bit of a chore at first to get through training missions or become used to the game's ways. Here you can jump into a mission that might take no more than a couple of minutes, but at the same time the game has enough of these bitesized levels to last. As I said, not that it lasted all that long at the standard difficulty, and I did feel the extraneous tasks after achieving the main objective of seeing the nuclear carrier safely through were a bit of game-lengthening filler. I also didn't fully appreciate the game's setup where you really only needed to clear the path first time round and do nothing else since you can come back later when there's no time limit, so I was carefully hoovering up RDUs and smashing as many buildings as I could along the way thinking it was helping. The actual gameplay is also quite as gratifying as the short time limit, making it eminently accessible. I'd played the game back in the day, but only briefly, a mate having lent it to me, but without it being mine and having certain levels already finished (you need a Memory Pak for more than one player's game file, always a negative to me), I wasn't drawn in and subsequently never owned a copy having never got into the game in the first place.

Over the years as I came to understand the significance of Rare's output I did retain an impression that maybe one day I should give it another go, but I still lumped it in with their first N64 title, 'Killer Instinct Gold,' a 2D fighter I had zero interest in ever playing, mainly because I tend to find fighting games too repetitive and boring, but also I had the impression their pre-'Goldeneye' releases were training steps as they got a grasp of the hardware. I've also never been much of a player of puzzle games, in which I lumped 'Blast Corps,' though somewhat unfairly. There are puzzle aspects to it, but it's much more about the mastery of individual manoeuvring skills required to succeed. Some of the bonus levels are much simpler, limited to racing around a short track, or destroying various buildings, and they on their own would have made a very small package of a game, but they serve to bring a change of, if not pace, then gameplay as the main missions are very specifically about the path that carrier is on and finding the right tool for the job. In some respects it reminded me of 'Body Harvest' for its multiple vehicles and ability to run around outside of them. Both games came fairly early in the N64's lifecycle, both had relatively basic graphics, too, in consequence, though the later 'BH' had more freedom and massive levels which made it a completely different experience overall. Even so, the simplicity of 'BC' was appealing.

Though I said it was a very accessible game to get into it did have its idiosyncrasies that may speak to its time of release so early in the console's life and before Rare had come to understand 3D camerawork as well as they would on their other games - I found it quite disconcerting that the camera was so stiff, it's like they prefer you to never change its position, rather like an old isometric game such as 'Micro Machines' or Rare's own 'RC Pro Am.' Being used to flowing camera movement easily centred behind your vehicle or character this took some getting used to. The unappealing noise when you do rotate it (which I assume came from 'Super Mario 64' and its pioneering style of camera), was a little off-putting at first and only emphasised the desire the game seemed to have that you should be happy where the camera was and stick with it unless absolutely necessary. But I came to view it as part of the challenge, especially as in the occasional level, such as the odd racing bonus, you can't actually change the view at all which makes it a different challenge to most missions. So rather than being a flaw with the game I certainly came to accept it as just another part of the experience. There are other niggles, as is the logic of most games, while you can take out entire skyscrapers a small tree will defy you as an immovable object when you can take down entire skyscrapers, or a touch of water ends your attempt, but you just accept and move on.

Since discovering how to get the best possible N64 picture when I played 'Ocarina of Time' at the end of last year, I'd wanted to get into more of the console's titles so this was the ideal one to go for: a game I'd barely ever played from one of the best software houses on the system (you could even make an argument they were the best), and one that benefitted from having graphics as sharp as possible since they were a little fuzzy and the gameplay is so precise. But I found the visuals attractive in spite of themselves and it was a joy to have an almost entirely new experience on the console since I've mainly been reliving old classics I'd played thoroughly in the past - it even encouraged me to get some more little or entirely unplayed games so I could keep the N64 magic going longer. It remains my favourite games machine of all time, since none of my favourite gaming moments on that are ever likely to be surpassed, so to find another good game to complement all those others was something to savour. Other than that there isn't a lot to write about, being so simple and straightforward a concept and execution, but I suppose I should comment on some of the standout vehicles and levels that will remain in the mind: the bulldozer was probably most fun for simply bashing through the landscape. Backlash, the pickup truck, was one of most difficult to get to grips with as you had to spin it round at the right angle and speed to tear through the scenery, and thanks to the camera, Ballista, a missile-firing trike was also quite tricky to aim.

The main reason the game had a 'Body Harvest' tone was the fact you could use any vehicle that you could reach, which includes trains, cranes and automobiles (little police cars and others, including a hidden black van that can be hunted out with observation). Maybe the most fun was J-Bomb, the flying mech suit that enables you to soar into the sky and come stomping down in a cloud of destruction. Though again, the camera comes into irritation mode for not allowing you to see far and wide. I imagine it was because the levels were fairly compact so if you did have full control over it you'd easily be able to see the limits of the game world. This could be especially frustrating on larger levels, such as the final main one, 'Oyster Harbour,' where you can't quite see far enough ahead or barely spot that there are islands you need to get to, to solve the puzzle of making the carrier's path straight. If story logic really mattered that much I'd have complained that it should surely be as simple as shooting out the carrier's tyres, but then I realised it's also leaking and so needs to reach a safe detonation site, so that's fair enough. Other levels that will stick in the mind are the supremely tricky 'Diamond Sands,' where the carrier is going along train tracks lined either side by buildings and you can't cross the tracks except at subway points meaning you have to go back and forth to clear each side, a painful task, especially as you only have Backlash and its difficult to judge mode of destruction. Another memorably tough one is 'Outland Farm' which for some reason sticks in the memory as you have to take out various farm buildings, and in much the same way, 'Glory Crossing' where you have so little time to get started before the carrier is in imminent collision danger.

The off-world missions throw a whole new state of being in your way with your vehicle being almost weightless and bouncing around like a beach ball, but the altered physics are great fun after all those gravity-based missions on Earth. Some levels I almost despaired of ever gaining platinum in because they were so unforgiving, this is truly one of the toughest games on the system, but with regular attempts, occasionally leaving a level to come back to later, bolstered by the many to choose from, I slowly and surely whittled them down until there were only a handful left: 'Oyster Harbour' (you have to think on this one how to knock so much time off your original, but it becomes fairly obvious when you realise there's only one place with any wiggle room, though it makes it no less of a relief!), 'Magma Peak,' 'Diamond Sands,' and, with some surprise perhaps, the Pac-Man-like 'Baboon Catacomb,' simply because you have to take the exact correct route and time it perfectly to be able to activate all the RDUs, avoid the coloured digger 'ghosts,' all four moving at different speeds, to be able to clear the arena within the unforgiving time limit. That's the one I spent the most time on, as simple as it appeared to be. And 'Corvine Bluff' must be mentioned as the toughest racing level, working out how to bump up that hill...

I was almost shell-shocked once I'd got all the Earth-based platinum medals, then all the extraterrestrial medals as well, with the final one on Neptune giving me the ultimate title of 'You Can Stop Now.' Funny (and reminded me of the end of the original 'Monkey Island': 'Turn off your computer and go to sleep'), but also an utter relief. I half expected them to come back and say now you have to play the whole game in reverse mode, Aaaaagh! Like old (really old), games of the 80s and early 90s, it was very hard with little to no reward. I suppose you can say that unlocking extra levels and then being able to play the whole game again on a tougher difficulty were reward enough, but I was disappointed there were no closing credits or fireworks or anything to mark the gaining of the final platinum. The work brought its own rewards, granted, but also there was the untidiness of 'only' 57 of the gold medals being turned into platinum so you have 21 'loose' golds on your tally and I never worked out what the 30 stars were, either, so it didn't gratify my sensibilities. A small criticism for a game that pushed me to the limit and one that I will remember fondly, and recommend. I can't give it that extra star that would make it a classic, because despite it's immediacy (the word I'd use to sum it up), or perhaps because of it, I can't say I enjoyed it more once I'd completed the main game - often a game will open up like a flower once you've bested its basics, giving you new challenges, options and collectables, but this had that from the start. Instead it became a rock hard test of ability, and for that I respect it, but at the same time it is a sneaking relief to be able to put it aside fully complete at last!

***

 

Cupid's Errant Arrow

 DVD, Lower Decks S1 (Cupid's Errant Arrow)

I remained undecided on the series at this point of the season, in the sense that I still had yet to find an episode to like. On this second run through I've generally enjoyed it a little more, having acclimatised to the warp speech and madcap running around - I'd say that second aspect was actually the best moment in this episode, where the A and B-plots briefly intersect in space and tone: Mariner's legging it after Boimler and his girlfriend, Barb, desperately trying to save him, while passing in the same corridor are Rutherford and Tendi legging it to an office to claim their T88 hand tool, desperate to be the first one there. It's slight in terms of plot intersection, but it also beautifully recalls how some of those old 24th Century episodes would do the same, while one plot ends, another passes by in the same space to end shortly after, and it's these deft nods to Trek tradition that please. Whether they were intentional or not is another matter... but I suspect so since they know their Trek on this series, not something that can be said on the other modern examples. At the same time we do drop back into that need to reel off references to other Trek, a choice I thought we'd moved away from. Even so, it was fun to hear these various suspicions vocalised: Mariner thinks Barb is an alien in disguise, a Romulan spy, a 'salt succubus' (obviously another name for a Salt Vampire), android, changeling, or best of all, an alien in rompers who murders you just for going on the grass ('Justice')! In turn, Barb thought Mariner was: a rogue Holodeck character, a Breen infiltrator, or a parasite ('Conspiracy').

It doesn't matter that some of these wouldn't make sense (does the USS Vancouver have holo-emitters on all decks? Can the Breen exist outside their refrigeration suits?), it's enough that they are all tropes, either specific or general. It tends to be the more subtle references I enjoy more, such as the plot intersection, or Boimler subconsciously being linked with Geordi La Forge and his inability to connect romantically - Mariner accuses him that his girlfriend is actually holographic (as Geordi sort of had in 'TNG' when he recreated Dr. Leah Brahms - funny that she should later show up on this series, but not the last connection to be foreshadowed here), and he even brings Barb a teddy bear wearing Geordi's Visor and uniform as a gift to reinforce the point. There's also the moment Boimler spills beer on Barb that recalls Sonia Gomez spilling hot chocolate on Captain Picard (another character who'd show up later on the series - Gomez, not Picard, though there's still time!), then there's talk of a Transporter clone between Mariner and Boimler as one of the options on her 'wall of weird,' which is even closer foreshadowing since Boimler would get his own duplicate in Season 2, though I'm sure they hadn't planned that far ahead, it's just another well-known story from 'TNG,' so of course it's going to be mentioned. The series remains very focused on 'TNG' at this stage with the Parliament-class USS Vancouver, though it appears to be a much newer vessel than the Cerritos and its California-class, looking much like the Enterprise-D from its carpets, colour scheme and shape of doors.

Saying that, we do get our first, beautiful glimpse of DS9 (assuming it's not a sister station like Empok Nor), though it is a literal glimpse as we see Mariner's old ship, the USS Quito, docked at the station when she recalls an encounter with a shapeshifting alien (which turns into something that looks like a Rancor from 'Star Wars'). It's terrific to see even that external top-half view of the station, and pleasing to fill in a little more of Mariner's backstory, even if it, too, is merely a glimpse (she had big hair then). And even in that scene (whoah, the grey-shoulder uniforms, wahoo!), they're trading gossip about the Enterprise (Data had an evil twin who teamed up with the Borg, although you'd think that would've got around much quicker than the uniforms of that era would suggest since it happened a few years before those were introduced in 'First Contact'). There's also Commander Docent who's PADD password is 'Riker,' a space jump Mariner performs to get to the platform Boimler and Barbara are in (first seen in 'Nemesis,' then 'Into Darkness'), and the whole neural parasite creature that looks very much like those in 'Conspiracy,' though this one's green rather than pink. One of the most fun references is Mariner's wall, with pictures of various species and characters such as the Salt Vampire, Bynars, a surgically altered Cardassian spy (which could be Kira as Iliana Ghemor), Klingon women (which could be Lursa and B'Etor), a whale, a Suliban, what appears to be a Xindi-Reptilian, one of those 'TAS' creatures (was that the Thalosian that gets mentioned as someone she can set Boimler up with, a plant person' - I forget my 'TAS' lore?)...

All this is fine, but it's not the story, though the situation itself did make me snort occasionally. Didn't like the slightly gory transformation into a dangerous creature from Mariner's story, nor the need for nudity, even if, like the worst swearwords, Boimler's full nakedness was covered up, but it's the tone and the intent that makes it uncomfortable, when watching Trek should give you that comfort. It's what often takes me out of the episodes, even more when you consider how close the tone is to the ultimate comfort food of 'TNG,' it's more jarring and cynical - in an episode where you have two such Starfleet-loving people as Rutherford and Tendi who think each ship has a unique smell and are excited about processors (were the 'fluidic' processors meant to reference Fluidic Space from 'Voyager'?). I'd have much preferred if they could have done humour or action without the need to take it to a nastier level - actually I'd have preferred if it was serious animation with the occasional humour (like 'TAS'), but that's beside the point. The little parasite hanging onto the back of Boimler's head was quite funny, oddly, in connecting to the nastiest, goriest episode of old Trek ever made, so they didn't go mad on that bit and it worked. The episode was running along quite nicely until Jet shows up and drops a swearword in as a matter of course and then it jolts you out of this world that you could almost have thought was that of 'TNG.' But I loved the whole mission (which could be the C-plot since it had very little screen time), the Captain 'allowed' to come aboard the Vancouver by its superior Captain, to assist in the destruction of a moon.

It didn't make Starfleet look too good (again), when you have Captain Nguyen be so condescending - it's not that we haven't seen such characters before (I always think of Hobson), but I don't think there was a moment where we got to know her and saw her brilliance and why she should be the best of the best - rather Captain Freeman solves the problem (a little too easily, but it is funny), showing she's just as good, which makes sense, but we could have competition without it seeming like certain officers feel they're better than others, which surely isn't the Starfleet way. But the aliens being so easily satisfied was funny, as was the revelation that the red variation who didn't want the moon destroyed, claiming it would affect his civilisation, consisted of a civilisation of just two: he and his wife! (It could be pointed out that moving a small group is no better, which is what 'Insurrection' was all about, if not for the fact he's obviously just trying to benefit himself and has no real reason or need to stay there). I felt they could have referenced 'Progress' from 'DS9,' but I don't know how, it's just that 'TNG' tends to be the focus even if other series' get their mentions (Boimler describes Jet as a 'Kirk sundae with Trip Tucker sprinkles,' so even 'TOS' and 'Enterprise' were included). Another moment that didn't sit quite right was Rutherford and Tendi stealing a bag each of T88s from the Vancouver. I'm sure if it had merely been one tool each to give to the other it would have come across as sweet, but a pile of them made them look criminal no matter how imbecilic or unfair Commander Docent came across - he, too, wasn't the best example of Starfleet, engineering things to get transferred to the 'easier' ship where things aren't so epic. Don't Starfleet officers want to sign up for that life?

I will say the tableaus of Rutherford and Tendi's imagination where they win the competition and return to their respective departments with a T88 to the adoration of their colleagues was very funny (I can't imagine Dr. T'Ana bowing to anyone!), and generally I did like the mix of simple interpersonal stories with a big science mission, teaming up with another starship (which went a bit better than last time when their competing caused both ships to go all 'Masks'), and it was nice to see Mariner and Barb bond over their experiences with poor Boimler. It was also good to finally hear 'in canon' that his first name is Bradward, just as we got that little bit of career knowledge about Mariner, so they are gently and gradually introducing more information about our characters, and doing it in the way it was done in the Berman era when they had so many more episodes to make and you didn't need major revelations every week, but would slowly get to know the characters. That's one of the better things about first seasons, which are generally weaker for not having got themselves together yet, and it's only right that 'LD' should ape that since that's the era they're invoking. Now they just need to rein back on the gore, swearing and inappropriateness and it would be a lot better. Visually, at least, I love the style and beauty, especially of the space shots. I wonder why there was no teaser this time, it goes straight into the opening credits?

I now recognise the voices well enough to know when regular cast are playing guest characters, Fred Tatasciore is very notable, as is Eugene Cordero, and I'm not sure why they don't try harder to disguise their voices - it is a bit strange that they wouldn't simply have other people to do the stock minor roles, but it must be a budgetary thing, though of course even that's a relic of 'TAS' when James Doohan and Majel Barrett would do most of the guest roles. It doesn't take me out of it (any more than other choices do), but I keep looking out for any recognisable names and it's surprising they hadn't done that when you consider how often they get 'legacy' actors to reprise roles from Season 2 on. There was Nolan North who played Niko (the guy who's actually a 'shape-changer' monster creature), who I assume is the actor of the same name with a small role in 'Into Darkness' as a USS Vengeance bridge officer, but I don't know if animation acting rules are different to live action and whether or not you can have the same name or have to have a different one. I think what's grown on me about the series is despite the overacting and whizz-bang, jack-in-the-box tone, it tended to move more towards the traditional Trek style as it went on. It still isn't quite working, but with the hindsight of future episodes which got to the level of genuinely good Trek, despite the flaws, I can see the seeds of things I like and can disregard the rest.

**