Mugato, Gumato

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (Mugato, Gumato)

"In retrospect, it probably would have come up before," says Rutherford, in one swoop neutralising the most obvious issue with the plot: he and Boimler have suspected Mariner's some kind of undercover black ops super-spy after being given the story by the Cerritos' barman, Honus. It's typically ridiculous, but what I thought was going to be an episode too far even for this series, turned out to be a much more loveable, warmhearted tale of reinforcing the friendship between characters while at the same time giving us our first Ferengi episode since 2002's 'Acquisition' on 'Enterprise.' We'd had the occasional Ferengi (like Quimp last season, Kynk, the main one here, is also voiced by Tom Kenny), and would do again (a common background character in 'DSC' Season 4, plus one with lines in 'Picard' Season 3), but this is a story that actually features the nonconformist rogues as they seek to profit from an outbreak of Mugato on a planet where they aren't native. I wasn't sure how these Mugato had come to Fryon IV, whether it was supposed to be the Ferengi were using an empty planet for their scheme or were simply taking advantage of their unexpected presence there. It would make more sense for the former. I loved how we saw some Denobulan scientists (their first appearance in the 24th Century?), who first encounter a Mugato, not just because they're Denobulans (discussing Raktajino versus human coffee, of all things!), but that they react as they should, faces puffing up in reaction to their fight or flight instinct, as we saw with Dr. Phlox in 'Enterprise' - good use of lore!

The episode is heartfelt as well as being fun and once again they juggle several different plots with Rutherford and Boimler on the run from both Mugatos running wild and Mariner, whom they mistakenly believe is out to kill and eat them, while on the Cerritos Tendi gets a chance to practice assertiveness when she's tasked with tracking down all crewmembers who've shirked their annual physical, and at the same time Captain Freeman deals with a con artist who plays victim when their Tractor Beam appears to destroy his ship - he certainly showed great faith in Starfleet's crackerjack Transporter Chiefs by almost getting himself killed, only saved by an emergency beam-out, then fleecing the good Captain for all she's worth, taking all her Ready Room knick-knacks. That was the slightest story, but it was no less fun, especially as she realises what's happened when her husband, Admiral Freeman, warns her to watch out for a scammer in the area. I don't recall specifics, but I feel like something similar to that had been done on past Trek, certainly a ship exploding when it was caught in a Tractor Beam (my favourite line of the episode being a Bridge officer claiming it was 'at the lowest Tractor factor'!), maybe not the scam part, though it was a very Ferengi thing to do - shame he wasn't a Ferengi, just an alien doing business with them (maybe he wandered in from the 'Star Wars' universe as he uses C-3PO's line, "thank the Maker").

Good use was made of overly dramatic lighting to create sinister moments for emphasis, the suspicions falling on Mariner as she stabs a D'k tagh between her fingers and a theatrical spotlight falls on her when her friends are discussing her with the barman, or he leans in and acts all knowingly sinister. And even later when Dr. T'Ana's 'evil' plan is revealed and Tendi confronts her superior - I don't know why, but I always love it when T'Ana loses all inhibitions and becomes completely catlike (maybe it's because she's so humanoid most of the time. It makes me think of Mrs. Tiggywinkle becoming a mere hedgehog in 'The Tales of Beatrix Potter'!), such as when she enjoyed being the box at the end of the previous episode, and here she scrabbles around on all fours, yowling, hides under a 'car' (shuttle), takes a swipe at Tendi as she tries to reach her, and just generally reverts to her natural state. I wondered if the last 'name' on the list, just a several-digit code, was meant to be a reference to the cyborg guy on the Bridge in 'Into Darkness' (0718 he was apparently called according to the credits), but it turned out to be T'Ana's serial number which, for story reasons just happens to be boldly on display in Sickbay enabling Tendi to realise it's she who is avoiding her scan - the joke is that that's all it is, just a quick once-over with a Medical Tricorder, far from the involved physical workout McCoy put Kirk through in 'TOS,' but it's yet another of those little Trekky tropes from throughout the history where people were always too busy to attend these medical exams and doctors are always scolding them. Less of a specific reference and more a generalisation, but so true.

If 0718 wasn't made a target, there are other modern Trek bits that are mildly mocked: when Rutherford and Boimler (dubbed The Mugato Twins at the end by Mariner, setting another rumour flying via the barman), arrive on the scene to rescue the Starfleet captives from Ferengi cages (using what appears to be the rudimentary cannon Kirk built to defeat the Gorn in 'Arena' - another moment of great fun when it turns out to be a holo-projector!), they actually use their skills of presenting a business proposal with a cost/benefit analysis which is exactly how you should deal with Ferengi, and Mariner responds in high spirits: "negotiating us to safety using the power of 'math,'" in such an overly upbeat way it was reminiscent of awful Ensign Tilly in 'DSC' getting excited about the power of 'math' (or maths, to anyone outside of America). I also felt the moment before when the pair were wishing they had special powers could be an indirect jab at how much modern Trek features characters who act more like superheroes than real Starfleet people, and how this series is so much more realistic and grounded comparatively - when you think such a wacky (always have to use that word at least once a review for this series!), entry in the canon is also what I could consider about the most reasonable and believable, you can see how far the other recent Treks have diverged into fantasy and comedy territory.

The series has become renowned for its extremes of referencing other Trek episodes, characters, races and every kind of obscure thing Trekkers would know, but they also like to throw in other things, too, and this one has a few film connections - the most obvious would be 'Jurassic Park' with the Mugato getting free when one of the Ferengi's electro-whips accidentally opens all the cages leaving them free to terrorise the land (to the extent I'm amazed they never did the ripples in a puddle - even 'Toy Story' did that... Maybe too easy), but when a Mugato leapt onto the fleeing alien's shuttle it gave me an impression of one of the 'Alien' films, I don't know which. There were also strong visual references to 'The Lord of The Rings,' most obviously when Boimler and Rutherford hide under the roots of a large tree with Mugato 'expert' Patingi, as the large apelike animal sniffs the ground above them, just like the Hobbits hiding from the Black Rider. Which put me in mind for when the pair are running through the woods, Rutherford stopping at the edge of a cliff face or slope, and Boimler careers into the back of him sending them both tumbling, as the Hobbits did, running from Farmer Maggot. And then at the end the Ferengi, always open to a better business plan, prepare to open a Mugato preserve where the need to protect their assets and investment means they'll care for the creatures to the best of their ability, but they could have called it 'Mugato Park' rather than 'Mugato Land,' just to ram home the point (again, too easy?).

I came to enjoy this one more than I expected, but that was partly because of low expectations, and also because I think of this as one of the worst since it almost caused me not to bother continuing with the series since I'd heard about the extremely questionable activities of the Mugatos, and if I had avoided Season 2 I'd have missed some of the best stuff to come out of this era of Trek, to the extent 'LD' has become the only series I actively look forward to seeing more of - it's just one of those things that proves the writers of our current time take things too far beyond acceptability and almost lost me, but it's really only one small scene that didn't need to ruin the rest of the series for me, and I don't allow it to. I always loved the Mugato, even though it did look like a man in a suit acting out ape antics on 'TOS,' it was such a striking design, more than any other, and 'TOS' made a name for such things thanks to always featuring the weird and exotic creatures and aliens in its end credits. The action figure is also probably my favourite Trek figure, too, and looks amazing and so I was pleased in a way that we got to see such an iconic creature again. The best fun they have with it all is in the pronunciation of the name, something which is a wry callback to how different actors would say it differently, and even the end credits misspelled it, either because the script changed, or whomever was typing out the names was dyslexic. It's just one of those great entries into lore that it could be Mugato, it could be Gumato (or even Mugatu!), and that all these variations are said in the episode, to the extent that in this case if they hadn't made a point of Boimler officially canon smoothing by explaining the species has alternate pronunciations to its name it would've been funnier, and in-keeping if they never explained it at all (they even have fun with that as Dr. T'Ana calls them Mukutu at the end, about as far as you could get from the original name!).

My issues with the screen gore going too far on the series returns, from Mariner going completely ape (fittingly), and beating her two friends to a pulp in an Anbo-jytsu match, to a Mugato biting the head off Patingi so his purple (?), blood splashes out (a Ferengi also gets gored and yellowish blood comes out). It's just going too far (even if it could be a joke on the fact Klingon blood was presented as purple in 'Star Trek VI'). I'd have loved to see Mariner beat Rutherford and Boimler in a 'real' way instead of leaping around like she's Spider-Man, or breaking her weapon in two in order to stab them. I know the rationale of this cartoon is that it goes over the top whenever it can, but I always find it's the meaningful moments or the truly wry observations on Trek lore that's where it excels, and showing shock gory violence just takes me out of it. Seeing the return of Anbo-jytsu itself (only used once in 'TNG'), was fun, and I assume it was played in a dedicated room rather than the Holodeck as I at first supposed because no one should be able to waltz in early before someone else's session is over (although it was Shaxs so he'd have Security override codes). It was a little slice of 24th Century life, and despite being on such a slim running time, they manage to do these Trekky asides so much better than just about any of their other, bloated stablemates.

It also works so well in terms of these characters being real - they've developed their friendships over the episodes, and though it is of course ridiculous that they could be so easily convinced into believing Mariner as some super agent using them as cover, that it stems from their own sense of not measuring up to the best in Starfleet makes you warm to them even more - a sort of humility that was one of the hallmarks of Trek characters of old. They weren't unapproachable, irreverent superheroes with a witty quip and impossible martial arts moves to get them out of any situation, they relied on each other, teamwork, following protocol (or knowing when to break it), using their minds and personal skills, and that's what they do here. The game they played which was all about compromise, obviously a set-up for their solution dealing with the Ferengi, was a nice addition to Trek's many boardgames, and is funny in itself that the aim is to make everyone unhappy so that they've reached a compromise! And it leads to another of those satisfying happy endings where the threat or problem is dealt with, the Ferengi operating their business in a new way, and that sense of closure and ending on a high is what Trek did so often, so well, and is one of the things new Trek does so rarely, so badly.

Patingi was an interesting character, a Tellarite who believes he's an expert on Mugatos because he's read five books on the subject, though my complaint with him would be that as too often on modern Trek, it's another alien that acts and sounds as if he's human, mainly for comic effect - maybe the antipodean accent was meant to be a deep cut dig at Romulans on 'Picard' having atypical accents (specifically Elnor, who sounded Australian, one thing that totally took me out of that series), but I would've preferred him to be burly as that's the predominant type we've seen of that race. And is this the first time we've ever seen a Tellarite's legs? They're suitably hairy, as you'd expect. The Ferengi were much better examples of their kind, and it was fun to see them wielding the old electro-whips, even if Mariner's comment about them being 'creepy, throwback Last Outpost Ferengi' was a bit too much of fourth wall-breaking since how could she know the name of the episode they first appeared in! Again, it's one of those things that goes too far for an easy chuckle. More funny was her asking if they've heard of Quark (one of them even wore a Quark-like outfit, so maybe he licences out clothing designs now, too?), and they say of course they have, perhaps reinforcing that the brother of the Grand Nagus, who we know has franchised out all over the place, would be well known by all Ferengi. Just a shame we didn't have that explanation in the episode, though they were interrupted and, judging by the fact we already knew Mariner had served on DS9, and that we'd later see she was good mates with those on the station, it was on the tip of my brain that she was about to say she's friends with him, and maybe even that he's got the ear of the Nagus (I hear Rom and Leeta are going to appear in Season 4, so I look forward to that!).

Talking of Mariner's history, we hear of another ship she served on, the USS Atlantis (in true Trek tradition they got used the correct uniform for the time in her bio), where half the crew disappeared (though she claims it was because they had lice and Starfleet didn't want anyone to know). When the barman first mentioned Atlantis I wasn't sure if he was referring to the legend of Atlantis, then maybe some kind of reference to 'Stargate Atlantis,' but it wasn't until they mentioned her ship later I understood what he meant. The idea of her being a spy isn't bad in the sense that she's had a past career where she's been demoted and that could be excellent cover, but then you think about it and what would be the point of serving on a second tier starship carrying out minor missions, Starfleet isn't the Tal Shiar, they don't need an agent reporting what's 'really' going on on every starship in the fleet, and her character just wouldn't work for keeping secrets and reigning herself! But again, it was lovely to hear mention of Tuvok infiltrating the Maquis, claiming Starfleet Intelligence does it (the actual interesting undercover organisation, rather than this obsession with the bad boys of Section 31 by modern Trek), and that it happened in the Dominion War - Rutherford even shouts "Section 31!" when they finally encounter Mariner (I did like the Mugato trap which was a kind of energy half-sphere that traps a foot without causing pain). I think this is the first we see of a Kzinti crewman in the series, something that would be returned to, and a wonderful little 'TAS' nugget. For all its flaws they continue to throw out so many fun little asides (the Gorn doll on Freeman's shelf; Mariner showing how silly Ferengi are since they could just replicate all the stuff they buy with Latinum), and combining that with the series' other qualities of staying true to the visual and sound aesthetics of the era they're portraying, continues to endear the series - even in an episode I wasn't looking forward to rewatching.

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