wej Duj

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (wej Duj [Three Ships])

I feel almost traitorous not giving this a good rating - it's definitely the least offensive episode they've done, in every way (which shows they can do it if they want to), and is full of delightful lore, but... There are some little niggles that stop me regarding it as highly as some other episodes this season, in spite of this being the introduction to what would go on to be a major character in Season 4, and the revelation about the ongoing Pakled story. It was clever they dropped in the reveal about who was behind the Pakled's rise to troublemakers of the Quadrant in what is a very gimmicky episode - when you only have ten episodes a season it seems... illogical to allow too much deviation from traditional Trek storytelling, yet in this case they didn't do a bad job. At first it does appear to be a thinly connected series of vignettes comparing Starfleet lower deckers with those from other ships, so to include important development for the season's arc was a wise move to add relevance. Not that it was necessarily needed as it's enjoyable enough just seeing life aboard a Klingon ship, a Vulcan ship, and even a snippet of life aboard a Pakled ship (not to mention the wonderful, yet simple gag of the end credits showing Borg lower deckers, too - actually quite relaxing listening to the gentle hum of the inside of a Borg Cube as they stand in peaceful repose at their regeneration stations!).

However, as much as I loved all the callbacks, which in this case are more general recreations of how Trek did these races or ships in the past (and what a way - swooping Birds-of-Prey, dark and dingy interiors, to pristine Vulcan interiors... beautiful), I felt it was another case of something the Kurtzman era is absolutely notorious for: the blurring of different time periods into one amorphous blob. It's happened on 'DSC' with its 'Holodecks,' its 'Replicators' and its ship designs. It's happened on 'Picard' with things like the 23rd Century Romulan Bird-of-Prey... I can't actually remember all the various incidents of confusing the eras, whether that's purposeful to make Trek seem like one continuous thing without any development over time, or just a major misunderstanding of Trek's finely honed sense of period drama and continuity. It makes a change that 'Enterprise' should be the period pulled into the 24th Century since that's so often the forgotten era. It's had its Trekferences, of course, like all the series' have, and for a while was almost the only series commonly called back to: the Kelvin films were always doing it, 'DSC' as well, but since 'Picard' and 'Lower Decks' they'd broken out of that and embraced Trekferences to everything. It's not that I don't like 'Enterprise' or connecting to it, but in this episode I felt as if they were confusing the 22nd Century era of Vulcans and Starfleet being only casual allies, instead of remembering this race was integral in the founding of the Federation and ever since.

Would they still be using those massive ring ships? I mean, they are things of beauty and it was lovely to be able to see one again after so long ('DSC' gave us a little glimpse, but even there they were redesigned to be more angular if I recall, and I think we only saw a shuttle), but we've never had the impression Vulcan still has its own fleet separate from Starfleet, just as Earth doesn't: Starfleet is their fleet. Now you can say that because it's never been specifically stated 'in canon' that they don't, and we certainly know that as late as the 23rd Century they had all-Vulcan crews, and even into the 24th Century you occasionally hear of a Vulcan ship (such as in early 'DS9' when they go through the Wormhole), so I suppose I'm talking myself out of it, but it's just that it didn't seem quite right, as much fun as it was to see the Sh'Vhal, a fully Vulcan Cruiser that harks back to those lovely 22nd Century designs. In some ways the same could be said for the Klingon Bird-of-Prey Che'Ta', in that it harks back to early 'TNG' when you'd see belligerent Klingon Captains going about doing their own thing. Maybe it's because we saw much more developed crews in the latter part of that series, such as Martok's, who were fleshed out on occasion, but this ship very much evoked early 'TNG' and what I want is to get that feel of whatever era I'm in as that's part of the joy of Trek: its accuracy and way of presenting different centuries and periods.

With the Klingons it's not a problem that they are autonomous since the Klingons haven't become part of the Federation (and apparently never will judging by 'DSC,' though I suppose one thing about modern Trek is that you rarely get any context for the powers and state of the main races of old), but that's where 'LD' is so different, they're deliberately trying to evoke memories of the 'TNG' era and one reason I like it so much (relatively), compared to the other stuff produced in recent years. And I do like this episode, I'm not saying I don't. I really did appreciate the relative cleanness of the dialogue, story and visuals (aside from a little gory Klingon violence, but even that was a sort of joke with the purple blood, and even the lower decks guy mentioning Klingon blood runs as reddish-pink as ever!), even Dr. T'Ana, usually the worst culprit for swearing (even if it is disguised by being bleeped out), keeps her nose clean and has a funny moment (when Boimler's recreating Kirk's fall from 'Star Trek V' and a concerned Tendi asks if the Holodeck safety protocols are on, T'Ana offhandedly thinks they are). I especially liked the lesson on kindness, when lower decks Klingon Ma'ah is about to be executed by his enraged Captain, the Captain's Targ, whom he's been looking after, snarlingly comes to his rescue.

It's not just the confusing of eras, however much I've just proved that there is precedent for such things, it's the way the Vulcans are acted just on the borders of acceptability. It's been an irritation of mine ever since the days of 'Enterprise' where they began to be portrayed as no longer emotionless, but barely containing their emotions just under the skin. Thinly veiled acidity and such. I will say that it was generally pretty well done, especially compared with the live action examples we've had, but I just wish they could be completely dispassionate and not inject any emotional state into their dialogue at all: I always look at Tim Russ' effortless grace as Tuvok for how I think Vulcans should be portrayed. But again, it's only a minor note, the Vulcans were still well done and it is funny how they all arch their eyebrows or T'Lyn's minor deviations from strict orders or duty are considered outbursts or wild behaviour (in the same way they got Klingon culture spot on - Ma'ah mentions logic so they tease him about being Vulcan-like. It's so true to their culture to mock Vulcans: "Avoid death and cower!"), and I look forward to seeing more of her when I get around to seeing Season 4 soon. I almost wish we could have had all the various lower decks characters of the different races meet up, but Ma'ah becomes Captain by the end for his honourable conduct (and getting rid of bad Captain Dorg), and the Pakleds and Borg were really only gags. But we might have had the other lower decks Klingons on Cerritos, maybe an exchange programme, even though it's already been done (that doesn't stop 'SNW'!).

Despite my mild overarching concerns this is so close to being up there with the better episodes of this season and series it's almost negligible - let's take a step back for a moment and just recall that only a couple of years before this came out in 2021, it looked like we may never get proper Klingons again. Who could have foreseen that the redesign of 'DSC' and changing so much of what Trek is, could be so quickly undone and the old, great Trek aesthetics, style and everything about those eras returned to the fore! It is beautiful to see the old Klingon Bridge design that's been knocking around for decades, not just the Klingons looking as they should (not one Orc version in sight these days!), but that same Bridge and other parts of the ship familiar from 'DS9' and others. It's easy to forget how unlikely all this was, not just from 'DSC' and how badly it brought Trek back to 'TV,' but even before that with the Kelvin Timeline films. That's what draws me to 'LD' - it's not perfect, far from it, and there are many things I often find uncomfortable and distressing about the style or the humour, but at the same time it is by far the closest to recreating the true spirit of Trek and that's why it works. It's so sad they still haven't been able to recreate that same feeling in live action (though 'Picard' Season 3 comes closest), as it shouldn't be that hard!

While the majority of the episode concentrates on Klingons and Vulcans, meaning there's not as much time to throw in specific Trekferences, they still managed to deal in plenty of that nostalgia currency: Boimler suggests a Stratagema tournament when Captain Freeman allows the crew R&R during the long haul warp the Cerritos is going on (he also tries conversational Tamarian with Kayshon in his quest for a Bridge buddy as the rest of his friends have arranged activities with a Bridge officer, and only succeeds in offending him!), and not only does he wear Kirk's 'Go Climb a Rock' jumper in the rock-climbing holoprogram, but also Spock's gravity boots, thus combining both Kirk and Spock. Though once again there are privacy issues since he can apparently just walk into someone else's program while it's running, which could be distracting or disconcerting for the players already inside, taking them out of their story or activity - he does it again when he finds Mariner and Mother recreating the shooting match game, Velocity, Janeway and Seven had on 'Voyager,' though in that case they're too busy arguing to even notice! T'Lyn displays knowledge of Klingon culture when she says those that stand together are considered cha'DIch, a 'second' to support one who is going through a challenge or trial. Rutherford holds his completed DS9 station model from a few episodes back, which was a nice continuity touch, as was the Captain wearing a 'Ritos' t-shirt which apes the 'Disco' casual wear seen in 'DSC' - funny! I didn't realise it was first done this late in the series, I thought it had already happened.

There are other basic throwbacks like Captain Dorg quoting General Chang (I assume), quoting Shakespeare from 'Star Trek VI': "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" and Ma'ah subtly alluding to that film when he says other Klingons have tried to sabotage peace with the Federation before, and failed. He also mentions Kor's hound at the battle of Klach D'kel Brakt (mentioned by Kor himself in 'Blood Oath' on 'DS9'), a name I've always loved! Or Ransom revealing he's from Tycho City on Earth's Moon (a place mentioned in 'First Contact' as a place you can see from Earth, and where a Cadet in 'Valiant' was from), not to mention the flurry of crewmembers running around the ship during the Pakled attack still wearing various dressing-up clothes: Robin Hood (even though that was actually a Q scenario rather than a Holodeck one, but it still counts as a Trekference), someone in Sherlock Holmes' dressing gown with pipe, the Anbo-Jytsu outfits, what looked like Napoleon, some Medieval courtiers, and best of all, the deep cut of Crusher and Troi's ugly exercise leotards from 'TNG'! You might even say T'Lyn's parting words, "Live long and prosper... Sir," said in such a snarky tone, were a Trekference to Kelvin Spock in 'Star Trek XI' where he refuses entry into the Vulcan Science Academy (I didn't like it there and I don't like it here - too emotional). T'Lyn herself had a hairdo modelled on Valeris with the hairband, perhaps meant to subconsciously tell us she's different to most Vulcans.

And the music! That was glorious, so evocative of 'Star Trek II' or maybe 'Star Trek III,' though also a reuse of the 'Crisis Point' film-evoking episode of Season 1 - either way suitably dramatic and stirring, reminding me why I used to love Trek so much (and am so underwhelmed by so much of modern Trek!). There were a couple of slightly more obscure Trekferences: when Freeman and Mariner are playing Cluedo (with a layout on the board shaped like a starship!), Mariner guesses the murderer was the chef with the sniper rifle that can shoot through walls, which happened (apart from the chef part), in 'Field of Fire' on 'DS9.' The one I had to stop and think about due to its incongruity was when Boimler's worried that if he admits he's not really from Hawaii, as he told Ransom to fit in with his gang, the First Officer will demote him and send him to work on a penal colony where he'll have to mate with the enemy to form a new civilisation, which I'm assuming is a Trekference to the 'TNG' two-parter 'Birthright' where Worf, searching for his Father, discovered a colony where the Klingons and Romulans had come together to create a new joint community having previously been prisoners and jailers. Perhaps the funniest Trekferences were the general ones aimed at the Pakleds: I loved that their ship is called the Pakled Clumpship Pakled, or that instead of a Red Alert signal they have a Red Alarm where a voice cries out "Red Alarm! Red Alarm!" Or that they're so stupid they complain to the Klingon Captain about the bomb he gave them not working once they'd used it!

One other thing I wasn't keen on was T'Lyn's attitude to being sent to work on a Starfleet ship, considering it a punishment, when surely Vulcans of the late-24th Century are fully integrated? And while it was great to see the huge ring ship warp in to cover the Cerritos when the Pakleds are giving them a pounding, much like the Enterprise-E suddenly showing up to protect the Defiant in 'First Contact,' I don't buy that Vulcan ships would be so much more powerful than Starfleet ones at this time, and for that matter, T'Lyn's project to modify her ship, used as a last-ditch solution, was rather convenient and easy to implement - no engineering work, just connect the PADD to a console and suddenly the ship's all powered up! I did love that despite her project being a success and saving both the Sh'Vhal and the Cerritos, her Captain still gives her a Vulcan dressing down and sends her off the ship for disobedience. It's a very Vulcan thing to do and it also shows that regardless of outcomes, obedience and hierarchy are important, attitudes so often missing in modern Trek. The episode does a pretty good job of dealing with aliens, not just the main guests, but also in smaller ways like Shaxs getting upset when he thinks of Bajor because he still has unresolved issues with the memories of the resistance, or showing a Benzite using one of those respiration units, although I don't think we'd seen one using it since 'TNG' as 'DS9' showed at least one without and even 'LD' has had the occasional Benzite in the background sans this device. Don't tell me, only southern Benzites use them...

It was a good little twist that this particular Klingon Captain who feels his people have become too soft and wants to destabilise the Federation so the Empire can expand again, is the source of all the Pakled discord - maybe it's hard to believe that one single Captain of a Bird-of-Prey could provide that many weapons or that much information to destabilise a Quadrant, but once again we are dealing with the unconventional Pakleds so maybe all they needed was this one little spark to go into major revolt. It gave us the opportunity of seeing both races again, which is enjoyable in itself, but also reminding us of how these races are - not the collected group of various peoples the Federation represents, and so we're able to enjoy their culture instead of it being subsumed into a greater whole, and they feel more like the races they're supposed to be, when generally in modern Trek most aliens do not seem alien at all, merely humans with different faces, a major misstep in presenting Trek's future world. The fact they got Marc Okrand, the creator of the Klingon language involved as both Dialect Coach and Translator, shows how much they meant business (even the episode title is displayed only in Klingon language characters!). But oh how it makes me wish this approach (minus the humour), could have been used with all the series' they've done, so that it would all actually feel like Trek again. Because, writing this the day after Trek's 58th birthday, I'm not sure where it stands now with so many productions I have little to no interest in as they desperately try to be 'relevant' to younger viewers, while at the same time putting off people like me!

**

I, Excretus

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (I, Excretus)

The drill grading was a little like how I felt about this episode - as Boimler kept retrying his scenario, pushing the percentage success rate up each time, so this episode kept trying to boost up its rating. That it didn't quite succeed with flying colours is thanks to some of the inappropriate content (they do seem to love scenes of the whole crew naked, or close to naked...), but it certainly wasn't Boimler's fault as his scenes were the best. As usual a lot was packed into the short running time: there's a lesson to be learned about the carpet always being greyer on the other side of the ship (in other words, it's not as easy being the senior staff as the lower deckers think, and it's not as easy vice versa for the lower deckers), a temporary return to the old animosity between Captain Mother and Ensign Daughter, and tons and tons of Trekferences as I'll call them from now on! That's to be expected by now (or, actually by the end of the pilot episode, to be precise!), but they probably squeezed in more direct episode titles than any other before since much of the action takes place as a series of drills in simulation pods for each crewmember to attempt. First things first, though, and we have another strong return to a race first (and only ever), seen in 'The Animated Series' ('Bem' - a dual title that was the character's name, but also well known for being an acronym for Bug-Eyed Monster); a Pandronian, the green-skinned creature that can split itself into different parts and refers to itself as 'this one.'

Actually, first thing was the mini-teaser which ably demonstrated (far better than any of the live action series' of modern Trek ever do), that mix of beauty and adventure of being in space, not relying on ridiculous stakes, just the personal, but also not forgetting this is supposed to be a comedy, so humour's fed in, too - as usual they get that opening 'TNG' tone where there's an attractive piece of music to set things up and the four friends are on the hull of some kind of satellite or other space tech admiring a nebula or something, before the Cerritos forgets they're even there and goes off to try and rescue a ship trapped in a temporal causality loop (which keeps sending the same distress signal over and over). My only sadness is that the moment of pleasant beauty is so fleeting, but just as they fit in an entire episode of 'Voyager' into a teaser less than a minute long (Paris and Torres spent much of 'Day of Honour' floating in space), everything is sped up to maximum warp just so they can fit it all in. Madcap pacing aside, it's this sort of stuff that makes me think well of the series and why I would put this season as the best of in modern Trek so far.

It often seems as if they're daring themselves how much Trek lore and, yes, Trekferences, they can cram in one episode and far be it from me to try and account for all of them, but even when I first saw the episode I enjoyed having a Pandronian guest starring - I almost felt I recognised the voice, but I don't know the actress' name, she just did a terrific job as this outside authority coming aboard ship to test the crew and subject them to all kinds of discomfort, ostensibly for their own good, sounding like a teacher or trainer would. Any qualms about whether someone really could reverse the command hierarchy just for some kind of test can be smoothed over by the fact that, while Shari yn Yem wasn't a bogus drill instructor (I feel they should have worked in a Trekference to drill thralls somewhere...), she did have a sinister ulterior motive: to ensure the ship's failure in case her drills were no longer considered worthwhile since most starship crews pass with flying colours (as you'd expect - a good reminder of the standards of Starfleet, something easily forgotten in so many of the errant modern versions of Starfleet people, or former Starfleet people, or not quite Starfleet people yet, that populate the other series'), before turning into a cackling villain and having to be blackmailed by the Cerritos travelling into 'dangerous' spatial phenomena until she agrees to give them a passing grade (since she adjusted the tests to ensure failure).

Maybe taking an authority figure of the week on a wild ride to scare her might seem a little irresponsible (I at first assumed they'd cunningly brought her into a Holodeck simulation), and maybe it's also playing into the idea of 'teachers' (broad term), being limited by their not having personal experience, which is why Shari yn Yem is fooled by the relatively minor dangers she's put through (Crystalline entities! Black holes which have the effect of the Wormhole in 'The Motion Picture' with colourful blurry reality! - it was only missing the sloooowww mooootiooon to make it hilarious, though it was fun to see her tumbling about the Bridge like she was on 'TOS'!). They obviously enjoyed recreating the Crystalline entity (or one of its kind), so much they added it to the main titles in Season 3. It makes a change for Boimler to be the one who rises most to the challenge and actively relishes it, but then it was only a simulation. Maybe he wouldn't be quite so gung ho about it in real life, but it was such fun to see him retry the test each time, and each time finding a way to do it even better until he's got to a level where he somehow contacts a Starfleet Runabout that comes and picks him up, rescues Borg babies, captures several adult Borg, and blows up the Cube itself - great comedy escalation! But all so Boimler in his quest for perfection, another reason I liked the majority of the episode.

Other parts were fun, too: for Trekkers MU doesn't stand for Marvel Universe, it stands for Mirror Universe with Mariner's trip 'across' being a highlight (she wears Uhura's outfit from 'Mirror, Mirror'! There are images of the sword through the world logo all over! The Agoniser! She uses a double-fisted hammer punch on Mirror Shaxs! Hang on, that's not exclusively a MU trope, but I liked it all the same, especially as he merely sees it as a legitimate greeting!). I'm not sure Starfleet could actually recreate the MU in such detail, wouldn't they want to keep such things secret, that's what I always thought? Mind you, 'DSC' completely messed up the MU anyway, and as time goes by I increasingly want to think of most of this Trek era we've been going through as an alternate universe (and as much as I'd like to include 'LD' in Prime, one aspect I didn't look on favourably about the crossover with 'Strange New Worlds' was how they accepted that Enterprise and crew, thus legitimising the aesthetic and those versions of characters as 'normal'). Still, 'LD' is by far the closest in almost every way to the classic eras past and it continues to make me smile with its stunts and Trekferences: this time the big one is Alice Krige herself! Wow, a real big gun, and it begins to look like 'Picard' was copying 'LD' since they brought back Q after he'd appeared in Season 1, and then brought back the Krige version of the Borg Queen after 'LD' had her in Season 2 - just a shame they didn't do the same for Susan Gibney's Leah Brahms who'd appear in Season 3 of this, but not that (though we never did hear who Geordi's wife was, did we...?).

Krige's velvet tones, reprising the role just over twenty years after she last played her in the 'Voyager' finale, were a delight to hear, I just wish they could've brought her back physically when she reprised her again in 'Picard.' It was also really good to see a proper Borg locale, too, after the ugliness of that sanitised, clean and tidy version of a Cube in 'Picard' Season 1. 'LD' just seems to keep bringing back the old Trek aesthetic in every way (and keeps making me wish we could simply have a straight, live action drama in this mould, without the excesses of animation and comedy they insist on here - sadly, with the announcement of a live action comedy it sounds like they're going to keep going in the direction of humour more than proper Trek...), and it's also in the writing, too - okay, I could lose the contemporary expressions and attitudes which infuse all contemporary Trek, but there are also the little details such as the Borg saying 'few-tyle' again instead of 'few-tul.' It makes me warm and cosy when that happens... and then I'm jolted out of the reverie by things like the 'Naked Time' scenario from the infamous inhibition-reducing virus of both 'TOS' and 'TNG,' episodes I really don't need to be reminded of. Oh, but then there's stealing the Cerritos out of Spacedock to go for Spock's body on Genesis ('Star Trek III' would certainly have been a different film with that ship instead!), and the fantastic Old West Planet simulation where they have a Western street of facades on a blank red backdrop just as they had in 'Spectre of The Gun' because they either couldn't afford to build a full set or weren't able to shoot on an existing one - I always loved that spare, stylistic choice so the callback here was perfect (they could be Trekferencing T'Pol's dislike of horses from 'North Star,' too, since Mariner's horse hates her).

Then there's the brilliant 'The Good of The Many' scenario where Rutherford has to recreate Spock's saving the Enterprise, wearing that distinctive white Engineering suit with the target on the front, and he can't even get into the chamber because he hasn't got the gloves with him (for want of a glove, a door couldn't be opened, for want of a door opening a starship blew up...). I thought they were going to do Kirk at first since the guy who talks to him looks like him, but I think he called him Lieutenant. No doubt we were meant to get that impression, however, but I'd be very surprised if they could ever afford to have William Shatner on the series (still, for the series finale, maybe?). One I was slightly disappointed in was the 'Ethics' recreation as Tendi has a Klingon patient that wants to commit ritual suicide - it was very amusing how they reverse things and he's 'unfortunately' saved (aside from legal suicide being a creepy modern agenda), and I was delighted to see the feet sticking out the end of the bedsheet had little horns on them, but where was the chest exoskeleton (as seen most prominently in 'Sons of Mogh' where Worf's brother Kurn gets him to stick a knife in), that seems like a major oversight unless they're suggesting this guy was only half Klingon - I did enjoy the comment from the surgeon about Klingons having extra organs, or whatever he said, I just expect a higher level of accuracy from this series!

The destruction of the Enterprise (if we can assume it was, it could have been some other refit Constitution-class vessel - otherwise can we add that to the tally of Enterprises being blown up?), was fairly spectacular, but it once again raises a big issue I have with simulated environments and how they shouldn't be able to show things in an external view since it doesn't exist. Unless that was there for the benefit of the crew who were watching, that would at least make sense in this case. Something else I wondered about was why this Pandronian would carry around however many individual pods for her drills when surely it would be simpler to use the Holodeck(s)? I don't think we've ever seen a Holodeck divided up to run multiple programs simultaneously (although there was 'The Killing Game' where they had to extend the Holodeck to fit in all the scenarios the Hirogen wanted to run, so maybe that would count?), but you'd think that would be simpler than transporting all these pods from ship to ship. Perhaps it would've meant it was more difficult to tamper with the programs, though there's never been any hindrance to that previously! Even more when they had to have multiple people in the scenario (though I much enjoyed Shaxs' exasperation at the hexagonal shape of the crates they're ordered to stack during an emergency!).

Another issue I had was the use of people's likenesses in holographic form. Surely this isn't acceptable, yet it seems to happen on this series all the time. There's got to be privacy issues, even in something official like a Starfleet test - would Migleemo have agreed to being kept on a perch, tethered by a lead on a collar like Mirror Worf did to Mirror Garak? I understand why they have familiar characters because they're the ones we know, but it's difficult to believe in this series' choices sometimes in the wider Trek universe, very much because they do such a good job of recreating 24th Century tone and style in general. A lesser issue or note that came up was when Shaxs says they're all equal on this ship perhaps foreshadowing the approaching change in command structure - that could be a little jab at things like 'DSC' and 'SNW' which have been roundly criticised for failing to show a believable command structure, preferring to be 'inclusive' to anyone and everyone's butting in on decision-making or questioning orders at any time, or just generally inappropriate behaviour. Thankfully the idea is punctured quickly here by Ransom reminding him they sleep in a hallway, so clearly lower deckers aren't equal in that sense, and I think that's good to be reminded: it takes experience, hard work and aptitude to reach the senior levels of starship command (even if it doesn't always seem like that), and that's how it should be!

If I can complain about one more aspect, it was Shari yn Yem tapping the Captain of the ship she's visiting on the nose. In front of her crew. That's not a good way to encourage discipline and respect (as funny as it was), but we're supposed to feel uneasy about her is how I read it. She doesn't become a villain until much later in the episode, going as far as saying most of the Federation doesn't even know California-class ships even exist (making sense of why we'd never heard of them before this series), reinforcing the small fry impression 'LD' seeks to give us, before reminding us that they are still Starfleet, they still have the training, and maybe not the experience, but they're getting there. A couple more minor complaints, too: Boimler claims he suffers from hay fever and acid reflux which must surely be easily curable with 24th Century medicine, though there's an easy defence to this nitpick since he could simply have been making things up to dissuade the Borg Queen from assimilating him into the Collective. But Freeman giving the lower deckers a 'better' Replicator at the end? That makes no sense whatsoever, they'd only need to add the programs to the existing model. It's times like this that it smacks of trying to emphasise a story point over sensible continuity and reminds me of the original premise that described them as being people that put the yellow cartridge in the Replicator to get bananas, or something similarly inane and plain wrong.

They have come quite a long way from those early missteps, however, and the season continues to skirt the edges of genuinely good Trek stories and characters, even if it more often than not still falls slightly short. Sometimes I think the lesson of the week needs a little bit more promotion (I think of the brief period of Freeman and her senior staff remembering how lower deckers have no worries and no responsibilities), at the expense of losing some of the humour or dramatic moments, but when they do succeed and an episode is (largely), clean, there's nothing more evocative of old Trek than this. There's always the reality that we could, and probably should, just go back and watch the good ol' days, but at the same time it's nice to have new Trek. Even if they continue to tease us: the Commander in the group simulation where Klingons are supposedly taking over the ship spots a Jem'Hadar, but it's off-camera so it's one of those famous races that continues to elude modern Trek. They could have recreated some for the Changeling storyline in 'Picard' Season 3, but even there they drew a blank. Maybe they realised they couldn't match the great Michael Westmore's superb designs on that one? And speaking of harking back to greatness on 'DS9,' I write this shortly after hearing of James Darren's death - he was so great as Vic Fontaine and would've been a perfect guest star for this series. Once again it's sad how many Trek people have gone now, especially with 'DS9,' and as 'Generations' reminds us: cherish every moment, because it'll never come again.

**

Where Pleasant Fountains Lie

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (Where Pleasant Fountains Lie)

It took them long enough, but they finally did it: brought back the Great Jeffrey Combs! In the first few seasons of modern Trek, from 'DSC' to early 'Picard' and 'LD' they'd refrained from jumping deeply into returning actors from old Trek. It wasn't that they never had anyone familiar (Clint Howard showed up in 'DSC' Season 1, for example), but they definitely didn't seem to have such connections in mind. Leaving aside Jean-Luc himself, we only got a smattering, though that gradually snowballed until we've had tens of old characters played (or voiced), by their original actors. Perhaps they realised the writing wasn't up to it for those schooled in Trek, and they needed to get more people more interested, or perhaps they felt a little more confident as time went on (just as 'TNG' kept away from 'TOS' for the most part in its early years), but either way the returning of characters and actors has been one of the few successful aspects of this era. And yet they still hadn't brought in Combs who was one of the most versatile greats we ever saw in Trek - beginning as a one-off alien in 'DS9,' then taking on the iconic roles of Brunt and Weyoun in the same, he went on to appear in 'Voyager' and had a recurring role as Shran in 'Enterprise' (and was talked up by Manny Coto as being planned to join the series as main cast if they'd got a Season 5), and was definitely high on my list of people they really should bring back. I'd always imagined him returning to one of his famous roles (most likely an aged Shran, but anyone would've done!), but if we only get his voice as a megalomaniacal supercomputer then that's something, at least...

He is very good here, the wheedling, the manipulating, the complimenting... it's funny, yet also somehow real, and very well written to reflect this machine that constantly manoeuvres from one strategy to the next while Mariner and Boimler are just trying to stay alive on a planet where they've crashed (especially enjoyed the moment of the crash where we see it from inside the cockpit of a shuttle with the ground racing up towards them, just as they would have filmed it in old Trek!), and the last thing they need is a voice continually preying on their situation, pleading that he can save them if they'll only... plug him in... Combs was ideally suited, his whiny, yet reasonable stream of suggestions, attempts to divide his two captors, and never missing a chance to try and lay some groundwork for escape is a highlight, but even better is the way Boimler tricks him by apparently playing into his hands and using Mariner's belief that he's lost it to save them both! A real success story and a clever twist. It's also a good-looking episode with this desert planet full of space junk that has been sucked down to the surface, but also the Medieval decor and style of the Hysperian 'fantasy' ship, Monaveen, Chief Engineer Billups' own Mother's ship. Unfortunately, that's where the similarity with the two plots ends (unless you count them both being driven by a sneaky, manipulative character that will do absolutely anything to get what they want!).

The problematic premise, which is exactly the kind of humour that prevents this series from truly blossoming like the great Treks before it, is very family unfriendly, and while it never really goes anywhere visually, the innuendo goes too far and almost ruins what was one of the better stories, bringing it down to merely enjoyable thanks to Combs. Such a shame he was 'wasted' in an otherwise troubled story when he could, and should, have been the sole focus for the crew. Still, if you ignore the exact nature of Queen Paolana's (sounds a lot like Lwaxana to me...), method of tricking her son into taking the throne as king of his people, it's still quite an innocent, fun story, and while it makes use of a recurring character to good effect, it's really about Rutherford and Tendi - while it could be said to be a tired trope by this stage that so many episodes feature Mariner with Boimler, and Rutherford with Tendi, it's actually quite a nice format, especially when you only have half the episode length of traditional Trek, and this one is particularly poignant as Tendi is told, and believes, that Rutherford died in a freak accident aboard the Monaveen. Of course we've seen that all before (I immediately think of Mayweather in 'Dead Stop,' but Garak blowing up his own shop is another instance that comes to mind), but Tendi hasn't, and we see it through her eyes.

That the Queen would go to any lengths, even afflicting great grief on her son, shows just what a manipulative Mother she is, without the bustling charm and rudeness of Lwaxana Troi, though in the same mould. But the idea of a people that deliberately play up fantasy myths and rename standard technology to reflect that was typically daft of this series, yet I could imagine it happening in live action Trek, too. No doubt there are examples of all kinds of weird alien groups that we've seen, though nothing's springing to mind. The ship was beautiful, if a little 'Star Wars' princess (I could certainly imagine Queen Amidala travelling in it!), and it was well presented - the physical docking connection seemed like yet one more swipe at 'DSC' for its ridiculous energy field attachment corridors. There was also the expected humour, my favourite being the evil lute-playing which jams Combadges from communicating, the musician having an infernal, diabolical light in his eyes! The episode was surprisingly thin on references, which made a change, though they do have to throw in Mariner's suggestion of burying Agimus like Data's head, to which Boimler rejoins that it was actually in a cave - love the attention to specifics, and that he knows this! There's also the Daystrom Institute, which is where they're transporting Agimus (though it's questionable why a shuttle would be travelling to Earth when surely the Cerritos would be faster, but they had to set it up that way so the pair could be marooned), and Agimus claiming he's turned over a new leaf and wants to join Starfleet where he could be the next Seven of Nine!

I suppose you could say the flying drones that Agimus imagines himself creating, and was part of the artwork by the planet of people who had worshipped him, were the same design as those in 'The Arsenal of Freedom' in 'TNG,' and his "Yes, yeeesss," when watching Boimler and Mariner fight was reminiscent of Emperor Palpatine watching the battle between Luke and Vader. I also had a fleeting suggestion of the little robot that wedges itself in the doorway in 'Capricorn One' when they're trying to move him (I think it's that film, or is it 'Space Camp,' it's been a long time?), as Agimus briefly grabs the doorframe with his tubules before being pulled out, though I'm sure it wasn't intended. And it was a great gag to have him locked away in a room full of compartments occupied by similarly boxy evil computers as if it's a regular issue for Starfleet (there's one featuring the CBS Eye logo, an upside down Triforce from 'Zelda,' and best of all, in his first ever appearance in Trek, Batman himself!). For some reason, even Agimus shouting out that he's going to take over the Federation was appealing, just for hearing Combs say 'Federation'! Another good observation came when Mariner asks how Phaser Rifles are different from normal ones and Boimler says they take two hands, as when you think about it, that should be the only difference, although I've always felt they're more powerful due to having a larger capacity for power (and they look tough, too!). Not all references were jokey - Tendi worriedly suggesting there are going to be times every now and then when it seems like Rutherford's died, acted both to remind us of the last time this happened, and also to display a vulnerability in her that shows how hard she found it to accept her friend's apparent death yet again.

I did wonder how she could just wander onto the Monaveen (though I loved that she asked the computer to locate Rutherford, giving her the coordinates for where she assumes the last part of him must be, the old-fashioned way - so Trekky!), though I suppose Starfleet had been given free access. Still, you'd think the ship would have shut down in order to ensure Billups doesn't have second thoughts. My other criticism was that Rutherford moans about how he wants to tell Billups to use someone else because he's too worried about all the customs and messing up an alien ship - my issue is since when do Ensigns get to decide what they do? That sounded a bit too 'DSC' for me where ship discipline and everything else is apparently controlled by people's emotions and how willing they are to do something rather than obedience and snapping to duty. It's possible Rutherford meant he would request off the assignment and Billups could decide one way or the other and we're just hearing it from a lower decks slant of how he forms the situation to his friend. One other thing was that it seemed strange for Boimler to have his assignment changed via PADD, as usually it would be in person or at least over the comms, but of course in this case they don't want us to know Ransom reassigned him by Mariner's request as Boimler would have asked why and it would have all come out, whereas it was setup for Agimus to show what really happened and use it as fuel to aggravate. But he underestimated the quintessential Starfleet man! That's a good message, well done. But next time let's give Jeffrey Combs our full attention (and preferably in live action. And preferably bringing back one of his great previous characters. Preferably).

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