The Inner Fight

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S4 (The Inner Fight)

Likeable story, good twists, too much swearing, some fun little humour jolts - about what you'd expect for the average episode of this series. Throw in a special cameo at the very end, like Spock in the last scene of 'Unification I,' and it's a well-rounded package. On the downside, however, is the reveal of the season-long arc as Nicholas Locarno is shown to be piloting the mysterious attacker ship that's been nobbling vessels from various races over the course of the episodes, and while we're still in the dark about motive or means, I remember being rather disappointed by the whole angle. For one thing, it's a sad thing to find Locarno never learned from his mistakes, and much like Raffi in 'Picard,' has become a failure and given in to baser instincts. That's not apparent in this episode so I won't go into it this time, but we know he left Starfleet and became a pilot for hire, so that's not the usual story of redemption we'd hope and expect from Trek (well, used to, anyway). But this isn't really Locarno's story, it's Mariner's as we finally discover the secret of her rebellious nature and what prompted it all - only talking to a Klingon warrior whom she thinks will either shortly kill her, or be killed by her, as soon as the 'glass storm' of sheer knife shards raining down (love to know how they explain that scientifically...), is over. So she uncharacteristically opens up, and fortunately Ma'ah (Jon Curry in his third appearance in the role, along with a few other characters that have previously appeared), is a wise warrior and a careful listener to be able to bring her inner fight out into the open.

It rings so true that a Klingon would recognise someone with a divided inner nature and I'm sure he does a far better job than Migleemo would have, often portrayed as a fluffy idiot. I wasn't quite sure why Mariner had suddenly started acting more recklessly (shades of B'Elanna Torres in 'Extreme Risk' responding to news of the Maquis being wiped out by the Jem'Hadar - in fact it's not a million miles away from that story since Sito was Bajoran, killed by Cardassians, we believe, in one of the kind of incidents which created the Maquis in the first place), unless it was being reminded of Locarno in a recent episode which brought her memories of the Nova Squadron incident flooding back. Her bitterness over Sito dying on a mission wasn't entirely believable, but at least it gives us some depth to the character she was lacking and that we've seen added to her friends over time with Rutherford's rough pre-implant years and Tendi's shame and guilt over her Orion heritage. And it was possibly the most serious and heartfelt scene the series has done, as far as I can remember, since this is meant to be a comedy and they don't go out of their way to work towards character motivation and the kind of Trekky development we used to expect. But whether it fits or not, it was a fine scene and Mariner becomes something much more than a carefree rebel, even leading her to what could be the first genuinely rousing speech of modern Trek - many have tried (Burnham, Picard, etc), but none have rung true, while Mariner's exhortation to all these disparate races to work together to escape the hostile planet was in no way forced and entirely fitting and organic to events.

It's lovely to see all these familiar Trek races, especially the lesser used ones of recent years (or decades!), such as Cardassians and Bynars, and was like the 'Voyager' episode 'Flesh and Blood' in which a gang of holographic representations of Alpha Quadrant races are on a planet together, only this time it's in the flesh... and blood. Purple blood, when it comes to the Klingons. Not quite sure why they did the old 'Star Trek VI' trick of having that colour since I think every time since then (unless it's been on this series, perhaps), Klingon blood was shown to be red and it's been put down to the 'atmosphere' or something along those lines to suggest why the pink or purple colour came about. In real terms it was so the film could get a 'PG' rating, but I always liked the idea that Klingons had this garish blood running through their veins in the same way Vulcans and Romulans have green and Bolians and Andorians have blue - it fits. I didn't appreciate Ma'ah burying his face in the Bird-of-Prey Captain's blood, but that was the worst culprit of the episode and we don't actually see anything gory happen, it's all off screen (same with the Tremble-lizards and the 'Jurassic Park' theme of the teaser which really only served to demonstrate Mariner's reckless state of mind at this time).

It's questionable why a BOP would be shooting down a clearly marked Federation shuttle since the Klingons are allies, and I also found it strange Ma'ah says Mariner won the Dominion War since it was his people who played a decisive role, especially towards the end when Klingon ships were the only ones invulnerable to the Breen shield-sapping weapon and carried the major heft of the fighting for some time. But he clearly wasn't around for the war since he wishes he'd had the chance to fight Jem'Hadar, although I suppose he could mean that literally, in personal combat, but even then it would be odd for him to suggest the Federation won the war - it'd be more in keeping with Klingon bravado and bragging to claim credit, just one more sign I think that the writers aren't necessarily keeping up with the nuances of the history they're adding to, unless I'm forgetting something about him (was he too young, it was only a few short years before?). The BOP could have been a rogue ship, I suppose. Still, it was a rather risky tactic to bait it into swooping down and blasting the installation (which looked like the forest antenna building in 'Return of The Jedi,' perhaps intentionally), since it could just as easily have dove down without stopping, though I do love the visuals and sense of weight and speed when we see it drop through the clouds, a truly beautiful classic design that never gets old. It was all so the temporary alliance of aliens could jump onto the hull and somehow squeeze inside, an unlikely solution to their predicament!

The B-story gives Captain Freeman a chance to show she's not as dimwitted as she sometimes appears, cunningly making a show of her apparent stupidity at going down to a planet which resents Starfleet and stumbling around ineffectually, while Billups goes down as a bounty hunter to get the information on Locarno's whereabout, using the planet's bias against them, clever psychology. Because there are certain people that need to be brought back to Earth. Because of... the threat... from the mysterious ship? Yes, perhaps best to hand wave the motivation for the whole story away and just enjoy the joke that of the four Trek celebrities they mention, Seven of Nine, Beverly Crusher, Thomas Riker (confirming he survived a Cardassian prison camp in the Dominion War), and Nick Locarno, it's the unloved Locarno whom the Cerritos gets tasked with tracking down! As Tendi, asks: "Who?" The other gag I particularly enjoyed was the Balok's puppet creature so famous for being the last, glaring image in the end credits of 'TOS' for many episodes, one of those iconic faces that have endured for almost sixty years, like the Gorn and the 'green woman.' Well, we get all those in this episode (although the Gorn may not have been a Gorn, difficult to tell with those included for background colour), especially the green women. The joke is that Freeman assumes the short, ugly creature is a puppet until she finds out otherwise! Okay, it's only a simple subversion of expectation, but out of the blue like that it worked nicely.

They go to Mudds, which you'd assume has some connection to Harry Mudd, or else why bother, though there's no update on his legacy. I enjoyed Ransom telling the story of an example of Mariner's recent strange behaviour when she jumped out of a shuttle to fight a Borg only to find it was just a pile of junk - we didn't need to see it, it's easily imagined and all the more humorous for it! Then there's Rutherford discovering his Starfleet trousers have pockets when he never realised, a joke about how the actors always wanted pockets but never could have them (apparently, with the Cerritos' uniform at least, they were always there!). Even Mariner using the two-handed hammer punch when fighting her Klingon opponent was lovely to behold and it sounded like she was grunting Kirk's name with each strike! I also loved the attention to detail on the 'venom suits' at the scientific outpost, which looked like a cross between the environmental suits of 'TOS' and the sleek, 'modern' version first seen in 'First Contact' - it could also be seen as a comment on how there's a uniform for every occasion in modern Trek. Ma'ah was very true in his way of demeaning Federation antics as a desire 'to solve puzzles and mysteries,' something he may not be impressed with, but which Mariner's friend, Sito, gave her life in protection of. It sums up the different cultures well, while also jabbing home the point, which is exactly the Trekky way of doing things in the old days, and something I miss in the new stuff. Having Mariner and Sito Jaxa be friends ties up the whole series in a neat circle since it was obviously inspired by the episode of the same name, 'Lower Decks,' in 'TNG,' so if they weren't making any more it suggests a nice way for the series to wrap up, directly connecting with a character from that inspiration, and as the next episode would prove, even giving us flashbacks to that time. Some of the decisions may seem a little odd, and I may not have loved the conclusion to the arc, but I can still appreciate it for what it was, and look forward to the final season, too.

**