The Spy Humongous

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (The Spy Humongous)

When I think of the 'worst excesses' of this series, this is the kind of episode that comes to mind. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it goes too far into whack-a-doodle territory and is mildly disappointing when there were signs of actual good writing, such as some of the 'wise' words of Casey, or the Pakled plots. The Pakled sides of the story are the best part of it, even though they're just as silly as what goes on in the Anomaly Consolidation Duty scenes - but the Pakleds have been shown to be pretty witless, stupid and foolish, so they can play that up without breaking anything. That they take it to extremes is a given, but it's a funny given! Their homeworld is called Pakled Planet. We know so little about the race since they only had the focus of one episode ('Samaritan Snare' in 'TNG'), appearing as background aliens ever since (mainly on 'DS9'), so it was a good idea to fill them out a bit (not that they need filling out, they're all huge, lumpen creatures!). That they're so basic as to call their planet such a name isn't hard to believe, nor is it that they have frequent revolutions where a new Emperor takes the biggest helmet and so becomes the leader. Constantly referring to Freeman as Captain Janeway, or the Cerritos as the Enterprise suggests they don't have the capacity for understanding Starfleet has more than one female Captain and more than one ship. And it is amusing, I can't deny it.

If the whole episode had concentrated on Freeman's struggles to get through to these beings with such hard to penetrate skulls it would have been better, but as is traditional for the kind of Trek 'LD' is aping, there has to be a B-plot. And maybe a C-plot, if not a D-plot. In order of enjoyment, then: Ransom and the Tamarian Security guy, Kayshon, who seems to be top in that department when Shaxs is away (shame we haven't really seen them together as it would be good to understand the hierarchy and that sort of thing), escort a visiting dignitary– sorry, an 'escaped' Pakled spy, who shows his mind-numbing stupidity in his task to find out all he can about the ship. That was entertaining because Ransom himself is a little myopic a lot of the time. Not that he's stupid, but he only thinks in a certain way so to see him deal with someone who's a lot like him, if lacking intelligence, sort of showed up his own characteristics. And throwing a Tamarian into the mix with his occasional lapses into metaphor-speak only makes it more fitting. There's also the story of Boimler being pulled away from his friends by the 'cool kids' gang that call themselves Redshirts (reminded me a bit of Red Squad - they think they're superior to everyone else and arrogantly believe they should be at command level).

This story also wasn't bad, though a bit obvious, but like the Tamarian it had an added bit of fun as the Kzinti crewmember is part of it. I got a kick out of him giving Boimler lessons in posture, hunching up as the Kzinti were portrayed in 'TAS' (the funniest insider joke of the episode!), although like almost all aliens in modern Trek (at least Kayshon has his unique language to fall back into on occasion), he speaks like any human character would (played by Shaxs' Fred Tatasciore). I suppose the Pakleds do speak differently, in their lumbering, oafish manner, but in general, and this is one of my big irritations with post-'Enterprise' Trek, there isn't the same level of attention to detail on how aliens sound, move and behave, the words they use, etc, as there is on how they look. But Casey has some choice lines: "The Bridge is wherever you are," he proudly states when asking Boimler to imagine himself as Captain in order to give a rousing speech. The point of this little band which consists of Casey, the Kzinti, Jennifer the Andorian, and another woman, Castro (voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz - once again I thought I recognised the name and then once again realised it was the same who'd play T'Lyn this season and eventually join the cast in Season 4, previously heard as Lemonts in 'Crisis Point'), is that they all follow Casey's teachings, he being the ringleader, and only when Boimler is praised for his actions in the Mess by Ransom they see Casey for what he is: someone that's got entirely the wrong end of the stick when it comes to Captain material!

It comes to a head when, in the moment of action when Tendi's rollicking around as a giant green scorpion, all the Redshirts can do is speechify as other members of the crew look on starry-eyed (at first, then they realise they're just going to talk and not do anything!). But that's it, they don't do anything and it's up to Boimler to save his friend (and everyone else in the Mess). It's a humorous, yet realistic depiction of misconstruing a commander's role, or maybe just their own roles, since, as Boimler says, they're trying to inspire the crew, but they are the crew! Another of Casey's great, but pompous and ridiculous lines is: "This isn't a friendship, it's a starship - are you a star or not?" Unfortunately it is yet another member of the Cerritos crew who's shown up to be less than quality Starfleet material, which only adds to the impression the service is made up of moronic fools, not the message of best of the best we really want to see...

And when it comes to what we really want to see that takes me to the fourth plot, 'trash day' as Mariner so 'delicately' puts it, where they're assigned to collect and parcel up various items senior officers have clogged up the ship with. Would that really happen or are their protocols for this sort of thing? It's another of those shady areas where 'LD' plays with what's not been especially established just to have some fun. Except I didn't find it that fun. Just as Ransom's troubles with his Pakled 'guest' are connected or mirrored in Freeman's experiences on the planet, this is the inversion of Boimler's story - he's off with some new friends who immediately change him, while his old friends are doing a mundane job that eventually wears down even the irrepressibly joyful Tendi. Mariner, as is only right for her very experienced character, has no interest in such grunt work, Rutherford is pretty muted for him, and it seems more like they just wanted to have some visual wackiness to remind us this isn't just 'Star Trek,' this is cartoon 'Star Trek'! So Rutherford swells up like a balloon, Mariner gets electrocuted, and amid other odd moments, Tendi turns into the giant scorpion. Creativity thrives on restraint (Trek's long reign as great serious sci-fi in the old days a testament to that), and animation removes so much of the restraint, so we get all kinds of bug-eyed weirdness and some grossness (though nothing on the level of some of Season 1's worst stuff, like the 'dog' Tendi created), it's still unpleasant and not very funny a lot of the time.

Boimler covering his face in birthday cake with candles on top and charging round the Mess like a maniac was probably the ultimate image for this episode to sum up its silliness, even if it has a nice message in Boimler not abandoning his friends, and with the power of knowledge knowing what to do in this situation to save Tendi, and does it even if it makes him look utterly ridiculous. But it is still way too much (like the Replicator spewing out ice cream and other gunk). I also felt like some of the other ideas were a little too much, too, like Migleemo's energy field book of 'Three Little Pigs' that when opened brings the porkers to 3D life where they have physical interaction with Migleemo's Quarters and smash up the place. Or some kind of special stone they use to prank call Armus. It's just going that little bit (or maybe a lot), too far to be taken seriously. It's fun to see Armus again ("I am a skin of evil!" - also voiced by Tatasciore), but as dubious as he was way back in 'TNG' Season 1, he did kill off Tasha Yar so should we really treat him like such a joke? I will say they got the recreation down well, both his look and the planet's surface which appears the same as we saw it in live action (despite him having the whole planet to roam!). And as usual they got some good references in, my two favourites being, "Xindi, his eyes red," a metaphor from Kayshon for Rumdar going missing on the Cerritos, and Boimler imagining himself standing on the Bridge of the Enterprise-D (which has appeared in this, 'Prodigy' and 'Picard' - how great! It's just a shame there's no love for the Enterprise-E these days, which you'd think would be the more obvious choice since it was used more recently and the D was almost destroyed while the E would still be in service. At the same time I'm never going to complain about the D showing up!).

Ransom also throws in a mention of the Tal Shiar when saying they're not dealing with that level of spy when they twig why Rumdar came aboard, although does the Romulan secret service still exist after they were annihilated by the Founders in 'DS9' Season 3? I suppose they came back, but I always think of that big two-parter and wish it would get referenced as a major event in Tal Shiar history which changed them forever. I wondered if it was even realistic for Freeman to be assigned a "Picard level peace-brokering" mission, as Shaxs puts it? The Cerritos supposedly only does the unimportant jobs, the menial roles other, more 'important,' or 'capital ships' as they've sometimes called them on this series, would do, yet the Pakleds have caused trouble throughout the Quadrant, or that's the impression I've had. They can't have it both ways, either the Pakleds are a real threat (it took the Titan to take them on before), or they're a joke Starfleet doesn't take seriously. If they're a joke then they can't be causing that much trouble, lessening their threat. If they're serious then why would Starfleet leave such key diplomacy to a California-class ship? And Freeman thinks it shouldn't be too complicated since it's 'just' the Pakleds, but surely that makes it much more complicated since they're so unpredictable and atypical, so normal strategies may not work. In the end the series is about having a laugh, that's why they brought the Pakleds back, so it makes sense from that perspective, they fit the series' tone, but even though the series isn't serious they are playing in a serious universe and should always remember that. You can't just throw in jokes and references and think this is good Trek. Largely, however, I think they've been doing better this season, and while I felt this one of the weaker, I still mostly enjoyed it.

**