A Few Badgeys More

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S4 (A Few Badgeys More)

A mathematically acceptable redemption: when I first began watching this current era of Trek there was so much wrong with it, and there still is, but at least to begin with I usually found a single episode to like each season. With 'DSC' it was 'The Vulcan Hello' in Season 1 and 'The Sound of Thunder' in Season 2. With 'Picard' it was 'Broken Pieces' in Season 1. In the case of 'SNW' it was the Season 1 finale, 'A Quality of Mercy.' Even 'Prodigy' Season 1 had its standout with 'Mindwalk.' Yet 'Lower Decks' didn't win me over during its Season 1 with not a single, solitary episode I could fully say I liked. But while rewatching all those other seasons almost always led me to revise my rating downwards (excepting 'A Quality of Mercy' - it was a remake of a 'TOS' episode, no wonder it feels so Trekky!), with Season 2 of 'LD' I came to find multiple episodes that stood out for me, including the finale which I rate as the best thing modern Trek has produced! Seasons 2 and 3 of the series really won me over with multiple quality episodes, a huge step up after all the other disappointments (which have been many: 'Picard' and 'SNW' Seasons 2 scraping the bottom of the boredom barrel). Unfortunately, things seemed to have taken a step backward for 'LD' with Season 4, as I've mentioned before, but one episode surprised me, and in a good way. You might even say in a 'Goodgey' way...

For all the fun and positive qualities of this series it still has its many detriments (not least the horrendously casual contemporary dialogue - even in this episode, Mariner, the worst offender, calls grapplers 'sick'! I mean really, no 'Enterprise' Trekference, but they can use such silly language? Ugh!), none more than the ugly villain characters they'd developed as recurring troubles for our Cerritos crew - in Peanut Hamper we had a nasty, selfish anti-Starfleet officer who made a mockery of the service and all good Exocomps everywhere, and in Badgey we were given a sort of Lore figure, angry and sadistic, desperate to cause as much pain and torture as possible, neither of which had an ounce of sympathy about them (and I prefer a villain who can be simultaneously evil and sympathetic). Whenever they were brought back it was the same thing, over the top disgusting evil, no redeeming qualities, nothing to show they were anything more than monsters - in short, extremely two-dimensional beings that were a stain on the goodness of 'LD.' I don't lump Agimus in with them because he did have the redeeming feature of being deliciously honeyed in his duplicity and scheming, he actually was amusing, in line with the humorous nature of this approach to Trek, and of course he was played by The Great Jeffrey Combs (sadly, the Drookmani Captain wasn't played by JG Hertzler to match the two Niners up, but they wouldn't have had any scenes together anyway), a striking return to Trek after all these years (though we're left awaiting his live action return - but if there's any chance this 'Star Trek: United' project gets made with Scott Bakula as President Archer can we really expect them to leave out Combs?).

I knew these characters would return (well, maybe not Agimus since he was locked away with all the other megalomaniacal robots), and I wasn't looking forward to it. You may suggest my positive reaction to this episode was merely due to low expectations going into it, but this is the second time of viewing and it still works, mercifully! It's like they decided to undo all the wrongs they'd committed (well, not all, but the three nefarious characters especially created for evil villainy), and redeem all three of these series villains at once, in one big hug of love. And what's more: it worked! To begin with it seemed to be same old same old, typical Badgey, taking control of the Drookmani Captain like he's a Borg assimilating his victim, surviving only as the program in Rutherford's lost cybernetics eyepiece. He's just as mean and sadistic as ever and I wasn't looking forward to it. Typical they'd throw in both Peanut Hamper and Agimus at the same time, overdosing on evil, but while the two stories (PH and Aggy are partners in crime, while Badgey splits off into other versions of himself), are separate, just like in the good old days of Trek A- and B-stories in a single episode, they both reflect the realisation of redemption for all concerned and that was quite a weighty package of pleasantness that I was simply not expecting. Not only that, it's done mostly with the series' own lore rather than tons of Trekferences thrown in - there are some, but you can tell it's the story that matters most, and the characters, they really can tell a good story without resorting to mere nostalgia.

It's also one of the cleanest episodes with no gore, very little bad language or anything else offensive, again as if they decided now was the time to pull back on some of the series' trademark missteps and go (almost) full Trek on us. Not only that, they also manage to tie in the ongoing mystery ship arc and develop it further so Boimler realises from Agimus' drone recordings that this danger to the Quadrant isn't actually destroying ships, but storing them. I must admit I did assume Badgey was going to be behind it all, so it was a relief to find that wasn't the case, and actually his scenes (almost) all take place within the confines of the dull-looking Drookmani scavenger ship where he's become lord and master - at first I assumed only the Captain could see him since he's the one wearing the eyepiece (a bit like the Vorta Viewscreen aboard Dominion vessels where only they could see outside the ship, keeping their minion Jem'Hadar soldiers in the dark and blindly following orders), but later Badgey himself explains he's rigged scavenged holo-projectors all over the ship (surely that would have been his weakness - just take out the projectors!), so I liked that they bothered to explain it. Something else I really loved was seeing actual, proper Exocomps like we saw on 'TNG'! You know, the ones that communicate with beeps and bloops, not sarcastic backchat as in Peanut Hamper when she ends up going to work for her Father on the research station at Tyrus VIIA from 'TNG' where we first met them ('The Quality of Life'). It was just lovely to see Exocomps doing what they're supposed to do instead of the post-Trekern 'aren't we clever and funny' version.

Agimus is as delightful as ever in his insistent, untrustworthy playing of everyone, seemingly ignorant that they know he's not to be trusted - okay, so he did fool them into allowing him to have drones 'for gardening' when they were actually for scheming (Mwahahahahaaaaaaa!), and he does use them to take over the shuttle Tendi and Boimler are using to transport him (dear little things in the shape of miniature versions of the ones from 'The Arsenal of Freedom'), but I loved Boimler's patient world-weariness when dealing with his eccentricities, never losing focus on the objective to find out Agimus' drone intel on old mystery ship. It's funny without being uproarious, as is the moment Badgey blasts through Cerritos' shields and calls it a 'boop' on the nose, and Shaxs says they can't take many more boops. It's just so 'Lower Decks,' without resorting to the low humour or utter stupidity the series can often display. Why can't all episodes be this good? Maybe it's because they don't have... Goodgey [throws arms up in the air in gay abandon]! He's a result of Badgey fighting his good 'side' ('The Enemy Within' reference, perhaps, or just the old 'Jekyll and Hyde' situation?), and splitting off into two personalities. Same with Logicey, splitting off the logic of Rutherford asking what logical gain will he get from killing the Cerritos crew (in reality he would just call it revenge, and pain for pleasure's sake), so there's another Trekky trope of an artificial intelligence being talked into confusion from its own programming - Logicey sounds just like a Vulcan, too, hooray!

Even so, there are still some things that didn't add up - would the Cerritos really have neurozine gas stored throughout the ship for someone with codes to activate and kill all the crew? And do they know the difference between 'neurozine' (used as an anaesthetic to knock out), and 'neurocine' (lethal Cardassian gas)? I'm surprised they didn't make that into a joke in itself, but they seemed to be saying it was the lethal kind, so they appear to have got mixed up... I know we've seen prefix codes dating back to 'Star Trek II,' but it's a bit of a stretch an outside force could take control of the vessel so completely, even if it is a computer program! I also found it hard to buy a Daystrom Institute as prison for errant AI, complete with Phaser Rifle-wielding guards, etc. Rather puts the organisation into the wrong perspective, no matter that we know it all stemmed from a man who created a terrible artificial intelligence back in 'The Ultimate Computer' (both this and 'Picard' have rather ruined the Institute's reality). Then the big one is the fantastical ultimate redemption for Badgey where he says if he goes to warp 9.9 he can transfer himself across all of subspace and so take over every Starfleet ship and facility. I know it's meant to be some kind of hint towards Tom Paris' infamous warp ten experiment, and I suppose it does fit with the wackiness of the series, but how would he be able to go at warp 9.9 on that bucket of Drookmani bolts? It's all a little too ridiculous that it works out exactly as he planned, though of course I loved the fact he discovers something transcendent that changes how he thinks about everything - it may not be an actual God encounter, but it could suggest that direction, which for modern Trek is about as good as you're going to get! (Plus we see DS9 as one of the examples as Badgey spreads his energy everywhere, which was a lovely little surprise out of the blue).

There really isn't all that much to say about the episode, it achieves what you want to see, resolves the stories of the three bad apples and moves the ongoing arc a little further, as well as hinting that Rutherford and Tendi's closeness continues since when Mariner suggests something Tendi would have said in the situation it inspires Rutherford to the extent she's mildly nettled for not getting the credit for bringing it up! We're given our first ever view of a Bynar ship as the next in line to be 'collected' by the recurring villain ship. I did wonder if they'd have their own ships since you'd assume they'd be part of the Federation by now, but obviously not (and even so, we know other races still sometimes use their own ships even at this stage - we see the Vulcan ship again when Badgey goes all subspace light show, which was fun, and I think it was T'Lyn's home vessel). You could say a negative is that we don't get much of the crew beyond our main four, but that's another reason this feels more like proper Trek when they wouldn't always have everyone in an episode (T'Lyn, for example, doesn't appear once), and that's all to the good as they can mix and match, pair and prune. Perhaps my only trepidation at the end of the episode (amid the downside that you have to watch all the previous weaker episodes featuring these villains to get the impact of this story), is that there's one more season to come and I don't know whether they can control themselves or if they felt the need to undo all the good they did here and bring back one or more of these ex-villains to turn them evil once again...

***

Parth Ferengi's Heart Place

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S4 (Parth Ferengi's Heart Place)

Not a bad episode, but at the same time one of the bigger disappointments of the season, and now that I've seen it a second time I've come to realise why: we never get to see Rom and Leeta. Oh, I know we get both of them here with the original actors voicing their characters after a quarter of a century (leaving aside Chase Masterson's reprising Leeta for 'Star Trek Online,' which doesn't count in Trek continuity), something I'd really looked forward to. Not as much as the visit to DS9 last season, but the changing of the guard on Ferenginar with Rom becoming Grand Nagus and planning to radically change their way of life was just one of so many aspects of late-24th Century life in the Alpha Quadrant that 'DS9' left us wondering about and which 'Voyager' never satisfied, nor did 'Nemesis,' and as the final 24th Century-set productions there were many questions like this that made the time period ripe for exploration and continuation. Sadly, 'Picard' let us down greatly on that score, even its final season didn't go into detail on the state of the various races and planets, and even then it was decades later so we'd missed that immediate aftermath of the next few years, one reason 'LD' is pleasantly situated: to explore what things are like at this time.

We can debate how successfully or not they've done that - like all modern Treks they've tended to shy away from the political details and culture building as if with so many different time periods being produced at once they're shy of stepping on anyone's toes and contradicting what other series' are doing, a major stumbling block and good reason not to have so many different people working on so many different productions. But they have at least given us occasional updates and glimpses of the familiar, only this one was only partially successful. I said we didn't get to see Rom and Leeta, and I meant we don't see anything other than their public personas as negotiators for entry into the Federation. That they're trying to fleece our heroes, or at least try them out and see how much they can get away with at least shows that Rom's new Ferenginar isn't too far from the old and that he hasn't lost his yen for profit, although, actually, he never made a very good Ferengi - that was the point of putting him in power at the end of 'DS9,' so he could lead a gentler, fairer empire, as envisioned by his own Moogie, and with Leeta as his right hand (she's given the title 'First Clerk'), you'd think his reforms would have changed things much more radically than they seemed to have done. Instead he comes across as a bit of simpleminded buffoon, though that was always (well, almost always), an act on 'DS9' to disguise the fact he was actually pretty cunning in his own way when it came to what he really cared about.

I didn't buy that Leeta had become this hard-nosed negotiator, she was always soft and uninterested in such things generally, and we never saw them together in a domestic setting where they might be discussing the talks and whether the Starfleet delegation were falling for their tricks. And obviously no mention of Nog or the wider Ferengi family, so I felt a real disconnect as if we weren't being afforded the chance to really get to know them again and hear what's been going on in their lives and how they've adapted to life in such powerful positions. It's the usual problem of putting mysteries or twists ahead of actual drama and character in modern Trek (or in general!), and I felt sad such a major opportunity was misspent like a Latinum chocolate teapot. We're left on the outside so Freeman can get her clever trick off and get the contract back on track. It's also somewhat disappointing that they didn't pull the trigger on a Ferenginar that's part of the Federation (though we see Ferengi in Starfleet in the 32nd Century of 'DSC'). Perhaps it was a sort of inside joke about the fact 'DS9' took seven years of ostensibly bringing Bajor to the point where they joined, and yet never did, but I think it just as likely they didn't want to do anything too drastic in an animated series that would affect all that came after. They've tended to shy away from any big developments and concentrated on smaller races like the Pakleds which hadn't been all that developed in the first place.

At least they got the general Ferengi culture right, whether it was the rain coming down (as it should), the garish signs and lights, the rounded, opulent architecture, it was true to the impression we'd had. Monuments to lost profit that are awarded equal status with Dominion War Memorials, Dabo and other gambling filling the library, even down to the detail of Rom having a Hupyrian servant (female!), was a nice touch, not to mention the machine that charges you to pay for the various hotel facilities! And they weren't shy about the Trekferences - not that they ever are, but despite it being mostly set on Ferenginar they squeeze in all kinds of things, like Quark's Federation Experience Bar and Grill (he's obviously got a good deal from Rom since he also has Uncle Quark's Youth Casino, too!), featuring various connections and backdrops to, mainly 'TOS,' but also 'TNG,' or Mariner's fiddling about with one of the famous self-sealing stem bolts from 'DS9.' At the same time there was a weird insistence on having Earth culture be so prevalent, whether it be the Federation Experience or the Ferengi 'biker gang' that Mariner starts a fight with when out with her old friend Quimp (from 'Envoys' in Season 1), and especially the TV shows Boimler becomes addicted to (like Neelix in 'Future's End') where all the characters wear 20th Century Earth clothing - I could understand if they were making more of a comment on human culture, but it just seemed a bit too lazy (in much the way all our characters speak in such contemporary lingo), unless... I could believe the programmed content was specially selected to most appeal to the viewer, and as Boimler is from Earth everything was chosen to hook him?

Those Ferengi are the masters of manipulation when it comes to garnering a profit, and lest we assume our Starfleet characters wouldn't have come with Latinum, Mariner even states that Starfleet will 'foot the bill' for their activities on Ferenginar. Ordinarily I'd be finding fault with such a statement, but this is the home of the Ferengi, after all, where everything costs, so it was highly probable! There are other improbables such as Starfleet assigning officers to create travel guides, since surely that would be a bit beneath the duty of a Starfleet officer. Then there was the reveal from Ransom that there are no married couples on the Cerritos. At all! That's very farfetched unless they're saying only the sad and lonely get assigned to the California-class (in which case you can also say these second-class vessels would be more likely to be responsible for low-level assignments such as travel guide duty...), or it may just be the series reflecting our current times where less and less people make that formal commitment? But still, on a ship that size and with that many crewmembers... The real reason was to give Tendi and Rutherford a situation where they have to pretend to be husband and wife while masking their true feelings that they are rather more fond of each other than they'd ordinarily like to admit, with much embarrassment ensuing (shouldn't Tendi blush green?), some of which stemmed from things becoming a little too crude and inappropriate, but in general it was a nice, sweet subplot to play around with and I wonder if it's one that will develop further.

Boimler doesn't really have a subplot, TV addiction keeping him out of play (though he does get the best gag of the piece when he laughs at the absurdity that even the crime drama he's watching has adverts within it, then we notice the picture on the wall above his head in the shape of the Paramount mountain with stars above it that suddenly twinkle!). We find out a little more about Mariner (and a little more than she wants to know about herself, it would seem!), when Quimp challenges her when she says he's changed, with the good line about change being what happens when you aren't stuck in a perpetual state of immature rebellion - if even a Ferengi can recognise the state she's in it makes you wonder! We hear she's been a Lieutenant, JG before, but was demoted after crashing an Oberth-class ship, so that must be an interesting story, pray tell? She's not at her best, drinking too much, throwing up, being rowdy, and Quimp's right, if she doesn't change she's going to be in this unregenerate state all her life and that's not really going to make for very good Trek where the point of the characters is that they solve problems, including their own, not languish in the doldrums like Raffi. It's not good to see her failing so badly, but at least it does lead to that personal understanding, even if Quimp somewhat regrets being so truthful. The downside was that she doesn't get any punishment at all, Ransom has almost nothing to say on the matter when it should have been a diplomatic incident, at best a personal one, bringing Starfleet into disrepute - she should have been given a dressing down, but it seems the makers of current Trek think all kinds of irresponsible behaviour is fine and dandy these days, discipline being a major missing piece in general (even while 'LD' is a little better at it than the others).

The idea that Ferengi are banned from arms sales is an early reminder of the kind of changes Rom was going to bring into his society, and they do at least tie the ongoing arc of various ships being attacked into the main story, but it is a little tenuous: would Rom really be 'desperate' for Federation resources because of one little ship 'disrupting' trade routes? I find it hard to believe it would make much difference, it can't be in all places at all times and it really seems to have had a very low impact across the season other than an ongoing linking threat. I also didn't feel Rom would come across so incompetent and childlike, almost a parody of what the writers think he was like, but I have to put it down to being an act on his behalf in order to hoodwink Starfleet. And it was a good twist that Freeman was able to trick them into signing with the caveat they had to bring the Klingons into the Federation, too! Although, why did Rom scrawl his name across a PADD like he's signing for a contemporary delivery rather than the usual form of a thumb scan (which I think even takes a tiny blood sample to seal the deal, if I'm not mistaken), as seen many times on 'DS9.' It's just another of those little niggles where you wonder if the writers knew their Trek all that well... And while I'm griping, I don't like modern Trek's insistence on Genesis devices being a common weapon or piece of technology. They've done it before in this series, I think, and they had one in 'Picard,' too, I just feel like the research for that was abandoned after the shocking events of the Trek films which showed its matrix was unstable and was too dangerous for its potential use as a weapon anyway.

The reference to Rom being the next 'Lonz' I thought at first was talking about Quark's action figures, but he was called Lorg Latinum I believe, so Lonz was a mystery to me, maybe that was intentional? But Moab IV was a good Trekference (made by Admiral Vassery in his third appearance after 'Moist Vessel' and 'Crisis Point' - I don't think Fred Tatasciore's Shaxs had any lines this time), though I had to look it up in the Encyclopedia since it'd been a long time since I'd last watched 'The Masterpiece Society' on 'TNG.' However you look at it, Rom and Leeta's return was always going to be the key part of the episode, and as much as it was lovely to see such important 'DS9' characters brought back it wasn't in the way I'd have preferred. Like other Trek actors reprising their roles as voice-only I felt Chase didn't sound much like Leeta at all, not that she had any Leeta lines to bring her back to it. At one time it would have been enough for me to simply have the joy of much-loved characters returning no matter whether they were used well or not, but I'm not so easily pleased these days and we've seen too many old characters abused or mischaracterised, or simply changed, even recast as they can't allow any to simply end now that Trek is more like malleable comic book fare than quality science fiction drama with a 'real' history. I suppose on balance I'm in favour of these appearances since time is running out before we'll be losing all these older actors, but please, give them something worthy of their legacy, don't merely slap an idea together for the sake of it. Not that that's likely to be much of a problem as we go from huge Trek to minuscule Trek now the wheels have fallen off the money train, and if this is the last we ever see of Rom and Leeta perhaps this will come to carry more meaning. Perhaps.

**

Empathological Fallacies

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S4 (Empathological Fallacies)

One of those where it's difficult to decide how I feel about it: is it a crude, inappropriate mess leavened with machine-gunned Trekferences? Or is it a cleverly subversive turn on expectations taking into account the seasoned Trekker's knowledge of the universe? It's clearly both, but the real question is where the balance falls on the scale between these two points - in the same way that T'Lyn preaches emotional balance, does the episode get dragged down by its flaws or is it successful in getting off its story despite them? In many ways this is the eternal question of the series and I wish it were not so. In other words I would prefer if they could control their darker impulses and allow us to experience good Trek without the staining. The episode just about succeeds in the end because of the positive ending, and for not simply recreating the many telepathic trials we'd seen before, most obviously in the 'DS9' episode 'Fascination' (or 'A Midsummer Night's Trek-Dream'). In that we learned something new about the fate of some mature Betazoid women and so it's easy to assume the problems associated with the crew's emotions are down to the three exuberant Betazoid ambassadors being escorted from Angel One to Risa. That this is a red herring and it turns out to be our currently resident Vulcan, T'Lyn behind the outbursts was an enjoyable twist, especially so when this is an actual T'Lyn episode: she's the focus, and while Boimler takes the B-plot with his lack of self esteem and need to relax, T'Lyn does retain much of the running time.

She's a great character, a real Vulcan, and the humour comes from her being so Vulcan so much of the time. That she wants to express her request to return to the Vulcan fleet rather than remain aboard gives the episode stakes, and that she decides against her original plan creates the happy ending. Her issue is typically Vulcan: this slight irritation at being unable to send the message due to a comms blackout during the ambassadors' stay (in itself an unlikely stipulation, the series once again choosing to bend the reality of Starfleet to suit a story, but not more than other modern Trek does, and in its defence it does at least show a strong knowledge of the subject matter), creates an emotional 'turmoil' within her which is inadvertently broadcast and affects the crew. We never actually discovered the cause of this telepathic effect, since it's another unlikely result from such a small stimulus that hadn't been shown before - they mention Bendii Syndrome (Mariner even saying Spock's Father had it, though I'd imagine with Vulcan reserve and the shame around the condition, it would have been a revelation locked up tight), but seem to discount it as T'Lyn is 'only' sixty-two and it affects older Vulcans (plus that would be a rather devastating twist as it would limit her lifespan and potential as an ongoing character). We don't have to have a justification for it all, maybe her telepathy was exacerbated by the effects of a nearby nebula or a new filter in the Replicator changed her glass of water, room temperature, a degree cooler or warmer. The important thing is that she's responsible rather than the Betazoids we were expecting.

Even they are more than what they were projecting, playing Lwaxana-like roles that jive with our experience of older Betazoid women (well, just Lwaxana, really - that's one element that should have been explored with Deanna Troi in 'Picard,' but sadly wasn't, in the usual apathy toward alienness in modern Trek. It would've been nice if at least one of them had been played by a Trek name, perhaps even Marina Sirtis, but maybe budget didn't permit?). It turns out they're undercover operatives from the BIA (Betazoid Intelligence... Authority? Surely with Betazed part of the Federation they'd be part of Starfleet Intelligence?), tying this episode into the season's arc of a mysterious vessel taking out various races (also cleverly disguised by the lack of a teaser this time), as they're planet-hopping in a telepathic search for clues. It rings true since they can read most races' minds, and have unearthed a grainy image of the offending ship to incrementally advance the story. They, too, were being affected by T'Lyn so they really weren't responsible for amping up the stereotypes of their kind. A little much that they carry stun rod weapons disguised as lipsticks, but we have to remember where we are: it's a comedy. For all its silliness it does still feel so much more Trekky than most of these series' manage so I'm more inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt. Boimler's story is also quite silly to some degree, with Rutherford nominating him for 'The Programme,' Shaxs and the Security team entertaining him to give him a break from his self-imposed high standards (in this case memorising every crewmember's name - we find out there at least three Merps which adds to the series' internal reality!).

The important thing about Boimler's story is that it's a warmhearted tale of compassion - we know Shaxs is a particularly soft man when it comes to feelings, despite his huge size and deadly skills as Chief of Security, and he's a great character. It makes sense he'd have a jigsaw of Malcolm Reed and the NX-01 (if 24th Century people still did jigsaws - it comes across as rather another contemporary reference to our own culture more than anything, but it was fun to see Malcolm get a reference, his first, I think!). Wasn't so pleased to see he's also got Bajoran tarot cards which have no place in Trek at all, but at least they weren't real, instead entertainingly in the form of 'DS9' references, the most intriguing being an image of the Emissary decked out in a white version of the kind of robes a Vedek might have worn. Shame this is probably the closest we'll ever come to seeing Sisko again, or perhaps that's a relief after what this era has done to too many classic Trek characters in recent years. We also get poetry about Worf and Kayshon miming Odo in a game of charades, so it's a fun time for Niners like me, even if I may complain it sometimes seems like there's more Trekferences than story. The interesting part was Shaxs' holistic view of his Security department's role: that they're just as responsible for the crew's emotional wellbeing as their physical protection. I wouldn't agree, it's another joke about the softness of modern views on dealing with things, but it is, as I said, goodhearted and positive, far from the cynicism that pervades even this corner of Trekdom.

It may not be an accurate example of the way Starfleet Security is taught its responsibilities to its crews, but I can believe Shaxs having this attitude, and it is meant to be humorous, I don't think they're genuinely making a statement that any future Treks would follow - it's a joke! There are still things that go too far, however: the yellow mop bucket complete with 'Caution' and an image of a figure falling over, as you get in modern cleaning apparatus, is just totally ridiculous, both in form and function, and I wish they could have got the Odo idea across more elegantly. They still betray their modern Trek leanings, even if they do succeed at subtle mocking on occasion (the moment Captain Freeman states her crew don't just get emotional for no reason immediately brings to mind the 'DSC' crew, intentionally, I'm sure, since their over-emotionalism has long been one of the biggest complaints about the series!), which can be most amusing. There's also one of the ambassadors complimenting the Captain on Starfleet carpeting, something missing from all the other modern Treks which have eschewed tradition and made all the floors ugly and shiny for the sake of modern TV visual effect (just one more reason why this series is superior - who'd have thought carpet would make that much difference!).

The funniest moment comes near the end when the course towards the Romulan Neutral Zone which the Betazoids had put the Cerritos on (not entirely sure why - some kind of shortcut, a test, or where their investigations had been leading them?), is foiled at the last moment and we see a Romulan Warbird de-cloak from lurking on the border, the crew voicing cries of dismay they didn't cross over. It's funny because you can believe Romulans would do that - surely they shouldn't be in the Neutral Zone themselves, but they always would be. It's also quite nice because it reminds us that this series keeps to Trek continuity, and at this time in the early 2380s Romulus remains alive and well, if only for a few more years before the ridiculous supernova wipes out the planet. I still want to know more about that and its aftermath for the Quadrant, but sadly, with 'LD' ending we'll likely not get another series set in this time period on the cusp of such major galactic changes and shifts in power, which 'Picard' could and should have been about, but instead was quite a weak examination of the subject - all that sticks in the mind is a Romulan challenging elderly Picard to a duel, then getting his head cut off, a shame such a graphic scene is more memorable than anything substantial, and for all the wrong reasons. This episode, by contrast was actually fine, visually. The incessant swearing as Mariner and others lose their cool was oppressive (especially having T'Lyn swear in the most disgusting way for the sake of puncturing anything 'sacred'), as were moments of heavy innuendo, but the story itself played out well - I loved seeing T'Lyn perform a nerve pinch on Barnes when she goes to shut down the engines so they can party longer.

Similarly, she does something akin to a mind meld on Mariner to balance her emotions. Lore-wise I'm not sure what that was, since she claimed it wasn't a mind meld, but I don't think we'd ever seen that before, and indeed had seen a meld performed in order to calm emotions: interestingly, Tuvok did it to Suder, a Betazoid. Either she was lying about it being a meld or it wasn't a full meld, just a brief telepathic brush of minds. Why she'd be able to do that if her own mind was accidentally splashing out emotion on others, I don't know, but I wasn't too concerned, despite being someone that really cares about the Vulcan lore. Also fun to note T'Lyn voice actress Gabrielle Ruiz voices her other character, Castro, for the third time. Other things I liked: the mention of Zanthi Fever, the infamous mature female Betazoid condition learned in 'Fascination;' Boimler asking if Shaxs was going to teach him Tsunkatse; the painting of the statues from 'TMP' in T'Lyn's Quarters (I don't think we'd seen her living space before), and Mariner talking about Boimler's quarter-life crisis, saying he turned twenty-five and grew a moustache - this points to one hundred being the average life expectancy of a human at this time, something always hinted at, but not stated so blatantly. I almost didn't even register the Neutral Zone map with its Romulus and Romii (not to mention Cheron), drawn out just like in 'TOS,' and that's because I expect the canon expertise from this series, and really appreciate it when they accomplish the basics of Trek as they should! It's good they concentrate on two or three of the main characters, Rutherford and Tendi having lesser roles, affected by emotion, allowing T'Lyn to take more of the lion's share with Mariner as companion and friend, and it all made for a good mix. We get to see that even the 'low' Security of a California-class ship can be tough Starfleet officers, and it reminds that Starfleet is the best, no matter what grade of fleet they serve in.

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