Strange Energies

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (Strange Energies)

The season I almost didn't purchase because at this point (and mostly ever after when it comes to the other series'), I wasn't sure I even wanted to see more after a first season that I found too alienating for its gore, language and utter silliness, and things I'd heard about what was coming next didn't fill me with hope, either. But the price of the DVD went down and I thought I'd give it a shot. I'd like to say I wasn't disappointed, but this first episode of the season was as weak as a number of Season 1 stories: lacking focus, lacking relevance - I'm all for 'small' stories of personal intrigue rather than of galactic import, but this seemed especially irrelevant and cartoonish. I know, I know, it's a cartoon, but in the flashes of better moments previously you can see potential, while this one just seemed to go backwards. There weren't really any good jokes (maybe the one about Barnes' sister changing when she got a symbiont was okay: it's not the lifetimes of memories that did it, just that she's always telling people she's got one!), and the series is short of two characters. Obviously Shaxs died ('died'), saving Rutherford in the finale, while Boimler upped sticks and transferred to the Titan, and his absence especially was missed for the role he plays in the little group. He may even be my favourite character on the series.

There are really only an A and a B story this time, one with Ransom accidentally becoming 'godlike' thanks to Mariner activating an alien sphere, while on the Cerritos Tendi goes way over the top in trying to 'cure' Rutherford of his change in behaviour, torturing him electrically, chasing him all over the ship trying to shoot him with 'medical venom,' whatever that is, and refusing to listen to his pleas. Seeing a normally sweet and lovely character maniacally gunning for her friend sounds like it would be hilarious, but it was merely incongruous and didn't seem like Tendi at all - obviously there's more to her than we've seen, as hinted at last season, but even so, it was just too ridiculous. Or if ridiculous is meant to be in the mix of this series, then it was too out of proportion. Something else out of proportion is Jack Ransom's ire at the closeness of Captain and daughter that's left him as the third wheel on the ship - they've gone from one end of the extreme, Freeman not wanting to acknowledge her slacker, insubordinate, disobedient daughter, and Mariner hiding in plain sight, to the other, constantly working together and having to put up with each other's wishes, which proves too much of a strain for both of them. These things needed to be dealt with, I suppose, since that's where Season 1 left them, but it did come across as perfunctory and Jack's reaction, while a fitting source of power to generate his transformation into disembodied (or dis-en-headed), entity, and likewise praising him up being the solution to bringing him back down to earth, was too simplistic.

It's a short running time, I fully understand, you can only do so much, but traditional Treks were generally only another twenty minutes longer, and this series continues to move so fast in its dialogue and action that it can't be too far off matching old episodes for amount of plot. Granted, we'd yet to see the series really excel within its world, but this story wasn't the one to kick off that revolution. I think its problem was being too generic. The series works well when its delving into its characters or the races we know, just like the 24th Century series' it was based on. They do at least have some fun with the teaser where Mariner's using the Holodeck for exercise, specifically a program about escaping Cardassian incarceration. This was the best part of the episode for me, a very accurate depiction of that race's architecture, clothing, technology and style, with a little cameo from holographic Boimler to remind us of his current status (though again, aren't there privacy rules about using real people's likenesses in holographic form?). The look of it all was fabulous, from the Reliant-type Miranda-class USS Macduff (likely meant as a clue this isn't real, since Macduff was an alien pretending to be a member of the Enterprise crew in 'Conundrum'), Mariner uses to escape (though I'm not sure how we should be able to see the external view of the ship since it would all be from her perspective - it's always been the point in holoprograms that they don't show the usual space shots since 'out there' doesn't exist!), both external views and the Bridge itself with those Trek film-era high-backed chairs and blinky lights, down to the tiny details of Cardassian door buttons or Phasers. Beautiful.

Then there are the visual Easter eggs of all these ships from various races within the Cardassian facility: Jem'Hadar (shame we still haven't got to see one of these warrior race either in live action or animation!), Cardassian (I think this is the first time we saw one in the Kurtzman era), a 23rd Century Romulan Bird-of-Prey, Federation Runabouts, Maquis Raiders, and I think, possibly even the Delta Flyer from 'Voyager.' The loving attention to detail and careful homage to the look of 90s Trek puts all the other modern series' to shame and is one reason why this has become the one series I actively look forward to seeing more from, rather than watching like it's a chore or duty as I largely do with the others. So it's a shame the story overall wasn't up to much. It really is very basic, almost like a placeholder or a story to deal with where things were left at the end of Season 1, rather than striking out into a grand second season (so in old Trek terms, more 'Voyager' Season 1 into 2, than 'DS9'). I will say I do like the added details in the opening sequence that would change incrementally with each season - now we have Klingon and Pakled vessels in the Romulans fight Borg sequence. Although there was one thing about the ship I hadn't noticed before and looks quite wrong: the little red and green lights, which were always there to clearly demonstrate which side is port, and which starboard, seemed to alternate all round the saucer, which makes no sense! Maybe they did it on purpose to irritate people like me that are going to notice the tiniest details!

In other ways they thrill with their attention to the little things - it especially gets me when it's something the live action Treks of today have deliberately changed (even 'Picard' Season 3, which did a lot of harking back), such as ship's Phasers powering up down the hull channels before firing a concentrated beam, or the shields being an oval bubble around the ship, not this skintight formation they favour now - it makes sense in the same way as a warp bubble would be a smooth, rounded shape projected out from the centre of a vessel, and I hate that change, among many of the alterations to standard Trek visuals today. This time 'LD' did play with it a little, when Ransom's huge mouth bites down on the Cerritos, buckling the shape of the shield, which I don't think is physically possible, but can easily be explained away by the strange energies affecting the First Officer! See, you can always think of a solution if you like the general style and care for canon that a series presents, it's all a little give and take here and there. I also noticed far less dubious content than is usual, none of that gory violence they sometimes indulge in (other than Mariner kicking Ransom in the privates, which was going a bit too far), less bad language or anything else that could be offensive. From that perspective this should have been one of the better episodes, but it's not enough not to have certain things, it also has to be doing something more interesting.

They were using the trope of a crew-member gaining godlike power (although in reality, it's nothing like God's power since he always has that and his personality is what makes Him who He is - these stories are really always about corrupted humanity gaining greater power than they had before, and we already know what effect power has, both in Trek and real life!), even citing Gary Mitchell (with a screen graphic that looked sort of like a 'TAS' version of him, though it was so dark as to be difficult to see well), but the difference is, while they use the trope, I didn't feel they really played with it. The odd reference was thrown in, like a boulder being used to defeat Ransom, or him mentioning that his brain is unlocking its potential (a bit like Barclay in 'The Nth Degree'), but it was as simple as a giant head and hands going into space to have it out with the Cerritos, and just wasn't inventive enough, which is surprising considering series creator Mike McMahan wrote it. There were some halfhearted threads running through, such as sycophantic Stevens that always thinks everything Ransom does is wonderful, or Rutherford going for a meal with Barnes the Trill whom he failed to connect with in Season 1, but they remained undeveloped.

Even that little tag scene at the end where we see Boimler hating every moment of the madcap adventures of the Titan under Riker (Jonathan "I love my job!" Frakes back once again to voice him, terrifically), as it's attacked by Pakled 'Battle Harpies' (as Boimler calls them, showing that race continue to be a threat), and then leaping into a dangerous anomaly to escape, was a mere wisp of plot - but it was all fun and very true to this idea of famous ships like Titan or Enterprise doing the daring deeds and making a name for themselves, while little Cerritos continues to pootle along to backwater planets to get them to choose a subspace communications number designation (there was one mildly amusing observation in that scene where Ransom wants to show the Apergosian High Leader more numbers to choose from, and rather than bring them up on the same PADD he orders Mariner to bring more PADDs, from the trope that that's how they always did it on 90s Trek: multiple PADDs!). Admiral Freeman makes another Viewscreen appearance, suggesting to his wife, the Captain, that this could be her year for promotion to a 'capital' ship, as he calls it, which I assume means that first-tier range of starships like the Titan, though I don't think we'd ever heard anyone in Trek ever call them that before. Of course it's all foreshadowing for the season-long Pakled threat, and then Carol being held responsible for a career-ending event at the end...

Other offhand references to the Trek world come in comments such as Mariner's when she admits she hates 'that Andorian,' Jennifer (again, they'll eventually be bestest buds, so more foreshadowing), even though she knows "we're not supposed to have interpersonal conflicts," directly calling out the Gene Roddenberry edict from 'TNG.' Another, more uncertain edict about where religion fits in with humans of this period is also touched on when Captain Freeman admits "humanity has a complicated relationship with organised religion," because obviously in reality it's always going to be there, while Trek tended to steer clear of such controversy as much as possible, only dealing with things through the lens of alien beliefs, wisely keeping away from actual faiths (though interesting that she only refers to 'organised religion,' as if any old belief system, like say, superstitions or individual, self-created belief, might not have any controversy, which is taking a worldview on its own!). And let's not forget that all kinds of references in Trek show that at least Christianity still exists, as does its cultural impact (see Christmas, for example, which they don't call Xmas or the Holidays!), so there's still hope for humanity yet... In fact this very episode has a Biblical reference when Mariner (whom you'd assume would be the last person to know the Holy Bible), asking how she was supposed to know this was all going to go Ransom on the mount - Jesus on the mount was when he preached a sermon, so maybe this is evidence that she doesn't have detailed knowledge of the Bible if she's comparing Ransom's madcap transformation with that, or maybe she was just speaking generally because he had an audience, but either way I was surprised such a specific reference was in modern Trek as it seems American culture generally is moving very far and very fast away from the Bible being part of the culture and many may not even realise the reference.

That was about as interesting as the episode got from a thoughtful or speculative perspective, and as I say, while it was generally far less offensive, it was also generally not that engaging, returning to the feel of early episodes of Season 1. Maybe it was Difficult Second Season Syndrome, if not for the fact I never felt they fully succeeded in any of the first ten - close, but not fully, the finale coming closest. While resetting the status quo to some degree by separating the Mother/daughter duo of the Freemans, there are hints of the ongoing dramas to come, such as Rutherford's issues with his cybernetic implant, or Mariner missing Boimler, the Pakleds, the hole left by Shaxs death (not that he's mentioned, but he had a big personality and the Bridge feels different without him). I think it's just the lack of everything working cohesively: jokes, references, story beats... Very middling. But once again I have to say how much I love the visuals, both for the style and so much detail, it's absolutely gorgeous. At this stage on original viewing I still hadn't been won over by the characters, but I do find most of them quite endearing now. It's just a shame that of all the series' to have been released in the DVD age it seems this one is the first to miss a UK release, Season 4 only coming out on Blu-ray! I'd hoped they'd at least finish out a series before dropping the format, as they did with 'Picard,' but now it looks like I'm going to have a big gap in my collection if 'LD' Seasons 4 and 5 don't come out in that format, and while I've never liked 'DSC,' I would at least like to complete the series! The same goes for 'Prodigy,' although I don't really care too much about 'SNW' as that's at least as bad, if not worse, than 'DSC'!

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