First First Contact

 DVD, Lower Decks S2 (First First Contact)

They put all their engines could muster into this episode. I don't remember when the series was recommissioned for a third season, but I know they were originally given two seasons and you can tell they threw everything onto the table to leave us wanting more with this one! Truly the best episode modern Trek has given us and continuing the tradition of this particular series for going against the grain of this era and successfully making the finale the best, rather than worst, episode of a season! While 'DSC' and 'Picard' set up all manner of potential in their season openers, trundle along, and eventually utterly fail in the payoff, this series hasn't relied on serialisation and the 'next mystery' to create its narrative power. Yet at the same time it has had it's running arcs and subplots while couched in the kind of episodic Trek of the 90s it seeks to model, and that combination has made it the most loyal continuation of the kind of Trek most people that grew up with the Golden Age of the franchise, and cemented its appeal, want to see, despite being plagued by the requirements of an 'adult' (read: juvenile), comedy, with all its inappropriate scenes, bad language and innuendo that run contrary to Trek's general (and relative), purity (though at least showing up the truth that Godless Trek is actually a showcase for humanity's failures rather than the fiction of Utopian ideals, or what this secular philosophy is really like). To think I almost passed up the opportunity of seeing this season thanks to the weaknesses of Season 1, my growing dislike of modern Trek, and knowledge of certain things the season would entail.

Yet this episode would have been worth staying with it if the other nine had been full of Badgey, Peanut Hamper and Billups' shenanigans - because you don't have to watch every episode again (unlike the 99% of old Trek, which you do want to!), modern Trek doesn't have a lot of rewatch possibility, but 'LD' can put out some good stuff and this was the pinnacle of their achievements. They manage to pack so much into this episode it was impressive just on that count: each of the four main characters has a subplot going on, as well as Captain Freeman, while they bring in a surprise character from the past in Selena Gomez, played by the original actress, Lycia Naff, famously the one to spill hot chocolate on Captain Picard (which is gently and indirectly referenced when she shows sympathy for an Ensign tripping up the step on what I thought was the Sovereign-class Archimedes' Bridge). Just the fact we get a Sovereign would have been enough (although later reading tells me it's actually Obena-class, but close enough! Maybe that's why it has the window on the Bridge ceiling?), but to have it Captained by someone we knew from decades before made it even sweeter. And they don't skimp on the 'money shots,' both Archimedes and Cerritos are presented in the most glorious imagery that makes you forget the disastrous approach to ships in 'DSC' in particular when it seemed as if they didn't care or understand that the ships are characters, too! Then there's an entirely new concept for Trek, a dramatic rescue in the tradition of the best stories of old, and everything trips together, the music, the visuals, the story, the characters, to be what Trek should be, while at the same time being able to throw in those laughter lines that make you smile rather than chuckle.

The series has really turned a corner by this point, no longer needing to rely on in your face Trekferences, even while it throws in a few for good measure. But it's the story that matters, that's the difference! I made the major mistake of watching this episode out of order and so had no idea this was the season finale and I remember thinking what a strong entry it was. Only when I realised I'd seen it in the wrong order did I understand why it felt so much bigger than all the others, not that it harmed the episode itself, but it has much more of a final, cliffhanger ending to it than just some story towards the end of a season would have. And of course it ends with that classic 'To Be Continued...' in the blue 'TNG' font that had to guarantee they'd be back for at least a Season 3 (and a 4 and 5, though sadly that will be the end). Out of everything what most impressed me was the tight, tense story itself, The Little Ship That Can coming to the rescue of one of the great Starfleet ships - maybe they chose Gomez as Captain so it doesn't seem quite as outlandish as if they'd had the Enterprise-E under Picard or Worf being saved by this second contact specialist, or backup vessel, while Gomez was quirky enough to be believable. But she also comes across as a good, caring Captain, undercutting (not something I usually appreciate, but in this case it is poking at Trek tropes and it is a comedy), the po-faced tension by saying that's enough of that and inspiring her crew to carry on.

And the Archimedes itself... I just can't get over how gorgeous it was, I'm so glad the Sovereign-class-like was the one they chose to go with as it's one that's almost fallen out of favour with modern Trek - as much as I love the Luna-class Titan on 'LD,' and most of the other ships they've brought in, and even in 'Picard' they began to be a bit more cognisant of needing to show Federation starships in all their glory after the debacle of the infamous 'cut and paste' fleet of its Season 1, I don't actually remember if there was a 'Sovereign' in Season 3, and it was disappointing to me that of all the Enterprises we did get, the E was not among them as it carried 'TNG' through its film series. But here? Glorious! That shot of the two ships leaving Spacedock with the swelling music, it was just beautiful and only emphasises the horror of the Archimedes losing all power and floating end over end in space. In reality you'd expect a top ship's crew to find their own solution rather than being saved by a 'second class' California-class, but then they're in 'Star Trek: Cerritos' aren't they, not 'Star Trek: Archimedes' (okay, it's called 'Lower Decks,' but you know what I mean!). What made it more special was that Season 1 had, realistically, been about the Titan swooping in and saving the Cerritos in grand style, but it's like this ship and crew's coming of age that they're able to do the saving of a more powerful and prestigious ship this time and I love how the whole crew is mobilised - teamwork has so often been an important theme in old Trek, one that is often overlooked in favour of super-heroics in the modern ones.

There were some good themes of the optimistic, overcoming feelings kind, which seemed especially to take digs at 'DSC' for its elevating emotion to be the most important factor at all times - how often we saw the characters of 'DSC' stop in the middle of a crisis to have some heart to heart or 'self-discovery' (now I realise where its title comes from - not discovering new worlds, but navel-gazing themselves!). Entirely inappropriate, unprofessional and ridiculous, designed to appeal to a younger audience who've grown up being taught whatever feelings you have are the highest priority in life. The same thing happens here: the Cerritos is in a crisis, Mariner is worried in case she doesn't get the chance to apologise for telling her Mother she never wants to work with her again in a fit of pique since Freeman has been offered a new command and hasn't told anyone. At least in this case you could make an argument that if they were about to die they would want to make up (or at least Mariner would - a Captain doesn't have the luxury of dealing with individual matters in an emergency, she has to consider the whole ship), but still, it smacks of modern priorities and attitudes. But then when Mariner does go to the Bridge, while she's afforded brief moments to say her piece and Freeman reciprocates, it's quickly brushed over as the Captain sends her to take up a post where the Viewscreen was to verbally assist in getting the ship through the debris field, side by side with her enemy, Jennifer the Andorian, because they need all the help they can get!

The business with Jennifer was another arc for Mariner as the two who have been at odds from the earliest mention of the Andorian, combine in a time of crisis, put their differences aside and even end up friends at the end, an important lesson modern Trek rarely remembers, but which was common in the old money. Mariner and Ma Freeman definitely gets the meat of the episode, which is understandable since her Mother is such a big part of the story and really comes into her own as a Captain here, managing her crew well and realising her place is still with them, not swanning off to a bigger, but not necessarily better starship elsewhere. As a side note I do wonder if perhaps she's become a bit of a Riker in that she's getting on a bit judging by the grey in her hair and the wrinkles around her face, but she's been comfortable remaining where she is, in this case a 'second class' Captain (in the eyes of some). But then Picard remained Captain of the same crew and ship(s), for many years, it's not necessarily career moves that garner satisfaction, and that could well be another theme of the episode. If Mariner and Mother take the most screen time I'd say Boimler definitely has less than usual, his big subplot for most of the episode being that he's proud of creating a Captain Freeman Day poster (in the exact same style of the one by children on 'TNG,' recently revived among Jean-Luc's stored mementoes in 'Picard' and so perhaps more in people's minds), and desperate for the Captain to realise the childish scribblings are attributed to him!

Of course his real story is when he takes on the heroic personal mission to swim down a shaft that will lead to the one juncture in the ship from where the last remaining hull panel can be ejected (very believably having a whole technobabble explanation that shields must both be turned off and the automatic magnetic shielding of the outer hull stripped to enable them to survive through the debris which will otherwise be attracted to the ship). He is successful, as you'd expect, though is almost drowned, only saved by the ministrations of Cetacean Ops beluga whales Kimolu and Matt! Just showing Cetacean Ops was a major triumph of the series as it's long been a legendary part of the Enterprise-D, though was never shown (and in parity they set up a new never-seen mysterious ship area when Tendi suggests the 'Rubber-Ducky Room' as somewhere to go that's off limits!), but that they imbue the aquatic denizens with so much character made it even better, with the pair constantly displaying their own biases to water-based activity, or frustration that the control panel Boimler has to activate wasn't designed for flippers! It adds a whole new dimension while reinforcing the comedic nature of the series with good, clean humour, a vein that ran throughout this episode and another reason I liked it so much. Another example is the similarly animal-themed reactions to things when Dr. T'Ana displays her catlike tendencies such as sniffing the air as if she's catching a whiff of the absconding Tendi, or purring with pleasure when her subordinate hugs her. Lovely.

Tendi gets a sort of promotion as her subplot, at first concerned because she's overheard what she thought was the Doctor saying she's not good enough for Sickbay, in the same way Mariner eavesdropped on her Mother talking about being promoted to a new ship, and I like it when there are parallels in stories, it's another of those familiar elements Trek used to do so well. That leaves Rutherford, whose subplot is a growing difficulty with his implant when warning messages pop up to obscure his vision as his memory is almost full due to making three copies of every memory of Tendi in case he loses it again and doesn't want to forget. But this holding onto the past, as it were, to a fanatical extent, is also affecting his present, another strong theme that was thrown in as a quick exchange between Rutherford and Billups, where the latter poses the question, if you can't make new memories does holding onto the old ones matter? It's just the kind of philosophical, fascinating question that old Trek would have done an entire episode about, and while it's a shame they can't expand upon it, it's in keeping with the series' frenetic nature to chuck so much into the pot and certainly makes you think more than the live-action series' do nowadays! Part of Rutherford's story is when finally deleting the backups he accidentally unlocks a new memory of some shadowy figures affixing his implant in the first place, a cunning and tantalisingly brief hint for what would be explored in Season 3.

When Tendi and Rutherford decide to go somewhere off limits in order for her to make the most of whatever time she has left, still believing she's going to be transferred off the ship, they end up on the Captain's Yacht (interrupted by Freeman and Mariner arguing about what to do, prompting them to wonder if they always come to the Yacht to fight!), yet another wonderful addition, even if it's questionable whether this type of ship would stretch to something as indulgent as this particular vehicular extra - I love how they do that very Trekky thing of running through the various possibilities for the scenario they find themselves in (and it's somehow very funny when in the midst of the suggestions, the Kayshon's idea of warping past the debris is shot down by everyone in disgust!), discounting each obvious solution that a serious Trekker would automatically be thinking based on previous episodes - we can't use the Tractor Beam, we can't use the shuttles, we can't use the Deflector... Until they come to something that hasn't been thought of before, and that's not easy to do in Trek where basically every story's been done sometime or other, or so you'd think. Top marks for the solution, and not just for that, but for it being such a visual treat, exposing the bare bones of this ship we've come to love. There's a reason such an idea hadn't been done before, it would have been prohibitively expensive to show all the panels of a starship being removed (I imagine it was hard enough just to show Escape Pods launching from the hull back in the 90s!), and it would've had to have been a whole new model (be it physical or CGI), underneath as a result.

There's something daring about stripping off all the protections a starship has in order to be able to get through a dangerous region in the same way as the pit in 'The Dark Knight Rises' had its only solution to escape being to untether from the safety rope and make a leap of faith and hope. That kind of storytelling is among the most compelling and elevates the drama to a level of the serious live action scenarios we've seen so many times before. The fact it was created in animation only enhances the beauty of the event (and it's great fun having the First Officer, Ransom, steer the ship from a little joystick that pops up, just like Riker did in 'Insurrection,' as hokey as that idea was - I can't help but feel they missed playing up that connection as Ransom should have strode over to the Helm console for it to reveal itself, but just my preference), and you get something of the tension of a naval ship carefully manoeuvring through iceberg- or mine-infested waters, something that recalled that more manual control, reliant on the senses of the crew rather than keeping them sterile and secure away from the dangers of space (like that 'DS9' episode where they lose comms and have to rely on Nog relaying information between the Bridge and Engineering). You could say the removal of the Viewscreen was also a reference to all the other modern Treks where they have a big window instead, while Jennifer and Mariner work as spotters to alert command to potential collisions. All very impressive, and another Trek trope of the Starfleet officers showing their mettle when stripped of their technology to prove it's not the gadgetry that's the most important, they're skilled and experienced people regardless.

It was fascinating even to see the mass space walk as the crew in those great EVA suits gather to eject the hull panels (very 'First Contact,' in keeping with the title!). And while 'DSC' in particular seems to get most of the jabs, and rightly so (Freeman stating a Captain can't worry about emotions when it comes to an important decision such as leaving for a new ship, which again seemed directed at that series), it also lovingly enjoys its 'TNG' prodding, perhaps most notably when the Captain claimed she was planning to tell her senior staff about the promotion at the right time, to avoid conflict, something that was at the top of Gene Roddenberry's list when it came to that series: avoid conflict between the main characters, something that extended to both 'DS9' and 'Voyager' incorporating non-Starfleet or ex-Starfleet characters in order to comply with the spirit of that law while also having some conflict!  You can also say the ballroom dancing competition being postponed due to crisis was a laugh at 'TNG's expense since it is pretty silly, but the kind of high-class event that would be happening on the Enterprise! Perhaps the ridiculous shockwave from the exploding planetoid was a dig at 'Star Trek VI' in which a similar purple wave smashes through the Excelsior - and why wouldn't the Archimedes have time to react if the Cerritos itself was detecting the wave? If I'm nitpicking I could also point to Captain Gomez' optimistic idea of the crew moving to the rear of the ship, which is free-falling, so they might survive, which I don't buy (it's there to show the crew's solidarity by refusing to leave their Captain), but at least the visuals sold it as the trajectory (or is it attitude?), of the ship is stabilised by hitting the atmosphere, so it becomes slightly more plausible. Another thing I wondered is couldn't Rutherford 'shut' his eye to avoid the alert signs and see clearly with his good eye, except the memory issue suggests it's not just tied into the vision of one eye, but his entire brain.

What about the talk of hangovers at the start, and seeing Freeman tipsy at the end? Don't they use Synthehol any more, or was it a case of the aliens' drinks were part of the celebrations? When it came to throwbacks the episode was surprisingly careful with only a few direct Trekferences, more reliant on the tropes and style of old Trek this time. The early comment from Mariner on getting a new Captain where they could end up with a weirdo with a riding crop suggests Captain Styles of 'Star Trek III' may not have been the only eccentric as otherwise it seems unlikely Mariner would have known about some obscure Captain of the previous century, but I like they don't say his name so only someone that knew the film would get it - it makes you feel part of the club, another of those aspects that generated such appeal in old Trek as you learned more and more and were inducted into this special universe. But there are also the more mainstream Trekferences of Kirk and Spock - Mariner claims she's a Kirk-style free spirit, and while this is the film-era version that has gone down as the Kirk most people think of (as opposed to the thoughtful, careful, if bold original of 'TOS'), and Freeman didn't exactly counter that idea, she did call attention to the fact she's not like Kirk because he was confident, so at least there was some pushback. The best has to be when Tendi's been told she's to leave Sickbay to become a Science Officer and gleefully suggests 'like Jadzia Dax,' and delightfully, Dr. T'Ana doesn't have a clue who she's talking about and says she meant like Spock, so that was more in the usual 'LD' style!

One of the growing delights of the series has been coming to know the extended cast of characters and I'm at the stage of recognising not just Billups and Kayshon, the ones who get named more regularly, but also Steve Stevens and the lesser used characters that gives you a good sense of their being a wider crew, yet another aspect of 'DSC' and 'SNW' you don't really feel as it's so focused on the 'hero' characters. Maybe I can't name every one, but I do at least recognise them now and the thing about having all these familiar faces is that at any time they can be picked up and their speciality used for a story. And the fact that they're played by the 'standard' company of actors that voice most characters means there's no difficulty in getting anyone back, and since they're animated they can even appear as much as they're wanted without lines, so it's a win-win all round for the reality of the ship's environment. It was nice to have Freeman's Admiral husband in person with her as he's more often seen via Viewscreen, and we're just generally at that time where you know how the characters react to events and to each other and they can now play with what they've set up. In Season 3 they would, and it would be another strong season for me, but 2 is where the series began properly after the patchy and sometimes disturbing Season 1. They won't let go of their monstrous characters like Badgey and Peanut Hamper, and refuse to go 'clean' and ditch the dirt, but on the whole this series, and this episode in particular showed they were capable and even set up to recreate the kind of Trek that used to be the only kind of Trek. They care about the continuity and canon, they have fun, but they also play with what we know and if this series is the closest we ever come to that 90s heyday, I'll remember it fondly (even while furiously editing it!). (And I didn't mention the big addition to canon that the Pakled Homeworld blew up! Not that it's on the same level as Vulcan or Romulus...).

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