Kayshon, His Eyes Open

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (Kayshon, His Eyes Open)

'TNG' on turbo! This is the most 'TNG' episode of the series so far, and I'd have to say also the best. Not only does it deal with reams of lore, squishes in stacks of Easter eggs (may as well call it an Easter egg department store), and features learning lessons and seeing what life is like on a 'proper' starship, it does it all with aplomb and without the too-common use of gore, grossness or crudity! It just goes to show they can create fun content that's very true to Trek without resorting to shock tactics. I think this was the point where I realised the series might have legs, that it could just work, though it was too early to know if it would be consistent. There are still questionable things, don't get me wrong: it was entirely weird and inappropriate for there to be communal Sonic Showers on the Cerritos, with everyone, male and female, in together at the same time! I mean, what were they thinking, that's just bizarre, unless this is an optional method of cleaning up as we've seen Quarters have their own showers (eg: Voyager), as you'd expect, and would be more normal, though that would still leave the poor lower deckers forced into an embarrassing, humiliating situation since they don't even have Quarters. At least the sonic waves somehow blurred out the nudity, which was handy (and of course Boimler would have issues with such communal nudity, as Mariner says). It didn't make sense that all the showers are activated by one control panel so everyone has to have it at the same setting - all this suggests the Cerritos isn't a new ship by any means if it has to resort to such things...

One ship that is still new is the USS Titan, and we get more with it and its crew than ever before - almost makes me wish we could see a series set there, though I don't know if Frakes' more cartoonish version of Riker might grate after a while. He wasn't bad here, not bombastic all the time, even showing some other sides to his character such as during the mission briefing or at the end when he's so quick to joyfully accept the double Boimler problem. Boims himself is finding it hard to deal with the skin of the teeth, all battlin', all the time mode of the Titan's current assignments against the Pakleds who continue to cause a menace, wishing he could go back to the gentler ideals of exploration (they only needed the Picard line, "does anyone remember when we used to be explorers?" - they got in a couple of other 'Insurrection' references, the bazooka Worf used, here called a Disintegrator, and Boimler mentioning the Enterprise crew 'insurrected,' so why not!), and when, due to being 'Transporter cloned,' he gets to return home to the Cerritos, he describes the Titan lot as 'a bunch of complex characters thrown into heavily serialised battles which ended in mind-blowing twists and made me question the basic tenets of my reality,' that had to be a major dig at 'DSC,' surely? Though I wouldn't describe their characters as 'complex' (more neurotic and needy), but the heavily serialised bit, and so-called 'mind-blowing twists' ring true, most valid of all being the questioning of reality since it doesn't seem like the era it's supposed to be set in. Still not uncomplimentary to a fellow series, but veiled suggestions of inferior quality can be gleaned - they really know their audience!

There was so much that made this stand out as even more 'TNG' than usual - the superbly evocative anticipatory music at the start of the episode proper, as the Captain's Log is narrated... It was perfect, and beautiful! Bringing back the Collector's Guild, not that it had ever been specifically so named in Trek before, but we get the idea that we're in Kivas Fajo territory here, the famous little guy that tried to unscrupulously collect Data (referenced in Freeman's line, "they all tried to collect Data"!), adds a little lore to what's been previously established, and if we're talking lore (though not Lore), this episode must win the award for most Trek connections since Kerner Hauze's ship is chock full of famous icons from Trek's vast catalogue, if not always specific items, then general ones. I was pausing every few seconds to take in all the detail (much like with the starships in the first episode of the season), and it would be boring of me to list them all, but it is worth drawing attention to some specific examples (not just from Trek, too - those trainers looked like they could be the self-lacing variety from 'Back To The Future,' and I thought I saw ET's skeleton). The giant Spock in the room is the giant skeleton of what we can assume to have been the giant Spock from 'TAS' ('The Infinite Vulcan'), a somewhat grisly connection, because though we could assume he died of old age, he's still wearing the 'TOS' uniform, suggesting he didn't live much beyond the 2260s, and if he had lived a long life he'd be wearing an entirely different set of clothes, but then of course we wouldn't recognise him!

I'm sure that box with a face on was supposed to be a Betazoid gift box (as played by Armin Shimerman in 'TNG'), and that was definitely a lookalike of Odo's bucket (no longer needed since he'd returned to his people a few years before - I can imagine Quark getting hold of it from his old friend as a 'keepsake,' only to sell it on for great profit!). I wondered if the fish skeleton was supposed to be the spiny fish sign from the DS9 Promenade, but I don't think so as that was a lot spikier. There was a nice selection of hand weaponry - the first time we'd seen anything Jem'Hadar related since 'DS9'? And Kadis-Kot from 'Voyager,' the game from 'The Game,' Uhura's dress from 'TOS,' Data's mask from 'Masks'... Okay, I said I wouldn't list it all, it's too easy to fall into that trap, as the series has too often done, that the important things are just the callbacks and throwbacks to what's gone before. But the series is a very deliberate homage to 90s Trek, and that's one of the reasons I like it, but even more than that is because it tries to be like those series', not merely to refer to them. Other ways this seemed even more 'TNG' than usual was in featuring Migleemo the Counsellor, seated on the Bridge as Deanna always used to be, then there's the disdain members of the Titan crew view the Enterprise-D's days - seven years exploring, on a ship with five daycare centres, and string quartets... It's like the cool kids' view of Trek, but then when Boimler gives a paean to Riker's time on that ship it reminds each of them why they joined Starfleet in the first place, and it wasn't to battle!

That's a key part of the episode: its optimistic view of the future, until recent years what I'd have called the Trekky view of the future until we got so much negativity and 'realism' with characters from Kelvin Timeline Kirk to 'SNW's Ortegas complaining about being bored with the 'job' rather than joyful about being out in space and making a difference. A cynical, miserable, unhappiness that shows real human nature seeping into the admittedly impossible vision of Trek's future, but one that makes it so enjoyable to visit for entertainment. It's summed up at the end by Jet Manhaver who's a sort of stand-in for the absent Boimler in this episode, someone for Mariner to argue and compete with, but who isn't cowed by her as he has his own strong personality. He's with the others at the end in their customary seats in the lounge, laughing over the day they've had, and admits it's the best job in the galaxy! Just the fact that they have a regular place to sit together at the end of an episode is a pleasant, reassuring piece of continuity that we used to get from 90s Trek where you'd join these characters for twenty-six weeks of the year, and there'd often be these moments allowed to let the episode sink in, something a lot of the other modern Treks don't have time for, despite their bloated running times, preferring to squeeze in 'feelings' at inopportune and inappropriate times, or trudge through predictable, repetitive scenes instead.

Usually I'd be all for the championing of structure and the hierarchy of command as opposed to the liberal and unworkable democratic group atmosphere where the Captain has to listen to insubordination every week, or people expressing their thoughts and opinions at every opportunity instead of following orders, reflecting the attitude of modern society that everyone's views are equally valid and should be given airing whenever they feel like it, instead of awareness of time and place. Here, that same idea is explored, but in a much more nuanced and realistic way (as usual, this over-the-top animation tends to be more real than the live action stuff, which shows how fantastical and motivated by modern agendas the writing is in those others!), when Jet and Mariner's competing oneupmanship gets the Away Team into trouble and it comes to them that maybe they should include Tendi and Rutherford, who've been blindly and obediently following orders. That's how it used to be: command was in charge and gave the orders, but at the same time they were open to calling for suggestions if they deemed the situation needed it, utilising the skills and resources of the team, and so Tendi comes up with a solution to their problem. In that scene we also get what must be the first appearance of an Excalbian since 'TOS' (not to mention fake Lincoln's bones, sitting beside it!), and we learn something new about them, too: their bones can be made acidic enough to cut through a bulkhead. It may not be that realistic to think of Excalbians, those rock-like creatures, having bones at all, but it was fun to add some lore in there.

The most fun lore to be played with, and that which the episode is named for, is undoubtedly the first Tamarian in Starfleet, Kayshon, the new Security Chief - not sure why he's allowed to carry a knife on his person, it must be a ritual thing. And yes, it is ridiculous that Hauze's ship has automated defences (reminding me very much of 'Civil Defence,' I wish they'd played that up more), which are capable of transforming a living being into a hand puppet, and not only that, can do it without killing him! But it's all so fun that it doesn't bother me, and though Dr. T'Ana has no trouble returning Kayshon to his natural form offscreen, she did at least say this isn't the first time she's done it, so that helps to expand the grey area of what can be accepted, at least in my mind! It's also a classic trope of being trapped in a place that's trying to kill you and made me think of episodes such as 'Move Along Home,' a much-maligned 'DS9' Season 1 entry that I absolutely love for its strangeness, creepiness and sense of powerful characters being made to feel powerless, and yet still doing all they can. Maybe I'd have preferred it if Kayshon spoke entirely in metaphor, but you can imagine that once the Federation had made a start in communicating with the Tamarians thanks to the efforts of Captains Picard and Dathon, the Universal Translator would be updated with all the various myths and meanings by which they form their language. That wouldn't explain why the UT sometimes doesn't translate correctly, but you have to have some Tamarian in there if you're going to feature them at all, and it made for good humour that he couldn't always find the right words ("My Federation Standard is still shaky" - love the reference, but is he using the UT or not?)!

Just the premise of a Starfleet crew being called in by civilians to help with a job is so 'TNG' where they were always happy to assist, nothing was beneath their dignity, be it natural disasters or rogue computers it was all fine, which is one reason the idea of a two-tier Starfleet doesn't make sense, but at least this episode made it feel so close to that formula, and it's always good to see them helping out, even if the client isn't always someone they approve of, or agree with - that proves them doubly helpful. Captain Freeman gets a small plot in addition as she's been evaluated as being too hands-on with her crew and needs to place more trust in them, only she decides to do this at just the wrong time, when the Away Team are in dire straits trying to escape the automatic defences aboard the Collector's ship, but that also made for an entirely plausible reason for how they could get into such a scrape with the Cerritos standing watch over them. That's what I want to see: story logic! And separate plots that make sense - knowing that Boimler was coming back this time, I wasn't bothered about him being away from the group and indeed it gave them a chance to do things differently, and also I 'love-love-love' the interior of the Titan, evoking the Enterprise-E in colours and uniforms, but its hull is also a thing of beauty, those Phasers running through the channels and blasting the Pakleds, it's all just so Trek, like I want it to be!

They even throw in a new take on 'to boldly go,' as Boimler's fellow crew think the jig is up and prepare to go out in a blaze of glory as the Pakleds smash through a door, only for Boimler to admit he's not ready and comes up with a solution based on what happened with Thomas Riker, Will's Transporter clone, with the unintentional side effect of creating clone Boimler - it's a shame they didn't do anything with there being two of him, other than the fun scenes with them and Riker, as I think they should have kept the other one around, or at least available to show up. I can't remember what happened to him, only that he didn't survive for long. Not sure why the Titan crew called Boimler 'Enterprise,' other than that he was always defending that ship and its missions, and he had left the Cerritos, so I suppose it does make sense, even though they said it affectionately as he was going back to the Cerritos. Interesting that Rutherford says there are only a few people like him, with cybernetics, in Starfleet, as far as he knows, which is good, I think - we don't want a lot of augmented people running about, because if the Federation is against genetic manipulation why would they accept the cybernetic kind, it all gives an unfair advantage one way or another. And I wondered if the Starfleet delta on the base of Kayshon's boots was another little dig at the expense of 'DSC,' since they were so fond of plastering it on everything like it was some kind of clothing brand?

Rutherford actor Eugene Cordero gets extra credit this time as Siggi (a reference to 'Quantum Leap,' I wonder?), the squiddy guy, and Frakes gets his best animated appearance as Riker, his last for the season, but I'm always glad to see him (noticed the wedding ring this time, too), and it was so nice to hear him speak of his Transporter double again, though they could at least have cleared up what happened to him after the Dominion War, whether he survived or not - it can be good to leave threads open in case any Trek series ever wanted to pull on it in future, though at this point it doesn't seem all that likely, but that is one thing where I feel their knowledge of 'TNG' trumps their knowledge and care for 'DS9,' as any Niner knows Thomas' story continued there and we never knew his fate for certain. And this was Jet's third credited appearance on the series, so I like how they were slowly upping the recurring characters (Stevens gets a mention, too). I like that this isn't the last we saw of Kayshon, even though Shaxs would soon be back - Fred Tatasciore continues voicing characters, even so, this time Collector Hauze in his holographic guise, and this is only the second time we'd had Migleemo, after his introduction in the Season 1 finale. Oh, and there's a stuffed Salt Vampire (like the one seen in 'The Squire of Gothos'), and Khan's broken Starfleet symbol on a chain, and Siggi says he's got a top-notch 'Menagerie,' and Tendi carries a small version of that three-pronged tool from 'Trials and Tribble-ations, and was that one of Riker's old trombones, and maybe the Kurlan Naiskos, and... etc, etc, etc... Shaka when the walls fell, eh... Or Cerritos when Boimler returned.

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